HISTORY OF YUCATAN
FROM ITS DISCOVERY

CLOSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

BY CHARLES ST. JOHN FANCOURT, ESQ.,
RECENTLY H.M. SUPERINTENDENT OE THE BRITISH SETTLEMENTS
I N THE BAT OE HONDURAS.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1854.

PEINTED BY
JOHN EDWARD TAYLOE, LITTLE QUEEN STEEET,
LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.

MERCHANTS AND MAHOGANY CUTTERS

BRITISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE BAY OF HONDURAS,

This

Work,

CONTAINING THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE

PENINSULA WHICH THEY INHABIT,

IS DEDICATED,
BY THEIR FAITHFUL FRIEND AND SERVANT,

C. ST. JOHN FANCOURT.

PEEFACE.

Jb'on some time previous to his departure from that tract
of the American Continent, the government of which he
had administered during a period of eight years, the
Author of the following historical sketch had determined on writing, principally for the satisfaction of the
Settlers, an account of the origin, the rise, and the development of one of the most remarkable possessions of
the British Crown.

It did not however occur to him

then, that it would be necessary for the completion of
his design to trace the connection -of European enterprise with Central America to an earlier period than
1662, when the British logwood-cutters first commenced
their operations on the coast of Yucatan.

On the jour-

ney however of the Author to England, he became acquainted at New York with a gentleman* whose know* Hon. E. Gr. Squier, United States Charge d'Affaires to the Eepublic of Nicaragua.

vi

PREFACE.

ledge of American history induced him to consider the
advantage of extending his plan; and, at his suggestion,
and by the advice of another*, to whose information
and kindness he has been much indebted, he was led
to consult the earliest and most authentic sources of
information as regards the discovery of Yucatan, and
the first, but abortive, pacification of the whole of that
region in which the settlement now called British Honduras is situated.

The result has been the preliminary

volume which is now submitted to the Public, and
which, perhaps, may claim the merit of being a faithful
record in English of transactions at present only to be
found in Spanish authors, the majority of whose works
are very scarce, many of them existing only in national
libraries, or, if in private collections, almost impossible
of access.
With as little delay as possible, the Author will lay
before the Public an additional volume, which will comprise the History of Yucatan, from the period when the
British logwood-cutters commenced their operations at
Cape Catoche, to the close of the administration in
British Honduras of his immediate predecessor MajorGeneral Alexander Macdonald.
* Henry Stevens, Esq., of Vermont.

PREFACE.

vii

These preliminary remarks cannot be concluded without recording the obligations of the Author to his old
friend and schoolfellow, Dudley Costello, Esq., to whose
skill he is indebted, not alone for the map which
illustrates these pages, but for much valuable assistance
and counsel during the progress of the work.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE I.
Page

Columbus at Bonacca.—Discovery of Yucatan by De Solis and
Pinzon.—Expedition of Francisco Hernandez de Cordova.—
Landing at Cape Catoche.—Civilization of tbe Inhabitants.—
Peaceable Intercourse with the Indians at Campeachy.—Affray
at Champoton.—Expedition of Grijalva.—Possession taken of
Cozumel. — Grijalva's Voyage round the Coast.—The Evil
Skirmish.—Discovery of the Boca de Terminos.—G-rijalva at
the River Tabasco.—Prosecution of the Voyage to Panuco.—
Eeturn of Grijalva to Cuba

1

CHAPTEE II.
Crist oval de Olid sent in search of Grijalva.—Arrival of Pedro
de Alvarado at Santiago.—Disappointment of Velasquez.—His
difficulty as to a new Commander.— Selection of Hernando
Cortes.—Preparations for a new Expedition.—The Instructions
given by Velasquez to Cortes.—Disputed question as to the
period of Grijalva's return.—Doubts entertained by Velasquez
of the Fidelity of Cortes.—Departure of Cortes for Santiago.—
Subsequent attempts of Velasquez to deprive him of his Command.—Cortes sails from the Havana.—The Fleet dispersed
by a Storm. —Arrival at Cozumel.i—Capture and pacific treatment of Indians.—Discovery of a captive Spaniard.—Idolatry
of the Natives.—First Attempt to introduce the Christian
Faith.— Geronimo de Aguilar.—Cortes leaves the Coast of
Yucatan
16

X

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.
Page

Expedition of Cristoval de Olid.—His Insubordination.—The Armament of Las Casas.—Las Casas made prisoner by Olid.—
Olid takes possession of Naco.-r-Eesolution of Cortes to march
to Honduras.—Preparations for the March.—Equipment of the
Army.—Departure of Cortes from Mexico.—Scene between
Cortes and the Factor Salazar.—Arrival of the Army at Guacasualco.—Indian Map of the route from Xicalango.—Advance
upon Tupilco.—The Bridges of Cortes.—Difficulties of the
March.—Arrival of Cortes at Iztapa.—Privations of the Army.
—Approach to the Maya country
38

C H A P T E E IV.
Tradition of the Itzaex.—Their romantic history.—Prophesied
Arrival of the Spaniards.—Doubtful authority for the Prophecies.—Further difficulties of Cortes.—Dangerous position
of the Army.—The troops murmur.—Another Bridge constructed.—Deceit of Apospalan.—Indian Idols broken at Titacal.—Interview of Cortes with Apospalan.—The Conspiracy
of Guatemozim.—The Plot revealed by Mexicalcinco.—Execution of Guatemozin.—Simplicity of the Mexicans.—Cortes
reaches Mazatlan.—The Pass of Alabaster.—Arrival at the
Lake of Itza
55

C H A P T E E Y.
Description of the Lake of Itza.—Account given by an Indian
Captive of the city of TayasaL—Courteous reception by Cortes
of the Itzalan Chiefs.—Interview between Canek and Cortes.—
Offer of Canek to become a Christian.—Friendly Intercourse
between the Spaniards and the Itzaex.—Yisit of Cortes to Tayasal.—Cortes leaves his horse in the city.—Its death and
deification.—Departure of Cortes for the south-west.—Passage
of the Mountain of FMnts.—Losses and Sufferings of the
Troops.-—Dangerous Ford.—Scarcity of Provisions.—Cortes
reaches the Province of Acuculin.—Tidings of "the Bearded
Men."—Capture of Nito by Sandoval.—Close of the March of
Cortes
70

CONTENTS.

XI

C H A P T E E VI.
Page

Some account of Francisco de Montejo.—He is sent by Cortes
to Spain.—Arrives at Seville, and is badly received by Archbishop Fonseca.—He addresses the Emperor Charles V. direct.
—The Charges against Cortes dismissed.—Montejo solicits and
obtains the Government of Yucatan.—The Capitulacion that
was entered into.—Montejo prepares an expedition, and arrives
at Cozumel.—He takes formal possession of Yucatan in the
name of the Xing.—Apparent friendliness of the Indians.—
Attempt to murder Montejo.—Montejo's first March.—Ambuscade of the Indians.—Fierce Battle.—The Indians defeated.—
Montejo resolves on pacific measures.—Expedition of Davila.
—Numerous Skirmishes.—Siege of Chichen-Itza.—Artifice of
the Spaniards.—Withdrawal of Montejo
84

CHAPTEE VII.
Arrival of Davila at Campeachy.—The Indians attack Montejo.
—The Adelantado nearly made prisoner.—Montejo prays to be
released from his Government of Yucatan.—Eoyal Cedula enjoining him to prosecute the war.—Eevolt at Tabasco.—The
Spaniards withdraw from the Peninsula.—The Eeligious Pacification of the Country resolved on.—The Adelantado returns to
Yucatan.—Disembarkation at Champoton.—Night attack by
the Indians.—General Assault of the Spanish Camp.—The Indians repulsed.—Diminished number of the Spaniards.—Their
despairing condition.—Eventual Eelief.—The Pacification entrusted to Montejo the Younger.—Perilous Expedition to Tihoo.—The last general Battle.-—Foundation of Merida and
Valladolid.—Further Conquests
99

CHAPTEE VIII.
First Population of Yucatan.—Form of Government.—The Laws
of the Mayas, their forms of Worship, and superstitious observances,—Witchcraft.—Painted Eecords.—Calendar of the
Mayas.—Historical Eras.—Eeligious Ceremonies.—- Idol-worship.—Celebrated Shrines.—Blood Sacrifices.—Priestcraft
. 114

Xll

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I X .
Employment of Missionaries in Yucatan.—Father Jacob de Testera.—Favourable reception of the Franciscans.—The Indians
offer their children for Baptism.—Outrages by some Spaniards.
—Withdrawal of Testera's Mission.—The Second Mission.—
Mission of Father Luis de Yillalpando.—Montejo's Address to
the Caciques at Campeachy.—Yillalpando acquires the Maya
language.—The First Baptism.—Conspiracy of the Caciques.—
Open Revolt.—Barbarous Cruelty towards Spanish Prisoners.—
Incidents of the Revolt.—The Escape of Diego Gonzales.—
Siege of Yalladolid.—The Indians defeated by Montejo the
Younger.—General Pacification of the Peninsula.—Renewed
Efforts of the Missionaries.—Numerous Conversions.—-The
Missionaries' lives endangered.—Revelation of the Plot by a
child.—Fearful position of the Missionaries.—Their accidental
Rescue.—The Indians fly to the mountains.—Intercession of
Yillalpando and clemency of the Adelantado.—Clerical Authority established

CHAPTER X.
Bartholomew de las Casas.—His Proposition for converting the
Indians.—He undertakes a Mission.—The terms for which he
stipulated.—The Royal Cedula.—The Canticles, or Sacred Romances, of the Missionaries.—Teaching of the Envoys.—Favourable reception of their Proposals.—The First Mass preached by
Father Luis Cancer.—The converted Cacique.—Departure of
Las Casas with Pedro de Angulo.—They proceed to Coban and
return.—Project for converting the Indians.—Formation of
Towns.—The converted Cacique received at Santiago.—Las
Casas and Rodrigo de Ladrada go again to Coban.—The " Country of "War" changed to that of "True Peace."—Further Extension of Christianity.—Death of Pedro de Angulo, the first
Bishop of Yera Paz

CHAPTER X I .
Ecclesiastical Government of Yucatan.—The Encomiendas.—Prohibition of Slavery.—The " Real Provision."—Auditor sent
from Spain.—Departure of Montejo from Yucatan.—His Death,

CONTENTS.

Xlll
Page

—New Code of Laws for the Indians.—Labours of the Missionaries.—Diego de Lauda.—His courageous conduct in saving a
young Indian from sacrifice.—Introduction of Romish Miracles.
—"Miraculous" Cures.—Separation of Yucatan from Mexico.
—Father Francisco Toral arrives at Merida.—Differences with
Lauda.—Exculpation of the latter.—He succeeds Toral in the
Bishopric.—His Death.—Civil Government of the Province.—
Succession of Governors.—Piratical descent on the coast.—
Proclamation of Philip the Third.—Appearance of an English
Corsair, who attacks Campeachy.-—Renewed attempts of the
Pirates
160
CHAPTER X I I .
The various tribes of Indians in the Peninsula of Yucatan.—Yillaquiran's Report.—Climate and general aspect of Yucatan.—
Geography of the Peninsula.—Attempted pacification of the
Lacandones.—Unsuccessful effort of Father Casilla.—Apostasy
of the Indians.—Fate of Father Domingo de Yico.—Warlike
measures resolved on.—Expedition of Quinones.—His Indian
Auxiliaries.—Rendezvous at Comitlan.—March to the Lake of
Lacandon.—Siege of the City.—The favourable Omen.—Negotiations.—Yessels launched on the Lake.—Capture and Burning
of the City.—Totiltepeque taken.—Puchutly captured.—Return
of Quinones.—Results of the Expedition
177
;
CHAPTER X I I I .
Feigned submission of the Itzaex.—The first Missionary Expedition to Itza.—Yojage up the river of Tipu.—Its singular
qualities.—Arrival of the Missionaries at Tipu.—Religious behaviour of the Indians.—Embassy to Tayasal.—Return of Itzalan warriors.—The Missionaries set out for Tayasal.—Protracted Journey.—Arrival at Tayasal. — The first Mass performed. — Fuensalida's Exhortation. — The Idol Tziminhac.—
Father Orbita's indiscreet zeal.—Attempt to convert the Canek.
—Narrow escape of the Missionaries.—They return to Tipu . 192
CHAPTER XIY.
Arrival of Fuensalida at Merida.—Idolatries of the Tipuan Indians.—-Second Mission to Tayasal.—Treaty with the Canek for

XIV

CONTENTS.
Page

the surrender of his dominions.—Erection of the Cross at Tayasal.~~Opposition of the Itzalan Priests.—The Canek's Wife.—
The Itzaex resume their idolatrous Bites.—Their violence towards the Missionaries.—Expulsion of the Fathers Fuensalida
and Orbita.—The Tipuans abandon the Christian Faith.—Mission of Father Delgado.—Proposition of Francisco Mirones.—
His extortionate trade with the Indians.—Their Disgust and
Discontent.—-Delgado goes to Tayasal.—The Itzaex massacre
his followers, and put him to death.—Bernardino Ek sent to
Tayasal.—His Capture and Escape.—Conspiracy of the Indians
at Zaclun.—Murder of Mirones and Father Enriquez.—Vengeance taken for the act.—Ahkiinppol hung
.
205

CHAPTER XV.
Continued Disturbances on the Northern Frontier.—Campeachy
sacked by the Pirates.—Don Jacobo do Yakson.—The Storm
and the Miracle.—Cedula of Philip the Fourth to Don Diego de
ViUaquiran.—Proposed settlement of El Prospero.—Villaquiran
arrives in Yucatan.—Missionary Expedition.—The Journey to
IsTohhaa.—Reception of the Missionaries.—^-Treachery of Vilvao.
—Return of Father Simon to Merida.—-Villaquiran sets out for
Nohhaa.—The Expedition delayed.—Villaquiran reaches Nohhaa.—The Town burnt by the Indians.—Villaquiran takes refuge at Petenecte.—His Death.—Abandonment of the scheme
of Settlement
222

CHAPTER X V I .
Mission to the Choles and Lacandones from* Guatemala.—The
Missionaries proceed to Cahabon.—They reach the Cliff of Escurruchan.—Their welcome from the Choles.—The Missionaries
cross the Yaxha.—Numerous Indians baptized,—San Jacinto
Matzin founded.—Success of the Mission at Coban.—Relapses.
—A new Mission.—Discovery of ancient Buildings.—The Mission relinquished
235

CHAPTER X V I I .
Military Expeditions against the Lacandones resolved on.—The

CONTENTS.

XV

proposition of Don Martin Ursua to open a Road from Yucatan
to Guatemala.—Three Expeditions organized.—Advance of Mazariegos.—Picturesque Scenery.—Discovery of a Town, which is
named "Los Dolores."—Retreat of De Barrios.—"Foundation of
San Juan de Dios.—Junction of De Barrios with Mazariegos.—
News of Velasco.—Capture of five Lacandones.—The Reports
made by them.—Return of the Lacandones to Los Dolores.—
Retreat of De Barrios.-—Fresh Expeditions.—New Town discovered.—Alcayaga endeavours to reach the Lake of Itza, but
fails in the attempt.—Account of the progress of Velasco.—He
passes through the country of the Mopanes and approaches'the
Lake of Itza.—Encounter with a party of Itzalans.—Further
affrays.—Yelasco returns to Mopan.—He again advances to the
Chaxal.—Mysterious disappearance of his party.—Amezquita
follows in his track and comes within sight of Tayasal.—He finds
traces of Yelasco.—Intercourse with the Itzalans on the borders
of the Lake.—Amezquita fails to discover the fate of Yelasco,
withdraws from Itza, and finally returns to Guatemala
.
. 245
CHAPTER X V I I I .
Appointment of Ursua as interim Governor of Yucatan.—He begins to construct the great military road.—Its opening entrusted
to Paredes, who clears the ground beyond the Lake of Chutunqui.—Negotiations with the Ganek of Itza.—Pacific assurances
of the Canek.—Ursua's Letter.—An Embassy sent from Tayasal.—Its reception at Merida.—The Ambassador after being
baptized returns to the Great Peten.—Orders sent to Paredes
to occupy Itza.—Visit of the Missionaries to Tayasal.—Doubtful
welcome.—Theological argument.—Remarkable Speech of the
Cacique Caboxh.'—Father Avendaho's intrepidity.—The Canek
offers anew to subject his country to Spain.—Avendaiio's Circular Letter.—The Missionaries leave Tayasal, are lost in the
mountains, but eventually rescued.—Report of the Missionaries 270
CHAPTER X I X .
Military Expedition to the Lake of Itza.—Zubiaur appointed to
the command.—He reaches the Lake, and meets with a hostile
reception.—A battle fought.—Difficulties in completing the
Great Road.—Doubts entertained of the authenticity of the
Itzalan Embassy.—Its truth established at the expense of the
Canek's reputation.—The fate of Velasco's party ascertained.—

xvi

CONTENTS.
Page

Royal Cedula extending the authority of Ursua.—He sets out in
person from Campeachy, and reaches the Great Lake.—A Flag
of Truce from the Itzaex.—Interview between Ursua and the
High Priest Quincanek.—A Council of War, and preparations
made for crossing over to Tayasal
286
C H A P T E E XX.
Embarkation of the Spanish troops.—Miraculous appearance of
the Picture of St. Paul.—Ursua's peaceable Edict.—The Itzaex
muster on the Lake, and commence hostilities.—The Spaniards
repel the assault, attack the heights of Tayasal, and capture the
city.—Tayasal rebaptized.—Destruction of Idols and Temples.—
.Formal possession taken in the name of the King of Spain.—
Discovery of the remains of Velasco and Father Buenaventura.
—The fugitive Itzaex begin to return to Tayasal.—Clemency of
Ursua.—The Canek and the High Priest brought into the Spanish Camp.—General submission of the Itzaex.—The Canek and
Quincanek placed in durance, and brought to trial.—Awful
Hurricane.—The Storm exorcised—"Result of the Trial.—Account of Tayasal, and description of the Customs of the Inhabitants " .'
296
CHAPTEE XXI.
Completion of the Eoad into Guatemala.—Ursua requests assistance from the President of Guatemala.—Difficult march of
Paredes.—Ursua commences the Fortification of Tayasal, and
then returns to Campeachy.—Intrigues of Soberanis.—Baptism
of the Canek and High Priest.-—Ursua's presence required in
Tayasal.—His efforts to return thwarted by Soberanis, who
keeps back the Eoyal Cedulas.—Ursua is made Captain-General
of the Itzalan territory.—Operations resumed for the Pacification of the Peninsula.—Ursua again arrives at Tayasal.—He is
joined by Don Melchor de Mencos from Guatemala.—The Concabo Generals.—Important Council of War.—Failure of Supplies.—The last Junta held.—It is resolved to evacuate the
country.—Conclusion
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
317
APPENDIX

329

HISTORY
OF

YUCATAN.

CHAPTER I.
COLUMBUS

AT B O N A C C A . — D I S C O V E R Y

PINZON.—EXPEDITION
LANDING

AT

—PEACEABLE
AFFRAY

AT

CAPE

OF

OF

FRANCISCO

YUCATAN BY D E SOLIS AND
HERNANDEZ

CATOCHE.—CIVILIZATION

INTERCOURSE

WITH

THE

CHAMPOTON.—EXPEDITION

DE

OF T H E

CORDOYA.—
INHABITANTS.

I N D I A N S AT C A M P E A C H Y . —
OF

GRIJALVA.—POSSESSION

T A K E N OF C O Z U M E L . — G R I J A L V A ' S VOYAGE R O U N D T H E

COAST.—THE

E V I L S K I R M I S H . — D I S C O V E R Y OF T H E BOCA D E T E R M I N O S . — G R I J A L V A
AT T H E R I V E R TABASCO.—PROSECUTION OF T H E VOYAGE TO P A N U C O .
—RETURN

OF GRIJALVA TO CUBA.

THE history of the Peninsula of Yucatan, on the eastern
coast of which the settlements of British Honduras have
been established, belongs to the earliest period of western maritime discovery, and is the first and most prominent object to engage the attention of the writer who
seeks to give a full an& clear account of the nature of
those settlements, and the manner in which they were
formed.
It would seem to be a general law, that all discovery,
whatever its nature, shall be progressive. The originator
of a new idea arrives at a certain point, and stops there,
B

2

COLUMBUS AT BONACCA.

[CHAP. I.

on the very threshold, perhaps, of attaining the reward
for which he had long struggled; or, owing to some
particular bias, is led from the goal, instead of towards
it, when it is/ almost within reach, while those who
follow, profiting by experience, with comparative ease
achieve the victory and reap the fame.
There is no more remarkable illustration of this truth,
than the failure of Columbus to reach the golden shore
which was the vision of his whole existence. Impressed
with a belief that a passage was to be found which
should lead him into the great Indian Ocean, he steered
in the contrary direction to that in which lay, not the
channel he was in search of, but the land where more
than Indian wealth abounded.
It was on the 27th of July, in the year 1502, on his
fourth and last voyage, that Columbus took his departure from the southern coast of Cuba, and, sailing in a
south-westerly direction, arrived on the evening of the
third day at the island of Guanaja, now called Bonacca,
the easternmost of the group of which Ruatan is the
principal, and ten leagues distant from the mainland of
America. Prom this island, which offered nothing to
detain him, he could descry, to the south, a high range
of mountains, beyond which he trusted to find the longdesired region of Cathay, and, turning his face from the
track which, if pursued, would have made him the discoverer of Yucatan and Mexico, he bent his course to
the continent where disappointment alone awaited him.
It forms no part of the present plan to follow the
route taken by the great Genoese, further than to indicate certain places at which he touched on the Mosquito
shore, an account of the occupation of that coast being
a part of the task which it is proposed to accomplish in

A.D. 1506.]

DISCOVERY OF YUCATAN.

3

this work. The northern side of Honduras occupied
him first, from the cape which now bears that name, but
called by Columbus " Punta de Caxinas," to Cape Gracias a Dios, the northern extremity of the province. His
progress was slow, and nearly a month was consumed
in it, contrary winds compelling him to tack along the
whole length of the coast, where he landed but once,
to take possession of the Rio Tinto, or Black River, to
which Columbus gave the name of "Rio dela Posesion."
Prom Cape Gracias a Dios he ran due south along the
Mosquito shore, called " Cariay," touched at the present
harbours of Bluefields and San Juan de Nicaragua, and
then pushing on through the Boca del Toro, to the coast
of " Cerabaro" (changed by Columbus to " Zerabora"),
on the 7th of October reached the Bay of " Aburema,"
now the Laguna de Chiriqui1. Por six months he lingered on the northern, coasts of Veragua and' Panama,
and then, with his great mission unaccomplished, slowly
and reluctantly returned to Cuba on his way back to
Spain.
Three years afterwards, in 1506, two of the companions of Columbus, Juan Diaz de Solis and Vicente
Yanez Pinzon, who commanded a ship in the Admiral's
first voyage, were again in the Gulf of Honduras, and,
proceeding from the Guanajos, examined the gulf till
they reached the entrance of the Bay of Dulce, hoping
to find some channel of communication with the Pacific
Ocean. Herrera, whose account of this matter appears
to be the most probable, says that De Solis and Pinzon,
after sailing as far as the Guanajos, " held on to the
1
Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos que hicieron por mar
los Espanoles desde fines del siglo
xv.? etc., etc. Coordinada e ilus-

trada por Don Martin Fernandez
de Navarrete. Tom. i. pp. 283-4.
(Madrid, 1825.)

B 2

4

DISCOVERY OF YUCATAN.

[CHAP. I.

westward as far as Golfo Dolce, but saw it not because
it was hid, though they observed the inlet the sea makes
between the land that forms that bay, and the land of
Yucatan, from whence they descried the mountains of
Caria, turned away to the northward, and discovered a
great part of the kingdom of Yucatan 1 ." They did not
however explore the coast, nor was any landing made by
the Spaniards till some years afterwards.
To De Solis and Pinzon must therefore be awarded
the honour of being the discoverers of Yucatan, though
nothing immediately resulted from their enterprise. To
pursue a course yet further south was the route by which
the Spanish adventurers hoped to light upon the supposed inlet to the Pacific, and with this view the expeditions of De Solis and Pinzon in 1508, of Lope Hurtado
de Mendoza in 1514, and of De Solis again in 1515,
were undertaken2. Fresh acquisitions of territory were
the consequences of these voyages, by the last of which
the province of the Rio de la Plata was given to the
Crown of Spain; but " the Indies," as Mexico and the
adjacent countries were afterwards magniloquently termed,
still remained unknown. It is true that an expedition
sailed from the island of Porto Rico in 1512, which
took a north-westerly direction; but Juan Ponce de
Leon, who commanded it, though he succeeded in discovering the island of Florida, doubled the Cape of Canaveral on the eastern coast of that peninsula, and, returning southward, gave the name of "Los Martires"
to the chain of islets near Cape Florida, and hazarded a
few days' sail to the westward of it3, can never be consi1
Herrera: General History of
America, translated by Captain S.
Stevens: vol. i. p. 315. (London,
1741.)

2
Coleccion de Navarrete, torn.
iii. pp. 47-8-9.
3
Ibid., torn. iii. p. 52.

A. D. 1517.]

EXPEDITION OF CORDOVA.

5

dered as having fairly entered the great Gulf of Mexico.
This achievement was reserved for Francisco Hernandez
de Cordova, though it was more the effect of accident
than design.
The island of Cuba was, in 1517, under the government of Diego Velasquez, and at the commencement of
that year it was resolved that a voyage of discovery
should be made, the primary object of which, says Gomara, was reported to be to obtain slaves from the Guanajos for the mines and other works in Cuba, " because
they had no more native Indians, it being forbidden to
make the Indians labour in their mines 1 ." The expedition, consisting of two ships and a brigantine, was
fitted out at the private expense of Francisco de Cordova, Cristoval Morant, and Lopez Ocioa de Caizedo,
and sailed on the 8th of February, 1517,—according
to Gomara, from the port of Santiago de Cuba, but
by Navarrete's account, from the Havana. The latter
says that, after doubling Cape Sant' Antonio, Cordova
steered to the southward, was caught in a violent tempest, which lasted two days, and the weather then clearing, at the end of twenty-one days' sail saw unknown
land at a point called " Las Mugeres2," the island which
bears that name. The narrative of Gomara, which is
more ample, but omits all mention of the storm, is as
follows.
" Of these vessels Hernandez was captain; a hundred
and ten men accompanied him; his pilot was Alaminos
de Palos de Muguer, and the King's comptroller, Bernardin Iniguez de la Calzada. It is further related that
he took with him a barque belonging to the Governor,
1

Gomara: La Historia de las
Indias, cap. lii. (Qaragoca, 1554.)

2

Coleccion de Yiages, etc., torn.
iii. p. 53.

6

CIVILIZATION OF THE INHABITANTS.

[CHAP. I.

Diego Velasquez, in which he carried his provisions and
the instruments necessary for working mines, so that if
he made any discoveries, the Governor might have his
share. Erancisco Hernandez then thus departed, seeing
that the weather was so favourable that he would not
lose the opportunity, but probably with the sole intention
of making a voyage of discovery, for he went straight to
a country hitherto unknown and unseen by our people,
where he found salt-pits, at a point which he named
Las Muyeres, because he there discovered stone towers
and chapels, covered with wood and straw, in which
were arranged in order several idols resembling women.
The Spaniards were astonished, for the first time to see
strong edifices, which had not as yet been discovered,
and also to perceive that the inhabitants were so richly
and tastefully clothed. They wore shirts and cloaks of
white and coloured cotton, their head-dress consisted of
feathers, their ears were enriched with ear-drops and
jewels of gold and silver. The women had their faces
and breasts concealed. Hernandez did not stop there,
but proceeded to another point, which he named Cotohe
(Catoche), where there were some fishermen, who ran
away from fear, and as our people called after them,
answered, cCotohe, Cotohe/ that is to say, ' a house;'
thinking our people were inquiring what town it was,
and believing that it was our intention to go there, they
said it was a house, and not a town. Prom that time
this name has continued to this cape. A little further
on they found other men, of whom they inquired the
name of the large town close by. They answered,
' Tectatan, Tectatan,' which means ' I do not understand:'
from this the Spaniards thought that this was the name
of the town, and, corrupting the word, have ever since

A. D. 1517.]

PEACEABLE INTERCOURSE AT CAMPEACHY.

7

called it ' Yucatan.' They found over the graves in this
country crosses of copper and of wood, from which
several persons were of opinion that the Spaniards had
fled to this country when Spain was ravaged by the
Moors, in the time of King Roderick; but I am not of
this opinion, because no crosses were found in the islands
already described, through which any one coming from
Spain must necessarily have passed; and it is furthermore improbable that they would have quitted so many
fine islands for the purpose of proceeding to this province : when speaking of the island of Cozumel I shall
speak more particularly of these crosses. From this
town of Yucatan Hernandez went to Campeche" (Campeachy, called by the Indians "Quimpech"), "a great
place, which he named Lazaro, because he arrived there
on the Sunday of Lazaro, which is in Lent. He landed,
and the chief of the place and himself embraced each
other, exchanged cloaks, feathers, large shells, and sea
cray-fish set in gold and silver. They presented him
with partridges, turtle-doves, goslings, cocks, hares,
stags, and other animals which were good to eat, and
bread made from Indian-corn, and fruits. They came
close to the Spaniards, some of them touching their
garments, others their swords and their beards, and all
changed colour as they stood around them. There was
in this place a square stone tower with steps, on the top
of which there was an idol, which had at its side two
cruel animals, represented as if they were desirous of
devouring it. There was also a great serpent, fortyseven feet long, as broad as an ox, devouring a lion, the
whole of it cut in stone. This idol was besmeared with
human blood, which they had sacrificed to it, according
to the custom of the country. From thence Hernandez

8

AFFRAY AT CHAMPOTON.

[CHAP. I.

went to Champoton, which is a large town, the chief
of which was called Mosciocoboc; he was a warrior and
courageous. He would not barter anything with our
people, nor supply them with provisions, nor make them
presents, nor even allow them to draw water unless in
exchange for their blood. Hernandez, not to appear
cowardly, and to ascertain what arms, what skill, and
what courage these Indians possessed, ordered his men
to land, well armed, and desired his sailors to draw some
water, putting his men in order of battle if the Indians
opposed them., Mosciocoboc, wishing to remove our
people further from the sea, so that they should have
no retreat, made them a sign to go behind a hill where
there was a spring. Our people, seeing that the Indians
were painted, armed with arrows, and of a warlike expression of countenance, became alarmed, and ordered
the ship guns to fire, in order to frighten them. The
Indians were astonished at this fire and smoke, and were
stupefied for a moment by the noise and thunder of these
fiery-mouthed instruments, but nevertheless they did
not run away. Thus affronted they assailed our people
courageously, with unanimous promptitude, vociferating
horribly, and throwing stones, spears, and arrows. Our
people marched quietly up to them, and when near discharged their guns, drew their swords, and killed a great
number of them, as well by thrusts as with the edge,
which encountering nothing but their naked skin, cut off
their heads and severed their bodies in two, their hands,
their arms, and their legs. The Indians, although they
had not been accustomed to such blows, sustained the
battle, stimulated by the presence of their chief and
captains, until they had gained it, quickly pursuing our
people, of whom they killed twenty and wounded fifty

A, D. 1518.]

