At daybreak on the following morning Puertocarrero marched against the insurgents. His force consisted of sixty horse, eighty arquebusiers, five hundred and fifty Tlascaltecs and Mexicans, and one hundred Zacatepecs. He had also two pieces of artillery. On arriving within sight of the town the army encamped in a small valley two leagues from the village of Ucubil,[V‑3] to rest and reconnoitre. Hernando de Chaves being sent forward with the cavalry captured two natives, who gave information that Ucubil was peaceably deposed and that in Zacatepec a portion of the inhabitants had declared for the Spaniards, and having made their escape, were scattered among the neighboring corn lands. Puertocarrero now moved to Ucubil, and thence sent messages of encouragement to the friendly natives, eight hundred of whom shortly afterward joined him. The Spanish army now mustered fifteen hundred and ninety men, and with this force the commander was quite ready to meet the opposing eight thousand. He advanced, therefore, toward the town, and when about half a league distant sent messengers to offer peace on condition of surrender. They were received with disdain, and when others were despatched on a similar errand, they were on the point of being seized and sacrificed, and only made their escape by trusting to the speed of their horses. The Spaniards now took up their position on rising ground a quarter of a league from Zacatepec. There they were almost immediately assailed by a body of two thousand natives who, issuing from a neighboring wood, attacked them briskly, but after a brief struggle were forced to retire. Early next morning three thousand warriors, advancing from the direction of the town, came down upon them, taking good aim with poisoned arrows, while the fire of the arquebusiers was for some time rendered almost harmless by a strong breeze, which drove the smoke into their eyes. Later their weapons were used with more effect, and the Indians began to retire with loss, whereupon the Spaniards incautiously advanced, thereby suffering defeat; for when the Spanish forces were in the center of the plain, the detachment from the town, suddenly wheeling round, attacked them in front, while those who remained under cover of the woods assailed their rear. Puertocarrero was compelled to withdraw from the field with all possible haste; but this could only be done by traversing the greater portion of the plain, and was attended with great loss, the troops becoming entangled during the hottest part of the engagement, in canebrakes and creepers. At length the retreating army reached a secure position between two converging eminences, and here the conflict ceased for the night.