During the same year the confusion caused by Orduña's maleadministration held out a hope to the stubborn Cuzcatecans of even yet winning back their independence, and once more they rose in revolt. Diego de Rojas was sent by the captain general with a small force to aid the Spanish settlers in that part of the province in suppressing the insurrection. His efforts were successful; but when about to accept the surrender of a fortress that lay beyond the river Lempa he heard the unwelcome news that a party of Spaniards were approaching from the south. Rojas determined to reconnoitre in person, and his curiosity was soon gratified, for while doing so he was made prisoner with a number of his followers. The intruders proved to be a party of two hundred men despatched by Pedrarias Dávila, under Martin Estete, for the purpose of making possession of Salvador and making that province an appendage to Nicaragua. If a man of ability had been in charge of this expedition it is not improbable that its purpose might have been accomplished; but Estete, though by name a soldier, had neither courage nor military skill. In the hour of trial he deserted his men; and it has already been related that about half of his force joined the colonists of Guatemala. * * * * * At the foot of a precipitous mountain range near Gracias á Dios is the circus of Copan, where lie the ruins of an ancient town which are yet an object of interest to travellers. Fuentes, writing about the close of the seventeenth century, describes it as a space surrounded by pyramids of stone, eighteen feet in height, at the base of which were sculptured figures attired in Castilian costume. The place was garrisoned by thirty thousand troops well supplied with provisions, and was guarded, at the only point where approach was possible, by a deep fosse and a barricade of earth, pierced with loop-holes. To this stronghold Hernando de Chaves, who had been ordered to quell an uprising in the adjoining province of Chiquimula, now resolved to lay siege. Drawing up his forces in front of it he approached within bow-shot of the town at the head of a small band of horse and demanded its surrender. He was answered with flights of arrows directed with such good aim that he was glad to make his escape.