EXPEDITION OF GRIJALVA.

9

as they crowded to re-embark, and made two prisoners,
whom they afterwards sacrificed. Hernandez was left
with thirty wounded men, with whom he was constrained
to re-embark, to his great danger. During his voyage
back he was always pensive and melancholy, and arrived
at Santiago much depressed, reporting nevertheless the
good news of the discovery of this new coast."
In the account which De Solis has given of this affair1, he says in general terms that Cordova was killed
at Champoton; but there appears to be no doubt that
Gomara's statement is correct2, and that he survived his
return ten days, when he died of the wounds—twelve
in number—which he had received in the conflict with
the Indians.
The account of this discovery, and the flattering hopes
to which it gave birth, stimulated Velasquez to prepare
another expedition in the same direction. It consisted of
three caravels and a brigantine, and the command was
entrusted to the Governor's nephew, Juan de Grijalva,
" a man on whose probity, prudence, and attachment
he could rely 3 ." With Grijalva were associated Pedro
de Alvarado, Francisco de Montejo (subsequently the
first Governor of Yucatan), and Alonso de Avila, each
of whom had the command of a vessel. The pilot Alaminos accompanied the expedition, which numbered
"muchos caballeros e hidalgos4," and amongst them
was Bernal Diaz del Castillo, the " Conquistador," and
author of the ' True History of the Conquest of New
Spain/ who had been with Cordova on his luckless
1
Histoire de la Conquete de
Mexique, traduite de l'Espagnol
de Don Antoine de Solis : torn. i.
p. 26. (Paris, 1714.)
2
Herrera, Dec. 2, lib. ii. cap. 17.

3
Prescott: History of tlie Conquest of Mexico, book ii. cap. 1.
4
Coleccion de Navarrete, torn. i.
p. 55.

10

POSSESSION TAKEN OF COZUMEL.

CHAP. I.

voyage. The little squadron sailed from the Port of
Matanzos on the 20th of April, 1518 1 , entered the Bay
of Carenas (the Havana) on the 22nd, and, directing
its course by Cape Sant' Antonio, on the 3rd of May
reached the island of Cozumel, to which, on account of
the day, Grijalva gave the name of Santa Cruz. He
anchored on the south side of the island, and on the
5th of May went ashore, and, falling on his knees, put
up a short prayer to God2. He then rose, and having
commanded his men to disembark, with all solemnity
took possession of Cozumel, with all the lands and seas
adjacent, in the name of the Crown of Spain. The Indians, who witnessed this ceremony, assembled on the
shore under one of their Caciques, presented Grijalva
with a vessel of honey, but the Spaniards'were unwilling to taste of any food given to them; they however
accepted some shirts and jewels. The Indians expressed
by signs their desire that the strangers should visit their
town, but, fatigued by following paths which led only
into deep marshes, the Spaniards returned on board, and
coasting the island, saw many houses built with stone
and mortar and well wrought, which were temples, and
a great tower, or fortress, in which were many people3.
" Everywhere," says Prescott, " Grijalva was struck, like
his predecessor, with the evidences of a higher civilization, especially in the architecture; as he well might
be, since this was the region of those extraordinary remains which have become recently the subject of so
much speculation."
1
Ibid. Bernal Diaz says the
5th of April, other accounts tlie
8th, and Prescott, who states that
the expedition sailed from Santiago, the 1st May.

2
Coleccion de Navarrete, torn.
iii. p. 55.
3
Ibid., p. 56.

A. D. 1518.]

GRIJALVA'S VOYAGE ROUND THE COAST.

H

After some further intercourse with the natives, and
having again taken possession of Cozumel in another
part, displaying the royal banner of Castile, Grijalva
made sail towards the north, but contrary winds and
want of water caused him to turn back, and he took
refuge in the Bay of Ascension, which he called by that
name on account of having entered it on the 13th of
May, which was Ascension-day in that year. Gomara
says that Grijalva's reason for steering south was because he believed Yucatan to be an island, and thought
by keeping to the left (the eastward) to'effect his passage
that way; and it is worthy of observation, as showing
how strongly fixed was the idea that it was not a continent which lay between the Spanish navigators and the
remote shores of Asia, that in all the official letters sent
to the Government at this period, Yucatan is invariably
adverted to as an island1. Grijalva remained only till
the 15th in the Bay of Ascension, when, finding that
the shore retreated to the south-west, and thinking probably that it would be safer to follow in the track of
Francisco de Cordova, he again turned northward, and
two days afterwards came in sight of land, which appears, from the description given of it, to have been the
coast immediately adjoining Cape Catoche. Rounding
this point, Grijalva pursued his voyage to Campeachy,
and thence to Champoton, and wherever he landed he
experienced the same hostile reception that Cordova had
met with; at the latter place,—to which, on account of
1
Documentos ineditos para la
Historia de Espana, por JNavarrete
y Baranda: Madrid, 1842. One
example out of many will suffice:
in the letter written to the King
(Charles Y.) by the auditors of
the "Heal Audiencia" of Spain,

giving an account of one of the
expeditions from Cuba, they say
( Documentos, torn. i. p. 501 ),
" De alii seguimos el viage por
toda la costa de la isla de Yucatan, etc."

12

EVIL SKIRMISH.

[CHAP, I,

the disasters which happened there, he gave the name
of " Mala Pelea,"—Juan de Guataria and several men
were killed, about sixty wounded, and Juan de Grijalva
himself received three wounds and lost two of his teeth.
Bernal Diaz, who enters into the particulars of this
" evil skirmish," is quite pathetic on the subject. He
says, " W e staid four days in this place, and I shall
never forget it on account of the immense-sized locusts
which we saw here. It was a stony spot on which the
battle took place, and those creatures, while it lasted,
kept continually flying in our faces, and as at the same
moment we were greeted by a shower of arrows from
the enemy, we also mistook these locusts for arrows.
But as soon as we had discovered our mistake, we deceived ourselves in another more direful way, for we
now mistook arrows for locusts, and discontinued to
shield ourselves against them. In this way we mistook
locusts and arrows to our great sorrow, were severely
wounded in consequence, and otherwise found ourselves
in a very awkward predicament1.5'
Grijalva' now coasted onward to the south, and where
the shore abruptly turns due west came to an opening
which seemed the mouth of a river, but proved to be a
large and deep bay, and, supposing it to be the limit of
the " island" of Yucatan on that shore, he called it the
" Boca de Terminos," the name which it still retains.
" As we also found temples here, built of stone and lime,
full of idols made of wood or clay, with other figures,
sometimes representing women, sometimes serpents, also
horns of various kinds of wild animals, we concluded
that an Indian village must be near at hand; we considered moreover that this would be a most excellent
1

Bernal Diaz (Lockhart's translation), vol. i. p. 24. (London, 1844.)

A.D. 1518.]

DISCOVERY OF THE BOCA DE TERMINOS.

13

spot to found a colony. We had however deceived ourselves in one thing, the district being quite uninhabited.
The temples most probably belonged to merchants and
hunters, who, on their journeys, most likely ran into
this harbour and there made their sacrifices. Fallowdeer and rabbits abounded in this neighbourhood, and
with one greyhound only we killed ten of the former
and great numbers of the latter. Our dog took such a
liking to this spot that it ran away while we were busy
re-embarking, nor did we see it again until we visited
this place subsequently with Cortes, when it appeared
in excellent condition, quite plump and sleeky1."
Having completely explored the Boca de Terminos,
and discovering that it was a bay, and not a river or
strait, Grijalva pursued his course on the west as far as
the river Tabasco, to which, in honour of the commander
of the expedition, his name was given. Here the natives
were more friendly than they had hitherto found them,
and exchanges were made of various articles, necklaces
of blue glass beads, small mirrors, and green imitation
corals being given by the Spaniards for gold ornaments
and dresses; but the Indians would take no strong drink,
the only ones, the adventurers said, who had refused to
do so. This intercourse, which took place beneath some
palm-trees on a high promontory, is thus described by
Bernal Diaz.
" About thirty Indians soon arrived, laden with broiled
fish, fowls, fruit, and maize-bread. They also brought
pans filled with red-hot embers, on which they strewed
incense, and perfumed us all. After this ceremony was
ended they spread some mats on the ground, over which
they laid a piece of cotton cloth ; on this they put some
1

Bernal Diaz, vol. i. p. 25.

14

GRIJALVA AT THE RIVER TABASCO.

[CHAP. I.

trifling ornaments in gold in the shape of ducks and
lizards, with three necklaces made of gold, which had
been melted into the shape of round balls. All these
things however were of an inferior kind of gold, not
worth two hundred pesos. They next presented us with
some mantles and waistcoats, such as they themselves
wore, and begged of us to accept them in good part,
saying that they had no more gold to give us, but that
further on, towards the setting of the sun, there was a
country where it was found in great abundance, hereby
often repeating the words Culba, Culba, and Mexico,
Mexico. We however did not understand what they
meant. Although the presents which they had brought
us were of little value, we nevertheless rejoiced exceedingly on account of the certainty we had gained that there
was gold in this country. Having handed over the presents to us with due formality, they told us we might
now continue our voyage. Our captain thanked them,
presenting each at the same time with green beads. We
now determined to re-embark, for the vessels were in
great danger on account of the north wind, which, in our
present intention, was quite contrary. We had moreover to go in quest of the country which, according to
the assurance of the Indians, abdunded in gold1."
Having got beyond the boundaries of Yucatan, a
brief mention of the further progress of Grijalva's expedition is all that is necessary for the purpose of this
narrative. Pursuing his course to the westward, he
traced the coast of Mexico as far as San Juan de Ulloa,
where he landed and took possession of the territory in
the name of the King of Spain. His intercourse with
the Indians was of a very friendly nature, and a system
1

Bernal Diaz, vol. i. pp. 27-8.

A.D. 1518.]

RETURN OF GRIJALVA TO CUBA.

15

of barter was established, by which, in exchange for
articles of Spanish manufacture, he obtained some pieces
of native gold, a variety of golden ornaments enriched
with precious stones, and a quantity of cotton mantles
and other garments. Intending to prosecute his discoveries further, Grijalva despatched these objects to Velasquez in the caravel commanded by Pedro de Alvarado, who was also charged with the sick and wounded
of the expedition, and then ascended the Mexican coast
as far northward as Panuco (the present Tampico). But
this point was the extreme limit of his voyage, for his
provisions began to fall short,—the aspect of the country, whose lofty mountains were covered with snow in
the month of June, appeared uninviting,—and being
moreover doubtful of the nature of the currents in that
unknown sea, he yielded to the representations of the
pilot Alaminos, and, without even casting anchor or
landing on the coast, returned upon his track towards
the island of Cuba.
The period at which he arrived there involves a question of some interest; but before that subject is entered
upon, it may be desirable to show that by the result of
Grijalva's expedition the external form of Yucatan was
completely ascertained. Its south-easternmost extremity
had been determined by De Solis and Pinzon when they
discovered the Bay of Dulce, and Grijalva's examination
of the Boca de Terminos completed the western limit.
As regards discovery on the coast, the next expedition
from Cuba in the following year, under the conduct of
Cortes, effected nothing; but the visit paid to the shores
of Yucatan by that renowned conqueror' is too full of
interest to be omitted in any account of its early history.

16

CHAPTER II.
CEISTOVAL D E OLID SENT I N SEARCH OF G R I J A L V A . — A R R I V A L
DRO D E ALVARADO AT S A N T I A G O . — D I S A P P O I N T M E N T

— H I S D I F F I C U L T Y AS TO A N E W C O M M A N D E R . — S E L E C T I O N
NANDO

CORTES.—PREPARATIONS

I N S T R U C T I O N S G I V E N BY
T I O N AS TO

THE

VELASQUEZ

FOR

A

NEW

OF

TO C O R T E S . — D I S P U T E D

F I D E L I T Y OF

SANTIAGO.—SUBSEQUENT

HER-

EXPEDITION.—THE

P E R I O D OF GRIJALVA's RETURN.—DOUBTS

T A I N E D BY VELASQUEZ OF T H E
OF CORTES

FOR

OF P E -

OP VELASQUEZ.

QUESENTER-

CORTES.—DEPARTURE

ATTEMPTS OF VELASQUEZ

TO D E P R I V E H I M OF H I S C O M M A N D . — C O R T E S SAILS F R O M T H E

HA-

V A N A . — T H E F L E E T D I S P E R S E D BY A S T O R M . — A R R I V A L AT COZUMEL.
—CAPTURE

AND

PACIFIC

TREATMENT

OF I N D I A N S . — D I S C O V E R Y

A CAPTIVE S P A N I A R D . — I D O L A T R Y OF T H E N A T I V E S . — F I R S T
TO I N T R O D U C E T H E

CHRISTIAN

FAITH.—GERONIMO

DE

OF

ATTEMPT

AGUILAR.—

CORTES LEAVES T H E COAST OF YUCATAN.

THE absence of Grijalva for a longer period than had
been anticipated, combined with the recollection of the
ill-success which had attended the expedition of Cordova,
began to cause considerable anxiety to Diego Velasquez
after the lapse of a few months from the departure of
the former, and he determined upon sending a vessel in
search of him. He therefore fitted out a caravel, under
Cristoval de Olid, with instructions to obtain intelligence of Grijalva, and afford him assistance if necessary1. But Olid did not accomplish his mission: he pro1
G-omara: Cronica de la JSTueva
Espana, con la Conquista de Mex-

ico, etc; cap. vii. Y. Appendix A.
(Folio: Qaragoca, 1554.)

A. D. 1518.]

A THIRD EXPEDITION PROJECTED.

17

ceeded no further than the coast of Yucatan, where he
encountered such severe weather that he returned direct to Cuba.
Soon after his departure, Pedro de Alvarado arrived
at Santiago in the vessel which Grijalva had despatched
from San Juan de Ulloa, and great was the satisfaction
which Velasquez experienced at the news of the discoveries made by his nephew, and at the consignment of
the objects for which he had traded. But this satisfaction was considerably alloyed by the intelligence that
Grijalva had neglected one of the chief purposes of his
voyage, that of founding a colony in the newly discovered
country, without which he could not hope for any permanent advantage to accrue either to himself or to the
King his master.
The Governor of Cuba had positive evidence before
him of the wealth of the land which Grijalva had reached,
but he felt that, even if his nephew were on the spot, he
was not the man to whom the command of such an expedition as he now meditated could with safety be entrusted. He doubted Grijalva's prudence and ability,
and occupied himself to find one who should unite all
the requisites for leading a third and more important
enterprise. His thoughts first turned to Vasco Porcallo,
a captain of great renown and a relation of the Conde
de Peria1, but he was apprehensive that Porcallo, who
is described as being of a " daring spirit," would, when
once at sea, speedily emancipate himself from all control
and act independently, thus depriving him of the chief
credit of the undertaking and perhaps of all its profit, to
which latter consideration Velasquez was by no means
indifferent. He would not therefore propose the expe1

Bernal Diaz, cap. xix. p. 43,
C

18

SELECTION OF CORTES TO THE COMMAND,

[CHAP. II.

dition to Porcallo, but offered it to Baltasar Bermudez, a
man of an extremely haughty disposition, who " proposed
such unreasonable terms that Velasquez sent him away
with hard words 1 ." The Governor of Cuba was consequently more favourably disposed to listen to the recommendation of two persons who had great influence
over him: these were Andreas de Duero, his secretary,
and Amador de Lares, the royal treasurer, and they persuaded him to bestow the command on one who had
already given proof of his being well qualified to head
an expedition, the conduct of which demanded sagacity
and courage.
This man was Hernando Cortes. Of his previous history it is unnecessary to say more than that he was a native of Medellin in Old Spain, and descended both by
his father and mother from two ancient and noble families in Estremadura; that he had served in his youth
in Italy under the great Captain Gonsalvo de Cordova,
had subsequently sought his fortune in St. Domingo, the
Governor of which island was Don Nicolas de Obando,
his relation; had achieved distinction there as well by
the affability of his manners as by his military abilities;
and, passing from thence to Cuba, had obtained employment under Diego Velasquez, who gave him an office of
consideration2.
His pretensions to the command of the proposed expedition were so strongly urged by his two friends,
who, Bernal Diaz tells us, had a personal interest in the
matter 3 , that Velasquez made no difficulty in granting
1
2

Herrera.
De Solis, in his ' Histoire de
la Conquete de Mexique' (torn. i. p.
53, edition de Paris, 1714), says,
" Le Gouverneur lui donna un departement d'Indiens et la charge

de Juge Eoyal de la ville de St.
Jacques." Herrera and Bernal
Diaz both gave him the title of
Alcalde; the latter calls him "Alcalde of Santiago de Boroco."
3
"The above-mentioned confi-

A.D. 1518.]

PREPARATIONS FOR THE NEW EXPEDITION.

19

their request, though he was influenced by other considerations than those which arose merely from the fitness
and ability of Cortes for the office. The Governor of
Cuba was avaricious, and cared not to venture too much
money on his own account1. Cortes, on the other hand,
was of a liberal and generous nature, and when it was
proposed to him by Velasquez to share in the expedition2 he gave a ready assent, his chief care being to raise
the necessary means, for men, he knew, would not be
wanting. Velasquez and Cortes accordingly concerted
together, and despatched Juan de Sancedo, who had returned with Alvarado, to obtain a license from the Hieronymite Friars, who administered the government in St.
Domingo, for an expedition to trade and colonize, and
also to search for Grijalva, the command of which, as
Captain-General, was to be conferred on Hernando Cortes3.
The Hieronymites granted the permission required, stipulating only that a royal treasurer and overseer should
be appointed, and the fifth part of the profits reserved,
as was the custom, for the King.
In the meantime, while the answer was expected from
St. Domingo, Cortes began to make preparations for the
dants of Diego Velasquez did all
in their power to obtain the appointment of Commander-in-chief
for Cortes; who, on the other hand,
had promised to share equally with
them all the profits arising from
the gold, silver, and jewels which
during this expedition should fall
to 1 share."—Bernal Diaz.
his
" Tenia poco estomago para
gastar: siedo codicioso." — Gomara.
2
" Que armassen ambos a medias."—Ibid.
3
The preceding Governor of St.
Domingo (or Hispaniola), of which
Cuba was a dependency, was M-

colas de Obando, who was nominated successor to Francisco de
BobadiUa in 1502, and held office'
for seven years, during which period he made several conquests for
the Crown of Spain, including the
province of Honduras. He was
recalled to Spain on the usual
ground of " accusations," ^and had
a vexatious lawsuit for several
years, to recover his revenues and
re-establish the rights of his office
as Grand Admiral. It was then
that Cardinal Cisneres, Archbishop
of Toledo, sent oufthe Hieronymite Friars.

c 2

20

THE INSTRUCTIONS OF VELASQUEZ.

[CHAP. II.

voyage. He acquainted his friends with the nature of
the compact into which he had entered with Velasquez,
and no sooner was it generally known than three hundred
of the most enterprising spirits in the island flocked to
his standard. Neither was money wanting: the Governor supplied him with a certain proportion, about twofifths of the whole sum required1, and the merchants of
Santiago advanced the rest, with which Cortes armed,
provisioned, and fully equipped his fleet, and so speedily
that only five days elapsed between the date of his appointment and the period of his being ready for sea.
It now only remained that the agreement between Velasquez and Cortes, as trading partners, should be publicly
attested, and this, says Gomara, took place on the 23rd
of October, 1518, before the Iloyal Notary Alonso de
Escalante2. The " Instructions" which the Governor of
Cuba gave to Cortes bear also the same date; and here
arises a singular discrepancy between the alleged period
of Grijalva's return to Cuba, and the fact itself, as it
appears on the face of the document3. The " Instruction," after reciting the fact of Grijalva's mission, goes
on to say, "As many days have passed since, reasonably,
news of him might have been looked for, from which it
is presumed, since such news up to this day is not known,
1
This is stated in the "Declaracion" made by Francisco de
Montejo at Coruna, on the 29th of
April, 1520.
2
" Capitularon ambos lo que
cada uno havia de hazer : ante :
Alonso de Escalante, escrivano publico, y real: a veynte y tres dias
de Otubre, del ano de deziocho."—
Gomara.
3
" Instruccion que dio el Capitan Diego Yelasquez, en la isla
Fernandina, en 23 de Octobre de
1518, al capitan Hernando Cortes,

a quien con una armada enviaba
al socorro de la que llevo Juan de
Grijalva vicino de la Isla de la Trinidad," etc.
It is taken, says Navarrete, from
the original in the archives of Seville, " entre los papeles enviados
del de Simancas, legajo 5° de los
rotulados de Eelaciones y Descripciones." It was moreover sworn
to by Diego Yelasquez himself at
Santiago, " on Thursday, October
13th, 1519, before the Alcalde Diego de Duero."

A. D. 1518.]

GRIJALVA'S RETURN.

21

that he must either be in some (distant) place or (standing) in extreme necessity of succour 1 /' etc. It then
recapitulates the nature of Grijalva's discoveries, which
Velasquez had learnt from Alvarado, and after alluding
to certain Christians, supposed to be captives in Yucatan,
proceeds to instruct Cortes in the course he is to take.
After the enumeration of various duties, the fifteenth
paragraph again adverts to the search after Grijalva,
supposing him to be still in the island of Vera Cruz 2 ;
and other paragraphs of the "Instructions 35 point out
the steps to be taken when Grijalva's vessel is found.
Now it is impossible to suppose, from the formality
with which this document is worded, and the date it
bears, that Velasquez could have been aware at the time
it was issued that Grijalva had already returned to Cuba.
Yet some of the leading Spanish historians concur in
stating that such was the case, and ascribe the motives
which subsequently influenced the conduct of Velasquez
towards Cortes to a knowledge of the fact.
Oviedo, who is the most particular, and who was
himself in Cuba in 1B23, states3 that Grijalva on his
return from Mexico made the island of Cuba on the
29th of September, 1518, sighting that part of it which
1

" Como lia muclios dias que de
razon habia de haber sabido nueva
del, de que se presume, pues tal
nueva del hasta hoy no se sabe, que
debe se tener 6 estar en alguna 6
extrema necesidad de socorro."
2
" Item: Llegado que a la dicha
isla Santa Cruz seais y por todas
las otras tierras donde fuereis, trabajareis por todas las vias que pudieredes de inquerir e saber alguna
nueva del armada que Juan de
Grijalva llevo, porque podria ser
que el dicho Juan de Grijalva se
oviesevuelto a esta isla, e tuviesen

ellos della nueva e lo supiesen de
cierto, 6 que estoviese en alguna
parte 6 puerto de la dicha isla, e
asimismo por la dicha orden trabajareis de saber nueva de la carabela que llevo a cargo Cristoval
Dolid, que fue en seguimiento del
dicho Juan de Grijalva, sabreis si
allego a la dicha isla, e si saben
que derrota llevo, 6 si tienen 6 sepan alguna nueva de a donde esta
e como."
3
Historia General y Natural de
las Indias, lib. xvii. cap. 18. (Madrid, 1851.)
c*

22

GKIJALVA'S RETURN.

[CHAP. II.

is called Marien, and on the following day reached the
harbour of Carenas (the Havana), where he landed accompanied by a few men, to endeavour to ascertain if
Alvarado had arrived, a fact of which he became assured
by certain inhabitants of the town of St. Cristoval.
Grijalva, Oviedo says, remained on shore that night, and
after accounting for the interval that took place, lands
him again on the 4th of October at the port of Xaruco;
on the 5th he places him in the port of Chipiona, and
on the 8th in that of Matanzas, where, he adds, Grijalva
fell in with Cristoval de Olid, who had been sent in
search of him. Oviedo finally asserts that Grijalva and
his " three vessels, together with that of Cristoval de
Olid," sailed for Santiago " on the night of Friday, the
22nd of October, 1518 V' had very adverse weather, and
thus was delayed " some days" before he reached that
port.
These dates are very precise, and would be tolerably
conclusive were it not for the remark w^hich Oviedo
makes, that, "when Diego Velasquez determined upon
sending out Hernando Cortes lately, with another armada, he had received no news of Grijalva nor of the
caravel in which Olid had been sent to look for him 2 ."
Respecting the period of Grijalva's return, Bernal Diaz
says that, " immediately after it took place, Diego Velasquez issued orders for the fitting out of a more considerable armament than the foregoing3." But this statement is too general to outweigh documentary evidence
of any kind, to say nothing of the formal character of the
1
2

Appendix B.
" Es de saber que quando
Diego Yelasquez se determino de
enviar a Hernando Cortes con otra
armada, no se sabia nueva alguna

de Grijalva ni de la caravela que
avia enviada Chripstobal de Olid
a le buscar."
3
Bernal Diaz, cap. xix. p. 42.

A. D. 1518.]

DOUBTS OF VELASQUEZ.

23

"Instruction." Gomara too, who is usually held to be
the best authority on all that relates to Cortes, assigns
no particular date, but says simply that " Grijalva returned at this season1;" though in another place he is
somewhat more specific, his words being, " He was absent five months until he returned to the same island
(Cuba), and eight (months) from the time he left Santiago and returned to that city2."
The natural conclusion from these statements appears
to be that Grijalva returned to Cuba towards the latter
part of the year 1518, but that his return was not known
to Velasquez till after the "Instruccion" had been delivered to Cortes. It was not the presence of Grijalva3
that was necessary to make Velasquez repent the eagerness with which he had entered into the contract with
Cortes, for doubts of his fidelity had already been instilled into the mind of the Governor by the enemies of
the future conqueror of Mexico, who did their utmost to
obtain from Velasquez the revocation of the commission
he had given, asking him " how he could be guilty of so
great a mistake as to trust Cortes in an enterprise of
such consequence, wherein his honour and his fortune
were so deeply concerned; declaring that it was certain
that Cortes would revolt with the fleet, being so subtle
and crafty as he was4." These representations appear
1
By an error of punctuation from his uncle when he announced
the French translator of Gomara, his return to Santiago. "And when
M. Fumee, Sieur de Marly le he arrived," says Gomara, "Diego
Chastel, gives the " 23rd of Octo- "Velasquez would not see him,
ber " as the period. Vide Appen- which was his punishment," (" Y
dk C.
*
quando llego, no lo quiso ver Diego
2
" Tardo cinco meses desde que Velasquez, que fue su mereseido.")
salio hasta que torno a la mesma —All the authorities state the
isla (Cuba), y ocho desde que salio same thing. The harshness of
de Santiago hasta que bolvio a la Velasquez arose from Grijalva's
ciudad."
neglect of his orders to colonize
3
This is apparent from the re- the newly-found countries,
4
ception which Grijalva met with
Herrera: History,vol.ii.p. 149.

24

DEPARTURE OF CORTES FROM SANTIAGO.

' [CHAP. II.

to have had weight with Velasquez, who "resolved to
put him out of that employment1," but Cortes, obtaining information of his intention, hurried forward every
preparation, and before Velasquez could take any step
for his. recall he received the intimation that Cortes was
already on board and about to sail2. The Governor
hastened then to bid him farewell, and the reply which
the future governor of Mexico made, when told by Velasquez that it was an odd way of taking his leave of
him, is highly characteristic of the man. " Pray, Sir/'
said Cortes, " excuse me, for things of this nature are to
be put in execution before they are thought of3."
The Governor and Captain-General parted however
on terms of apparent cordiality, and on the 18th of
November, 1518, Cortes sailed out of the harbour of
Santiago, on the memorable expedition which has given
him a world-wide fame.
But the hasty manner in which his fleet had been
manned and equipped, did not permit him to proceed at
once in the direction of the newly-discovered country:
1
2

Herrera: History, vol.ii. p. 149. pedition on the Governor's own
There can be no doubt, how- terms. These motives were quite
ever, that this feeling on the part sufficient with Yelasquez to induce
of Velasquez was strengthened him to try to get Cortes to relinafter he knew of Grijalva's return. quish the enterprise, and he emGomara says: " Y uvo con su veni- ployed agents to urge him to that
da mudanga en Diego Yelasquez:" effect: but Cortes held steadily to
" There was on his arrival a change his purpose, " declaring," says Goin Diego Yelasquez." It was mara, "that he would not depart
known by Grijalva's report that from his contract with the Goverwealth abounded on the newly- nor. If," he said, " Diego Velasfound shores of Mexico, and the quez wishes to send another, let
cupidity of Yelasquez made him him do so. I, for my part, have
desirous of obtaining better con- the license of the Father Goverditions from some other comman- nors." And he straightway reder than had been agreed upon newed those exertions which enwith Cortes. Balthasar Bermudez abled him to get his army speedily
too had begun to repent his first from Santiago.
3
extravagant demands, and would
Herrera: History, vol. ii. p.
willingly have undertaken the ex- 150,

A. D. 1518.]

TREACHEROUS CONDUCT OF VELASQUEZ.

25

it was necessary that he should obtain further supplies
of ammunition, provisions, and men,—and he knew of
many cavaliers of distinction who were urgent to join
him, before he finally put to sea. The first port therefore at which he touched was the city of Trinidad, in
the bay of that name, to the westward of Santiago; and,
landing here, he again proclaimed the objects of the
expedition, and received numerous reinforcements, including a hundred of Grijalva's men, together with Pedro de Alvarado and Alfonso de Avila, who had been
captains under that commander, and several others of
note; but while staying at Trinidad, two couriers arrived
overland from Santiago, bearing letters from Diego Velasquez to those in his confidence, and an order to Francisco Verdugo, the cousin of the former, and the Royal
Judge of the city, to dispossess Cortes from his command. The Captain-General was soon made aware of
this intended movement, and exerted himself so successfully amongst his men, as to make them unanimous for
his retention; and the representations which he made
to Verdugo were of so much effect, that the latter soon
saw, not only how ungenerous, but how impolitic it
would be to attempt to enforce the Governor's order,—but added letters of his own, to those which Cortes
addressed to Velasquez, expressive of his astonishment
at the resolution he had taken, "particularly as he
(Cortes) had no other design than to serve God, his
Majesty the King, and the Governor1." But this was
not the only effort made by Velasquez to remove Cortes,
for on the arrival of the latter at the Havana, where
he was obliged to touch, in order to take on board the
horses and further supplies which he required for the
1

Bernal Diaz, vol. i. p. 50.

