HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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with at least a small amount of supplies.

If Davila and his men were badly off in Villa Real, Montejo and his
party at Chichen Itza were equally if not more precariously situated.
The chief causes of their misfortunes were the lack of men, and of the
most common necessities, the want of certainty as to the best course to
be followed, and the knowledge on the part of the Indians that the
number of the Spaniards was daily growing less on account of the
ceaseless skirmishes. Food was so scarce that parties had to be formed
on purpose to make sallies from the fortifications in search of it. As
Cogolludo (p. 86) graphically puts it, "Their dinners now cost them
their life-blood."

Although, as we have already seen, centralized power was at an end long
since in the peninsula, a revival of the old-time feeling of unity is
to be seen in the determination the Mayas had to get rid of the
Spaniards. Cogolludo (p. 87) says, "For this purpose almost all the