Again in 1760, when a band of the Seri (supposed to be temporarily combined with the Pima) took refuge in Cerro Prieto, Governor Mendoza attacked them with over 100 men; but a band of 19 Seri successfully held this force at bay for several hours, until their chief (called El Becerro) fell wounded and dying, yet retaining sufficient vitality to rise, as the Spaniards approached, and transfix Mendoza with an arrow—when the two leaders died together.[109] Mendoza was succeeded by Governor José Tienda de Cuervo, who, in 1761, led a force of 420 men to Cerro Prieto, where a still bloodier battle was fought, the Seri losing 49 killed and 63 captured, besides 322 horses; though the greater part of their force escaped to the island of San Juan Bautista (San Esteban?).[110] [109] Historia de la Compañia de Jesus, tomo III, p. 298. [110] Ibid., p. 299; Rudo Ensayo, p. 196. It is probable that part or all of the captives were quartered at Pueblo Seri, though, the record is silent on this point. In 1763 Don Juan de Pineda succeeded to the governorship, and obtained the cooperation of a force of national troops under Colonel Domingo Elizondo: Headquartering in El Pitiqui, he commenced active war against the said Seris, but was unable to reduce them, because, being separated and dispersed over their vast territory, they wore out the troops, who only occasionally stumbled on one little rancheria or another. For this reason, and because in many years they could not exterminate them, and desiring to leave the country, they opened negotiations with them, making them small presents and offering them royal protection if they would surrender peacefully. Some of them pretended to do this and assembled at Pitiqui, where they remained with the same bad faith as always, fed at the expense of the royal treasury, when the troops retired, leaving the evil uncured, but merely covered.[111] [111] Resumen de Noticias, op. cit., vol. I, p. 224. In the same year Padre Tomás Ignacio Lizazoin reported, for the information of the viceroy, that the ravages of the Seri and other Indians “had caused the almost total abandonment of Pimeria and Sonora provinces”, and proposed plans for protection which were apparently never carried out.[112] [112] Bancroft, op. cit., p. 565. * * * * *