26

CORTES SAILS FROM THE HAVANA.

[CHAP. II.

expedition, he found that an order to arrest him, more
imperative than that sent to Verdugo, had been transmitted to Pedro Barba, the Sub-Governor there. The
fact was communicated to him by the bearer of the despatches himself, one Gerovia; and Cortes, as he had
done before at Trinidad, took such eflPectual means of
strengthening himself,—winning over to his side all the
commanders whose friendship had been doubtful,—that
Pedro de Barba was also compelled to write back to the
Governor that he durst not take Cortes into custody,
as he was too powerful, and too much beloved by the
soldiers; and that he feared that, if he made the attempt,
the town would be plundered, and the whole of the
inhabitants forcibly dragged away. "Por the rest," says
Bernal Diaz, " h e could assure Diego Velasquez that
Cortes was quite devoted to him, and did nothing that
could be said to militate against his interests. Cortes
himself also wrote a letter, couched in those smooth
terms he so -very well knew how to employ, assuring
Velasquez of the unabated friendship he entertained for
him, and that he was going to set sail the next day."
"With this epigrammatic intimation the correspondence ended, and, free from all further hindrances, Cortes
issued his sailing-orders, and, under the protection of
St. Peter, the patron of the expedition, left the port of
the Havana, with nine vessels, on the 19th of February,
15191, and proceeded to Cape Sant' Antonio, where he
was joined by two more vessels, and a muster was made
of his whole force. " There were," says Herrera2, " five
hundred and eight soldiers, one hundred and ten masters
and mariners, sixteen horses and mares, thirty-two crossbowmen, thirteen musketeers, ten pieces of brass can1

De Solis, torn. i. p. 75.

2

History, cap. ii. p. 164.

A. D. 1519. j

HIS FLEET DISPERSED BY A STORM.

27

non, and four falconets, with sufficient store of powder
and ball. He appointed Francisco de Orosco, a man of
valour, who had served in Italy, Captain of the Artillery,
and Antonio de Alaminos, chief pilot; he distributed
the men into eleven companies, under the Captains
Alonso Hernandez Puertocarrero, Alonso de Avila, Diego
de Ordas, Francisco de Montejo (afterwards the first
Viceroy of Yucatan), Francisco de Morla, Francisco de
Sancedo, Juan de Escalante, Juan Velasquez de Leon,
Cristoval de Olid, and Pedro de Alvarado,—reserving
another for himself; and each captain embarked on
board a several ship, to command both by sea and land."
The burden of the Admiral's ship was a hundred tons;
three others were eighty tons each; and the remainder
were brigantines, and small vessels without decks. His
standard was of black taffeta, with a red cross on it
amidst white and blueflames,with this motto, in Latin,
" Amici, crucem sequamur, et in hoc signo vincemus."
The muster made, Cortes harangued the troops in a
speech which " raised great alacrity amongst his companions, who admired his discretion, and were confirmed
in the opinion conceived of his great capacity, concluding that his valour would secure their success. On the
other hand, he was highly pleased to find his men in so
good a disposition, and from that time began to issue
out his commands with gravity and modesty, so that he
. fully executed the office of a Commander-in-chief1."
The fleet then made sail to the westward, the island
of Cozumel having been appointed for the place of rendezvous. On the first night a violent storm dispersed
all the vessels, and that under the command of Pedro de
Alvarado arrived two days before the rest. Alvarado
1

Herrera.

28

ARRIVAL AT C0ZUMEL.

[CHAP. II.

landed with some of his men, but, finding the village of
Cozumel deserted, proceeded to another village a few
miles inland, the inhabitants of which had likewise fled,
without however being able to carry off all their property, and, such things as there were, the Spaniards took
possession of. " Out of a temple near at hand/' says
Bernal Diaz, who was one of Alvarado's party, " we took
several cotton mats, and a few small boxes containing a
species of diadem, small idols, corals, with all manners
of trinkets, made of an inferior sort of gold. We also
took two Indians, and a female, prisoners; after which
we returned to the village near which we had landed."
When Cortes arrived, he was very much displeased at
what Alvarado had done, telling him it was not the way
to gain the love of the inhabitants, by robbing them of
their property; and, having the prisoners brought before
him, he told them, through his interpreter, Melchior
(who, with another Indian, had been captured at Catoche by Grijalva), to return to their cacique, for they had
nothing to fear from the Spaniards; he moreover presented to them fifty hawk-bells, some glass beads, and
two shirts. The result of this policy, which Cortes
acted upon on all occasions, was to inspire the inhabitants
with perfect confidence, and henceforward they visited
his camp without the slightest fear.
With his mind full of the attractions of the more
distant land, the prosecution of further discovery on the
eastern shores of Yucatan was not the object of Cortes;
but there were circumstances that occurred during his
stay at Cozumel, which it may not be out of place to
speak of, as they tend to illustrate the character of the
inhabitants, and have besides an interest special to the
expedition of the great adventurer.

A. D. 1519.]

DISCOVERY OF A CAPTIVE SPANIARD.

29

In an interview with some of the caciques, expressions
were used by them which confirmed Cortes in the impression that certain of his countrymen were prisoners
on the continent not far from Cozumel; and this belief
was further strengthened when the Indians told him
that they had themselves seen "bearded men" like the
Spaniards, who lived two days' march inland and were
slaves to one of the caciques of that part of the country.
The first impulse of Cortes was to procure their liberation, and for this purpose he wrote a letter to his unknown
countrymen, which he prevailed upon two Indians to
undertake to deliver. In this letter he stated that, having heard of their detention, he had sent an armed ship
with ransom-money, to wait for them for eight days off
Cape Catoche, and bring them to Cozumel, where he
was then with his expedition, intending, " with the aid
of the Almighty and their assistance, to proceed to a
place called Tabasco, or Pontonchon." The "assistance"
which he expected from the prisoners was of course the
benefit to be derived from their acting as interpreters
in his further progress. That the letter might not be
discovered, as the messengers were naked, " it was hid
under the hair of one of them, which they wore long,
platted, and wound about their head 1 ," and, gratified
by some small presents, the Indians departed on their
errand, being conveyed to Cape Catoche by Diego de
Ordas, who was instructed to wait for the captives.
Two days after they had landed, the messengers succeeded in discovering one of the Spaniards, to whom
they gave the letter and the ransom-money, and the
overjoyed prisoner obtained his freedom without difficulty ; the admiration of his master being greatly raised
1

Herrera.

30

IDOLATRY OF THE NATIVES.

[CHAP. II.

at the fact that persons at a distance should understand
one another through the medium of written communication. But this Spaniard, whose name it was afterwards
learnt was Geronimo de Aguilar, had a companion in captivity, named Gonsalo Guerrero, though it appears by
the sequel he was a voluntary prisoner, for, when Aguilar
made known to him the proposal of Cortes, he stated
the reasons which made him prefer to remain where he
was. These were, that he had married one of the women of the country, by whom he had three children,
that when war took place with any of the neighbouring
tribes he was as good as a cacique or chief, and that, his
face having been disfigured and his ears pierced, he was
ashamed to show himself to his countrymen. Guerrero's
wife also protested, and reproached Aguilar with endeavouring to take her husband from her; so that all his
arguments and entreaties failed, and he was left to return alone.
Meantime the patience of Diego de Ordas failed. He
had waited one or two days beyond the time prescribed,
and then, finding that no one appeared, returned to
Cozumel, where he was very unfavourably received by
Cortes, who told him " with great vehemence, he expected
he would have fulfilled his commission better than to
return without the Spaniards, and even without bringing them any information respecting them, although well
aware that they were staying in that country 1 /'
Another subject had also occupied Cortes during the
absence of Ordas. It appears that the island of Cozumel was reputed a holy place, and contained many considerable temples, to which the Indians went on pilgrimage from several parts of the continent to sacrifice to
1

Bernal Diaz : Herrera.

X.D. 1519.] FIRST ATTEMPT TO INTRODUCE CHRISTIANITY.

31

their gods, and their idolatry moved the religious zeal of
Cortes to bring them to a knowledge of " the true faith/'
The account which Bernal Diaz has given of this attempt
on his part is very characteristic.
"One morning we perceived that the place where
these horrible images stood was crowded with Indians
and their wives. They burnt a species of resin, which
very much resembled our incense, and as such a sight
was so novel to us, we paid particular attention to all
that went forward. Upon this, an old man, who had a
wide cloak, and was a priest, mounted on the very top
of the temple and began preaching something to the
Indians. We were all very curious to know what the
purport of this sermon was, and Cortes desired Melchorijo (Melchior) to interpret it to him. Finding that
all he had been saying tended to ungodliness, Cortes
ordered the caziques, with the principal men amongst
them and the priests, into his presence, giving them to
understand as well as he could by means of our interpreter, that if they were desirous of becoming our
brethren they must give up sacrificing to their idols,
which were no gods, but evil beings, by which they were
led into error and their souls sent to hell. He then presented them with the image of the Virgin Mary and a
cross, which he desired them to put up instead. These
would procure a blessing to them at all times, make their
seeds grow, and preserve their souls from eternal perdition. This, and many other things respecting our holy
religion, Cortes explained to them in a very excellent
manner. The caziques and priests answered that their
forefathers had prayed to their idols before them, because
they were good gods, and that they were determined to
follow their example, adding, that we should experience

32

CORTES LEAVES THE COAST OF YUCATAN.

[CHAP. II.

what power they possessed: as soon as we had left them
we should certainly all of us go to the bottom of the
sea. Cortes however took very little heed of thdr
threats, but commanded the idols to be pulled down and
broken to pieces, which was accordingly done without
any further ceremony. He then ordered a great quantity of lime to be collected, which is here in abundance,
and with the assistance of the Indian masons, a very
pretty altar was constructed, on which we placed the
image of the Holy Virgin. At the same time two of
our carpenters, Alonso Yanez and Alvaro Lopez, made a
cross of new wood which lay at hand, and this was set
up in a kind of chapel which we built behind the altar.
After all this was completed, Father Juan Diaz said mass
in front of the new altar, the caziques and priests looking on with the greatest attention 1 ."
Having thus endeavoured to make the Roman Catholic
religion known, Cortes became desirous of prosecuting
his further voyage, and the return of Urdas without the
expected interpreter having deprived him of all hope of
being joined by him, he charged the Indians to keep
the altar clean and decent, to decorate it with green
boughs, and moreover to pray to the Virgin and to the
Holy Cross, assuring them that they would derive great
benefit from doing so. The Indians promised compliance
with all his wishes, presented him with some fowls and
jars of honey, and then took leave in the most friendly
manner.
Cortes soon afterwards embarked, but he had hardly
got out to sea before it was discovered that the ship of
Juan de Escalante, which was laden with cassava-bread,
had sprung a leak, and, in fear of sinking, had put about
1

Bernal Diaz, cap. xxvii. p. 61.

A. D. 1519.]

GER0NIM0 BE AGTJILAR.

33

for the harbour they had just quitted. He accordingly
signalled the return of the whole fleet to Cozumel, which
was done, and the ship was ordered to be unloaded for
the necessary repairs. Their return having soon been
discovered by the Indians, the caciques and priests again
made their appearance, and, learning the reason why the
Spaniards had put back, readily lent the assistance of
their canoes to unload the damaged vessel. But what
pleased Cortes even more than this friendly disposition
was the discovery that, after his departure, the Indians
had obeyed his instructions with regard to the altar,
which they had kept clean and decorated as he desired,
and had placed incense before it. The refitting of Escalante's ship occupied four days, and during its progress
word was brought to Cortes that a canoe was in sight,
approaching the island from the direction of Cape Catoche. After closely observing it, Cortes directed Andreas de Tapia to take a few men with him, and go as
much under the shelter of the land as he could, and
endeavour to take the canoe, which was making for the
shore behind a point of land. The canoe contained
several men, who appeared to be Indians, and as soon
as they had landed, Tapia went towards the shore, sword
in hand, but at the same time calling out to them not to
be afraid. Three of the party however took flight and
would have returned to the canoe, but the fourth exclaimed in Spanish, " Soy Cristiano, hidalgos," by which
they guessed that he was their countryman whom Cortes
had been so desirous to rescue. This man proved, in
fact, to be Geronimo de Aguilar, and one of Tapia's men
immediately ran off to inform Cortes of the circumstance,
the Spaniard meantime giving vent to his satisfaction by
broken exclamations of "Dios!" "Santissima Maria! 0
B

34

GERONIMO DE AGUILAK

[CHAP. II.

and " Sevilla!" which still further reassured his captors.
The intimation of Aguilar's arrival was very joyfully received by Gortes and all the expedition, and it was not
long before Tapia himself approached with the newcomer, whom Bernal Diaz calls "the strange-looking
Spaniard."
" As they passed by us/' he says, " many of our men
still kept inquiring of Tapia which among them was the
Spaniard, although he was walking at his very side, so
much did his countenance resemble that of an Indian.
His complexion was naturally of a brownish cast, added
to which his hair had been shorn like that of an Indian
slave. He carried a paddle across his shoulder, had one
of his legs covered with an old tattered stocking, the
other, which was not much better, being tied around his
waist. An old ragged cloak hung over his shoulders •
his maltatas were in a much worse condition. His
prayer-book, which was very much torn, he had placed
in the corner of his cloak. When Cortes beheld the
man in this attire, he, as all the rest of us had done,
asked Tapia where the Spaniard was. When Geronimo
heard this, he cowered down after the Indian fashion,
and said, ' I am he!' Upon this Cortes gave him a
shirt, a coat, a pair of trowsers, a cap, and shoes, from
out of our stores. He then desired him to give us an
account of the adventures of his life, and explain how
he had got into this country 1 ."
1
Bernal Diaz, cap. xxix. p. 64.
Herrera's account offers this variety:—" The new-comer and his
Indian companions paid the greatest respect, and crouched down
upon their knees, laying their bows
and arrows on the ground at their
right hands; then having moistened their right hands with spittle,

they touched the ground, and
stroked their breasts next the
heart, that being the greatest respect they paid to their princes,
to denote that they humbled themselves in their presence to the
ground they trod on. Cortes
being informed that this was the
form of salutation, he again bid

A. D. 1519.]

GER0NIM0 DE AGUILAR.

35

The history of this man's adventures was a singular
one. His name, he said, was Geronimo de Aguilar, and
he was a native of Ecija, about forty miles from Seville, and was related to the Licentiate Mark de Aguilar, whom Cortes knew, and that, previously to leaving
Spain, he had taken deacon's orders. Being at Darien
about eight years previously, during the disputes between Vasco Nunez de Balboa and Diego de Nicuessa,
he had joined Valdivia, who was bound for the island of
St. Domingo, to make a report to the Admiral there of
the proceedings in Darien, and carry a sum of twenty
thousand ducats for the royal treasury. On approaching
Jamaica the caravel in which they were was wrecked on
the shoals called the Caymanes, or alligators1. Aguilar
and twenty more got into the long-boat in the hopes of
making either the coast of Jamaica or of Cuba, but,
being without sail, the currents carried them in an opposite direction, and, after enduring great hardships, during
which seven of their number died from want of water
and provisions, they were drifted to the coast of a province called Maya, where, as soon as they landed, they
fell into the hands of a cruel cacique, who sacrificed
Valdivia and four others, offering them up to his idols
and then eating them. The same fate would have befallen Aguilar and the rest of his companions, but they
were not fat enough for killing2, and they were penned
up in coops till they got into condition. The destined
Aguilar welcome, and taking off a
long yellow robe, trimmed with
crimson* he had then on, with his
own hands put it upon him, desiring he would rise off his hams,
and sit on a chair, asking his name.' *
—History, vol. ii. p. 171.
1
De Solis says "TheAlacranes,"
but as this shoal lies to the north

of Yucatan in the Gulf of Mexico,
it is more probable that Aguilar
was wrecked on the Great Cayman, which lies to the north-west
of Jamaica and nearly south from
Trinidad in Cuba.
2
This is a pendant to Sinbad's
case on his fourth voyage,
D 2

36

GERONIMO DE AGUILAR.

[CHAP, II.

victims contrived however to effect their escape, and fled
across the mountains, succeeding at last in reaching the
dominions of a cacique who had no cannibal propensities, but treated them with humanity, that is to say,
not taking their lives, and merely making them slaves.
Of the seven who thus escaped five shortly died, leaving
only Geronimo de Aguilar and another Spaniard named
Gonsalo Guerrero, the same who was his companion
when the letter of Cortes was sent. Guerrero, he added,
was made a slave by the Cacique of Chetumal, named
Mackcmcam, who, on account of the service he rendered
him in war, became much attached to him and gave him
for his wife " a prime lady of that country, by whom he
had children1/' on which account he was unwilling to
come away with him. Questioned by Cortes concerning
the country and its inhabitants, Aguilar said he was
not able to give him much information about either, as
he had been treated like a slave, and chiefly employed
in fetching wood and water, and working in the maize
plantations2. It was only upon one occasion that he
was sent on some business to a distance of about twelve
miles from his village, but, owing to a heavy burden
he had to carry and the weakness of his body, he had
not even been able to reach so far, but he had heard
that the country was thinly populated. Guerrero, he
continued, had in every respect adopted the Indian customs, having had his cheeks tattooed, his ears pierced,
and his lips turned down. "He was a sailor by profession, native of Palos, and was considered by the Indians to be a man of great strength. It might have
been about a year before that a squadron, consisting of
three vessels, had touched at the promontory of Catoche
1

Herrera, History, vol. ii. p. 173.

2

Bernal Diaz, c. xxix. p. 65.

A. D. 1519.]

CORTES LEAVES THE OOAST OF YUCATAN.

37

(probably the expedition under Hernandez de Cordova),
when Guerrero advised the inhabitants to commence
hostilities1."
The account which he gave of himself greatly satisfied
Cortes, who was well pleased to have thus secured another
interpreter; and having now nothing further to detain
him at Cozumel, he gave orders for the fleet to sail, and
on the 4th of March, 1519, the expedition departed for
the river Grijalva. They had some rough weather in
rounding the Punta de las Mugeres, and boats were sent
on shore at two or three different points, but Cortes
himself appears not to have landed again on the coast of
Yucutan.
1
Bernal Diaz, ibid. Herrera
adds some curious particulars respecting the temptations offered to
Aguilar to break his vow of celi-

bacy, which however he strenuously resisted, refusing constantly
to follow the example of Guerrero.
—History, vol. ii. pp. 173, 174.

38

CHAPTER III.
EXPEDITION

OP

CRISTOVAL

DE O L I D . — H I S

AEMAMENT OF LAS CASAS.—LAS
OLID

TAKES

MARCH

TO

POSSESSION

OF

NACO.—RESOLUTION

HONDURAS.—PREPARATIONS

MENT

OE

SCENE

BETWEEN

THE

ARMY.—DEPARTURE
CORTES AND

THE

EOR

OE

CORTES

MAP

XICALANGO.—ADVANCE

UPON

DIFFICULTIES

MARCH.—ARRIVAL

THE

THE

OE

CORTES

TO

MARCH.—EQUIPFROM

MEXICO.—

EACTOR SALAZAR.—ARRIVAL

T H E ARMY AT GUACASUALCO.—INDIAN

OF

INSUBORDINATION.—-THE

CASAS MADE P R I S O N E R BY O L I D . —

OE T H E

ROUTE

OE

EROM

T U P I L C O . — T H E B R I D G E S OE C O R T E S . —
OF CORTES AT I Z T A P A . —

P R I V A T I O N S OF T H E A R M Y . — A P P R O A C H TO T H E MAYA COUNTRY.

the period when Cortes departed from the river
Grijalva, or Tabasco, to prosecute his designs on Mexico,
until the year 1524,—an interval of more than five years,
—the province of Yucatan remained unnoticed by the
Spaniards.
The desire for conquest and the impulse of discovery
tended constantly towards the south, as much in the
expectation of finding the supposed passage between the
Atlantic and the Pacific, as on the immediate reward
which was derived from the occupation of the rich and
fertile countries that bordered the latter ocean.
The fame of Cortes and the terror inspired by the exploits of his troops had wrought their effects in Soconusco, Chiapa, and Guatemala, and the inhabitants of
those countries were eager at first to cultivate the good
FROM

A. D. 1523.]

EXPEDITION OF CRISTOVAL DE OLID.

39

graces of the conqueror, but their submission proved but
short-lived. To reduce them to obedience, a force was
sent, at the close of the year 1523, under Pedro de Alvarado, who penetrated beyond the limits of Guatemala,
and during the expedition founded the city of that name,
which he dedicated to Santiago1.
In the previous year Nicaragua had been reached by
Gil Gonzales de Avila, proceeding from the eastern coast
of Costa Rica; and in April, 1523, an expedition was
despatched from Vera Cruz by Cortes, the command of
which was given to Cristoval de Olid, with instructions
to examine the coast of Hibueras, or Honduras, and endeavour to find that passage to the Spice Islands, which
was still the fixed idea of all the Spanish discoverers.
But Cristoval de Olid was unfaithful to his trust, and,
having made common cause with Diego Velasquez and
others who were opposed to Cortes, revolted from his
authority, and, founding a town on the northern coast of
Honduras, to which he gave the name of Triunfo de la
Cruz, set up on his own account. As soon as Cortes
became aware of this act of insubordination, he took instant measures for repressing it, and fitted out an armament of five vessels and a hundred men, which he placed
under the orders of Francisco de las Casas, who received
full powers to seize Olid, and put him in chains. Las
Casas met with a determined resistance off the coast;
his vessels were wrecked by a strong " norther 2 ," thirty
of his men were drowned, and he himself, with the remainder of his force, was made prisoner by Olid; nor
were the troops released until they had taken a solemn
oath never to desert him, but to oppose Cortes if he
1

2
Herrera: History, vol. iii. p.
Tlie local name for a northerly
338.
- gale.

40

OLID TAKES POSSESSION OF NACO.

[CHAP, HI,

should come with an army against him1. As for Las
Casas, he kept him a prisoner-at-war.
But Olid did not confine himself to acting merely on
the defensive. Distrustful of all who acknowledged the
authority of Cortes, he turned his arms against Gil Gonzales de Avila, who, on his return from the Lake of Nicaragua, had established the town of San Gil de Buena
Vista, near Cape Three Points1, a little to the eastward
of the Gulf of Dulce. Olid was again victorious, making
De Avila his prisoner also, and then marched into the
interior of the country, where he discovered the vale of
Naco, and took possession of the town bearing that name.
What befell him afterwards will be adverted to when
the termination is described of that extraordinary march
which Cortes himself undertook for the re-establishment
of his authority on the coast of Honduras.
Receiving no tidings of the expedition under Francisco
de las Casas, though several months had elapsed since
his departure, Cortes came to the resolution of proceeding in person to the scene of Olid's revolt, and, with the
courage and promptitude which so eminently characterized him, determined upon striking a blow in a manner
the most unexpected. "The more he thought," says
Bernal Diaz, " of the many dangers to which vessels were
exposed, and the various changes of good and bad fortune which are inseparable from an expedition of this
nature, the more he regretted, notwithstanding the confidence be placed in Las Casas, that he had not gone in
person at the head of the armament." But a circuitous
route was little suited either to the object he had in view
or to his own daring nature, and Cortes at once decided
on the most direct course, an expedition by land, heedless
1

Bernal Diaz.

2

Ibid.j cap. clxxiii. p. 230.

A. D. 1523.] CORTES PREPARES TO MARCH TO HONDURAS.

41

of the perils which might attend the march of an army
across a vast and unknown territory, peopled by races
upon whose friendship it was impossible to reckon even
if he had not to fear their hostility. But Cortes knew
his mission. The extension of the power of his master
the Emperor, and, simultaneously with that, the extension
of the Roman Catholic faith, were objects he never lost
sight of; and these, if not the main purpose, were at all
events incidental to his project. Calmly therefore, and
cheerfully, he set about his preparations. Amongst the
many difficulties he had to contend with, the settlement
of the government of Mexico on a secure basis during
his absence was not amongst the least. The persons on
whom he placed the greatest confidence were Alonso
de Estrada, the Treasurer, and the Licentiate Alonso de
Zuazo1, to whom he confided his authority, associating
with them Eoderigo de Albornoz, the Accountant. The
selection of the latter is much condemned by Bernal Diaz,
who observes, "How he could make choice of him is
quite beyond my speculation; but he certainly would
not have done so had he been aware of the infamous
manner in which Albornoz had slandered him to the
Emperor;" and the event showed that Bernal Diaz had
good reason for making this objection. The military
defences of Mexico Cortes prepared himself, establishing
them on the most ample footing; and the care of all religious matters he entrusted to the Franciscan Friar Toribio Motolinia and Father Olmedo, enjoining them to'
act in harmony, and assist each other in the conversion
of the Indians and the maintenance of peace and order
throughout the provinces, as well as in the city itself.
1
Cortes calls him Alonso de
Ayaco (vide Quinta Carta), but

Bernal Diaz and Herrera give the
name as in the text.

42

EQUIPMENT OF THE ARMY OF CORTES.

[CHAP. HI.

" In order, however, to deprive the discontented of the
Indian population in the city and in the provinces of all
possibility of choosing any leader of distinction, should
they take it into their heads to rise up in arms during
his absence, he took along with him Quauhtemoctzin
(Guatemozin), besides the King of Tlacupa, and several
others of the most distinguished caziques of the country,
among whom the chief of Tapieznela held the first rank,
and even despatched a message to the caziques of Mechoacan, desiring them also to join his army 1 /'
That army consisted of a hundred and fifty Spanish
cavalry, an equal number of infantry, four pieces of artillery, and a force of three thousand Indians. His staff
of officers was numerous and brilliant, including many
of those who had served with most distinction in Mexico;
and in his suite were pages and officers of his household,
equerries, grooms, mule-drivers, falconers, musicians, and
even a buffoon and a juggler. The entertainment of
this motley retinue has been animadverted upon, as
showing " more of the effeminacy of the Oriental satrap,
than the hardy valour of a Spanish cavalier2." But to
one who, like Cortes, never spared himself any toil or
refrained from sharing any privation, the justice may be
done of supposing that there was to the full as much
policy in the display as indulgence in luxurious habits.
It was calculated to leave on the minds of the people
of Mexico the impression that he went forth secure in
the success of his expedition; and the barbarous tribes
through whose country he was to pass were not likely to
esteem his power the less, on beholding the proofs of
superior magnificence and civilization. For the religious
wants of his army, and the propagation of the true
1

Bernal Diaz.

2

Prescott: Conquest of Mexico, book vii. cap. 3.

A.D. 1524.]

DEPARTURE OF CORTES.

43

faith amongst the Indians, he chose Father Juan de las
Varillas, of Salamanca, and two Flemish monks, "who
were professed theologians, and preached a good deal 1 ;"
a surgeon and a physician were attached to the expedition ; and the celebrated Dona Marina, who had been
given to Cortes with a number of other women, by the
caciques of Tabasco, before he left the river Grijalva
for Mexico, acted, as she had long done in Mexico, as
interpreter 2 ; he was also accompanied as far as Guacasualco by the Royal Factor, Gonzalo de Salazar, and the
Overseer Peralvides Chirinos3. To obtain supplies of
fresh meat on his march, Cortes took with him a large
herd of swine, sows as well as pigs, " these animals being
very suitable for a long journey, on account of their endurance of fatigue, and because they multiply greatly 4 ."
Thus provided and accompanied, Cortes set out from
Mexico on the 12th of October, 1524, and Bernal Diaz,
who served with the expedition, tells us that the splendour with which he was received in every township he
came to, and the festivities which took place in his honour, were really astonishing. Dividing his army into
two bodies, each of which took a separate route, he directed his march upon Guacasualco, or Espiritu Santo 5 ;
and on the way received a reinforcement of fifty men,
who had but recently arrived from Spain, "all lighthearted, extravagant fellows6."
Bernal Diaz gives an amusing description of the obsequiousness of the Factor Salazar, " who, whenever he
1
2

Bernal Diaz, vol. ii. p. 234.
See Bernal Diaz, cap. xxxvii.,
for a curious account of Dona Marina; "whom," Cortes says, "he
always took with him."—Quinta
Carta, sect. xxv.

3
In the Quinta Carta he^is
called Thirino. 4
G-omara.
5
Quinta Carta, sect. ii.
6
Bernal Diaz.

44

SCENE BETWEEN CORTES AND SALAZAR.

[CHAP. in.

addressed Cortes, bowed himself almost double, with his
head uncovered/' using every effort at the same time
to induce him to forego his purpose of marching to Honduras ; and he describes him as frequently singing the
following couplet, as he rode by the side of Cortes :—
" Ay, tio, bolvamonos !
Ay, tio, bolvamonos!"

-

•

Then Cortes would laugh at him, and reply singing:—
" Adelante, mi sobrino ! Adelante, mi sobrino!
Y no creais in agiieros, que sera lo que Dios quisiere.
Adelante, mi sobrino!"

The Factor's desire for Cortes to return to Mexico
arose from the jealousy he entertained of those who had
been left in the exercise of authority; but finding that
Cortes was firm of purpose, and not to be deterred from
his object, he directed all his endeavours to induce Cortes
to confer a share of the power on himself and the Overseer Chirinos. Bernal Diaz says that the persuasions of
these two men succeeded in this respect; but Cortes, in
his celebrated letter to the Emperor, accounts for the
course he adopted on more solid and better grounds.
While on the road to Guacasualco he received information that " between the Treasurer and the Accountant
there was not that harmony which was necessary" for
what concerned their offices and the charge he had given
them; and he, wrote to them, strongly reproving their
dissensions, and warning them that if they did not agree,
he would adopt such measures as would not please
them. This threat he carried into execution after reaching Guacasualco, where he learnt that the disputes between his delegates had increased to such a degree, that
the partisans of Estrada and Albornoz had even armed

A.D. 1524.] ARRIVAL OF THE ARMY AT GUACASUALCO.

45

themselves against each other. The course he took was
to grant the Factor and Overseer an equal share in the
administration of the government of Mexico, with the
additional authority to suspend the Treasurer and Accountant from their charge if they thought it necessary;
and believing that, by this division of power, he had
ensured the tranquillity of the country he was leaving
behind—though it turned out the very reverse—he directed all his thoughts to the immediate object of the
expedition.
His first step in the prosecution of that object, on
arriving at Guacasualco, was to despatch messengers to
the caciques of Tabasco and Xicalango, desiring them to
come and speak to him, or send trustworthy persons
with whom he could confer on the nature of the country
which he was about to traverse. " I spoke with them,"
he says, " of many things, on which I wished to be informed, concerning the country: they told me that on
the sea-coast of the other side of the country, which
they call Yucatan, was the bay called the Bay of the
^Assumption1; that there were certain Spaniards there,
and that they did them much injury, as, besides burning many of their settlements, and killing some of their
people,—for which reason many settlements had been
deserted, and the inhabitants had fled from them to the
mountains,—the merchants and dealers suffered another
and still greater loss, because by reason of them had been
lost the whole trade of that coast, which was considerable : and they gave me an account, as eye-witnesses, of
almost all the towns on the coast, till you come to where
1
The "Bay of Assumption,"
here mentioned, can scarcely mean
the " Bay of Ascension," properly
so called, at Chetumal; Dut the

Indians may readily have confounded the latter with the Bay of
Honduras, generally,

46

INDIAN MAP OF THE ROUTE FROM XICALANGO. [CHAP. HI.

