gotten hero Vicente
de Zaldivar, brother of the murdered Juan. He was _sargento-mayor_[12]
of the little army; and when he came to Onate and begged to be given
command of the expedition against Acoma, there was no saying him nay.

On the 12th of January, 1599, Vicente de Zaldivar left San Gabriel at
the head of seventy men. Only a few of them had even the clumsy
flintlocks of the day; the majority were not _arquebusiers_ but
_piquiers_, armed only with swords and lances, and clad in jackets of
quilted cotton or battered mail. One small _pedrero_, lashed upon the
back of a horse, was the only "artillery."

Silently and sternly the little force made its arduous march. All knew
that impregnable rock, and few cherished an expectation of returning
from so desperate a mission; but there was no thought of turning back.
On the afternoon of the eleventh day the tired soldiers passed the last
intervening _mesa_,[13] and came in sight of Acoma. The Indians, warned
by their runners, were ready to receive them. The whole population, with
the Navajo allies, were under arms, on the housetops and the commanding
cliffs. Naked savages, painted black, leaped from crag to crag,
screeching defiance and heaping insults upon the Spaniards. The
medicine-men, hideously disguised, stood on projecting pinnacles,
beating their drums and scattering curses and incantations to the winds;
and all the populace joined in derisive howls and taunts.

Zaldivar halted his little band as close to the foot of the cliff as he
could come without danger. The indispensable notary stepped from the
ranks, and at the blast of the trumpet proceeded to read at the top of
his lungs the formal summons in the name of the king of Spain to
surrender. Thrice he shouted through the summons; but each time his
voice was drowned by the howls and shrieks of the enraged savages, and a
hail of stones and arrows fell dangerously near. Zaldivar had desired to
secure the surrender of the pueblo, demand the delivery to him of the
ringleaders in the massacre, and take them back with him to San Gabriel
for official trial and punishment, without harm to the other people of
Acoma; but the savages, secure in their grim fortress, mocked the
merciful appeal. It was clear that Acoma must be stormed. The Spaniards
camped on the bare sands and passed the night--made hideous by the
sounds of a monster war-dance in the town--in gloomy plans for the
morrow.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] Pronounced Kay-r