same day. And no one came out to receive me in peace or otherwise, and when I was aware of this I started with thirty horsemen along the edge of the lagoon, and when we came to an inhabited rock, which stood out in the water, we saw a company of men very near us, and I attacked them with the horsemen that were with me, and as we followed in pursuit they got on to a narrow causeway which led to the rock where we could not follow on horseback, so I and my companions dismounted, and almost carried along with the Indians we reached the rock along with them on foot, so that they had no time to break down the bridges, for had they done so we could not have reached them.
"In the meantime many of my men, who had been marching behind me, came up to us, and we gained possession of the rock, which was thickly inhabited, but all the people threw themselves into the water to swim to another island. And many of them escaped, because my allies, who were bringing three hundred canoes across the lake, did not arrive soon enough. And that afternoon I left the rock with all my men and we camped in a maize field, where we passed the night.
"And the next day we commended ourselves to God, and set out for the town on ahead of us, which was very strong on account of the many rocks and pallisades about it, and we found it deserted; and as they had lost the fortress which they had in the lake they did not dare to face us on land, although a few of them waited for us at the end of the town, but owing to the roughness of the ground, which I have already mentioned, no more people were killed. And then we encamped about midday, and commenced to overrun the country, and we captured some of the native Indians, and I sent off three of them as messengers to their chiefs, advising them that they should come and render obedience to his Majesty and submit themselves to the Imperial crown, and to me in his Majesty's name, or otherwise I should still carry on the war, and follow them and seek them in the mountains. These chiefs replied to me that hitherto their land had never been broken into nor entered by force of arms, and that since I had forced an entrance they would be glad to serve his Majesty in any way I might direct them, and soon afterwards they came to place themselves at my orders."
Alvarado had now subdued two of the strong tribes of the country, and was in alliance with the third, so was free to continue his march; and after a most arduous journey and frequent collisions with other and less important Indian tribes he succeeded in reaching Cuzcatlán, a town in what is now the Republic of Salvador. By the month of July he was back again in Iximché, and the ceremony which then took place of founding there the city of Santiago and the subsequent changes of locality which the city underwent have been described in an earlier chapter.
