But there was no alternative. The more he reflected and counselled with his officers, the more apparent it became that the only salvation was to capture the Queres Gibraltar; and the plan was decided upon. Onate naturally desired to lead in person this forlornest of forlorn hopes; but there was one who had even a better claim to the desperate honor than the captain-general,--and that one was the forgotten hero Vicente de Zaldivar, brother of the murdered Juan. He was _sargento-mayor_[12] of the little army; and when he came to Onate and begged to be given command of the expedition against Acoma, there was no saying him nay. On the 12th of January, 1599, Vicente de Zaldivar left San Gabriel at the head of seventy men. Only a few of them had even the clumsy flintlocks of the day; the majority were not _arquebusiers_ but _piquiers_, armed only with swords and lances, and clad in jackets of quilted cotton or battered mail. One small _pedrero_, lashed upon the back of a horse, was the only "artillery." Silently and sternly the little force made its arduous march. All knew that impregnable rock, and few cherished an expectation of returning from so desperate a mission; but there was no thought of turning back. On the afternoon of the eleventh day the tired soldiers passed the last intervening _mesa_,[13] and came in sight of Acoma. The Indians, warned by their runners, were ready to receive them. The whole population, with the Navajo allies, were under arms, on the housetops and the commanding cliffs. Naked savages, painted black, leaped from crag to crag, screeching defiance and heaping insults upon the Spaniards. The medicine-men, hideously disguised, stood on projecting pinnacles, beating their drums and scattering curses and incantations to the winds; and all the populace joined in derisive howls and taunts. Zaldivar halted his little band as close to the foot of the cliff as he could come without danger. The indispensable notary stepped from the ranks, and at the blast of the trumpet proceeded to read at the top of his lungs the formal summons in the name of the king of Spain to surrender. Thrice he shouted through the summons; but each time his voice was drowned by the howls and shrieks of the enraged savages, and a hail of stones and arrows fell dangerously near. Zaldivar had desired to secure the surrender of the pueblo, demand the delivery to him of the ringleaders in the massacre, and take them back with him to San Gabriel for official trial and punishment, without harm to the other people of Acoma; but the savages, secure in their grim fortress, mocked the merciful appeal. It was clear that Acoma must be stormed. The Spaniards camped on the bare sands and passed the night--made hideous by the sounds of a monster war-dance in the town--in gloomy plans for the morrow. FOOTNOTES: [10] Pronounced Kay-ress. [11] Commander in the field: equivalent to our colonel. [12] Equivalent to lieutenant-colonel. [13] Huge "table" of rock. IV.