24 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 97 desperate and without orders, sent a party of lo men through Olancho

to

go

to Trujillo.

According

to Bernal Diaz, they got as far as the gold-working region

on

the

Guayape

River,

when

they learned of Cortez' departure. Receiving orders

from

Saavedra to return, they did so,and, Bernal Diaz

remembers,

they threw stones at the country as they ^left.

They met Marin

at the pueblo of Acalteca

and

then proceeded to another pueblo called Maniani,

where

they encountered six of Alvarado's soldiers. In

two

days'

marching

they reached

Alvarado

^"near the

town

called Chuluteca Malcala." This

was

probablythe site of Tegucigalpa

on

the Choluteca River.

From

here the

combined

parties proceeded

toward Guatemala

after a difficult crossing of the

Lempa

River,

which was

then in flood.

Years

later, Bernal Diaz _(1916, vol. _5, pp. 328, 329) thus ^recalled the country of

Naco and

of the

Ulua

River, as ^it

was when

he first

saw

it

and

as ^it soon

became

and what I state I know, for when I came with Cortes on the expedition to

Honduras I was present in Trujillo, which was called by the Indian name of Guaimura, and I was at Nacoand the Rio de Pichin, and that of Balama, and that of Ulua, and in nearly all of the pueblos of that neighborhood, andit was

thickly peopled and at peace (andthe people were living) intheir houses with theirwivesandchildren; butassoonasthosebadgovernorscametheydestroyed them to such an extent, that in the year fifteen hundred and fifty one, when I passed throughthere on

my

^returnfrom Castile, two Caciques

who

had known

me

in theold days, told

me

with tears in theireyes ofall their misfortunesand thetreatment (they had received),and I was shockedto see the countryin such a condition.

The

^details of this tragic

and complex

period in

Honduran

history cannot be considered here.

The

withdrawal of Cortez

threw

the

new

colony into turmoil

and

the starving colonists

engaged

ⁱⁿ every

form

of intrigue.

Coming from

Guatemala,

Pedro

de

Alvarado

took over the governorship

and

set about pacifying the country.

He

built the

town

of

San Juan

^{at Puerto} Caballos

and founded San

Pedro.

For

the Indians this

was an

even

more

tragic period.

According

to

Ban-

croft (vol. _7, pp. 233-234) Indian ^slaves

were

kidnapped

and

sold in

Honduras by

the shipload. In thevicinityof Trujillo

where

there

had

been villages of

from 600

to 3,000 houses, there

were

not

more

than 180 Indiansleft in 1547.

Those

not enslaved orkilled

had

fledto the mountains.

At

Naco,

where

there

had

originally been a population ofabout 10,000, therewere,in 1536, only 45 remaining.

At La Haga,

a coastal

town some

9 leagues

from

Trujillo, there

had

been about

900

^houses, but of the entire population, only the daughter of the Cacique remained.

The

cruelty

toward

the natives

was

even greater than in Guatemala. In _1539,

when Alvarado

returned

from

Spain

NO. I

HONDURAS

STROJSTG, KIDDER,

AND PAUL

25

and

transported the materials for building a fleet across the isthmus, the entire remaining Indian population fled.

These

evils

were

pre- sented in full detail

by

Bartolome de

Las

Casas,

and

the

new

laws resulting

from

his

famous

publicationat least gave nominal protection totheoppressed natives.

In

answer

to a petition

from

Trujillo, the

Emperor

appointed Francisco de Montejo, the former governor of Yucatan, as ruler of

Honduras. Only

ahandfulof starvingSpanish colonists remained.

Montejo subdued

but did not enslave the Indians of the mountains near Trujillo.

Many

Indians returned voluntarily to their

homes

in this region.

Montejo

thenvisited the

town

of Gracias a Dios. Here,

owing

to the

murder

of a Spaniard, he arrested

and

punished the

Lenca

Indian ring leaders in the presence of the Caciques of the district of Cerquin previously referred to. This aroused the opposi- tion of the

famous Lenca

leader Lempira, ^"

Lord

of the Mountains."

Lempira had

previously withstood

Alvarado and

driven off Spanish attacks under Chavez,

and

he

now

opposed Montejo,

The

great Indian leader had secured allies

from

various interior tribesincluding several that

had

formerlybeenhostiletotheLenca,

and was

estimated tohavea force of

some

30,000warriors.

According

to

Lehmann

(1920, vol. 2, p. 637), he

had

united the

men

of

more

than 200

towns and commanded

over 2,000 ^"

men and

gentlemen of distinction."