Pedrarias de Avila1, his Majesty's Governor, was; and
they made me a sketch on cloth of all that coast, from
which it appeared to me that I could proceed along a
great part of it, particularly to the place where they informed me the Spaniards were 2 ."
Respecting the routes which were traced on these
cloth maps, we have other particulars, given by Bernal
Diaz and Gomara.
The former, speaking of the subsequent arrival of
Cortes at Iztapa, says:—" Here Cortes also made the
most minute inquiries of the caziques and Indian merchants, as to the route we were to take ; for which purpose he laid before them a piece of nequen cloth he had
brought with him from Guacagualco, and on which
were noted down all the townships we had to pass
through up to Huyacala. This place was termed by
these Indians, Great Acala, in order to distinguish it
from another, called Little Acala; and they assured us
that the greater part of our route lay through a country
of numerous rivers, and was intersected in various places
by arms of the sea. Up to Tamaztebec alone, they said,
which lay at a distance of three days' journey, we
should have to pass no less than three rivers, and one
estuary which was exceedingly broad 3 ."
Gomara says that the cacique of Xicalango sent
Cortes ten of the most notable persons of that city,
"who, after having learnt his intentions, drew upon a
cotton cloth the whole route from Xicalango, as far as
Naco and Nito, and even to Nicaragua, which is situated
on the South Sea. It was a fine thing to see; for on this
1
Pedro Arias de Avila, the Governor, first of Darien, and afterwards of Panama.

2
3

Carta Qitinta, sect. ii.
Bernal Diaz, vol. ii. p. 241.

A. D. 1524.]

APVANCE UPON TUPILCO.

47

cloth were painted all the streams, rivers, towns, and
inns, at which the merchants of the countries lodged on
their way to the fairs. These Indians were expert in
painting, which painting serves instead of writing. Thus,
when they wished to give an idea to any one of the
movements of an army in their country, Indian or Spaniard, they figured in particular tissues the situation of
the place, the men whom they had seen, and everything
else, such as vessels, cannons, horses, dogs, and other
objects1."
The encouraging accounts which he received (though
they were far from being afterwards verified), and the indications thus afforded him, strengthened Cortes in the
resolution he had taken to pursue his march; and after
despatching a part of his force by sea to Tabasco, from
whence he expected to obtain provisions and other
things necessary, he commenced his journey, keeping in
the first instance as near the coast as the marshy nature
of the country would permit him. He first crossed the
river Tunalan, at the town of that name2, and another
stream which he calls Yaguabulco3, the men being ferried
in canoes, and the horses swum over; but on reaching
a third river, or rather estuary, on the western stream of
which stands the modern town of Tupilco, it was found
necessary to construct the first of those bridges which
were such striking evidences of the energy and ability
of Cortes, and which, Bernal Diaz observes, were so remarkable that, " subsequently, when all these provinces
were subjected to the Spanish Crown, our countrymen
1
G-omara: Histoire Generate
des Indes Occidentales, traduite
par le Sieur de Genille, Mart.
Fumee, cap. 66.
2
The modern " Tonala." See

Bailey's map of Central America,
published by Saunders, Charing
Cross, 1850.
3
Probably the river that falls
into Santa Ana Lagoon.

48

THE BRIDGES OF CORTES.

[CHAP, in:

regarded them in astonishment, and exclaimed, These are
the bridges of Cortes! in the same way as people say,
These are the columns of Hercules1!' Cortes himself
remarks that this bridge " was 934 paces long, which
was a wonderful thing to see/' It was well for his army
that Cortes was a practical engineer, for, though it was
in the dry season, the province of Cupilcon (Tupilco)
was so intersected by streams and marshes, that before
he had traversed it,—and the distance was not more
than twenty leagues,—he was obliged to construct no
less than five hundred bridges2. Arrived at the frontier
town of this province, Cortes pursued his route amidst
increasing difficulties, till he came to " a very mighty
river, called the Quecalapa, which is one of the tributaries that run into that of Tabasco 3 ;" ajid here he despatched messengers to the caciques of Tabasco, requesting that the supplies of provisions which he expected at'
that place, might be forwarded to him in canoes. After
some little delay these supplies arrived, together with the
Spaniards whom he had sent from Guacasualco, and two
hundred Indians, by whose assistance the river was
crossed, "without suffering any loss but the drowning
of a black slave, and two loads of horse-shoes, which
afterwards occasioned us some inconvenience4."
But the obstructions offered by natural impediments
were not the only difficulties with which Cortes had to
contend, for the further he proceeded, the more limited
became the means of procuring good quarters and fresh
provisions for his troops. Influenced by fear, and by
the representations of these caciques, who viewed the
1
2
3

Bernal Diaz, vol. ii. p. 260.
Carta Quinta, sect. v.
The modern name of the town
at which Cortes arrived is Taco-

talpa, on the great river Tabasquillo.
4
Carta Quinta, sect. vii.

A.D. 1524.]

DIFFICULTIES OF THE MARCH.

49

expedition with jealousy, the Indians fled from their
towns as he approached, carrying off everything portable
or useful, and leaving nothing but burning ruins behind
them; so that the distress which the army endured began already to be very great, and welcome indeed were
even the patches of green maize which, here and there,
had been left undestroyed.
From the "mighty river," of which Cortes had spoken,
his course lay onward to Istapan (Istapa); but, uncertain of the right track, he sent forward a detachment
of his men, under the guidance of an Indian whom
he had captured, with instructions to write him an account of their journey, if they succeeded in reaching
that place. From his own narrative we derive a very
clear idea of the hardships that attended his march.
" After two days had passed," he says, " without receiving any letter from, or hearing any news of them, I
was obliged to set out, on account of the distress we
were in, and to follow their track without any other
guide; which however was a tolerably distinguishable
path. I followed the track which they had left through
the marshes; and I assure Your Majesty that, between
the highest ridges1, the horses sank to the girths, though
no one rode upon them, but they were led by the right
hand. In this manner I proceeded for two days on the
said track, without hearing any news of the people who
had gone on before, and in great perplexity what to do,
because to return seemed impossible, and of what lay
before me I had no certain knowledge; but it pleased
our Lord, who is wont to succour us in the greatest
necessity, that when we were lodged in a field and the
people were very sad, thinking that we all seemed to be
1

Sic in MS.
E

50

ARRIVAL OP CORTES AT ITZAPA.

[CHAP. in.

then without help, the Indian inhabitants of this city of
Temixtitan (Mexico), whom I brought with me, arrived
with a letter, which the Spaniards whom I had sent on
had written to me, in which they informed me that they
had arrived at the village of Itzapan, and that, when
they arrived there, the inhabitants kept their farms and
women on the other side of a great river which ran close
to the said village; and that in the said village there
were many men, who at first believed that our people
could not pass a great lake which was near; but that
when they saw how they swam with their horses across
the lake, the Indians began to set fire to the village, but
the Spaniards made such haste that they did not allow
them to burn any of it; and that the whole people took
to the river, aiid crossed it in several canoes which they
had, though many were drowned in their haste, and
seven or eight of them were taken prisoners, amongst
whom was one who appeared to be their chief, and him
they detained till my arrival. So great was the joy that
all my people felt from this letter, that I cannot express
it to Your Majesty, since, as I have mentioned before,
they despaired almost of help; and the next day I pursued my journey by the track, and the Indians who had
brought me the letter, guiding me, I arrived late at
the village, where I found all the people who had gone
before very joyful, because they had discovered much
maize and yuca (cassava), and ages, a production on
which the natives of the islands feed, and which is pretty
good. On my arrival I caused to be brought before me
the inhabitants who had been captured, and asked them,
through the interpreter whom I brought, the reason
why they thus burned all their own houses and villages,
and deserted them, seeing that I had done no harm

A. p. 1524.]

PRIVATIONS OF THE ARMY.

51

or injury to any of them, but, on the contrary, gave
of what I had to those who staid for me; and they
replied, that the Cacique of Cuagatan had come there
in a canoe, and induced them to burn and desert their
dwellings1."
By the assurances which Cortes gave of his pacific
intentions he succeeded, in a great degree, in calming
the apprehensions of the Indians, though the promises
which they made him could never be implicitly relied on,
neither could absolute reliance be placed on the information they supplied. This was shown on the road to
Tamuztupec, to reach which place the caciques had volunteered the construction of bridges and a supply of
canoes; " but/' says Bernal Diaz, " our Indian friends
deceived us in every way." The account which he gives
of the toils and privations of the expedition at this part
of their journey is worth extracting.
" W e were therefore compelled to set to work ourselves, to construct bridges sufficiently strong to carry
our horses; even officers and soldiers set diligently to
work in felling the heavy trees, and dragging them to
the river-side, in all of which we were greatly assisted
by the Mexican warriors. Three days were spent in the
Construction of this bridge, during which time we had
nothing to subsist upon but grass, and a wild root
called by the Indians quecucuque, which burnt our lips
and tongues. After having with great difficulty safely
crossed this broad estuary2, our further progress was impeded by an almost impenetrable barrier of thickets and
woods, through which we were obliged to cut a road,
with our swords. In this way we continued to move
1
2

Carta Quinta, sect. x.
This word is inapplicable so

far inland; a lake perhaps is
meant.

E 2

52

PRIVATIONS OF THE ARMY.

[CHAP, TIL

forward in a straight line, in the hopes of reaching some
township. One morning, as usual, when we had again
commenced marching forward in this laborious manner,
Cortes himself began to find that our position was truly
miserable. He could not help hearing how the men
murmured against him and cursed the whole expedition, and witnessing the terrible hunger they sustained;
uttering aloud that he ought immediately to march back
to Mexico, if at least he was not desirous of starving us
to death. To all this suffering was added, that we saw
nothing before us but terrific mountains1, which almost
hid the very heavens from our view. Though some of
us climbed to the very tops of the highest trees, all we
could see was one huge pile of mountains frowning
above the other on every side. Besides this, two of our
Indian guides had secretly decamped, and the third was
so ill that he was unable to move along, and had so far
lost his recollection that he could give us no information
as to which way we were to bend our steps. But as
Cortes was a man who never shrank back from any difficulty, and whose active mind was never at a loss, he
ordered the pilot, Pedro Lopez, to bring him the compass, which he placed on our map of nequen cloth
above mentioned, and then desired him to point out the
direction we were to take, in order to reach the nearest
township. In accordance with Lopez's instructions, we
commenced cutting our way through the woods in an
easterly direction, and moved up the mountains 2 /' It
was at this period that Cortes' buffoon and three soldiers, who had recently arrived from Spain, died from
exhaustion. The privations of the men were, doubtless,
1
Probably the range which divides the valley of the Usumasinta
2
from Chiapa.
Bernal Diaz, vol. ii. p. 242.

A.D. 1524.]

APPROACH TO THE MAYA COUNTRY.

53

very great, but it is impossible to avoid smiling at the
following quaint description of the old Conquistador.
" Our distress was so great that even the performers
on the saekbut, clarion, and dulcimer, who were constantly to have amused us with their instruments, the
only hard work they had to do, fell ill for want of food,
and so an end was put to their music. There was only
one of them who managed to force out a tune now and
then, but we all grew so sick of his blowing and puffing
that we told him it sounded in our ears like the mingled
howls of foxes and wolves, and that a handful of maize
to stay the cravings of hunger would be more acceptable
than all his music."
The places which both Cortes and Bernal Diaz name
between Istapan and the country of the Maya Indians,
which the expedition was now approaching, are not to be
found on any known map 1 ; but at the town or village
which the former calls Tatahuitalpan, the " deep river"
on which it stood was in all likelihood the Usumasinta,
of whose course, till it falls into the Mexican Gulf, Cortes
took advantage to communicate with the vessels that
were waiting at Tabasco for final instructions. He says,
" I sent three Spaniards down this river to the river of
Tabasco, because this is the principal stream which flows
into it, where the caravels were to wait to be informed
what was to be done; and by these Spaniards I sent
orders to the caravels, to proceed along the whole coast
till they doubled the point called Yucatan, and arrived
at Ascension Bay, because there they would find me, or
I would send them orders what to do; and I commanded
the Spaniards, who went in these canoes, to bring me in
1
See note on this subject in Prescott's account of the March of
Cortes, Book vii. cap. 3.

54

APPROACH TO THE MAYA COUNTRY.

[CHAP. in.

these and other canoes as much provisions as they could
find in Tabasco and Xicalango, up a great lake which
goes from the province of Acalan, and is forty leagues
distant from Yztapan, and that I would wait for them
there."
But before we accompany Cortes into Mayapan, the
intermediate country between Guatemala and Yucatan,
it may be desirable to speak of the nation of the Itzaex,
and the various tribes of Indians who then inhabited it.

55

CHAPTER IV.
TEADITION OF T H E I T Z A E X . — T H E I E EOMANTIC H I S T O E Y .

PEOPHESIED

AEEIVAL OF T H E S P A N I A E D S . — D O U B T F U L A U T H O E I T Y P O E T H E P E O PHECIES.
TION

OP

PUETHEE
THE

D I F F I C U L T I E S OF

AEMY.—THE

CONSTEUCTED.—DECEIT
TITACAL.—INTEEVIEW

TEOOPS

OP A P O S P A L A N . — I N D I A N
OP COETES

EACY OF GrUATEMOZIN.—THE PLOT
EXECUTION

OF

COETES E E A C H E S

COETES.—DANGEEOUS
MUEMUE.—ANOTHEE

WITH

GrUATEMOZIN. — S I M P L I C I T Y
MAZATLAN.—THE

PASS

IDOLS B E O K E N AT

APOSPALAN.—THE

EEVEALED

OF

POSIBEIDGE

CONSPI-

BY M E X I C A L C I N C O . —

OF

THE

MEXICANS.—

ALABASTEE.—AEEIVAL

AT T H E L A K E OF ITZA.

THE people amongst whom the fortunes of Cortes and
his army were now to be hazarded, consisted of a number of independent Indian tribes, bearing many different
designations.
Of these the most important was the nation of the
Itzaex, who, according to their own traditions, had emigrated from the northern part of Yucatan about a hundred years before the, discovery of that province by the
Spaniards. Two causes are assigned for this emigration,
one of them savouring of the romance of old Spain, the
other bearing the impress of her religion; but implicit
belief can attach to neither.
The romantic account of the retreat of the Itzaex is
as follows.
The form of government of Yucatan (anciently called

56

ROMANTIC HISTORY OF THE ITZAEX.

[CHAP. vr.

Maya or Mayapan) was originally monarchical, the chief
authority being vested in one sole and absolute King 1 .
But, in the course of time, the ambition of the more
powerful vassals led to the disruption of this kingdom,
and it became divided into various petty states, a nominal allegiance being all that was paid to the former
ruler with the comparatively small province ot Mani.
Amongst these independent chiefs was one called
Canek, who was enamoured of the bride of another
cacique, and, having no other means of preventing the
marriage, seized upon her by force on the wedding-day,
and bore her off in triumph. The Indian Menelaus,
determined on punishing the abductor and recovering
his bride, for this purpose assembled his warriors; and
his preparations being as formidable as his power was
great, the dread of his vengeance induced Canek to fly
before it, and, abandoning his own territory of ChichenItza, he took refuge with his people in the rugged and
impenetrable mountain districts that formed the intermediate country between Yucatan and Guatemala, and
there established the nation of the Itzaex2.
This story Villagutierre doubts, preferring the version
which identified the Exodus of the Itzaex with a religious motive3. His statement is that, about the period
already referred to, the idolatrous priests of ChichenItza prophesied the arrival of the Spaniards in their
country, counselling that they should be welcomed as
guests and as the teachers of a purer faith, but that the
Itzalanos received these warnings in bad part, and preferred immediate emigration to threatened conversion.
1
Cogolludo: Historia de Yucathan, Conquista de el Itza, lib. ii.
cap. 1. (Madrid, 1701.)

2
. 3 Cogolludo, lib. ix. c. 14.
Villagutierre, lib. i. cap. vL
p. 34.

A. D. 1525.]

PROPHESIED ARRIVAL OP THE SPANIARDS.

57

The operation of a cause like this is not more probable than that resulting from the adventure of Canek,
but the account is worth dwelling upon at greater length,
owing to the form in which it has been produced.
Villagutierre, who supports his assertion by the authority of Herrera, Remesal, Torquemada, Solozano, and
others, enters very minutely into the subject. He says :
" One of these heathen priests was Patzin Yaxun, and
these were the words of his prophecy. ' The word of
God has been announced upon earth: wait for it, for it
will come, his priests will bring it to you. Take heed
to their words and their divine preaching: blessed shall
they be who receive it! O Itzalans ! abhor your gods,
forget them, for they will come to an end: let all adore
the God of truth, for he is all-powerful, for he is the
Creator of all things.5 Thus spoke this idolater to his
nation, and it would seem impossible that he could more
clearly announce to them the spiritual change of that
kingdom and of their rites and priesthood, persuading
them to wait for the true law and to receive it, detesting
the adoration of gods who he told them were perishable,
a thing totally repugnant to the being of a true God.
The high-priest Nahau Tec went still further than Patzin
Yaxun, and fixed the time, saying, ' When, by the mercy
of the Omnipotent, the sun shall shine the brightest,
four ages hence will come they who are to bring you the
tidings of God. I earnestly enjoin you, 0 Itzalanos!
to wait upon your guests when they come, for they are
the fathers of the land.' . . . . With a very opposite
feeling did the old idolatrous priest Ahkukil-Chal look
upon the conversion of these infidels: thus ran his prophecy : ' You who look at things to come, what think
you will happen at the end of the present age ? Know

58

PROPHESIED ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS,

[CHAP. IV.

that from all parts of the north and east such things
will come for our woe : that you may think they are before your eyes I tell you, that in the ninth age no priest
or prophet will declare to you the Scripture which you
are generally ignorant of/"
Villagutierre's reasoning on the meaning of these
alleged prophecies may be passed over, to give the last
of the series, which he considers more precise than the
rest.
" Chilan-Balam, High Priest of Tixcacayon Cabick,
in Mani, prophesied the coming of the Spaniards to
those countries more fully than the others, saying: c At
the end of the thirteenth age, when Itza is at the height
of its power, as also the city called Tancah, which is
between Yacman and Tichaquillo (now called Ichpaa,
which means castle and fortress), the signal of God will
appear on the heights; and the Cross, with which the
world was enlightened, will be manifested. There will
be variance of men's will in future times, when this signal shall be brought. Ye priests, before coming even
a quarter of a league, ye shall see the Cross, which will
appear and lighten up the sky from pole to pole. The
worship of vain gods shall cease. Your father comes,
O Itzalanos ! Your brother comes, 0 Tantunites ! Receive your barbarous bearded guests from the East, who
bring the signal of the God who comes to us in mercy
and pity. The time of our life is coming. You have
nothing to fear from the world. Thou art the living
God, who created us in mercy. The words of God are
good: let us lift up his signal, to see it and adore it:
we must raise the Cross in opposition to the falsehood
we now see. Before the first tree {arbol) of the world
now is a manifestation made to the world: this is the

A.D. 1525.]

FURTHER DIFFICULTIES OF CORTES.

59

signal of a God on high: adore this, ye people of Itza!
let us adore it with uprightness of heart. Let us adore
him who is our God, the true God: receive the word of
the true God, for he who speaks to you comes from
heaven. Ponder this well, and be the men of Itza.
They who believe shall have light in the age which is to
come. I, your teacher and master, Balam, warn and
charge you to look at the importance of my words.
Thus have I finished what the true God commanded me
to say, that the world might hear it. 5 "
With no desire to discredit the announcement of this
impending conversion, few, we imagine, can read the
terms in which it is conveyed without some suspicion as
to their origin; and whether a vague intimation of coming change had been given or not, the scriptural character
of the language employed must at least indicate that the
priests of Itza were not unassisted in their prophetic
warnings, more particularly when we find that Father
Bartolomeo de Fuensalida, a Franciscan monk, " who,
years afterwards, went to various parts of this country 1 ,"
tells exactly the same story.
Such, from whatever source derived, were the alleged
traditions of the Itzaex, who, in the intercourse which
took place between Cortes and themselves, appear to have
manifested no repugnance to the reception of that faith
whose propagation was a material part of his mission.
But before he arrived at the more civilized part of the
country, where friendly communications were exchanged,
Cortes had greater difficulties to encounter than any he
had yet met with. Forests were traversed, where the
density of the foliage was such that the Spaniards could
scarcely see where to set their feet, and the only means
1

Villagutierre, p. 38,

60

DANGEROUS POSITION OF THE ARMY.

[CHAP. IV.

of extrication from these labyrinths was the mariner's
compass, which Cortes was ever anxiously consulting to
keep in his course towards the east. At length, when,
as Prescott says, " the troops emerged from these dismal
forests, their path was crossed by a river of great depth,
and far wider than any they had hitherto traversed."
If this obstruction were really a river, it was most probably the Usumasinta; but Cortes himself describes it
as a lake, after speaking of a river, the passage of which
had given him considerable trouble; and we are disposed
to think that the great difficulty occurred after the Usumasinta had been left behind.
" After crossing this river," continues Cortes, " I sent
on a company of foot-soldiers with the guides, to make
the road, and I came after them with the rest of the
people, and, having proceeded for three days by some
very steep mountains along a very narrow path, I came
upon a great lake more than five hundred paces in
breadth, and tried to find a passage at the bottom and
at the head of it, but could not do so, and the guides
told me it was in vain to look for it, and that there remained five days' journey to the mountains 1 ."
How to overcome this obstacle was the question:
there were no canoes, and the extremities of the lake
were impassable, owing to the deep swamps and entangled roots of trees, "so that," says Cortes, "unless by
flying, it was useless to think of getting the horses
across." To return was equally impossible, on account
of the many torrents, the labour of reconstructing bridges,
the exhaustion of the men, and the want of provisions.
In this extremity however a small canoe was found, and
by means of it Cortes caused the whole of the lake to be
1

Carta Quinta.

A.D. 1525.]

THE TROOPS OF CORTES MURMUR.

61

sounded, tying lances together for the purpose. In this
manner he ascertained that, besides the depth of water,
which was four fathoms, there were two fathoms more
of mud, so that his only resource was to build another
bridge, a stupendous undertaking, which however he did
not shrink from.
" I ordered them to divide the wood according to their
measures, which were nine or ten fathoms, together with
that which was to be out of the water, and I requested
the Indian caciques immediately to cut and carry it,
according to the number of people each had brought
with him. The Spaniards, and I with them, then began
to prepare the rafts, with the assistance of the small
canoe, and of two others which we afterwards found;
and such was the nature of the work thus commenced
that it seemed to us a thing impossible to finish, and the
men even said so behind my back, murmuring at me,
and declaring that it would be better to turn back, before
they became tired or were prevented returning by hunger,
and because, after all, the work could not be finished,
and we should have to return perforce. And these murmurs spread through all the people in such a manner
that they almost dared to utter them to my face; and
when I saw them so dispirited (and, in truth, not without
reason, for it seemed impossible to finish our task, and
they were disheartened and inactive, as they had nothing
now to eat but the roots of plants), I commanded the
Spaniards not to have anything to do with the bridge,
for that I could make it with the Indians; and I immediately called the caciques together, and showed them
the strait we were in, and how necessary it was to pass
the lake or perish there of hunger1.3'
4

Quinta Carta, sect. xvi.

62

ANOTHER BRIDGE CONSTRUCTED.

[CHAP. IV.

To stimulate the exertions of the Indians, Cortes spoke
of the abundance of the great province of Acalan, on the
opposite side of the lake, and of the rewards which he
should bestow upon them, and in the Emperor's name, on
their return to Mexico. His eloquence and his example
prevailed. They promised, one and all, to labour even
to death, and set to work with so much energy that the
bridge was completed in four days, "and the men and
horses crossed safely over it. But even then the passage
was not effected, for beyond the lake was a great marsh
" fully two bow-shots, broad, and the most terrible thing
the people ever saw, in which all the horses sank, even
when unsaddled, up to the ears, so that no other part of
them appeared, and when they endeavoured to get out
they sank still deeper, so that we altogether lost hope of
saving a single horse; but for all that we tried, placing
bundles of grass and large branches beneath them, on
which they might support themselves without sinking,
and thus they were somewhat relieved." Eventually a
narrow passage was made through the marsh, and the
horses were got through without loss, though "when
they came out they were so tired that they could scarcely
keep their feet1.5'
These difficulties surmounted,—and their magnitude
can scarcely be calculated,—the exertions of Cortes were
rewarded by the re-appearance of the Spaniards who
had been sent into Acalan. In their company came eighty
Indians 2 laden with fowls, fruit, and maize-bread, and
the bearers also of a friendly message from Apospalan,
the Cacique of Acalan. This greeting was renewed a
few days afterwards at a town where Cortes halted,
called by him Ticatepel, where the son of Apospalan
1

Quinta Carta, sect. xvii.

2

Herrera. Cortes says eight hundred.

A.D. 1525.]

INDIAN IDOLS BROKEN.

63

made his appearance with a present of provisions and
some gold, announcing at the same time the death of his
father. This statement Cortes rightly supposed to be
untrue, but he " pretended to be much grieved" at the
news, and gave him a necklace of Flemish beads which
he wore round his neck; the young cacique received it
with much thankfulness, and staid with Cortes for two
clays of his own accord1.
Cortes had not advanced much further, before he was
given to understand, what he had previously suspected,
that Apospalan was still alive; but before he obtained an
interview with that cacique, a circumstance occurred in
a town called Fentiacas2, or Ticatal3, which affords an illustration of the religious observances of the Itzaex. The
town contained some beautiful temples,—of the same
kind, no doubt, as the splendid remains at Palenque,—
and in two of these, where the Spaniards were lodged,
a number of idols were broken to pieces by the visitors,
which gave occasion to Cortes to exhort the Indians,
through his interpreter Marina, to abandon their false
gods and accept the true faith. All the accounts concur
in stating that the Indians adhered to their religion with
no very great fervour, but were quite'willing to listen to
a creed which prohibited the shedding of blood, for such
was that of the Itzaex.
" I learnt," says Cortes, " that the principal temple in
which we lodged, was dedicated to a goddess in whom
they placed great faith and. trust, and to whom they
sacrificed none but virgins, who must be very beautiful ••;
and if they were not so, the goddess was very angry with
them, and for this reason they always took care to look
for such, with whom their goddess might be satisfied;
1

Quinta Carta, sect. xvii.

2

Ibid. sect, xviii.

3

Herrera.

64

INTERVIEW OF CORTES WITH APOSPALAN. [CHAP. IV.

and those whom they found when young, who were
beautiful, they brought up apart and kept for the purpose of this sacrifice1/'
After this occurrence Apospalan himself appeared,
and, excusing the subterfuge of his son, which he said
had its origin in fear of the Spaniards, gave Cortes a
hearty welcome to the city of Yzancanac, where he resided. The nature of his dignity is thus described by
Herrera 2 .
" I t was the custom in this Province of Acalan to
choose the wealthiest merchant for their lord, and such
was Apospalan, who drove a great trade in cotton, cacao, slaves, salt, and gold, but alloyed with copper and
other mixtures, as also in red snails they wrore as an
ornament, rosin, perfumes for the temples, hearts of
pine-trees to light them, colours and dyes to paint themselves in time of war and on festivals, and to defend
themselves against the heat and cold, besides other commodities ; and accordingly he had factors in several towns
where fairs were kept."
It was while halting in Yzancanac that the necessity
arose for that act, the commission of which by Cortes
has been the subject of so much censure : this was the
formal execution of Guatemozin, of the cacique of Tacuba, and of other Mexican chiefs whom Cortes had
brought with him on his march, for a conspiracy to murder him and all his followers. Of the nature of the conspiracy itself there appears to be little doubt 3 , the only
question being whether the extreme severity of Cortes
1
2

360.

Quinta Carta, sect, xviii.
General History, vol. iii. p.

3
Prescott however places no
faith in the story of the conspiracy, but expresses his belief that

Cortes was desirous to get rid of
Guatemozin, because he found him
" a troublesome and indeed formidable captive."—History of the
Conquest of Mexico, vol. iii. p.
255.

A.D. 1525.]

THE CONSPIRACY OF GUATEMOZIN.

65

can admit of justification. Bernal Diaz loudly condemns
his General; and Gomara, the chaplain, disapproves of
the act; but when it is considered that Cortes was in
the heart of a country whose inhabitants were far more
likely to sympathize with the Mexicans than with the
Spaniards, and that clemency on his part might have
been taken for irresolution, and thus have led to the destruction of the whole expedition, the plea of necessity
may fairly be offered as the excuse for his policy. The
painful circumstances under which it took place were
these.
Amongst the Mexican chiefs who swelled the train of
Cortes, was one named Mexicalcinco, to whom, in conjunction with others, it was proposed by Guatemozin
and the Cacique of Tacuba, who were in correspondence
with the disaffected that had been left behind, to take
advantage of the isolated position of Cortes and the exhausted condition of the Spaniards, and, after putting
them all to death, march back upon Mexico, and recover
both the capital and the kingdom.
According to the Mexican custom of symbolizing their
acts prospectively, as well as of the past, the conspirators
had pictured their designs on one of their painted cloths,
on which were represented not only the victims of the
intended massacre, but the principal actors in it. Mexicalcinco, who afterwards became a Christian, and was
baptized under the name of Christopher, either did not
share in the feelings of his countrymen, or held the
Spaniards in too much awe to attempt anything against
them; and, going one night very secretly to Cortes, revealed the whole of the plot1, showing him the hieroglyphical drawing, and explaining all the details as well
1

Quinta Carta, sect. xxi.
F

66

EXECUTION OF GUATEMOZIN.

