The Battle of Mazocoba, or the Mazocoba massacre, was a major engagement of the Yaqui Wars that was fought in Sonora, Mexico. On January 18, 1900, a Mexican Army expedition encountered hundreds of Yaqui renegades about twenty miles east of Guaymas. During the battle that followed, several hundred people were killed or wounded and over 1,000 Yaquis were taken prisoner. Battle By the turn of the 19th century, the Yaqui people and the Mexicans had been fighting each other for years though there were occasional periods of peace. In 1897, the Mexican Army officer General Lorenzo Torres opened up negotiations with the Yaqui Chief Tetabiate, or Juan Maldonado, who led a band of several hundred people. In May 1897 they signed a peace treaty at Ortiz which, among other things, called for the Yaqui to abandon their traditional lifestyle and become individual land owners. Tetabiate and about four hundred of his people surrendered but shortly thereafter they returned to the Sierra del Bacatete, west of Guaymas, to continue raiding. The situation became more serious in August 1899 when the Yaquis at Bácum and Vícam took up arms. General Torres had been ignoring the terms of the peace treaty by continuing to occupy Yaqui territory so over 2,000 warriors assembled along the Rio Yaqui. During the ensuing battle, the Yaquis suffered many casualties and had to retreat. After that, Tetabiate led in between 2,000 and 3,000 people onto, a rocky desert plateau roughly twenty-five square miles in size and about twenty-five miles east of Guaymas. General Torres responded by fielding the largest army ever sent against the Yaqui, over 5,000 men, both federal and state soldiers. According to conflicting accounts, on January 18, 1900, General Torres was leading a force of 1,000 to as many as 3,000 soldiers when he encountered Tetabiate and about 2,000 of his warriors in the Mazocoba. The New York Times issued a newspaper story on February 3, 1900 that said Tetabiate and Santa Teresa were heading to Guaymas, with their band, to capture the port, and they had only gone eight miles before the Mexicans caught up. It also said that there were other Yaquis "still hold[ing] the mouth of the [Rio] Yaqui" and that they had stopped all steamships from entering or exiting the river. According to the same New York Times article, which incorrectly stated that the battle occurred on January 25, fighting began