Cáceres then laid siege to the place, but although assistance was summoned from Comayagua and San Pedro del Puerto de Caballos the Indians made good their defence. For six months the Spaniards beleaguered the fortress, their numbers rapidly diminishing from want, exposure, and ceaseless encounters with the natives. So untiring were the latter in their efforts that the besiegers, who were divided into eight parties, found little time to rest, being harassed day and night by sorties from the garrison. At length Cáceres, seeing no prospect of taking the stronghold, resolved to gain by a base stratagem the success which he had failed to win by force of arms. A horseman was ordered to approach within arquebuse-shot of the rock and summon Lempira to a colloquy under pretence of opening negotiations for peace, while a foot soldier who accompanied him, screened from view by the mounted man, was bid to take deliberate aim at the cacique and fire upon him when sure of his mark. The artifice succeeded only too well. The unsuspecting chieftain came forth to meet the messenger and while held in parley was brought to the ground by a shot from the arquebusier. His lifeless body rolled over the rock, and his followers, panic-stricken, made no further resistance, most of them taking to flight, and the rest giving themselves up to the Spaniards.[XVII‑4] It is but just to add that the captives were well treated and that the governor, who does not appear to have been responsible for this outrage, succeeded by his humane policy in pacifying many of the fugitives and inducing them to return to their abodes and till the soil. During the administration of Montejo the settlers of Honduras again enjoyed an interval of repose,[XVII‑5] though his conduct was distasteful to many of the colonists, who still remembered with regret the time when slave-hunting was permitted throughout the territory. The arrival at Gracias á Dios, in 1538, of the licentiate Cristóbal de Pedraza, bearing the title of protector of the Indians, was of material service to the governor in settling the many difficulties that arose with the encomenderos. He was cordially welcomed and received every assistance in the discharge of his duties. * * * * * [Sidenote: INTEROCEANIC HIGHWAY.]