[CHAP. IV.

as he was able. The danger was imminent, and Cortes
met it promptly, as was his custom. At daybreak on
the following morning he arrested all the Mexican chiefs
whom he had brought with him, and placing them apart
from each other, went and questioned each by himself,
giving every prisoner to understand that his fellow had
made some revelation; by which means he obtained a full
confession and confirmation of the meditated conspiracy,
the guilt of which was thrown however upon Guatemozin and the Cacique of Tacuba, who had originated the
plot, to which the rest said they had listened, but not
consented. The proceedings of Cortes were brief and
stern; " I immediately," he says, "ordered them (Guatemozin and the Cacique of Tacuba) to be hung, and
they were hung accordingly; and the rest I ordered to
be set at liberty, because it did not seem to me that
they were otherwise guilty than in having listened to it,
though that was sufficient to deserve death; but their
cases remained open, for each to see that he might yet
be punished; though," he adds, " I believe they are so
frightened (for they have never discovered from whom I
learnt the plot), that I do not think they will ever revolt
again1.55
The simple Mexicans—too simple for successful conspirators—had no idea that treachery had been at work
in their councils, but ascribed the discovery to magic,
by whose aid nothing was hidden, they thought, from
Cortes; and they rested their belief upon the fact, that
by means of his instruments, the chart and mariner's
compass, he had been able to conduct his army through
the untravelled wilds of Yucatan. So impressed indeed
were they with this notion, that, to convince Cortes they
1

Quinta Carta, sect. xxi.

A.D. 1525.]

CORTES REACHES MAZATLAN.

67

were well inclined towards him, and that he might learn
their good intentions, "they besought me earnestly to
look into the glass and the chart, and there we should
see their goodwill towards me, and," he quietly observes,
" I also induced them to suppose that this was the truth,
and that in that compass and chart I saw and knew
and could discover all things1.5'
Guatemozin and the Cacique of Tacuba met their
deaths with firmness and dignity, the courage of the
king never yielding before the extremity of torture that
he was made to suffer, " Gehenna" though it was, the
soles of his feet being rubbed with oil and placed before
a fire, " to induce him to confess his treason, and declare
where the treasure of Montezuma was concealed2." The
last words he uttered were addressed to Cortes; " I
knew what it was," he said, " to trust to your false promises, Malintzin; I knew that you had destined me to
this fate, since I did not fall by my own hand when you
entered my city of Tenochtitlan. Why do you slay me
so unjustly? God will demand it of you 3 ."
From Yzancanac, which was the capital of the province of Acalan, Cortes pursued his route across a level
but thickly wooded country, until he arrived at Mazatlan,
the chief town of the province of the same name. He
describes it as perched upon a lofty rock, and, besides
the natural defences formed by a deep river, which at
this point expanded to a lake surrounding the town,
very strongly fortified, after the manner of the country,
by formidable stockades. But there were no defenders,
nor even inhabitants, all having fled at the approach of
the Spaniards. They had however left quantities of
1
2

Quinta Carta, sect. xxi.
Gomara, cap. kix. p. 143. A.

3

Bernal Diaz.
F 2

68

THE PASS OF ALABASTER.

[CHAP. IT.

provisions behind, the discovery of which was a source
of great satisfaction to Cortes.
The province of Tayaco was next traversed, and after
the usual fashion, by sending out parties in front of the
main body to reconnoitre, capturing such stray Indians as
they might fall in with, and by their friendly assurances
disarming suspicion and obtaining guides. Deserts too
were passed, one of which, Cortes says, took him five
days to cross; the way was rough and infested with wild
beasts, and in one place, to which he gives the name of
" Puerto de Alabastro/5 the stony nature of the soil
greatly impeded his progress. But as he approached
the great lake of the Itzaex, the character of the country improved, and the deer became so numerous and
were so tame that the horsemen rode up to them and
speared them quite at ease. To account for their numbers and tameness, the Indian guides informed the
strangers that the animals were looked upon by the
people of that country as their gods, for their chief idol
had appeared to them in that form, and commanded
that the deer should not be frightened or killed. " In
that deer-hunt," relates Villagutierre, "the horse of a
cousin of Cortes, called Palacios Rubios, fell dead, and
another horse, belonging to Cortes himself, which he
prized exceedingly, was taken very ill; for with the running and spearing the deer, they sweated to exhaustion.
But the horse of Cortes did not then die. It would have
been better" he gravely continues, "if he had1."
It was now that Cortes, having advanced so far eastward, became anxious to learn if he were approaching
the coast, where he expected to meet with Cristoval de
Olid; and his inquiries of the Indians, if bearded men
1

Villagutierre, lib. i. cap. 7.

A.D. 1525.]

ARRIVAL AT THE LAKE OF ITZA.

69

like himself and his Spanish followers had been seen
by them, were frequent. At length he received replies
in the affirmative; but the position of his countrymen
was only very vaguely indicated, and seemed by the
words and gestures of those he questioned to be still
remote. But whether they were far or near, Cortes had
no choice: an onward course was all that remained to
him, and with the same patient and enduring spirit that
had sustained him throughout this perilous journey he
gradually drew near the Lake of Itza, and halted upon
its shores.

70

CHAPTER V.
D E S C R I P T I O N OF T H E LAKE OF I T Z A . — A C C O U N T G I V E N BY AN
CAPTIVE

OF

THE

CITY

OF

TAYASAL.—COURTEOUS

INDIAN

RECEPTION

BY

CORTES OF T H E ITZALAN C H I E F S . — I N T E R V I E W B E T W E E N CANEK AND
C O R T E S . — O F F E R OF CANEK TO BECOME A C H R I S T I A N . — F R I E N D L Y I N TERCOURSE

BETWEEN THE

SPANIARDS AND T H E I T Z A E X . — V I S I T

OF

CORTES TO TAYASAL.—CORTES LEAVES H I S H O R S E I N T H E C I T Y . — I T S
D E A T H AND D E I F I C A T I O N . — D E P A R T U R E
W E S T . — P A S S A G E OF

THE

OF CORTES FOR T H E SOUTH-

M O U N T A I N OF F L I N T S . — L O S S E S AND S U F -

F E R I N G S OF T H E T R O O P S . — D A N G E R O U S F O R D . — S C A R C I T Y OF P R O V I S I O N S . — C O R T E S R E A C H E S T H E P R O V I N C E OF A C U C U L I N . — T I D I N G S OF
" T H E BEARDED M E N . " — C A P T U R E OF NITO BY SANDOVAL.—CLOSE OF
T H E MARCH OF CORTES.

THE extent of the Lake of Itza was so vast, and its
depth so great, that when the runners who preceded the
main body of the army first discovered it, they believed
that they had reached an arm of the sea; and, although
the water was fresh, Cortes himself was at first inclined
to this opinion. Having halted his troops at a distance
from the lake, he went forward on foot to reconnoitre,
and coming up with the scouts learnt that, by means of
a dog which was with them, they had succeeded in capturing an Indian who had just landed from his canoe.
One of the great objects of his march being to advance as secretly as possible, Cortes questioned the Indians very closely as to whether anything were known

A.D. 1525.]

THE LAKE OF ITZA.

71

of his approach; and, receiving a negative answer, proceeded to inquire the best way to reach a large town
that stood on an island in the lake, and whose white
walls and lofty temples were visible at a considerable distance. The Indian told him that there was no direct
approach on that side, but offered to conduct him by
another route, as far as a small arm of the lake, to a village where some canoes might be found to enable him
to effect a passage to the island. Cortes accepted the
proposal, and, accompanied by ten or twelve archers,
set out with the Indian, who guided them by the shore
of the lake till they reached the inlet, across which they
contrived to wade, though the water was up to their
waists and sometimes above it. It was impossible however to advance so cautiously as not to be seen by the
inhabitants of the village, who, when the Spaniards came
in sight, pushed off at once in their canoes into the
broadest part of the lake, before their flight could be
stopped. Finding that no further progress could then
be made, Cortes sent back word for the army to move
forward, and encamped them in the deserted village.
They did not fare so badly here, for there were fields of
maize in plenty, and the lake afforded them fish, though
Bernal Diaz grumbles at its quality. " Along this township/' he says, "lay a freshwater lake of considerable
extent, which abounded with large fish covered with
sharp prickles, very much resembling the disgusting-looking and insipid fish called the shad. By means of a
few old cloaks and tattered nets, which we found in the
deserted habitations, we dragged the lake from one end
to the other, and succeeded in taking above a thousand
of these ugly fish1!'
1

Bernal Diaz, vol. ii.

72

THE CITY OF TAYASAL.

[CHAP. V.

Cortes now interrogated the Indian captive afresh,
who, being himself reassured by the amicable declaration of the Spanish leader, informed him that he was
well known to the cacique of the island, and, if permitted to depart, would be the bearer of any message
that Cortes wished to send; he added, that the name of
the cacique was Canek, that the city he dwelt in was
called Tayasal, and that the island on which it stood,
which gave its name to the lake, was known as Peten.
Cortes judged it expedient to accede to the Indian's request, and the confidence he reposed in him was not misplaced ; for towards midnight he returned, and with him
were two persons of distinction from the city, whom Canek had sent to learn what it was the strangers desired1.
Cortes received the Itzalan chiefs with great courtesy,
and told them that he had come to explore their country
by the command of his Emperor, on whose power and
magnificence he greatly dilated, and that he was desirous
of cultivating the most friendly understanding with their
cacique; to prove which, and at the same time to induce Canek to lay aside all apprehension, he dismissed
them with a Spanish soldier, whom he sent as a hostage
and pledge for his good intentions, begging that Canek
would himself come to visit him.
This frank conduct of Cortes was met by equal confidence on the part of the cacique of the Itzaex, who
on the following day arrived in the camp of the Spaniards, attended by about thirty chiefs, and followed by
a number of Zumaguales, as the common people were
called. " Canek/' says Cortes, " brought with him the
Spaniard whom I had sent to remain with him as a
hostage, and appeared to come very willingly, and was
1

Quinta Carta, sect. xxv.

A. D. 1525.]

RECEPTION OF CANEK BY CORTES.

73

received by me with great "kindness1." After the first
ceremonies of the interview were past, Cortes, desirous
to impress his guest with a sense of the solemnity of the
faith whose propagation was co-extensive with Spanish
conquest, caused an altar to be erected, before which
High Mass was performed by the priests, assisted by
the choristers and clarion-players who accompanied the
expedition.
" Canek heard mass with very deep attention, and
looked closely at the ceremonies, ornaments, and services of the altar, and apparently was much pleased with
it; he praised the music very much, and said he had
never heard anything like it, and the Indians who came
with him seemed stupefied with astonishment at what
they saw and heard 2 ."
When this ceremonial was over one of the monks
preached a sermon, which was interpreted to Canek as
carefully as it might be. It set forth the principal articles
of the Christian religion, and dwelt forcibly on the fact
of there being but one God, to whom only all obedience was due; and it operated so effectually that Canek
announced his intention of destroying all the idols which
were worshiped by himself and his people, and promised
to do so at once, in the presence of Cortes, if he would
go back with him to Tayasal.
But before he signified his assent "to this proposition,
Cortes deemed it advisable to ensure the temporal as
well as the spiritual submission of Canek. He accordingly harangued him with much dignity and eloquence, " speaking with great clearness of the Emperor
Charles V., of his exceeding greatness, his deeds, dominions, and his sovereign and mighty power, earnestly
1

Quinta Carta, sect. xxv.

2

Villagutierre, lib. i. cap. viii.

74

FRIENDLY OFFERS OF CANEK.

[CHAP. V.

and affectionately entreating and persuading him to become his vassal, as the lords of the great kingdom of
Mexico and many others were already. Canek replied
that he submitted to such vassalage, and that, some
years ago, the people of Tabasco, in passing through his
country to the great fairs, told him that certain strangers,
like the soldiers of Cortes, had come to their territory,
and that they fought bravely, for they defeated the men
of Tabasco in three battles. Cortes told him that he
was the captain of those strangers whom the people of
Tabasco had spoken of, and that he had conquered and
subdued them. After this they sat down to dinner,
which was prepared with the pomp and splendour requisite to inspire those Indians with a due awe of Cortes,
and to make them esteem him as if he were their king.
Canek ordered his Indians to bring from their canoes
birds, fishes, cakes, honey, a small quantity of gold, and
strings of round coloured shells which are much prized
by the Indians. They ate their dinner; and Cortes
gave Canek a shirt, a black velvet cap, and various little
things in steel, such as knives and scissors. Cortes again
asked Canek for certain Spaniards of his, who, he said,
must be on the sea-coast at no great distance from
thence. To which Canek replied, that he had news of
them, and that he would give him a guide to take him
where they were, without missing the road, though it
was a very bad one, owing to the great mountains, the
rivers, and the marshes it led across, but the way by sea
was more easy. Cortes told him that he would thankfully accept the guide, and that the horses could not go
in the Indian boats, to pass the lake and pursue their
march. Canek said that he would have to keep near
the lake only for three leagues, and that, whilst the army

A. D. 1525.]

VISIT OF CORTES TO TAYASAL,.

75

went by land, Cortes should go with him to his city,
and see the idols burnt 1 ."
On the renewal of Canek's invitation Cortes at once
expressed his willingness to accept it, though he was earnestly counselled not to do so by his principal captains,
who looked upon it as an act of the most daring temerity
and misplaced confidence; but the fearless leader was
not to be dissuaded from his purpose, and, taking with
him thirty crossbowmen, Cortes embarked with Canek
and his Indians for the island city, with its numerous
houses and lofty temples shining brightly in the sun at
the distance of two leagues. The Spaniards were received in Tayasal with great welcome and loud rejoicing,
Canek exerting himself to the utmost of his power in
doing honour to Cortes, whom he presented with several
mantles and some gold, though the metal was but of
inferior quality. But what was of as much interest to
Cortes as the friendly reception which he experienced
was the information he obtained in the city respecting
those he had come so far in search of. He learnt from
the Indians that there were two towns of "bearded
men" (Spaniards), one called Nito, on the northern
coast of Honduras, and the other Naco, situated further
inland; and though he was told by Canek that a very
rugged country lay between him and the places that
were spoken of, the prospect of accomplishing the great
object of his toilsome march inspired him with fresh
courage to encounter the obstacles which still intervened.
While Cortes was paying this visit to Canek the army
resumed its march along the borders of the lake, not
wholly free from disquietude at his absence, lest treachery should have been practised against him; but to1

Villagntierre, lib. i. cap. 8.

76

CORTES LEAVES HIS HORSE AT TAYASAL.

[CHAP. V.

wards evening their fears were dissipated by seeing him
return to Tayasal with his crossbowmen, and a cortege
of Indians headed by their cacique.
He here took leave of Canek and the Indians who accompanied him to the mainland, and entrusted them
with the care of his horse Morzillo, which had been
lamed; charging them to take great care of it, and attend to its recovery, as he prized it very highly, and telling them that when he had found the Spaniards he was
in search of, he should send for his steed again. It was
from no want of care on the part of the Itzaex, but rather
from an excess of it, that Morzillo lost his life under their
management; for in their anxiety to effect a cure, and
regarding the animal as one endowed with reason, they
gave him poultry and other meat to eat, and presented
him with bunches of flowers, as they were accustomed
to do to persons of rank when they were sick; a species
of attention somewhat similar to that which the fool
laughed at in ' King Lear/ when he speaks of the cockney who, "in pure kindness to his horse, buttered his
hay/' The consequence of this unaccustomed style of
medical treatment was that Morzillo languished and
died, and then a worse evil befell, for, observes the pious
Villagutierre, "though some people say Canek burnt
his idols in the presence of Cortes, there was, in reality,
no burning of idols or anything else in that city of Tayasal ; on the contrary, by leaving the horse with those
infidel Itzaex, they obtained a greater and still more
abominable idol than the many they had before 1 /' The
meaning of this sentence is subsequently explained by
the worthy chronicler informing us that; on the death
of Morzillo, the Itzaex raised its effigy " in stone and
1

ViHagutierre, lib. i. cap. 8.

A.D. 1525.]

PASSAGE OF THE MOUNTAIN OF FLINTS.

77

mortar, yery perfect," and worshiped it as a divinity. It
was seated on its hind-quarters, on the floor of one of
the temples, rising on its fore-legs, and with its hind-legs
bent under it. Those barbarians adored it as the god
of thunder and thunderbolts, calling him Tziminchac,
which means the bride of thunder, or the thunderbolt1.
They gave it this name from having seen some of the
Spaniards who were with Cortes fire their muskets over
their horses' heads when they were hunting the deer,
and they believed the horses were the cause of the noise
that was made, which they took for thunder, and the
flash of the discharge and the smoke of the gunpowder
for a thunderbolt.
Leaving behind him the friendly Itzaex of the Lake of
Peten, Cortes now directed his march to the south-west;
but though the distance that yet remained to be traversed was less than that which he had already accomplished, the dangers and difficulties which beset him
were even greater than any he had yet experienced. In
one place the pass was so rough that the horses lost all
their shoes, and after descending the banks of a small
stream, the army was compelled to halt for two days, to
enable the farriers to re-shoe them, and also to wait for
the baggage, which, from the bad condition of the road
and the quantity of rain that fell, had not arrived. But
this was a minor evil, compared with that which awaited
them further on, at the pass to which they gave the
name of the ' Sierra de los Pedernales/ or f Mountain of
Plints,' where the hills were completely covered with
sharp stones that cut like razors. "Our men," says
Bernal Diaz, " gave themselves considerable trouble in
searching for some other road, in order to avoid these
1

Villagutierre, lib. i. cap. 10.

78

LOSSES AND SUFFERINGS OF THE TROOPS.

[CHAP. V.

stones, but all their endeavours were fruitless, though
they went to a distance of above four miles. This part
of our march was most dangerous for the horses, for, as
it still continued to rain, they constantly stumbled, and
were sure to cut their knees, and even their bellies, in
the most dreadful manner on the pointed stones; but
the descent was still more difficult, eight of the horses
being killed, and many others shockingly lacerated; and
one of the soldiers, named Palacios Rubios, a relative
of Cortes, had the misfortune to break his leg 1 ."
But the description which Cortes himself gives of this
fearful pass is still more graphic. " If I wished," he
says in his celebrated letter to the Emperor, " to describe to your Majesty the steepness and unevenness of
this pass, neither I, nor any one however better able than
I to express himself, could describe it; nor could any
one who heard it comprehend it, unless he saw it with
his own eyes, and, by passing it, learned it by his own
experience. I will merely say to Your Majesty, that in
going the eight leagues which was the length of this
pass, we were twelve days from the time we entered it,
till the last men and the baggage issued from i t ; during which seventy-eight horses were killed by falls and
fatigue, and all the others which remained were so
wounded that we believed that we could not in any way
advance. . . . And all the time we were going through
this pass it never ceased to rain, night or day, and
the hills were in such a state that the water did not remain so as to enable us to drink it, and so we suffered
great distress from thirst, and most of the horses died
from not having anything to drink; and had it not been
that in the huts which we made every night to lodge in,
1

Bernal Diaz, cap. 177.

A. D. 1525.]

DANGEROUS FORD.

79

we collected some water in pots and other vessels, so
that, as it rained so much, there was some for us and for
the horses, it would have been impossible for a single
man or horse to have escaped from these mountains 1 /'
Nor were their perils at an end when this difficulty
was at length overcome; for at the base of the Sierra
there ran a broad river, which was so swollen and rapid,
in consequence of the heavy rains, that it was found impossible to cross it, until a ford was discovered at a considerable distance higher up.
" It is formed by the river widening in that part for
more than two-thirds of a league, because some very
large rocks lying in front make it spread, and among
these rocks there are shallows by which the river is
crossed—the most dreadful thing that can be seen, owing
to the rapidity and great force with which the water
runs there; and of these are several, and the whole river
runs through them, because there is no other place for
it to pass; and, in order to get over these channels, we
cut down some very large trees, which we placed across
from rock to rock, and with much danger succeeded in
crossing, holding on by some reeds which we tied from
one side to the other; and if ever so slight a slip were
made, it was impossible for him who fell to escape death;
and of these crossings there were twenty and odd 2 ."
It appears that two whole days were consumed in
effecting the passage of this river, which in all probability was one of the tributaries or head-waters of the
Usumasinta, though beyond conjecture there is little to
guide us to the various stations named by Cortes, after
quitting the Lake of Peten. After passing this dangerous ford, he says he arrived, on the 15th of April, 1525,
1

Quinta Carta, sect, xxvii.

2

Ibid.

80

SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS.

[CHAP. V.

at a village, or group of houses, called Tenas; his troops
being much exhausted, having had nothing to eat for
ten days but the kernels and buds of palm-trees. Bernal
Diaz, who is always loud in his complaints when provisions fall short, remarks here:—
" For myself I do not hesitate to acknowledge that
I never, in the whole course of my life, felt so distressed
in mind as on this occasion, when I found I could neither procure food for my men nor for myself. Added
to all this, we had overheated ourselves by marching
about the neighbourhood in a burning sun for a couple
of hours in search of inhabitants. It happened to be
the eve of Easter-day, and I shall never forget this day
so long as I live; and the reader can easily imagine what
a pleasant Easter we spent, without a morsel of food.
We should have considered ourselves blest and happy
if we had only had a handful of maize/'
Provisions were however procured in greater or less
quantities, according to the success of the foragers, who
were sent out whenever reports reached them through
the Indians whom they occasionally captured, of cultivated or inhabited lands; but the means of subsistence
of the adventurers continued throughout their march to
be extremely precarious, and constant toil was their
companion at every step they made. With the loss of
more than half their horses, and the remainder so jaded
and footsore that a single league of ground was sometimes the work of days; with hunger and thirst, and the
elements to contend with, with wearied bodies and discontented minds, and with little of hope that they should
ever extricate themselves from a wilderness, the difficulties of which appeared to increase as they advanced;
the army of Cortes must have presented a sad and dis-

A. D. 1525.] CORTES REACHES THE PROVINCE OF ACUCULIN.

81

heartening contrast to that which their leader had beheld six months before, when they marched with all
their bravery from out the walls of Mexico.
But wearied, dispirited, exhausted, they still held on,
sustained by that indomitable courage, which within the
space of five years had enabled a handful of men to conquer a new world, and, as in all their previous attempts,
success eventually attended them in this. The main
features of the march of Cortes having been already described, it is the less necessary to details the trials, the
accidents, and the privations to which his men were exposed in prosecuting the rest of their journey to the
coast of Honduras; but the close of an enterprise so full
of vicissitude and so fraught with danger demands a
place in this sketch.
Cortes had reached the province which he terms Acuculin, and a march of four days divided him from a place
called Tania, which had been marked on his map as lying
in the direction of the town where the Spaniards were
said to have established themselves. This march was
not the least perilous of his many adventures, and he
speaks of the road as so rugged and precipitous, that
when the horses failed beneath their loads, they were
obliged to leave them where they fell1, for> famine-driven
as they were, to waste time in these dreary deserts would
have exposed them all to certain death; but it was accomplished at last without the loss of any of his men,
though a first-cousin of Cortes, named Juan Davalos,
had a narrow escape of his life. At Tania however,
which could only have been at a short distance from the
Gulf of Dulce, good tidings awaited the expedition, for
there Cortes received from some Indians certain intelli1

Quinta Carta.
G

82

CAPTURE OF NITO BY SANDOVAL.

CHAP. V.

gence of the Spaniards whom he sought. These Indians
told him that the town in which they were to be found,
called Nito, was only two days' journey from thence,
that they had themselves seen the " bearded men," and
they further produced two women, natives of Nito, who
gave him a fuller account, confirming the fact of the
presence of his countrymen.
But between the place where he then was, and that
which was to witness the accomplishment of all his
labours, there still lay a rapid river, the Cajabon, or
Polochic, and a wide lake, the Gulf of Dulce, into
which the former ran, whose outlet was the sea. To cross
these without rafts or canoes was impossible; and Sandoval was sent forward to the coast, with a few footsoldiers and some guides, to discover the means of approaching Nito, unperceived by the garrison of Cristoval
de Olid, who was supposed by Cortes to occupy the
place, it being the General's design to attack Nito by
night, and capture Olid and his troops when he least
dreamt of danger. The expedition of Sandoval was
successful: he reached the Rio Dulce, and, having captured an Indian canoe, crossed over to the right bank of
the river, where he lay concealed for two days; at the
end of which time he fell in with four Spaniards, who
had ventured into the country in search of provisions, of
which they were greatly in want. These men formed
a part of the garrison established by Gil Gonzales de
Avila, at Nito 1 ; and the story which they had to tell
1
Juarros states that Gil G-onzales de Avila founded the small
town of San G-il de Buena Vista,
at Cape Three Points, on his first
arrival in Honduras, in 1523; but
that he shortly afterwards abandoned it, to form another settle-

ment at JN'ito; which place, says
Juarros, was "neartliesea a ." The
probability is, that Mto was situa
Juarros : History of the Kingdom of Guatemala (1823), p. 324,
Bailey's translation.

A.D. 1525.]

CLOSE OF THE MARCH OF CORTES.

83

was a chequered one. They gave a sorrowful account of
themselves, and of the distress to which they had been
reduced from want of food; but their information concerning Cristoval de Olid proved most satisfactory to
Cortes, for he learnt the news of that captain's death,
and received the assurance that, instead of meeting with
rebellious opposition, he would be hailed as a friend and
deliverer. Accompanied by six soldiers, he was the first
to cross the Rio Dulce in order to reach the new town;
and great at first was the consternation of the inhabitants on his entrance, but greater still their joy, when
they learnt that he who came was the man whose fame
was spread throughout the whole of the countries which
had been conquered for the Crown of Spain.
With the arrival of Cortes at Nito, the association of
his adventures with the Province of Yucatan is at an
end; and to trace the further history of that peninsula,
we must turn to those who addressed themselves more
immediately to its civilization.
ated a short distance to the southeast of the Bio Dulce, within the
territory of the present Belgian
settlement of St. Thomas, though
not occupying the site of that
town. Eemesal states that the

port of St. Thomas was discovered
on the 7th of March, 1604a.
a
Historia de la Provincia de
Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. xi. cap.
20. (Madrid, 1619.)

G 2

84

CHAPTER VI.
SOME ACCOUNT OF

FRANCISCO D E

MONTEJO.—HE

I S SENT BY COETES

TO S P A I N . — A E E I V E S AT S E V I L L E , AND I S BADLY E E C E I V E D BY A B C H B I S H O P F O N S E C A . — H E ADDRESSES T H E E M P E E O E C H A E L E S V. D I E E C T .
—THE

CHABGES

AGAINST

COETES

DISMISSED. — MONTEJO

AND OBTAINS T H E G O V E E N M E N T OF YUCATAN. — T H E

SOLICITS

CAPITULACION

THAT WAS E N T E E E D I N T O . — M O N T E J O P E E P A E E S AN E X P E D I T I O N , AND
A E E I V E S AT C O Z U M E L . — H E TAKES F O E M A L POSSESSION O F YUCATAN
I N T H E NAME OF T H E K I N G . — A P P A E E N T F B I E N D L I N E S S OF T H E I N DIANS.^—ATTEMPT TO M U E D E E M O N T E J O . — M O N T E J O ' S F I E S T

MAECH.

— A M B U S C A D E OF T H E I N D I A N S . — F I E E C E B A T T L E . — T H E I N D I A N S D E FEATED.—MONTEJO

EESOLVES

OF D A V I L A . — N U M E E O U S

ON P A C I F I C

MEASUEES.—EXPEDITION

SKIEMISHES.—SIEGE

ARTIFICE OF T H E SPANIAEDS.—WITHDEAWAL

OF

CHICHEN-ITZA.—

OF MONTEJO.

those men " of courage and energy," as Bernal Diaz calls them, who accompanied the expedition of
Juan de Grijalva in 1518, not the least conspicuous was
Francisco de Montejo, who had been amongst the earliest to adventure into the then "far west," and had obtained a "hacienda" in Cuba, under the government of
Diego Velasquez. Montejo was a cavalier of Old Castile, a native of Salamanca, of fair property and noble
descent, and possessed in a remarkable degree those enterprising qualities which more or less distinguished the
Spaniards of that adventurous period: he had shared
in all the dangers that befell Grijalva at Champoton, and

AMONGST

A.D. 1519.]

MONTEJO SENT BY CORTES TO SPAIN.

85

when the first interview took place between the Mexicans and the Spaniards at the river of Banderas, it was
to Montejo that the command was entrusted, in the expectation of a hostile termination to the meeting; his
conduct and advice were moreover essentially serviceable
in all the vicissitudes of a voyage which is notable for
having been the first that explored the coast of Mexico.
When the expedition under Cortes took place, in the
following year, it was not likely that a man of so much
enterprise as Montejo would remain behind; and accordingly we find that he joined Cortes at the Havana,
when the latter arrived there after escaping from the detention prepared for him at Trinidad by Diego Velasquez. Montejo was, as we have already seen, the commander of one of the eleven vessels which were mustered
at Cozumel, previous to the departure of the vessel for
its ultimate destination, and his career may be traced at
intervals, in all the proceedings of Cortes up to the period of his arrival at Vera Cruz. Being one of the most
influential of the partisans of Diego Velasquez, it was
the policy of Cortes to attach Montejo to his own cause,
and it was with this view that when the town of Vera
Cruz was founded1, Montejo was appointed one of the
Chief Alcaldes, in conjunction with Alonso Puertocarrero,
his colleague in the mission to the Emperor Charles V.,
when the first present was transmitted from Mexico, and
the first of that series of celebrated letters was written
by Cortes.
Montejo and his companion sailed from San Juan de
Ulloaon the 26th of July, 1519, having promised to proceed direct to Spain, and " not to touch at the Havana
under any pretext whatever2/' in order that Velasquez
1

Bernal Diaz, cap. xlii.

2

Ibid., cap. liv.

86

MONTE JO ARRIVES AT SEVILLE.

[CHAP. VX.

might learn nothing of what had taken place after the
expedition had left Cuba. But Montejo did not keep
his promise, though, from his subsequent conduct, it is
probable that, in departing from his instructions, he was
guided more by his own interests (having a settlement of
his own on the coast of Cuba, called El Marien), than
incited by wilful treachery towards Cortes. Bernal
Diaz says, " He left our chief pilot Alaminos, persuading him to sail along the coast in the direction of his
settlement (El Marien), where he pretended he would
take in a fresh supply of cassava, bread, and bacon.
Puertocarrero was greatly displeased with this conduct;
however, the landing was effected. The night following
a sailor swam secretly on shore, and forwarded Diego
Velasquez letters from his adherents, giving an account
of all that had passed. We afterwards learnt that Montejo himself had sent the man, who, besides this, spread
the news everywhere along the route he journeyed."
Bernal Diaz adds, that the letters to Velasquez were
said to be in Montejo's handwriting. If this were
really the case, it was done at great personal risk, for
when Velasquez became aware of the valuable present,
and who were the agents selected to bear it, his rage was
excessive, and he immediately ordered two very swiftsailing vessels to be fitted out, with as great a number of
men and fire-arms as could be got together at the moment, and sent them in pursuit of Montejo's vessel, with
instructions to capture her and bring her into Santiago.
But Velasquez, who seems to have been born for disappointments and annoyances, was unsuccessful in his object, and the agents of Cortes, escaping the pursuit, had
a most favourable voyage to Spain. They arrived at
Seville, "where they hired a carriage, and posted to the

A.D. 1523.]