"Lempira, the last of the chiefs of Corquin,

made

his final stand against the Spaniards

on

the mountains of Piriera,

which

overlooks the valley of the river

Lempa,

in the

name

of

which

beautiful stream his

own

is

commemorated."

(Squier, 1858, p. 329.)

Here

for 6

months

he

was

besieged

by

^Caceres, a lieutenant of Montejo, but so greatly

were

the Spaniards harassed

by

the Indians that they

were on

the point of failure. Siege

and

assault having failed, Caceres resorted to treachery.

Under

a flag of truce

Lempira came

to the walls of his stronghold to parley with his enemies

and was

shot

by

a hidden

marksman. The Lenca and

their allies fled,

and

the great conspiracy soon fell to pieces.

Mrs. Popenoe, quoting

from

a letter

from Montejo

to the

King

of Spain,

June

^i, 1539, gives the following account of the latter part ofthis

campaign

againstthe

Lenca

^:"

Disturbing news reached Gracias, where Montejo was sojourning with 11 Spanish soldiers. The Indians were preparing stubbornly to resist him. In Yamala, a nearby village, they were building

many

houses on a great, very

"_D. H. Popenoe, 1936, pp. 559-560. For the original, see Coleccionde Docu- mentosIneditos, 1864,vol.2,pp. 212-266.

strong rock which they have, andproviding them withprovisions. The Spanish chieftain sent a Negro spy,

who

knew the languageof the Indians, to enter the stronghold and bring back a report. The frightened Negro found there four houses built very large, and four more largerones full of corn, andhe set fire to the houses and to the corn.

Word

came of a great disaster in the valley of Comayagua. The Indians had risen. One Spaniard had beenkilled and several others wounded. Four horses had been lost. Unable longer to withstand the siege, the Spaniards had fled at night to a neighboring province where the inhabitantswerefriendly.

Montejo realized that thetime had comefor desperate action. Supplies were brought together, and soldiers werecalled in fromregions where the dangerof rebellion was not imminent. Others

who

had been wounded but now had recovered sufficiently to join the colors, augmented the small band which was placedunder theleadership of Alonzode Caceres, recentlyreturned fromthefinal

campaignagainst Lempira.

When

^{they arrived} at Comayagua they found that the Indians, doubtless apprisedof theirapproach, withallavailable supplies wouldfortifythemselveson big rocks. Cattle which they could not take with them had been killed and eaten, so that the valleywas

now

inastateof starvation.

Montejo advanced into one part of the valley, Caceres into another, attacking and capturing a mountain fortress "which was the strongest in that region."

The last named leader then proceeded to a village, by name Guaxerequi, where six Christians had recently been killed. There he found another fortress. At

this point he was rejoined by Montejo,

who

^describes the place in his letter.

He

says: "and (has) seen (or visited) a great rock, which was the strongest thing that has been seen, which, if they had time to cut a ridge of mountain, which they were cutting, would be impossible to capture, for they had on it

water and woodand cultivated fields and

many

provisions; they had 220 large houses,andcertaintemples andplaces ofworship."

It took the combined forces of Montejo and Caceres four months to conquer the valley ofComayagua,afterwhichthey carried thecampaignintoOlancho.

Such stories as the above throw much light on the importance of fortified

mountain tops at the time of the Conquest. Although it has been impossibleto place Tenanipua (thefamous archeological sitenear Comayagua, first described by Squier, 1858 and 1869, seemap, fig. i), among the strongholds described in the early accounts at

my

disposal, it seems probable that it

may

have been one of those captured during thecampaign carried out in the Comayagua regionby Francisco de Montejo and his lieutenant, Alonzo de Caceres. It

may

have been theformidable Guaxerequi describedin Montejo's letter.

In the light of the partially cut ^"cuchillo^" or narrow^ neck con- necting

Tenampua

withthe

main promontory

to thenortheast (D.

H.

Popenoe, 1936, pp. 562, 563

and map),

I

am

inclined to believe that this identification of

Guaxerequi and Tenampua

is indeed very probable.

It is certain that a complete

combing

of the sources,

combined

with first-hand examination of the available archives in

Honduras and

neighboring countries,

would

yield a considerable

mass

of informa- tion

on

the

Lenca and

their neighbors, but this is not possible at

NO. I

HONDURAS

STRONG, KIDDER,

AND PAUL

^2,"]

present. All thathasbeen attempted hereistosuggest the

main

trends of a fascinating historical period

and

to indicate the probable dis- tributionof ethnicgroupsin the region underinvestigation.

We

turn

now

tooutlining theresults of directarcheological research.

ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS