1525, until mid-October
The relief army and the surrender
While the siege goes on, about 8,000 Mam warriors from the towns allied with Zaculeu come down from the Cuchumatanes mountains to the north. Gonzalo de Alvarado leaves Antonio de Salazar in charge of the siege and marches north to meet them. The relief army is a match for the Spanish and allied foot soldiers, but it is disorganised, and repeated charges of the Spanish cavalry break it. Alvarado returns to the siege.
Huehuetenango and its valley from the Cuchumatanes mountainsWikimedia Commons, George Revline, CC BY-SA 2.0 (Huehuetenango desde los Cuchumatanes.jpg)
After several months the defenders are starving. Kayb'il B'alam surrenders Zaculeu in the middle of October 1525. Inside, the Spanish find 1,800 dead and survivors eating the corpses.
A Spanish garrison under Gonzalo de Solís is left at Huehuetenango, and Gonzalo de Alvarado returns to Tecpán to report his victory to his brother. The Spanish build the new town of Huehuetenango about 5 km away and make the Mam leave Zaculeu.
Sources
- W. George Lovell, Conquest and Survival in Colonial Guatemala (3rd ed. 2005), pp. 62 to 64.
- Robert M. Carmack, Kik'aslemaal le K'iche'aab': historia social de los K'iche's (2001), p. 39.
- Adrián Recinos, Pedro de Alvarado: conquistador de México y Guatemala (2nd ed. 1986), p. 110.
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