THE CHARGES AGAINST CORTES DISMISSED.

87

Imperial court residence, at that time at Valladolid."
Here the Archbishop Ponseca, the President of the Council of the Indies, who governed during the Emperor's
absence in Flanders, received them very ill; and, being
entirely in the interests of Velasquez, whose chaplain,
Benito Martin, had arrived with heavy complaints against
Cortes, suppressed the despatches of the latter, and forwarded his own account of the Mexican expedition to
Charles V., "in which," says Bernal Diaz, "he extolled the
merits of his creature Velasquez to the very skies, saying everything that was bad of Cortes and all of u s / '
" Upon this," continues Bernal Diaz, " Puertocarrero,
Montejo, Martin Cortes, the father of our General, the
Licentiate Nunez, who was reported to the Royal Council, and a near relation of Cortes, determined to despatch
a courier of their own to the Emperor in Elanders. They
fortunately possessed duplicates of all our despatches and
letters, as also a list of all the presents we had destined
for his Majesty."
Prom the share which Montejo had in this transaction,
which eventually terminated in the disgrace of Ponseca,
it appears tolerably certain that the charge of unfaithfulness to Cortes, with which he has been taxed, had very
little, if any foundation. It was indeed his own cause,
as well as that of Cortes, of which Montejo was the
strenuous advocate, and by the issue of the inquiry before the Privy Council he was doomed to stand or fall.
The Royal Commissioners, whose deliberations were not
terminated till the 17th of May, 1523, dismissed the majority of the charges against Cortes, " and," observes Bernal Diaz, "Prancisco de Montejo did not forget to profit
by his stay at the Imperial Court." But what profit he
derived from his exertions was certainly not immediate,

88

THE GOVERNOR OF YUCATAN.

[CHAP. VI.

for it was not till more than three years afterwards that
he was able to obtain anything for himself, and then
only on the terms accorded to all the Spanish " Conquistadors,"—the first risks and the first expenses, to be
counterbalanced by the titular authority and subsequent
advantages.
It was in the year 1526, that, " being in Madrid,
Francisco de Montejo solicited the government of Yucatan, in order to conquer and pacificate that country 1 /'
and, in consideration of the services he had rendered,
both under Grijalva and Cortes, the Emperor, in granting his request, conferred upon him the title of Don,
with an honourable augmentation to his arms2. The
commission was accompanied by a " Capitulacion" from
the Emperor, containing very ample instructions for his
conduct in his new office; and the officers under him
were Alonso Davila, as royal accountant, Pedro de Lima,
as treasurer, and Hernando Moreno de Quito, as overseer of the works, " though," says Cogolludo, " this last
office was not necessary, there being no mines in that
kingdom." The chief features of the " Capitulacion,"
which is dated December 8, 1526, were these :—
That Don Erancisco de Montejo should have license
and power to conquer and people the islands of Yucatan
and Cozumel at his own cost, and should erect two fortresses in them at the most convenient place. That he
should set out within one year from the date of the instrument, and retain the office of Governor and Captaingeneral for life3, as well as that of Adelantado, which latter office, on his death, should descend to his heirs and
1

Cogolludo: Historia de Yucatlian (folio: Madrid, 1688).
3
Herrera, Dee. I I I .
2
" Para que todos los dias de

vuestra vida seais nuestra Governador j Capitan General de las
dictas Islas."—Cogolludo, lib. ii.
cap. ii. p. 62.

A. D. 1526.]

THE CAPITULACION.

89

successors for ever. Ten square leagues of land and
four per cent, of all the profit or advantage to be derived
from all the lands discovered and peopled, were to be
given to himself, his heirs and successors for ever. Those
who should join the expedition under him were for the
first three years to pay only the tenth part of the gold
of the mines, the fourth year a ninth part, and the percentage should go on increasing till it reached a fifth
part. They should be exempted from export duty upon
the articles they carried with them, provided they were
not taken for barter or sale. They were to be allowed
portions of land, and, after living' on them four years
complete, were to be at liberty to sell them, and use
them as their own; also to take rebellious Indians for
slaves, and to take and buy Indians held by the caciques
as slaves, under the regulations of the Council of the
Indies. The tithes or tenth-parts were granted to be
expended in churches and ornaments, and things necessary for divine worship. It was also provided that no
lawyers or attorneys should go into those lands from
Spain, nor from any other part, on account of the litigation and controversies that would follow them1.
On account of the fame of these expeditions, many
flocked to the standard of Montejo, whose expenses in
purchasing arms, ammunition, horses, and vessels, were
very great; insomuch that he was obliged to sell his hereditary property, which brought him in an income of a
thousand ducats. With the money which he thus raised
he fitted out four vessels, and early in 1527 embarked
with about four hundred troops exclusive of sailors,, and
set sail from Spain for the conquest of Yucatan. The
i "JSTo vayannipassenaladicta
tierra, de estos nuestros Reynos, ni
de otras partes, Letrados ni Pro-

curadores algunos, por los pleytos y diferencias que de alios le siguen."

90

MONTE JO TAKES POSSESSION OF YUCATAN,

[CHAP. VI.

only ecclesiastic who accompanied the Adelantado was
Francisco Hernandez, the chaplain to the expedition,—a
circumstance which was afterwards the occasion of much
anxiety to the Council of the Indies, who ascribed the
ill-success which at first attended the enterprise, to the
absence of a sufficient number of ecclesiastics, for whom
provision had been expressly made in the royal " Capitulacion." Neither had Montejo any interpreter to communicate with the Indians, a want of which was very
much felt after he reached Yucatan.
The first place he landed at was Cozumel, but at
what time of the year is not stated either by Cogolludo
or Herrera. His reception there by the natives was
sufficiently friendly, but on his quitting the island for
the continent it became somewhat altered in character,
though appearances were still kept up. Besides the rumours which reached them from the Gulf of Mexico, the
Indians had already had experience enough on their own
coasts, during the expeditions of Cordova and Grijalva,
not to mistrust the motives with which the strangers
came amongst them; but they were unwilling to commence hostilities, and suffered the Spaniards to disembark on the mainland, ignorant, of course, when the
royal banner was displayed by the Alferez Gonzalo
Nieto, who loudly cried, "Espana! Espana! Espana!
Viva!" that possession had been taken of their country
in the name of the Emperor-King Don Carlos.
On what part of the coast of Yucatan the disembarkation took place is uncertain, some writers stating that
it was opposite to where now stands the city of Valladolid, others more to the south at Bakhalal (Bacalar),
some at a town called Coni (not to be confounded, says
Cogolludo, with Conil, though also on the northern

A. D. 1525.]

ATTEMPT TO MURDER M0NTEJ0.

91

shore), and others again as far to the westward as Campeachy. The cause of this diversity of opinion arises,
according to Cogolludo, from the delays which occurred
in effecting the conquest of the province, the different
periods when the attempts were made, and the opposite
points at which the various expeditions landed. But,
independently of the difficulty of settling a question of
this kind at this distance of time, if even the invaders
themselves had possessed an accurate notion of a country
with whose language they were entirely unacquainted,
the indications afforded by the early geographers in that
part of the world are so arbitrary and uncertain, that no
safe deduction can be made, even from the maps which
they have left for our guidance, and an approximation to
truth is all that can be accomplished1.
The apparent friendliness of the Indians had the effect
at first of throwing the Spaniards off their guard, and
they were freely admitted to such imperfect conferences
as took place between them; but on one of these occasions an attempt was made to assassinate the Adelantado
by a native, who snatched a sword from a Negro slave, and
aimed a blow at Montejo as he was standing near. Montejo saw the action in time, and drew his own sword to
defend himself; but some Spanish soldiers coming up at
1
A notable example of geographical inaccuracy may be observed
on the map of Yucatan and Honduras (" Yucatana Regio et Fondura") given in Wytfliet's ' Histoire des Indes Occidentales' (fol.
Douay, 1611), in which the Bay of
Chetemal (Chetumal) is removed
to the Gulf of Amatique, full 3° to
the southward of its natural position; and Mto, which occupied
the site of the Belgian colony of
St. Thomas, on the coast of Honduras, is transferred to the Pro-

vince of Nicaragua, between the
lake of that name and the Bio Eseondido, an error of nearly 300
miles. Truxillo, also, is placed on
the Mosquito coast, near the river
Wanks, lying immediately beneath
the Cape Honduras. This map may
be consulted by the curious either
in the French or Latin editions of
Wytniet, both of which are to be
found in the King's Catalogue in
the British Museum, under the respective press-marks, 146. e. 8, and
146. e. 14.

92

AMBUSCADE OF THE INDIANS.

[CHAP, vi;

the moment fell on the Indian, and immediately put him
to death. This attempt induced Montejo to leaye Coni
for the province of Choaca, where he proposed to commence his undertaking of pacificating (or conquering) the
province; and with this object in view, he began a long
and difficult march, through a country where there were
no regular roads, but only such paths as the Indians
used in crossing the mountains. On this march the
troops suffered greatly from the heat and want of water,
there being no rivers in that part of the peninsula;
but they persevered, and succeeded in arriving at the
town of Choaca, which they found dispeopled, the inhabitants having fled to join a body that entered into a
confederation to receive the Spaniards with arms in their
hands, as soon as they received the news of the arrival
of the strangers at Cozumel.
Guided by an Indian prisoner, Montejo's force advanced upon a town called Ake, but before they could
reach it they were sorely beset by the natives, who, lying
in ambuscade, assailed them with great fury. They
were armed with every weapon known in Indian warfare.
They had bows and quivers full of arrows, pikes, darlis,
lances pointed with sharp flints, and strong swords of
hard wood, which they wielded with both hands; and
they rushed from their places of concealment with loud
cries, striking their spears against their bueklers formed
of huge tortoise-shells, and aggravating the noise they
made with conch-shells, which they used as trumpets.
They were entirely naked, except their loins, which were
covered by a cloth, and their bodies were smeared with
earth of various tints, so that they appeared, says Cogolludo1, "like the fiercest devils;" their nostrils and ears
1

Cogolludo, lib. ii. cap. vi. p. 77.

A. D. 1527.]

THE INDIANS DEFEATED.

93

were pierced, and from them hung ornaments and stones
of various colours.
In this manner they presented themselves to the Castilians, who were greatly astonished to see such singular
figures, and to hear the strange noises they made; but the
Adelantado and Alonso Davila, who had had experience
of this sort of warfare, animated their men to the conflict, and a fierce battle ensued, both sides fighting with
great bravery. The nature of the ground did not admit
of the Spaniards employing their horses as they wished,
but such as were mounted and could advance attacked
the Indians, making great slaughter, and transfixing
them with their long lances. The battle lasted the whole
day, and though the Indians experienced great loss, they
were so strongly reinforced that the Spaniards had quite
enough to do to maintain their ground: several of them
were killed, and many severely wounded, besides the loss
of horses and trained dogs 1 ; and night put an end to
the conflict without victory having declared for either
side. On the following morning the fight was renewed
with the same vigour, and lasted till about mid-day,
when the Indians began to give way, and finally took
refuge in the mountains, after losing upwards of a thousand men. This battle took place towards the close of
the year 1527.
Montejo now came to the determination of reconnoitring the country slowly and carefully, avoiding battle
with the Indians as much as he possibly could, for he
1
Captain Southey, in his 'Chronological History of the West Indies,' alludes to this habit of training dogs for warfare. Under date
of the year 1511, he says: " In
Porto Eico, Juan Ponce revenged
the death of the Spaniards. In

several battles, a large dog, called
Bezerrillo, did more execution than
any soldier; he was allowed the
pay of a crossbowman, and a share
and a half of prize-money. Bezerrillo was killed in battle by an arrow."

94

PACIFIC MEASURES OF MONTEJO.

[CHAP. VI.

had found them to be warlike, and their numbers made
them still more formidable: he therefore sought rather
to conciliate, and make them friendly with the Spaniards,
in this respect justifying the character given of him by
Bernal Diaz, that he was " rather a man of business
than a soldier1/5 though the rough old Conquistador's
estimate of soldierly qualifications must be accepted with
considerable allowance for his own prejudices: we have
seen also how, in another place, Bernal Diaz gives Montejo credit for "courage and energy."
With this peaceful intention the Adelantado set out
for Ake, directing his march upon the province of Chichen-Itza, where he desired to establish a colony, believing that the situation was favourable for the erection
of one of the strong fortresses which the " Capitulacion"
required him to build. He was, to all appearances, successful in his endeavours at conciliation, and founded a
town, in which he located a hundred and sixty of his
men, amongst whom he divided the township, though
the Indians were at heart but little pleased with the settlement made by the strangers in their land, and were
not long before they resented it.
By the accounts which had been received, and from
the map which the Adelantado possessed, the Spaniards
gathered that in the province of Bakhalal (called by the
Indians Vaymil and Chetemal) there were mines of gold
to be discovered, and, with the object of appropriating
them, a force was detached by Montejo, the command
of which was given to Alonso Davila, with directions
to proceed to the southward with the same purpose of
pacification. If Bernal Diaz may be credited, Davila
was not the man to propitiate the Indians by fair words,
1

Bernal Diaz, cap. ccvi.

2

Ibid., ante, cap. viii.

A.D. 1527.]

EXPEDITION OF DAVILA.

95

for he describes him as a " courageous officer, but of a
quarrelsome disposition;5'and, whether it were owing to
his own nature, or to the opposition of the natives, he
certainly did not achieve the object which Montejo had
in view, his expedition being one continued series of hostilities, ending in defeat.
Alonso Davila set out with a force of fifty infantry and
seventeen horse, taking with him one Francisco Vasquez,
who had great experience in mining, and to whom the
Adelantado had promised three hundred ducats if he
should find indications of the existence of gold in the
province. Davila directed his march upon a town called
Chable, one of those which had been described as situated in the golden region. The cacique of that place
evinced a friendly disposition towards the adventurers,
who immediately set to work in search of the promised
gold, but found none. The belief in its existence was
however too deeply rooted to be eradicated by the first
failure, and it was resolved to proceed further. Chetemal was the next point, and to the cacique of that district Davila despatched a message by the cacique of
Chable, inquiring if gold were to be found there, and
demanding a supply of provisions. The answer which
was brought back by the cacique of Chable was, that he
of Chetemal would pay no attention to the message, and
warned the Spaniards not to come; adding, that the
fowls they asked for they should get at their lances5
points, and the maize in a flight of arrows1. To punish this insolence, Alonso Davila set out himself with
twenty-five infantry, eight horsemen, and several caciques, who proceeded to the coast, where he embarked
1
" Que las gallinas que le pedia,
las daria en las lancas, y el maiz

en las nechas."—Cogolludo, lib. ii,
cap. vi. p. 80.

96

NUMEROUS SKIRMISHES.

[CHAP, VI.*

his men in canoes, and thus finally arrived at Chetemal,
which, notwithstanding the fierce reply of the cacique, he
found deserted.
The situation of Chetemal appearing favourable for his
purpose, Davila resolved to establish a'town there, to
which he gave the name of Villa Real, and caused the
remainder of the force which he had left behind at
Chable, to join him. But though the cacique of Chetemal had fled at Davila's first approach, it was only the
better to oppose him afterwards, for which purpose he
allied himself with some neighbouring tribes, persuading their chiefs it was necessary for their common safety
that they should unite to drive the Spaniards from the
country. When Davila heard of the plot thus formed,
he at once assumed the initiative, and, having provided for
the defence of Villa Real, went out with half his force to
seek the enemy. A severe skirmish took place, in which
the Indians were defeated, but the victory was of no
yalue. As often as they met the Indians in the field, the
invaders displayed their accustomed valour; but the
odds against the Spaniards were far too great to admit
of their achieving any signal success, or of forming a
permanent establishment in that part of the country; and
Davila found, at the expiration of nearly two years, that
a continued occupation of the new colony had become
impossible. The precise date at which he withdrew from
Chetemal is not stated by any of the Spanish authorities, but it was, in all probability, coincident with the
determination of Montejo no longer to remain in a country which he also had found to be too difficult to hold.
Montejo's resolve appears to have been the consequence
of a battle fought near Chichen-Itza, the capital of the
province of that name, in which the Spaniards lost no

A. D. 1527.]

INGENIOUS ARTIFICE OF THE SPANIARDS.

97

less than a hundred and fifty men. His army was reduced by numerous losses; the supplies which he had
brought from Spain were still in his vessels on the coast;
there were no practicable roads for transit, and a hostile
population surrounded him on every side. He therefore, after a long but ineffectual struggle, relinquished air
hope of subjugating the country with the force which
still remained at his command, and the word was given
to return to the coast; but to accomplish this object, it
was necessary to employ stratagem, and the device which
Montejo hit upon was as amusing as it was effectual.
Having noticed that the Indians, encamped before
Chichen-Itza, were careless on their watch, he caused a
hungry dog to be tied to the tongue of a large bell, and
food to be placed at a distance which the hound could not
reach. Having reconnoitred the position of the enemy,
the Spaniards silently left the town, directing their march
to the north, in order to reach the sea. When the
dog saw them depart he strove to follow them, and his
motion rang the bell; every time he tried to reach his
food he renewed the ringing, and thus throughout the
Indians were deceived, believing that the Spaniards still
occupied the town, and that the sound of the bell was a
proof of their being on the alert. The Spaniards were
by this artifice enabled to reach the coast in safety, and
it was not for some hours that the Indians discovered
the nature of the trick that had been played them.
Finding however that the bell-ringing continued after
the morning came, they advanced upon the town, and
found that the whole of the Spaniards had disappeared.
It was not difficult to track their march, and before
Montejo's force reached the coast, the Indians came up
with them, and endeavoured to provoke a battle. They
H

98

WITHDRAWAL OF MONTE JO.

[CHAP. VI.

did not venture to attack the retreating foe, who held
themselves in good order to receive the assault, but
sought by gestures of defiance and injurious language to
induce the Spaniards to lay aside their defensive attitude. This the prudence of Montejo and his son, a
•cavalier of rising merit, would not permit, and the Indians finally withdrew, with the sole satisfaction of knowing that the invaders had left the eastern shores of
Yucatan.
Montejo had proceeded to the opposite coast by sea,
and disembarked his troops at Campeachy, from which
place he threatened further hostilities.

99

CHAPTER VII.
AEEIVAL OF DAVILA AT C A M P E A C H T . — T H E I N D I A N S ATTACK M O N T E J O .
— • T H E ADELANTADO N E A B L Y MADE P B I S O N E E . — M O N T E J O PBAYS TO
BE E E L E A S E D F E O M H I S G O V E E N M E N T OF YUCATAN.-—EOYAL CEDULA
ENJOINING HIM

TO P E O S E C U T E T H E W A E . — E E V O L T AT TABASCO.—

T H E SPANIAEDS W I T H D E A W F E O M T H E P E N I N S U L A . — T H E
PACIFICATION O F T H E

COUNTEY

EESOLVED O N . — T H E

E E T U E N S TO Y U C A T A N . — D I S E M B A E K A T I O N

AT

EELIGIOUS

ADELANTADO

CHAMPOTON.—NIGHT

ATTACK BY T H E I N D I A N S . — G E N E E A L ASSAULT OF T H E S P A N I S H CAMP.
—THE

INDIANS

NIAEDS.—THEIE
PACIFICATION

EEPULSED.—DIMINISHED

NUMBEE

DESPAIEING CONDITION.—EVENTUAL

ENTEUSTED

TO M O N T E J O

THE

E X P E D I T I O N TO T I H O O . — T H E LAST G E N E E A L

OF

THE

SPA-

EELIEF.—THE

YOUNGEE.—PEEILOUS
BATTLE.—FOUNDATION

OF M E E I D A AND V A L L A D O L I D . — F U E T H E E CONQUESTS.

sorely depressed by the mischances of the last
two years, the courage and perseverance of Montejo were
still unbroken, and a fresh stimulus to exertion was
afforded him in the arrival at Campeachy of his lieutenant Davila, who, after having made his way by sea to
Truxillo, had recruited his forces there, and returned
to unite his fortunes once more with those of the Adelantado.
The moment this reinforcement reached him, Montejo resolved to profit by it, and Davila was sent off
with fifty men to penetrate the country from the western
coast. The Indians, having learnt how greatly Montejo's
own forces had been reduced by this draft, for only forty
H 2
THOUGH

100

M0NTEJ0 NEARLY MADE PRISONER.

[CHAP. vir.

infantry and ten horsemen remained in Campeachy, assembled in great numbers to attack him1. "Hearing a
tumult the Adelantado went out on horseback, and, riding
towards a group assembled on a little hill, cried out,
endeavouring to pacify them; but the Indians, turning
in the direction of his voice, and recognizing the Adelantado, surrounded him, laid hands upon the reins of
his horse, and tried to wrest from him his lance, and
others, who came up at the moment, rescued the Adelantado. Both himself and the brave Gonzales were very
severely wounded, and the horse of the latter died of his
wounds 2 ." When the Indians saw that Montejo had
been rescued by his own men they gradually withdrew,
and the danger which threatened the Spaniards from
their assemblage was averted.
But the Adelantado, with all his soldier-like qualities,
" n'avait pas la main heureuse." The discovery of Peru
had recently taken place, and the riches of that country,
widely bruited, caused many of his men to desert from a
service which held out but little prospect of the recompense for which the Spanish adventurers mainly fought.
Montejo felt that if he proposed effectually to subdue
the province of Yucatan his forces must be greatly augmented, and he therefore determined upon proceeding
to New Spain to recruit them, at the same time sending
information to the King of the misfortunes that had befallen him since his first arrival in Yucatan, and praying
that his services might be employed elsewhere, since he
had no hope of success there. He begged also that the
Government of Honduras might be united to that of
1

Cogqlludo says they were more tan' (2 vols, 8vo: London, Murray,
than 20,000: " Eran mas de veinte 1843), by J. L. Stephens, who in
mil."—Hist, de Yucathan, lib. ii. this account has closely foUo,wed
cap. x. p. 92.
Cogolludo.
2
* Incidents of Travel in Yuea-

A. D. 1531.]

REVOLT AT TABASCO.

101

Yucatan, as he hoped, with the people of one province,
to subdue those of the other. The latter part of his
request was not acceded to, as Honduras was included
in the Government of Guatemala, under Pedro de Alvarado; but a Cedula Real, or " royal parchment," dated
from Ocana, April 4th, 1531, was despatched to Montejo, commanding that every assistance should be afforded
him to enable him to recover the province. By the aid
of this document, together with the produce of his rents
in New Spain, the Adelantado collected a number of
soldiers, and bought some vessels wherewith to prosecute the conquest of Yucatan. But in the meantime
the Indians of Tabasco, a place within the limits of his
command, had revolted, and Montejo resolved to reduce
them to order before he went on to Campeachy, whither
however he despatched his son, Don Francisco, whom he
had associated with him in the government. But this
attempt to put down the revolt at Tabasco was more
difficult than Montejo had anticipated, and Gonzalo Nieto
was eventually sent with two vessels to Campeachy, to
bring away the whole of the Spaniards to the assistance
of the Adelantado. The situation in which Nieto found
them was most deplorable. They had been unable to
penetrate into the country, and were cooped up at the
spot where they had landed. " The Indians cut off their
supplies of provisions, and, being short of sustenance*
nearly all became ill. They were obliged to make constant sorties to procure food, and it was. necessary to let
the horses go loose, though at the risk of their being
killed. They were reduced so low that but five soldiers,
(and the captain) remained to watch over and provide
for the rest1.55
1

Stephens's Abridgment of Cegallado.

102

THE SPANIARDS WITHDRAW FROM YUCATAN, [CHAP, VIL

In one of the sallies which were made by this small
body, Gonzalo Nieto received so severe a wound that it
was at first supposed to be mortal; but he recovered
from it, and then, finding that no exertions could maintain them any longer, it was resolved to abandon the
place and return to Tabasco. This event took place in
1535, in which year, says Cogolludo, not a single Spaniard remained in Yucatan1.
When the news of these disasters reached Spain, the
Council of the Indies, confirmed in their opinion that
the pacification of the transatlantic provinces could only
be surely effected by the conversion of the natives to
the Christian faith,—a principle neglected by Montejo,
though specifically insisted on in the Capitulacion,—resolved that the next attempt should be made by the
Missionary Fathers already established in St. Domingo
and New Spain. But before the detail is given of the
continuous and successful efforts of the Franciscan friars,
it is desirable to follow the military operations in Yucatan to their close. They are so perspicuously narrated
by the intelligent author of the ' Incidents of Travel in
Yucatan/ that to adopt his words as far as he has pursued the account, and thus avoid the tautologies and
digressions of Cogolludo, the only original writer on this
period of the history of that country, offers the readiest
and best means of laying them before the reader.
" We return now to the Adelantado, whom we left at
Tabasco. Severe wars with the Indians, want of arms
and provisions, and, above all, desertions instigated by the
fame of Peruvian riches, had left him at a low ebb. In
this situation he was joined by Captain Gonzalo Nieto
and the small band which had been compelled to evacuate
1

Cogolludo: Historia, lib. ii. cap. 2.

A.D. 1535.]

PACIFICATION OF TABASCO.

103

Yucatan1, and by the presence of these old companions
his spirits were again roused.
" But the pacification of Tabasco was much more difficult than was supposed. By communication with the
Spaniards, the Indians had lost their fears of them. The
country was bad for carrying on war, particularly with
cavalry, on account of the marshes and pools; their provisions were again cut off; many of the soldiers went
away disgusted, and others, from the great humidity and
heat, sickened and died.
" While they were in this extremity the Captain Diego
de Contreras, with no fixed destination, and ready to embark in any of the great enterprises which at that time
attracted the adventurous soldier, arrived at the port.
He had with him a vessel of his own, with provisions
and other necessaries, his son, and twenty Spaniards.
The Adelantado represented* to him the great service he
might render the King, and by promises of reward induced him to remain. With this assistance he was enabled to sustain himself in Tabasco until, having received
additional reinforcements, he effected the pacification of
the country2.
" The Adelantado now made preparation to return to
Yucatan. Ohampoton was selected as the place of disembarkation. According to some of the historians, he
1
Cogolludo is silent with respect
to the return of Davila and his
men, neither is any further mentionmadeof him by Mr. Stephens,
It must be inferred however that
Davila's attempts to penetrate the
province were as unsuccessful as
those of Montejo, and that he evacuatedit at the same time as the
Adelantado.
2
Gomara says: " Tardo en eUo
(Tavasco) dos anos : ca los natu-

rales no lo querian por bien, ni por
mal." He adds: " Poblo alii, y
nombrolo Santa Maria de la Vitoria. G-asto otros seys 6 siete anos
en pacificar la provincia : en los
quales passa mucha habre, trabajo
y peligro." These " six or seven
years" must refer to the renewed
efforts of the Montejos to conquer
Yucatan, during which time the
Spaniards certainly did endure
" much hunger, toil, and danger."

104

DISEMBARKATION AT CHAMPOTON.

[CHAP. vn.

did not himself embark on this expedition, but sent his
son. It seems more certain, however, that he went in
person as Commander-in-chief of the Armada, and, leaving his son, Don Francisco de Montejo, in command of
the soldiers, returned to Tabasco, as being nearer to Mexico, from which country he expected to receive and send
on more recruits and necessaries. The Spaniards landed
some time in the year 1637, and again planted the royal
standard in Yucatan. The Indians allowed them to land
without noise or opposition, but they were only lying in
wait for an opportunity to destroy them. In a few days
a great multitude assembled, and at midnight they crept
silently up the path and roads which led to the camp of
the Spaniards, who, wondering less at the attack than at
its being made by night, rushed to their arms. Ignorant
as they were of the ground, in the darkness all was confusion. On the east, west, and south, they heard the
clamours and outcries of the Indians. Nevertheless they
made great efforts; and the Indians, finding their men
falling, and hearing the groans of the wounded and dying, relaxed in the fury of their attack, and at length
retreated. The Spaniards did not pursue them, but remained in the camp, keeping watch till daylight, when
they collected and buried the bodies of their own dead.
" For some days the Indians did not make any hostile demonstrations, but they kept away or concealed as
much as possible all supplies of provisions. The Spaniards were much straitened, and obliged to sustain
themselves by catching fish along the shores. On one
occasion two Spaniards, who had straggled some distance
from the camp, fell into the hands of the Indians, who
carried them away alive, sacrificed them to their idols,
and feasted upon their bodies.

A. D. 1537.]

NIGHT ATTACK BY THE INDIANS.

105

" During thife time the Indians were forming a great
league of all the caciques in the country, and gathered
in immense numbers at Champoton. As soon as all the
confederates were assembled, they attacked with a horrible noise the camp of the Spaniards, who could not successfully contend against such a multitude. Many Indians fell, but they counted as well lost a thousand of
their own number for the life of one Spaniard. There
was no hope but in flight, and the Spaniards retreated
to the shore. The Indians pursued them, heaping insults upon them, entered their camp, loaded themselves with the clothing and other things which in the
hurry of retreat they had been obliged to leave behind,
put on their dresses, and, from the shore, mocked and
scoffed at them, pointing with their fingers, taunting
them with cowardice, and crying out, 'Where is the
courage of the Spaniards?' The latter, hearing from
their boats these insults, resolved that death and fame
were better than life and ignominy; and, wounded and
worn out as they were, took up arms, and returned to
the shore. Another fierce battle ensued; and the Indians, dismayed by the resolution with which these vanquished men again made front against them, retired
slowly, leaving the Spaniards masters of the field. The
Spaniards cared for no more, content to recover the
ground they had lost.
" Prom this time the Indians determined not to give
battle again; and the great multitude brought together
from different places dispersed, and returned to their
homes. The Spaniards remained more at their ease.
The Indians, seeing that they could not be driven out of
their country, and did not intend to leave it, contracted
a sort of friendship with them, but they were not able

106

DIMINISHED NUMBERS OF THE SPANIARDS, [CHAP. VII.

to make any advances into the interior* On every attempt they were so badly received, that they were compelled to return to their camp in Champoton, which was
in fact their only refuge.
" As Champoton was on the coast, which now began
to be somewhat known, vessels occasionally touched
there, from which the poor Spaniards relieved some of
their necessities; occasionally a new companion remained ; but their numbers still diminished, many, seeing the delay, and little profit derived from their labours,
abandoning the expedition. The time came when there
were only nineteen Spaniards in Champoton, the names
of some of whom are still preserved; and they affirm,
in their judicial declaration, that in this critical situation
they owed their preservation to the prudence and good
management of Don Francisco de Montejo, the son of
the Adelantado.
" Again they were relieved,. and again their force
dwindled away. The fame of the riches of Peru was in
every mouth. The poverty of Yucatan was notorious.
There were no mines; there was but little encouragement for others to join the expedition, and those in
Champoton were discouraged. Struggling with continued hardships and dangers, they made no advance
towards the conquest of the country; all who could endeavoured to get away, some going in canoes, others by
land, as occasion offered. In order to confer upon some
means of bettering the condition of things, it was necessary for the son of the Adelantado to visit his father at
Tabasco; and he set out, leaving the soldiers at Champoton under the command of his cousin, a third Don
Francisco.
"During his absence matters became worse. The

A, D. 1538.]

