ess.

[11] Commander in the field: equivalent to our colonel.

[12] Equivalent to lieutenant-colonel.

[13] Huge "table" of rock.

IV.

THE STORMING OF THE SKY-CITY.

At daybreak, on the morning of January 22, Zaldivar gave the signal for
the attack; and the main body of the Spaniards began firing their few
arquebuses, and making a desperate assault at the north end of the great
rock, there absolutely impregnable. The Indians, crowded along the
cliffs above, poured down a rain of missiles; and many of the Spaniards
were wounded. Meanwhile twelve picked men, who had hidden during the
night under the overhanging cliff which protected them alike from the
fire and the observation of the Indians, were crawling stealthily around
under the precipice, dragging the _pedrero_ by ropes. Most of these
twelve were arquebusiers; and besides the weight of the ridiculous
little cannon, they had their ponderous flintlocks and their clumsy
armor,--poor helps for scaling heights which the unencumbered athlete
finds difficult. Pursuing their toilsome way unobserved, pulling one
another and then the _pedrero_ up the ledges, they reached at last the
top of a great outlying pinnacle of rock, separated from the main cliff
of Acoma by a narrow but awful chasm. Late in the afternoon they had
their howitzer trained upon the town; and the loud report, as its
cobble-stone ball flew into Acoma, signalled the main body at the north
end of the _mesa_ that the first vantage-ground had been safely gained,
and at the same time warned the savages of danger from a new quarter.

That night little squads of Spaniards climbed the great precipices which
wall the trough-like valley on east and west, cut down small pines, and
with infinite labor dragged the logs down the cliffs, across the valley,
and up the butte on which the twelve were stationed. About a score of
men were left to guard the horses at the north end of the _mesa_; and
the rest of the force joined the twelve, hiding behind the crags of
their rock-tower. Across the chasm the Indians were lying in crevices,
or behind rocks, awaiting the attack.

At daybreak of the 23d, a squad of picked men at a given signal rushed
from their hiding-places with a log on their shoulders, and by a lucky
cast lodged its farther end on the opposite brink of the abyss. Out
dashed the Spaniards at their heels, and began balancing across that
dizzy "bridge" in the face of a volley of stones and arrows. A