THEIR DESPAIRING CONDITION.

107

people continued going away, and Don Francisco knew
that if they lost Champoton, which had cost them so
much, all was lost. Consulting with a few who were
most desirous of persevering in the enterprise, he brought
together those who were suspected of meditating desertion, and told them to go at once and leave the rest to
their fate. The poor soldiers, embarrassed and ashamed
at being confronted with companions whom they intended to desert, determined to remain.
<c
But the succour so earnestly hoped for was delayed.
All the expedition which the son of the Adelantado
could make, was not sufficient for those who remained in
Champoton. They had been nearly three years without
making any advances, or any impression upon the country. Despairing of its conquest, and unable to exist in
the straits in which they found themselves, they talked
openly of disbanding, and going where fortune might
lead them. The Captain did all that he could to encourage them, but in vain: all had their luggage and
ship-stores ready to embark, and nothing was talked of
but leaving the country.
" The exertions of the Captain induced them to take
better counsel, and they agreed not to execute their resolution hastily, but, to save themselves from injurious
imputations, first to send notice of their intention to the
Adelantado. Juan de Contreras was sent with the despatches, who gave the Adelantado, besides, a full account
of the desperate condition in which they remained at
Champoton.
" His intelligence gave the Adelantado much anxiety.
All his resources were exhausted: he had been unable to
procure the succour necessary, and he knew that if the
Spaniards abandoned Champoton, it would be impossible

108

MONTE JO THE YOUNGER:

[CHAP. VII.

to prosecute the conquest of Yucatan. Aware of their
necessities, when the news arrived, he had some Spaniards collected to go to their assistance, and now, by
gifts and promises, he made some additions, and, while
waiting till these could be got ready, despatched Alonso
Rosada, one of the new recruits, to give notice of the
succour at hand.
" It does not appear whether the Adelantado went to
Champoton in person; but vessels arrived, carrying soldiers, provisions, clothing, and arms; and towards the
end of the year 1539 his son returned with twenty
horsemen, from New Spain. The drooping spirits of
the Spaniards were revived, and again they conceived
hopes of achieving the conquest of the country.
" About this time, too, the Adelantado, grieving over
the common misfortune of himself and those who had
been constant and enduring, but doubting his own fortune, and confiding in the valour of his son Don Francisco, determined to put into the hands of the latter the
pacification of Yucatan. He was at that time settled
in the Government of Chiapas, to which place he summoned his son, and, by a formal act, substituted him in
all the powers given to himself by the King. The act of
substitution is creditable alike to the head and heart of
the Adelantado. It begins with an injunction that he
should strive that the people under his charge should
live and be as true Christians, separating themselves from
vices and public sins, not permitting them to speak ill
of God, nor his blessed Mother, nor the saints; and it
concludes with the words,' Because I know that you are
a pastor who will know how to do it well, putting first
God our Lord, and the service of His Majesty, and the
good of the country, and the execution of justice/

A.D. 1540.]

NUMEROUS BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS.

109

" Within a month of the time when he was called away
by his father, Don Francisco returned to Champoton with
all the provisions necessary for prosecuting, on his own
account, the conquest of Yucatan. From this time the
door of better fortune seemed open to the Spaniards.
"Don Francisco determined forthwith to undertake
the march to Campeachy. At a short distance from
Champoton they encountered a large body of Indians,
routed them, and, determined not to make any retrograde
movement, encamped upon the spot.
" From this place the Indians, mortified and incensed
at their defeat, erected fortifications along the whole line
of march. The Spaniards could not advance without
encountering walls, trenches, and embankments, vigorously defended. All these they gained in succession;
and so great was the slaughter of the Indians, that at
times their dead bodies obstructed the battle, and the
Spaniards were obliged to pass over the dead to fight
with the living. In one day they had three battles, in
which the Spaniards were almost worn out with fighting.
" Here again the history fails, and it does not appear
how they were received in Campeachy; but it is manifest from other authorities that, in the year 1540, they
founded a city under the name of San Francisco de Campeche1.
" Remaining in this place till things were settled, Don
Francisco, in pursuance of his father's intentions, determined on descending to the province of Quepech, and
founding a city in the Indian town of Tihoo. Knowing
that delay was dangerous, he sent forward the Captain
1
"Poblo Montejo a San Francisco, Capeche, a Merida, Valladolid, Salamanca y.Sevilla, y ho-

vose bien con los Indios."—Gomara, cap. Mil. fol. xxi.

110

PERILOUS EXPEDITION TO TIHOO.

[CHAP. VII.

Francisco de Montejo, his cousin, with fifty-seven men.
He himself remained in Gampeachy to receive and organize the soldiers, who, stimulated by the tidings of his
improving fortunes, were every day coming in from his
father.
" Don Francisco set out for Tihoo, and in all the accounts there is a uniform correspondence in regard to
the many dangers they encountered on that journey from
the smallness of their numbers, the great multitudes of
warlike Indians, and the strong walls and other defences
which they found at every step to obstruct their progress.
The Indians concealed the wells and ponds, and as there
were no streams or fountains, they were perishing with
thirst. Provisions were cut off, and they had war, thirst,
and hunger on their path. The roads were mere narrow
passes, with thick woods on both sides, encumbered with
the dead bodies of men and animals, and their sufferings
from want of water and provisions were almost beyond
endurance.
" Arriving at a town called Potboc, they pitched, and
fortified their camp, with the intention of making a halt,
but at night they were roused by finding the camp on
fire. All ran to arms, thinking less of the fire than of
the Indians, and in darkness and silence waited to discover the quarter whence the attack would come; but
hearing no noise, and relieved from the apprehension of
enemies, they attempted to extinguish the flames. By
this time however the whole camp, and everything that
they had, were burned up. But they were not discouraged. The Captain gave notice of this misfortune to
his cousin in Campeachy, and resumed his march. In
the year 1540 he arrived at Tihoo.
' In a few days he was joined by forty other Spaniards,

A.D. 1540.]

THE LAST GENERAL BATTLE.

Ill

who were sent on by Don Francisco de Montejo; and at
this time some Indians came to them and said, ' What
are you doing here, Spaniards ? more Indians are coming against you, more than there are hairs on the skin of
a deer.' The Spaniards answered that they would go
out and seek them, and, leaving the guard in the camp,
the captain Don Francisco Montejo immediately set out,
came upon them at a place five leagues distant, and attacked them with such vigour that, though they at first
defended themselves bravely, the Spaniards gained upon
them, and killing many, the rest became disheartened,
and took to flight.
" In the meantime the son of the Adelantado arrived
from Campeachy, and being now ^11 united, and the Indians at first withholding all supplies, they very soon
began to suffer from want of provisions. While in this
condition, unexpectedly a great cacique from the interior
came to them voluntarily, and made submission. Some
neighbouring caciques of Tihoo, either moved by this
example, or finding that, after so many years of war,
they could not prevail against the Spaniards, also submitted. Encouraged by the friendship of these caciques,
and believing that they might count upon their succour
until they had finished the subjection of the country, the
Spaniards determined to form a city on the site occupied
by Tihoo; but in the meantime a terrific storm was
gathering over their heads. All the Indians from the
east of Tihoo were drawing together, and in the month
of June, towards the evening of the feast of Barnaby
the Apostle, an immense body, varying, according to
manuscript accounts, from forty to seventy thousand,
came down upon the small band of a little more than
two hundred then in Tihoo. The following day they at-

112

FOUNDATION OF MEEJDA.

[CHAP. VIT.

tacked the Spanish camp on all sides. The most terrible
battle the Spaniards had ever encountered ensued. ' Divine power/ says the pious historian, 'works more than
human valour. What were so few Catholics against so
many infidels?5 The battle lasted the greater part of
the day. Many Indians were killed, but immediately
others took their places; for they were so many that
they were like the leaves on the trees. The arquebuses
and crossbows made great havoc, and the horsemen carried destruction wherever they moved, cutting down the
fugitives, trampling underfoot the wounded and dying.
Piles of dead bodies stopped the Spaniards in their pursuit. The Indians were completely routed, and for a
great distance the ground was covered with their dead.
" The fame of the Spaniards rose higher than before,
and the Indians never rallied again for a general battle.
All this year the invaders were occupied in drawing to
them and conciliating the neighbouring caciques; and
on the 6th of January, 1542, they founded, with all
legal formality, on the site of the Indian town of Tihoo,
the 'very loyal and noble' city of Merida1."
The next step taken after the establishment of the
seat of government in Merida, in pursuance of the instructions given to Montejo to his son, was to pacificate
the provinces to the eastward, viz. Coni and Choaca,
where the earliest attempts at settlements had been
made; and in the month of May in the same year (1542)
the son of the Adelantado entered the province of Zotuta, inhabited by a tribe called the Cocomes. He experienced some resistance at first, but, unable to make
head against the Spaniards, the Indians retreated to the
mountains, and Montejo occupied the country, those who
1

Incidents of Travel, vol. i. ch. 3.

A.D. 1544.]

VALLADOLID AND SALAMANCA FOUNDED.

113

remained rendering however a very unwilling obedience.
A secure footing having now been obtained, Montejo extended the occupation of Yucatan; and on the 28th of
May, 1543, founded the city of Valladolid, in the province of Choaca, which he dedicated " t o the glorious
Virgin Mary;" but its site was subsequently changed
from Choaca to Zaqui, the situation of the latter place
affording greater advantages. To subjugate Bakhalal
was the next proceeding, and on this mission Gaspar
Pacheco was sent from Merida, with the titles of Captain-General and Lieutenant-Governor, accompanied by
a sufficient force. After overcoming great difficulties,
Pacheco succeeded in conquering the province, and in
1544 founded the city of Salamanca.
But though conquered, the Indians were not pacified.
They cherished an inveterate hatred to the Spaniards,
which manifested itself on every available occasion; and
it required the utmost watchfulness, energy, and concert,
to suppress the insurrections which from time to time
broke out, nor was it until the commencement of the
year 1547 that the final pacification of Yucatan can be
said to have been accomplished.

I

114

CHAPTER VIII.
F1EST P O P U L A T I O N O F Y U C A T A N . — P O E M OP G O V E E N M E N T . — T H E

LAWS

OP T H E MAYAS, T H E I E F O E M S OP W O E S H I P , AND S U P E E S T I T I O U S OBSEEVANCES.—WITCHCEAPT.—PAINTED
MAYAS.—HISTOEICAL

E E C O E D S . — C A L E N D A E OP T H E

EEAS.—EELKHOUS

SHIP.—CELEBEATED SHEINES.—BLOOD

CEEEMONIES.—IDOL

WOE-

SACRIFICES.—PEIESTCEAPT.

THE military subjugation of the northern districts of the
peninsula having now been effected, its more absolute
pacification by the aid of the Christian religion became
the main object of the conquerors. Previously however
to entering upon the narrative of conversion, it may be
desirable to give an outline of the moral condition of
the Natives, together with some indication of their early
history.
Opinion is divided with regard to the manner in which
Yucatan was first peopled, some writers affirming that
the early settlers came from the East, and others, with,
we think, a much greater show of probability, from the
West. Tradition tells that from the western land came
a large tribe, headed by a priest named Zamna, who
gave names to all the seaports, headlands, and other remarkable features of the country; but it is more likely
that the first influx of population is attributable to the
great victory that was gained by the nation of the Teo-

CHAP, VIII.]

FIRST POPULATION OF YUCATAN.

115

chichimecas over the Huexotzincas, by which the former
became masters of the province of Tlascala, and, making
peace with the surrounding tribes, gradually extended
their migrations eastward till they entered the peninsula
of Yucatan.
But the language of Yucatan is widely different from
that of Mexico, and on this fact the supporters of an
Eastern immigration ground their belief.
The Padre Lizana affirms that the inhabitants of the
eastern and western shores were quite distinct from each
other, calling the former "Genial" and the latter "Nohhuial" words which signify the "lesser" and "greater
descent" or "irruption." No records however exist to
guide us with any certainty towards the actual source
from whence the population proceeded, and we are compelled to fall back on the only known account of the
nation's origin.
It resolves itself simply into this,—that the country of
Yucatan, which the natives called Maya, was first governed by a single ruler, in whose family the supreme
authority remained, and whose last descendant was
Tutul Xiu, Cacique of Mani,—the same who, with a
number of dependent chiefs, came voluntarily, in the year
1541, to proffer friendship and submission to the Spanish
invaders.
This cacique, or king,—for the form of government is
stated to have been monarchical,—-reigned in a populous
city called Mayapan, which continued to be the capital
of the country until the year 1520 of our era, or two
hundred and seventy years from its foundation, according
to the computation of the Indians. At this period the
various caciques who rose to power during the intestine
wars which had long disturbed the kingdom, united for
i 2

116

LAWS OF THE MAYAS.

[CHAP. VIII.

the purpose of putting an end to the absolute sway of one,
and resolved on the destruction of Mayapan, a resolution
which they carried out, leaving the king no other possessions than the territory of Mani with its dependencies.
The country was thus broken up into numerous lordships, in each of which the same form of government and
the same customs continued to prevail.
Of these the most worthy of notice are such as affected
the general principles of the laws of the Mayas, their
forms of worship, and the superstitions which they practised.
The code of laws by which the natives of Yucatan were
governed appears to have been of very simple form. The
relative conditions of debtor and creditor were not recognized; but for such crimes as theft and adultery, the
offender, when caught in flagrante delicto, was seized,
his hands tied behind his back, a collar of wood was
fastened on his neck, and he was thrown into a strong
cage, until again brought out for judgment. In these
cages were also confined the prisoners whom they took
in battle. If they were of the common order, slavery
was their portion; if men of rank, they were sacrificed
to the idols, though in some cases ransom was allowed.
One particular cage was painted of different colours, and
in it were placed the children destined for sacrifice, as
well as those of mature age condemned to the same fate.
There was no appeal from the decrees of the judges, and
in certain cases the punishment was of the severest kind.
Adultery was looked upon as the greatest offence that
could be committed, and both sexes were punished alike,
being shot to death with arrows, or, according to Aguilar, impaled1. Rape and seduction also entailed the
1

Aguilar, fol. 81. col. 1, cited by Cogolludo.

CHAP, VIIL]

LAWS OF THE MAYAS.

117

punishment of death, and it is recorded that a cacique of
the city of Mayapan, the capital of the kingdom, caused
his own brother to be put to a terrible death for having
seduced a virgin. He who slew another was also capitally punished, but in what manner is not stated; he
was not, however, made a target for arrows1. If the
homicide was accidental, the price of blood was compounded for by the delivery of a slave; and if a minor
killed a man, his punishment was slavery. Death was
inflicted on traitors and incendiaries, and thieves were
condemned to be slaves till they were able to buy back
their liberty; and, failing to do this, were slaves for life.
In cases of adultery, when the crime was not actually
witnessed, but only strongly suspected, the presumed
offender was punished by having his hands tied behind
his back for a certain number of days or hours, or was
stripped naked, or had his hair cut off (which was considered a mark of great disgrace), according to the gravity
of the circumstances that weighed against him. In a
declaration of innocence, or the affirmation of any particular fact, oaths were not taken, but in.their stead
curses were launched against the supposed false witness,
in the belief that the fear of being cursed would prevent
a lie being uttered. It was not the custom to flog delinquents, this kind of punishment being unknown to
the Indians before they were reclaimed from infidelity.
"The abuses and superstitions/' observes Cogolludo,
" which the Indians of Yucatan inherit from their fathers,
are many and various. They believe in dreams, and interpret and accommodate them to the nature of affairs
which they have on hand. If they hear the cry of a
bird which they call kipckch, they derive a bad augury
1

" Aunque no moriaflechado."—•Cogolludo.

118

SUPERSTITIOUS OBSERVANCES.

[CHAP. vm.

for the success of any enterprise which they may have
undertaken, as the Spaniards themselves do after seeing
a fox or hearing a cuckoo. If a traveller finds a large
stone, such as are raised to point out the road, he reverences it by placing a branch upon it, and also wipes
the dust off, that he may not feel fatigue,—a tradition of
his ancestors. When he is travelling towards sunset,
and it seems to him that he will arrive late at his journey's end, he places a stone in the first tree he meets
with, in order that the sun may not go down too soon,
or he pulls out some of his eyelashes and blows them
towards the sun, to effect the same purpose. In eclipses
of the sun and moon, they make their dogs howl and
cry by pinching their bodies and ears, and at the same
time strike heavy blows on their tables, seats, and doors :
they say that the moon is dying, or that she is being
stung by a species of ants which they call Xulab. But
at the present time they are much disabused of this
error."
Cogolludo adds, that witchcraft was practised amongst
them, and that spells were used to cure the stings and
bites of insects and serpents, and he speaks of one old
wizard of the town of Tezoc, who enchanted and took a
rattle-snake in his hand by means of certain idolatrous
words, " which were an invocation to the devil, the prince
of darkness."
"When they build a new house," he tells us, "which
is about every ten or twelve years, they will not enter
nor inhabit it till a wizard has blessed it with his incantations. They believe in divination, and decide chances
by a handful of maize, counting the grains to see whether they are odd or even, and drawing their conclusion
accordingly. In the city of Merida," continues Cogo-

CHAP, VIII.]

WITCHCRAFT.

119

lludo, " it is notorious that there are Indian witches who
with certain words open roses before their season for
blowing, and give them to those who desire to compel
women to their bad purposes: these offer the roses to
smell, or place them under the pillow, and if the person
to whom they are given inhales the scent, she loses her
reason for a length of time, and calls for him who gave
it her, and for whom the rose was opened. I have heard
too of Indian women of the same city who prepare their
chocolate with certain enchantments by means of which
to torment their husbands."
In the days of their infidelity, the Indians of Yucatan were in the habit of using books made of the bark
of trees, glued together with a kind of white paste or
cement, as much as ten or twelve yards wide, which they
doubled up like a palm-leaf. On this they painted in
colours the history of the year,—its wars, " inundations 1 /'
hurricanes, famines, and other accidents. From one of
these, " which," says Cogolludo, " was obtained from the
idolaters by Aguilar, it appears that they had at one
time been afflicted by a terrible pestilence, called Mayacimil, and by another called Oena Kuchil, meaning sudden death, on which occasions the crows entered the
houses to eat the dead bodies there. The inundations or
hurricanes they called Hunyecil, c tree floods' {anegacion
de drboles)."
They counted three hundred and sixty-five days in the
year, divided into months of twenty days. The 12th
of January they called Yaax; the 1st of February, Zac;
from thence to the 21st, Ceh; to the 13th of March,
Mac; to the second of April, Kan Kin; to the 22nd,
1
The inundations must have
been scarce in a country where, as

in the northern part of Yucatan,
there are no rivers.

120

CALENDAR OF THE MAYAS.

[CHAP. VITI.

Muan; to the 12th of May, Paax; and to the 1st of
June, Kayab. The month Cum Ku began on the 21st
of June; that of Vayeab on the 11th of July: this
month bore also the name of TJtuz kin and Ulobol kin,
signifying an evil time, for during that period occurred
the five days which were necessary to complete the year,
and which were considered unlucky. On the 17th of
July began the month called Poop; on the 6th of August, Voo; on the 26th, Cijp; on the 15th of September,
Zeec; in October, Xul; in November, Yax kin; in December, Moot; and the month of Cheen ended on the
11th of January. This mode of computation divided
the year into eighteen months, the new year commencing on the 17th of July. Besides the bad reputation of
the supplementary five days, they were called the nameless days, and the Indians believed, with the fatalist of
Plautus 1 , that they were set apart for all the "ills that
flesh is heir to." When these "nefasti dies" (from the
12th to the 16th of July inclusive) came round, they
would not on any account leave their houses, but stored
them beforehand with everything that they were likely
to want, so that they should not be obliged to go abroad.
Their most idolatrous rites were practised on these occasions, prayers being offered up to the Gods to protect
them from harm, and give them a happy year, with
abundant crops.
They counted their eras and ages, which they inserted
in their books, from twenty to twenty years, and by
lustres of four and four. The first year they fixed in
the east, calling it Cuchhaab; the second, in the west,
called Hijx; the third in the south, Cavac; and the
fourth, Muluc, in the north. These answered the pur1

" Hie ille est dies cum nulla vitse salus sperabilis est mecum."

CHAP, VIII.]

HISTORICAL ERAS.

121

pose of Dominical letters. When five of the lustres had
accomplished twenty years, they called the period Katun,
and placed one carved stone upon another, cemented
with lime and sand on the walls of their temples and in
the houses of the priests, " as may be seen," says Cogolludo, " at this day on certain walls of our convent at
Merida in some of the cells. There is one town called
Ticcualahtun, where these stones are to be seen, which it
is said contain the archives of the nation, reference being
made on them to every remarkable event, as in Spain, in
the archives of Simancas1."
On great solemnities and days of festival they scarified themselves with lancets made of sharp flint, making
incisions on their breasts, arms, and muscular parts; and
having drawn blood, filled up the wounds with a sort of
black earth or powdered charcoal, which assumed the
forms of serpents, birds, and other animals previously
traced with the lancets, and were indelible. They also
pierced their nostrils for ornaments. Like the Mexicans,
they had their peculiar dances and songs, and were led
1
Mr. Stephens remarks, in his
* Incidents of Travel,' (vol. ii. p .
119,) that " the calendar of Yucatan, though differing in some
particulars, was substantially the
same" with that of the Mexicans.
I t had a similar solar year of three
hundred and sixty-five days, divided in the same manner, first
into eighteen months of twenty
days each, with five supplementary
days, and, secondly, into twentyeight weeks of thirteen days each,
with an additional day. I t had
the same method of distinguishing
t e days of the year by a combination of those two series, and the
same cycle of fifty-two years, in
which the years, as in Mexico, are
distinguished by a combination of

the same series of thirteen, with
another of four names or hieroglyphics; b u t Don Pio (Perez) acknowledges that in Yucatan there
is no certain evidence of the intercalation (similar to our Leap year,
or to the Mexican secular addition of thirteen days) necessary to
correct the error resulting from
counting the year as equal to three
hundred and sixty-five days only."
F o r an account of the "Katunes"
or epoch of the^Yueatecos, in connection with their calendar, the
reader is referred to the translation of the "manuscript written
in the Maya language," b y Don
Pio Perez, which is appended to
the 2nd volume of M r . Stephens's
' Incidents of Travel.'

12&

RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.

[CHAP. VIII.

on by one to whom all obedience was paid, who was
called ITolpop, and directed the music, made up of drums
(Tuncules), flutes, trumpets, conchs, and tortoise-shell
instruments. The Tuncul was made of hollow wood,
and some were so large that, down the wind, the noise
made on them could be heard at a distance of two
leagues. The songs they sang on these occasions were
local legends and other antique ballads, for which the
missionaries afterwards substituted legends of the saints
and mysteries of the faith. It appears also that a kind
of drama was not wanting to these arrangements, as
there were actors who represented the action of fables
and stories of an old time; they were clever too in their
mimicry and jests, which they made at the expense of
their great men and judges, whom they took this mode
of reproving. These actors were called Balzam, a name
corresponding to that of buffoon or jester.
The principal features of the religious faith of the
aborigines of Yucatan appears to have been their belief
in one sole Deity, formless, and incapable of being represented by signs or drawings, and bearing the name
of Hunab ku, from whom proceeded all things, and whom,
being incorporate, they adored by no imaged shape.
They entertained some notion of places of reward and
punishment hereafter, and assigned a place in their ritual
to the Devil, to whom they gave the appellation Xibilba,
significant of one who suddenly disappears or vanishes.
Respecting the first creation of man, they believed that
he was formed of earth and straw, the former supplying
the flesh and bones, and the latter the hair and beard.
The most celebrated place of worship of the Yucatecos
was in the island of Cozumel, and thither they used to
wend in pilgrimage to make their chief offerings and

CHAP, VIIL]

IDOL WORSHIP.

123

sacrifices, and pray for the fulfilment of their desires;
but they had nevertheless other temples, the most remarkable being those at Utzmal (or Uxumual), at Chichen
Itza, in the town of Ytzamal, between Chapab and Telchuquillo, and others situated on the eastern coast. The
priests who officiated in these temples wore ample garments of white cotton, and suffered their hair to grow
very long, and it became so matted with the blood of
their sacrifices that, without cutting it away, it could
not be combed. The sacrifices were men, women, and
children, and the inferior animals. Easting for two or
three days at a time was amongst their practices, and
during their fasts the priests scarified themselves till
they brought blood, which they offered to the Devil.
Cogolludo gives a long list of the names of many of the
idols of the Yucatecos. One of these represented a
powerful goddess, In agal Voh, otherwise Ice Kaulcooo,
who was supposed to be the wife of the principal Deity,
and the mother of Ytzamnd, the god who invented written characters. To her was given the credit of having
first introduced the art of weaving cotton for dresses.
Another idol was in the semblance of a goddess called
Yxchebelyax, the inventress of painting. The gods of
song and music, to whom statues were erected, were
Xocbitum and Ah-Kin Xooc, and there was also a god of
poesy, named Pizlimtec. Their god of war was Kuhulcan,
and they had another warlike divinity whom they called
Kak upacat, or "face of flame/' who covered himself in
battle with a buckler of fire. They had gods also who
were Atlantean in their capacity, supporting the heavens
on their shoulders, and known by the generic name of
Bacdh They had too the prototypes of iEolus and his
fellows, in gods who ruled the winds • and one gigantic

124

IDOL WORSHIP.

[CHAP. vm.

deity, named Chac, was adored as the inventor of agriculture, and the ruler of thunder and lightning. The
god who governed the five evil days of the year was
called Mul Turn Tzec, and presided over bad weather.
There were besides numbers of minor deities, whose
attributes were as various as those of the Greek and
Roman mythologies, to whom they bore in many respects a striking resemblance.
Cogolludo speaks moreover of a famous temple at
Ytzamal, where the idol Ytzamat ul was honoured; his
name signifying one who possesses the grace or dew of
heaven. The Indians said he was a great king, whom
they adored as a son of the gods, and when they prayed
to him, asking who he was, the sole reply he gave was,
" Ytzencaan, Ytzenmuyal" "I am the dew or substance
of the heavens and the clouds." On the death of this
king altars were raised to him, and oracles were delivered
to those who came to consult them at his shrine. It was
asserted that this divinity had the power of restoring the
dead to life, and curing the sick and maimed. Cogolludo is of opinion that Ytzamal ul was a great wizard,
who deceived the Indians by a compact which he had
made with the Devil. He describes another temple of
great renown, situated on the southern slope of a high
ridge which was dedicated to the same idol, but worshiped there under the form of a hand, the name of Kab
ul, which it bore, signifying "the hand that wrought; 5 '
and the votaries used to travel from all parts, not only
of Yucatan, but of Mexico, New Spain, and Guatemala. On a similar northern slope was a temple dedicated to Kinich kahno, an idol fashioned like the sun,
with the beak of a bird: he was surrounded by rays
of fire, and descended to burn the offered sacrifice at

CHAP, vin.]

r

IDOL WORSHIP.

125

midday, as the vacamuya (a bright-feathered parrot) descends in its flight. This idol was resorted to to avert
the calamity of pestilence and mortal ailment. The inhabitants of Campeachy adored a god of cruelty, named
Kinchahm haban, to whom they offered the sacrifice of
human blood; while the people of Tihoo had a similar
deity, whose name is Achun caan. The list closes with
the deification of those women who in their lifetime had
preserved their virginity, and thence were called Zuhny
Kahy or virgin fire.
The question has arisen whether or not the idolatrous
Yucatecos were a circumcised race. Cogolludo denies
the fact, but earlier authorities assert it without hesitation,—amongst them, Peter Martyr, who was contemporaneous with the discoveries of Yucatan. His account
of the ceremonies of the people of Cozumel is appropriate
in this place1.
" They are," he says, " circumcised idolatours, and sacrifyce children of both kyndes to their Zemes, which
are the images of their familiar and domestical], spirites,
which they honour as goddes. When I enquired of
Alaminus, the pilote, also of Francis Montegius and
Portocarerius, from whence they had the children they
offered in sacrifyce, they answered that they bowght
them in the Islandes theraboute by exchaunge for golde
and other of their trafycke. For in all this so large a
space of land, the develyshe anxietie for the desyre of
wicked money hath not yet oppressed the inhabitantes.
They saye the same also of the Islandes lately founfle,
1
* The Decades of the JSTewe
Worlde, or West India. Written
in the Latine tounge, by Peter
Martyr, of Angleria, and translated into Englysshe by Richard

Eden. Londini: -in iEdibns Guilhelmi Powell. Anno MDLV. bl. 1.
Imprynted at London in Paule's
Churchyarde, at the sign of the
Byble, by Rycharde Jug.'

126

BLOODY SACRIFICE.

[CHAP. vm.

whereof two are named Destam and Sestam, whose inhabitants go naked; and for scarcenesse of children, sacrifice dogges, which they nourish as well for that purpose as we do counies. These dogges are dumme and
cannot barke, havynge snowtes like unto foxes. Suche
as they destinate to eate, they geld while they are
whelpes, wherby they waxe very fat in the space of foure
monethes. They reserve al the bytches for increase, and
but few dogges. Oure men disswaded them from these
superstitions, declarynge how they were abhominable and
detested of God. They were soon perswaded, and desyred a law whiche they myght folowe. Owre men
therefore declared unto them that there was only one
god, which made heaven and earth, the giver of al good
thynges, being of one incomprehensyble substaunce under triplicite of person. As soone as they hearde these
wordes, they broke their zemes, and pared, scraped, and
washed the pavements and waules of their temples.
Owre men gave them a painted picture of the blessed
vyrgine, which they placed reverently in their temple,
and above it a crosse, to be honoured in the remembrance
of god and man, and the salvation of mankynde. They
erected also an other great crosse of wood in the toppe
of the temple, whyther they oftentymes resorte together
to honour the Image of the vyrgine 1 ."
Of the idolatrous ceremonies on the western coast of
Yucatan, the same author gives the following description.
" After this banquet, the kyng with his traine and famylie brought our men into a brode crosse way where
many streats <k> meate. In this, they shewed them as
it were a great and highe aulter buylded foure-square of
1

The tliyrde decade, fol. 156-7.

CHAP, VIII.]

BLOODY SACRIFICES.

127

marble compacte together partly with the toughe cleye
of Babilon cauled Bitumen, and partly with smaule
stoones. It had on every syde foure steares. Uppon
the altare was an image of a man made of marble: and
fast by it the images of two beastes of unknowen shape,
which seemed as thoughe they wolde with yanynge
mouthes have torne in sunder the bealy of the mannes
image. On the other syde stoode a great serpent compacte of the sayde toughe cleye and smaule stoones.
This serpent beyng in length xlvii foote, and of the bygnesse of a large oxe, seemed to devour a lyon of marble,
and was al by sparcled with freshe bludde. Harde by
the altare were three postes fastned in the ground, the
whiche three others traversed and were susteined with
stones. In this place offenders were put to death. In
token whereof they saw innumerable arrows steined with
bludde, sum scatered, sum lying on heapes, and sum
broken : also a great number of mennes bones lying in
a court or yarde were neare, unto this funestal place."
Gomara, writing of Montejo's expedition, gives a similar account of the bloody sacrifices by which the religious worship of the Yucatecos wTas characterized; he
speaks of their commerce with the Devil, and mentions
the fact, noticed in all the early narratives, of the existence of crosses on their temples when the discovery of
Yucatan was first made, observing that, from the latter
circumstance, it has been argued that the Spaniards
must have taken them there when so many left Spain
after the defeat of King Roderick by the Moors1. In
closing the account which Cogolludo gives on the au1
" Todos ydolatran, sacrificando
algunos hombres, y aparaceles el
diablo, especial en Acuzamil, y Xicalanco: y aim despues que son

christianos los ha enganado hartas
vezes, y ellos lian sido castigado
por ello. Eran grandes santuarios, Acuzamil y Xicalanco, y cada

128

PRIESTCRAFT.

.

[CHAP. vm.

thority of Dr. Sanchez, Aguilar, and the Padre Lizana, he
also speaks of the famous temple in the island of Cozumel where the principal idol was enshrined.
This idol, which was, he says, of singular aspect, was
placed in a square temple; it was of great size, hollow,
and made of burnt clay plastered with mortar. In the
shoulders of the figure was a sort of sacristy, into which
the priests entered by a small concealed door from behind, and, when there, replied to all the questions that
were addressed to the idol by the pilgrims below. The
oracles were implicitly believed, and more offerings were
made at this shrine than at any other in Yucatan, and
more sacrifices of blood, of birds, of dogs, and sometimes of human life.
pueblo tenia alii su templo, 6 su
altar, do yvan a adorar sus dioses. Y entre ellos nmchas crazes
de palo y de laton. De donde arguyen algunos que muchos Espanoles se fueron a esta tierra quando

la destruycion de Espana, hecha
por los Moros en tiempo del rey
Donltodrigo."—Gomara: LaHistoria de las Indias, cap. liv., " De
las costumbres de Yucatan."

129

CHAPTER IX.
E M P L O Y M E N T OF M I S S I O N A E I E S I N Y U C A T A N . — F A T H E E JACOB D E

TES-

T E E A . — F A V O U E A B L E E E C E P T I O N OF T H E F E A N C I S C A N S . — T H E I N D I A N S
O F F E E T H E I E C H I L D E E N F O E B A P T I S M . — O U T E A G E S BY SOME S P A N I A E D S . — W I T H D E A W A L OF T E S T E E A ' s M I S S I O N . — T H E SECOND M I S S I O N .
MISSION OF F A T H E E L U I S D E V I L L A L P A N D O . — M O N T E J O ' S
TO

THE

MAYA

CACIQUES

AT

LANGUAGE.—THE

CIQUES.—OPEN

EEVOLT.—BAEBAEOUS

OF

THE

F I E S T BAPTISM. — CONSPIEACY OF T H E CA-

P E I S O N E E S . — I N C I D E N T S OF T H E
GONZALES. — S I E G E

ADDEESS

CAMPEACHY. — VILLALPANDO ACQUIEES

CEUELTY

TOWAEDS

SPANISH

E E V O L T . — T H E ESCAPE OF D I E G O

VALLADOLID.—THE

INDIANS DEFEATED

MONTE J O T H E Y O U N G E E . — G E N E E A L PACIFICATION OF T H E

BY

PENIN-

S U L A . — R E N E W E D E F F O E T S OF T H E M I S S I O N A E I E S . — N U M E E O U S

CON-

V E E S I O N S . — T H E M I S S I O N A E I E S ' L I V E S E N D A N G E E E D . — E E V E L A T I O N OF
T H E PLOT B Y A C H I L D . — F E A E F U L P O S I T I O N O F T H E
— T H E I E ACCIDENTAL E E S C U E . — ' T H E
TAINS.—INTEECESSION

OF

INDIANS

VILLALPANDO

ADELANTADO.—CLEEICAL A U T H O E I T Y

AND

MISSIONAEIES.

F L Y TO T H E
CLEMENCY

MOUNOF

THE

ESTABLISHED.

INDEPENDENTLY of the spirit of proselytism, which was
ever more active in Spain than in any other part of
Europe, the policy of employing religion as the most
effective means of subjugating the newly-discovered
countries, had always governed the Council-General of
the Indies.
It has been seen, that when the expedition of Montejo was first sanctioned, the "Capitulacion" made it an
express condition that one missionary at least should
accompany it; and it was not without reason that the
K

180

FIRST MISSION TO YUCATAN.

[CHAP. IX.

Council animadverted severely upon the non-fulfilment
of this essential feature of his contract.
Steps were accordingly taken to remedy the evil, and
on the 22nd of September, 1533, a Royal Cedula was
issued by the Queen in Council in Madrid1, which set
forth that, " having been informed that Francisco de
Montejo, our Governor of Yucatan and Cozumel, had
not accomplished that which he had been commanded
to do, and had not carried with him the missionaries
whom he ought to have taken with him to the said
country, the same being a great impediment to the conversion of the natives, which is our principal desire," it
decreed that a Mission2 should forthwith be sent, and
instructions to that effect were forwarded to Don Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of Hispaniola, which island
was the head-quarters of the Franciscan religious establishments beyond the seas.
Father Jacob de Testera, a Frenchman by birth, a
man, says Cogolludo, " most zealous for the salvation of
souls," volunteered his services on this occasion, being
at the time Custodio of the Province of Santo Evangelio,
of Mexico. He took with him four assistants, and proceeded to Champoton, and on his arrival at that place
sent a message to the Indians, to the effect that he came
with peaceable intentions, without arms, and solely for
the purpose of bringing them to the knowledge of the
true God.
This message was conveyed by a deputation of Mexicans, and the natives, after much consultation, received
1

It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that, although
Queen Joanna, the mother of the
Emperor Charles Y., was utterly
incapable of attending to public
business (being in fact insane), her

name was always associated with,
and preceded, that of her son in the
government of Spain, as long as she
lived.
2
Cogolludo, lib. ii. cap. xii. p.
102.

A.D. 1533.]

RECEPTION OF THE FRANCISCANS.

131

it favourably, and gave leave to the Franciscans to enter
their country. As soon as they had done so, the Indian
caciques voluntarily brought their idols to be burnt, and
then offered their children, that they might be taught
the new faith; those children whom, according to the
words of Las Casas, " they loved more than the light of
their own eyes." The Indians further agreed to recognize the authority of the King of Spain in their dominions, " twelve or fifteen lords of many vassals and
much territory" becoming surety for the performance of
this agreement. Their conversion was however delayed
by an outrage committed by a party of some thirty Spaniards, who, under the pretext of taking away idols,
captured a great many Indians, both male and female.
Father Jacob de Testera, dreading the effect which such
violence must produce in the minds of his intended converts, tried to induce the thirty Spaniards to leave the
country, but the Indians became indignant, believing
that the Franciscans had broken their promises and endeavoured to kill them. Apprehending their danger,
Testera and his companions left Champoton by night,
and had proceeded some distance from thence on their
return to Mexico, when messengers overtook them from
the caciques, who, having learnt in the meantime that
the Franciscans were innocent of the outrages committed
by their armed countrymen, sent after them to beg them
to return. They did so, and " were received like angels1"
by the Indians, who were prodigal of their services; and
all might have gone well, but for the conduct of the thirty
Spaniards, who refused to quit the country/ and were
1

" Torn&ronseasutierra, yfueron recibidos de los Indios como

angeles."-—CogoUudo, lib. ii. cap.
xiii. p. 105.
K 2

132

THE SECOND MISSION.

[CHAP. IX.

continually inflicting injuries upon the natives1. Fearing
therefore that these wrongs might one day be resented
on themselves, the Franciscans, after a stay of four or
five months, resolved to return to Mexico, and thus
ended the first religious mission.
The second body of friars who went to Yucatan were
five in number. Their names are not mentioned, but
we learn from Torquemada2 that they were sent from
Mexico in the year 1537, by Father Antonio de Ciudad
Rodrigo, at that time Provincial of Santo Evangelio.
They first visited Guacasualco, proceeded thence to Tabasco and Xicalanco, and passed onward to Champoton
and Campeachy. Their stay in the country was about
two years; and although at the expiration of the period
the mission was relinquished, they reported very favourably of the capacity of the Indians to receive the true
faith, and of their willingness to adopt it.
An interval of nine years appears to have passed before any other formal missions were sent; though wherever the Spaniards founded cities, religious establishments were necessarily prominent features of their occupation ; and it is not till the year 1546 that we find the
conversion of the Indians once more the paramount object of the new occupants of their country.
In that year however a vigorous effort was made
throughout the vast territory which during the last halfcentury the Spaniards had acquired in the New World,
and no less than a hundred and fifty missionaries were
despatched from Spain. Twelve of this body were established in. Guatemala, Father Torribio de Montolinia
being their Commissary, with orders to detach some of
1
" No cessaban de hazer agrafios a los Indios."—Cogolludo.

2
De la Monarquia Indiana, lib.
xix. cap. 13. (Madrid, 1723.)

A.D. 1546.]

MISSION OF VILLALPANDO.

133

their number to Yucatan. These orders were communicated by the Commissary to the Adelantado, who was at
that time at Chiapa, and on the point of returning to the
peninsula. The intelligence gave him great satisfaction,
as he clearly saw that the absolute pacification of the
country could be expected from religious exertions alone.
He set out therefore for his Government, it having been
settled that he should be accompanied by Father Luis
de Villalpanclo, a commissary, Father Juan de Albalato,
Angel Maldonado, Lorenzo de Bienvenida, and Melchor
de Benavente, priests, and Father Juan de Herrera, laybrother. It was determined that Bienvenida should
enter the province on the eastern side, and he was accordingly sent from Guatemala to the Gulf of Dulce,
whence he sailed to Bakhalal. The rest of the missionaries remained in Guatemala a short time after Bienvenida's departure; but when they reached Chiapa they
found that the Adelantado had set out for Yucatan a
month before. It was therefore upon their own resources
that the Fathers had to depend for the prosecution of
their journey, and many difficulties and dangers attended their progress across the country that lies between
Chiapa and Tabasco, in the course of which they passed by
the famous ruins of Palenque1. They arrived however in
safety at San Francisco de Campeche (Campeachy), where
they found the Adelantado, his son, and many noble
1
" Como no le hallaron alii, partieronconbreyedadenprosecucion
de su viage, padeciendo grandes
trabaj os y cansancios, por ser aque11a tierra asperissima, grandes cuestas, y pantanosas, que aim andadas
en buenas mulas, es penosissimo
viage; y lo restante, en baxando a
Tabasco, a los rios por el pueblo
que llaman el Palenque, lo mas

es cenagal 6 atolladeros * a cada
passo, tierra caliente, mosquitos
sin numero de dia y de nocke, incomodidades que dan bien a entender lo que padecerian viniendo a
pie y descalcos tan largo viage,
como trecientas leguas de estas calidades, que ay desde G-uatemala a
estas provincias."—Cogolludo, lib.
v. cap. 1.

134

BAPTISM OF INDIANS.

[CHAP. ix.

Conquistadors, who had gone thither to receive Montejo
in his capacity of Governor of the province. They were
warmly welcomed by all, and in particular by the Adelantado, who received them into his own house, that he
might more freely confer with them on the best means
of effecting the conversion of the Indians. Montejo, who
appears to have been most anxious to make up for his
neglect in leaving Spain without a proper staff of missionaries, caused the principal caciques of the district to
be assembled at Oampeachy, and addressed them in an
elaborate speech, in which he told them for what purpose
the Franciscan Fathers had arrived, and called upon
them to pay them the same respect and obedience as
they would have shown to the Emperor himself had he
been present. The Indians attentively listened to this
discourse, and manifested the liveliest desire to receive
the doctrines which the missionaries came to propagate.
But Villalpando soon discovered that his party were
too few in number to make any rapid progress, and it
was agreed that Father Juan de Albalato should be sent
to Spain to obtain a reinforcement. He was accordingly
despatched thither; and while the Adelantado went on
to Merida, the seat of government, Villalpando remained
at Campeachy, where he founded a convent, which he
dedicated to St. Francis, and then with his companions
zealously set to work to convert the natives, learning
their language, says Cogolludo, with a rapidity which
declared it to be a miracle wrought by the Divine Majesty 1 . The first Indian whom they baptized was the
Cacique of Campeachy, and they gave him the title and
name of Don Diego Na. He also, on his part, soon
learned the Castilian tongue, and was of great service to
1

" En que parecia obro la Magestad Divina una cosa milagrosa."

A.D. 1564.]

CONSPIRACY OF THE CACIQUES.

135

the Fathers, as their interpreter, with the Indians of remoter districts; he showed indeed so much aptitude to
learn, that the Franciscans even taught him Latin 1 .
" But," observes Cogolludo, " without doubt the enemy
of the human race became jealous of seeing himself despoiled of the authority which he had exercised for so
many centuries, and therefore stirred up the minds of
the Kupules and the inhabitants of Bakhalal against the
Spaniards, in such sort that they were in great danger
of losing all the fruits of their labours." The peril arose
in this manner.
Of all those who yielded to the authority of the
Spaniards, the tribe called the Ah-Kupules, who inhabited
the eastern provinces of Yucatan, had manifested the
greatest repugnance. They had been taught too severe
a lesson by the military prowess of their conquerors to
venture to meet them openly in arms again, and their
only resource now was to plot in secret. United with the
Ah-Kupules in this conspiracy were the caciques of Zotula, Yaxcaba, and the chiefs of various neighbouring
tribes,—the same who had revolted against the authority of Tutul Xiu, and cut off the heads of certain
ambassadors whom he sent to counsel them to render
obedience to the Spaniards, when they possessed themselves of the city of Mayapan. The conspirators kept
their designs with the closest secresy until the 9th of
November, 1546, on which day the revolt broke forth,
in different parts, as had been previously agreed on. The
first victims to the vengeance of the Indians were two
brothers, named Juan and Diego Cansino, living at the
time in the town of Chemayo, who were so little suspicious
of any plot against them, that they were made prisoners
1

'\Le kallaron tan liabil, que le eriseMron la latinidad."

136

MURDER OF SPANISH PRISONERS.

[CHAP. IX.

without arms, and almost without resistance. Deep was
the hatred which these eastern tribes bore to the Spaniards, and they showed it on this occasion in the lingering
death to which the two brothers were consigned. They
fastened them to two crosses, and withdrawing the distance of a bow-shot, discharged their arrows at them till
their bodies were filled with the shafts, accompanying
every murderous flight with all the blasphemies they
could devise against the religion of the sufferers. This
horrible torture lasted throughout the day, and when
the sun went down the martyred men knew by their
failing strength and fast-flowing blood that death was at
hand. In the last hour of their agony they commended
themselves to the Virgin, faintly sang the ' Salve Regina/ and yielded up their spirits to their Creator.
When the Indians saw that they were dead, they took
them down from the crosses and cut off their heads,
which they set upon stakes, and bore aloft as tokens of
victory ; nor did this act alone content them : the limbs
of the unhappy victims were dismembered and sent far
and wide amongst the people, that they might know
how the work of revolt had begun.
Simultaneously with the murder of the brothers Cansino, a party of Indians assailed the encomienda of
Captain Hernando de Aguilar, which was called Cehake,
distant about twelve leagues from the new city of Valladolid, and having captured him, they put him to death
the same night, cutting off his head, legs, and arms,
which they sent round to their confederates, to excite
them to similar acts. Another Spaniard, named Juan
Lopez de Mena, living in his encomienda at Paztemax,
was more fortunate than Aguilar, for, hearing the approach of the Indians, he set fire to his house on all

A.D. 1546.]

,

ESCAPE OF GONZALES.

137

sides, and* in the confusion made his escape, leaving behind him however two Spanish boys and some Indians,
his servants, whom the rebels ruthlessly slew. He succeeded in reaching Valladolid.
An attempt was also made by the tribe of Calotmul
upon the encomienda of Diego Gonzales de Ayala, but
he, being armed, made so valorous a defence, with only
a single Negro slave to back him, that he forced his
way on horseback through the multitude of Indians who
surrounded his house, and, with the Negro behind him,
galloped off on the road to the city, closely pursued by
his foes. After a time his horse became exhausted, and
he was compelled to stop for awhile, which gave the Indians time to get up with him: for their mutual safety
the Negro dismounted, and together they faced their
pursuers with so much courage that the latter fell back,
giving them time to* mount again and increase the distance between them. Cogolludo adds a curious incident
to this account of the flight of Diego Gonzales. " There
is/ 5 he says, " on this road a fruit-tree of the kind named
Zapotes, which is now called the 'tree of the hook' (it
was shown to me when passing by to visit the convents
in that part), because on this occasion the Conquistador,
riding up very much fatigued, and feeling, though the
Indians were close behind him, that his best defence lay
in the swiftness of his flight, he unbraced his shield, and
hung it on one of the branches. Some people say," continues the historian, " that he hung his saddlebags there;
but he left his house so suddenly and amid so much
danger, that it does not appear likely he should encumber himself with saddlebags, but rather with arms to
strike and defend himself with 1 /'
1

"Ay en el camino un arbol fmtal, se Uaman Zapotes, que oy

138

SIEGE OF VALLADOLID.

[CHAP. IX.

The entire number of Spaniards who were killed in
different places was sixteen, and the murderers offered
the greater part of the dead bodies as sacrifices to their
ancient idols. " The names of those who fell/* says
Cogolludo, " that I have been able to collect, besides the
three I have mentioned, were Juan de Villanueva, who
had been a maestro de campo at the time of the conquest, Juan de la Torre, Caudillo, Pedro Zurujano, Juan
de Azamar, Bernardo or Bernardino de Villagomez, and
Pedro Duran: to them and to the rest God has given
glory!"
The Indians having done all the mischief in their
power in every township, now united their forces to
attack the city of Valladolid. The Spaniards who were
garrisoned there, learning what had occurred, prepared
for their defence, and sent for assistance to the city of
Merida ; their force consisting of only twenty men, with
the addition of the refugees Juan de la Mena and Diego
Gonzales de Ayala. But these brave Conquistadors had
no intention of remaining behind their walls for the
attack of their enemies, and, without waiting for the reinforcements from Merida, boldly sallied out to meet the
Indians, who, dismayed at the courage of the Castilians,
advanced no nearer to the city. A skirmish however
ensued, in which the Indians suffered great loss, while
on the part of the Spaniards not a man was killed, and
the latter retired in good order into the city.
In the meantime the Spaniards of*Merida, to the
dia le nombran el arbol de Garabato (y a milemostraron passando
a visitar los conventos de aquel
territorio), porque en esta ocasion,
viendole este Conquistador cansado, algo lexos de los Indios, y
siendo la mayor defensa huir con

mas presteza, colgo la adarga de
unarama de el. Algunos dizen que
fueron unas alforjas; pero salida
tan repentina y peligrosa,no parece
daria lugar a buscar mas alforjas
que arma con que ofender y defenclerse."

A. D. 1547.]

DEFEAT OF THE INDIANS.

139

number of forty soldiers, advanced under the command
of the Alcalde Francisco Tamayo Pacheco, to succour
Valladolid. They found the place nearly surrounded by
Indians, and although the garrison had strongly fortified
themselves, the increasing numbers of the enemy rendered their position very precarious. On the departure
of Pacheco the other Alcalde of Merida, named Eodrigo
Alvarez, sent word of the outbreak to the Adelantado,
who was at that moment absent from the city> and on
the receipt of the intelligence, measures were taken to
reduce the Indians, the command being given to Francisco de Montejo the younger, who, with several experienced captains and a force of forty-nine soldiers, threw
themselves into Valladolid, and awaited the opportunity
of giving the enemy battle. For some days the combined force remained inactive, expecting to see the rebels
retire; but as the Indians showed no intention of doing
so, nor desisted from their hostile demonstrations, Montejo' began to fear that the honour of his country was
endangered, since the presence of so many Spaniards
was without effect, and he resolved to act upon the offensive, though his own desire, and that of the Adelantado,
had been to induce the Indians to disperse without having recourse to arms. Another of those bloody conflicts
then took place, in which, although the rebels were
worsted, the loss to the Spaniards was very great, no
less than twenty Conquistadors being slain, besides upwards of five hundred of the Indians who had remained
faithful to them; for the enemy fought with a desperation which was inspired by the recollection that they
were seeking to regain their liberty. Yet the battle was
so fatal to them that they did not venture to hold their
ground after Montejo had withdrawn into the city, but

140

PACIFICATION OF THE PENINSULA.

[CHAP. IX.

broke up their camp and retired within their own territory, resolved to defend it by all the means in their
power.
Relieved from this anxiety, the Spanish captains divided their forces, and marched upon those places where
their countrymen had been so cruelly put to death, and
although they met with considerable resistance, it w^as
not long before the disturbed districts in the neighbourhood of Valladolid were again reduced to order. Francisco de Montejo, the Adelantado's son, who had the
supreme command, showed great lenity towards all the
prisoners that were taken; and this mild policy went
much further towards pacificating the country, than if
vengeance had been taken for the atrocities which the
Indians had committed.
The insurrection had not however been confined to
the province of Valladolid, but found numerous partisans
in that of Chetemal, within the jurisdiction of Salamanca
de Bakhalal, where a Spanish captain, named Martin
Rodriguez, was attacked by the Indians in his encomienda at Chamlacao, and murdered. Juan de Aguilar
took command of an expedition against the insurgents,
and proceeded to Chamlacao,<—a place very difficult of
access, as it was situated on a small island in the midst
of a broad lake, and was moreover well fortified. But,
influenced less by this consideration than the desire to
effect his object peaceably, and thus save the effusion of
blood on both sides, Aguilar was well disposed to treat
with the rebels, and, the wife of the Cacique of Chamlacao having been taken prisoner by some of the Spaniards of Salamanca, an opportunity was afforded him
of doing so. He therefore sent back the cacique's wife,
and her testimony in favour of the honourable treatment

A. D. 1547.]

RENEWED MISSIONS.

141

she had experienced from the Spaniards operated so
strongly upon the mind of the revolted chief that he at
once made his submission, and his threatened resistance
was changed to a most pacific welcome, Aguilar and his
troops being received as guests in the stronghold of
Chamlacao.
With the pacification of the eastern part of Yucatan
this episode of revolt was brought to a close, after a duration of about four months, and from that time forward
no further attempt was made by the Indians to recover
their independence, and the work of religious conversion
was again resumed.
It had prospered on the western shores of the peninsula, and Father Luis de Villalpando now devoted
himself to its extension in the interior, regardless of the
toils and privations which were to be encountered.
Every difficulty was met with firmness and patience, and
the mild persuasive doctrines which the missionaries
preached, enforced by the blameless character of their
lives, operated most favourably upon the minds of the
Indians, who came in numbers to the baptismal font, and
were received in the bosom of the Church.
Prom the mountainous region bordering upon Campeachy, Father Luis de Villalpando proceeded, at the invitation of the Adelantado, to Merida, where he founded
another convent, and then sending out missions to all
the neighbouring caciques, assembled them in that city
to hear his exposition of the doctrines of the Christian
faith. The result was not different from that which
had attended his efforts elsewhere. The Indians listened
and believed, and with simple confidence consented to
place their children in the hands of the worthy Fathers,
that they might be taught the true religion; nor was it

142

PLOT AGAINST THE MISSIONARIES.

[CHAP. IX.

long before Villalpando had mustered upwards of a thousand neophytes. The baptism of several of the principal caciques speedily followed, and a secure foundation
wTas laid for the extension of Christianity throughout the
land.
Still, in the wild and rugged districts remote from the
capital, it was not without great peril to their lives that
the missionaries prosecuted their labours. The Adelantado was very desirous that the provinces which had formerly owned subjection to Tutul Xiu, and which were situated south of Merida, should become the scene of religious conversion, and in conformity with his wish, Fathers
Villalpando and Benavente set out, in their usual guise,
barefooted and staff in hand, towards the close of the year
1547. They first directed their steps to the township of
Mani, in the heart of a vast sierra; here they were well
received, the people flocking around them in great numbers, and rendering their assistance to build them a house
and church. Besides their spiritual emancipation, a great
object which the missionaries had in view was to release
the Indians from the state of slavery in which their caciques held them, and their most strenuous arguments
were directed towards this end. This alarmed the caciques, and they took counsel together how to frustrate
a project which threatened to deprive them of their temporal authority; the importance of every chief being in
proportion to the number of slaves who acknowledged
him for their lord. They came then secretly to the resolution of taking the lives of the missionaries, and, the
better to accomplish their purpose, decided upon burning them alive in the building which their people had
raised for the celebration of Christian worship when first
the Fathers established themselves in the sierra. The

A.D. 1547,]

THE PLOT REVEALED BY A CHILD.

143

period fixed upon for the perpetration of this deed was
the 28th of September, 1B48, the eve of St. Michael, and
the missionaries remained wholly unsuspicious of the plot
combined against them.
It chanced, however, that on the day named for the
execution of the murderous project, an Indian child recently baptized came to Father Villalpando to be catechized. But before the catechism began, " Priest," said
the boy, " answer me a question which I wish to put to
you." " Ask it," replied the Father; and the boy continued : " which is better," he demanded, " to live or to
die ?" " It is better to live," returned Villalpando, " because to live is our natural state, while death is the inheritance acquired by sin." "Then, Father," said the
child, " if you wish to live you must fly hence, for the
chiefs amongst our people have determined upon your
death, and this very night you will be burnt in the
church if you remain in it."
Father Villalpando did not betray any emotion at this
intelligence, but thanked the child, telling him that he
was in the hands of God, and desiring him to go back
to his parents that night, and return to see him on the
following day. The child expressed his doubts about
finding him alive, but Villalpando dismissed him with
his blessing, and then repaired to his coadjutor, to whom
he related the terrible news he had just learnt. Father
Benavente was greatly moved at hearing it, but Villalpando sustained him with words of comfort, and together
they went to the church, where, throwing themselves at
the foot of the cross, they petitioned for strength from
on high to support them in the coming hour of trial.
They passed the evening in prayer and religious conference; Father Villalpando, who was the most resigned,

144

RESCUE OF THE MISSIONARIES.

[CHAP. IX.

omitting no argument to reconcile his companion to the
martyrdom which awaited them both.
While thus occupied the night drew on, and about the
eleventh hour a noise was heard as of a crowd approaching ; and, from one of the windows of the building, the
Fathers saw a great multitude of Indians, armed with
bows, arrows, and darts, and brandishing lighted torches.
They drew near the church, and surrounded it, and, for
a whole hour, continued to cry out that they meant to
burn it to the ground and kill the missionaries, if they
attempted to escape. Meanwhile the two Fathers remained perfectly impassive, proffering neither speech nor
gesture, but silently engaged in prayer; and the Indians,—awed perhaps by the calm resignation of their
intended victims, or repenting of their resolve,—refrained
from carrying their threats into execution, though from
time to time they assailed them with the most injurious epithets. By degrees however their exclamations
abated, their rage evaporated, and, shortly after midnight, the Fathers were left alone in the church, to offer
up their matin prayers to Saint Michael for their deliverance. By a providential circumstance, the day had
scarcely dawned, when Father Villalpando and his companion were aware of the noise of horses' hoofs, and of
words uttered in the Spanish language. These sounds
were caused by the accidental arrival of a party of their
countrymen, who had been despatched by the Adelantado to a place called Petu, fourteen leagues further to
the eastward, to quell a disturbance there, but having
missed their way had happened upon the township of
Mani, while the missionaries were chanting their matin
song. There was great joy on both sides at the meeting which then took place, when the Fathers recounted

A. D. 1549.]

CLEMENCY OP MONTE JO.

145

the danger they had escaped; and the new-comers joined
them in singing a Te Deum of thanks and praise.
At the accustomed hour of morning service, the bell
was rung as usual for assembling the Indians to prayer;
but no one appeared except the child who, on the previous day, had warned Villalpando of the plot against his
life. He said that all the Indians, fearing the armed
Spaniards, whose arrival they had witnessed, had fled to
the mountains, but that he had come to see if Villalpando was still alive. He was fondly caressed by the
good Father, who related the story to the Spaniards and
their leader Caudillo, and it was by him communicated
to the Adelantado at Merida, who in conjunction with
Tutul Xiu, the cacique of Mani, immediately adopted
measures for punishing the chiefs who had imagined
the deaths of the missionaries. Twenty-seven of the
principal conspirators were taken, and conducted to Merida, when they confessed the crime of which they were
accused, and were sentenced to be burnt. The Adelantado resolved to carry the sentence into effect; the
fire was made ready, and the Indians, bound hand and
foot, were brought out to undergo their punishment,
when Father Villalpando, throwing himself upon his
knees before Montejo, earnestly besought him to spare
their lives. It was with difficulty that the Governor was
brought to listen to the missionary's prayer, but at last
he yielded to the eloquent pleadings of Villalpando, and
instead of being condemned to the flames, the culprits
were transferred to the religious care of the inmates of
the convent of Merida.
The consequences of this clemency were greatly advantageous to the cause of religion, and when Father
Villalpando went back to Mani with the prisoners,
L

146

ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY ESTABLISHED,

[CHAP. IX.

whose safe return had never been dreamt of, nothing
could exceed the gratitude and affection which the people showed him. Numbers came to be baptized, and
amongst them the chief cacique, who took the name and
designation of Don Francisco Xiu; a convent also was
built at Mani.
Shortly after this event the missionary establishment
in Yucatan was strengthened by arrivals, not only from
Mexico, but from the mother-country; and the first
" Capitulo Custodial" wras held at Merida, on the 29th
of September, 1549, under the authority of Father Juan
de la Puerta, the Commissary-General for Mexico. Villalpando was elected Custodio of the province, and a
number of conventual appointments were made.
The religious establishments of Yucatan having now
been fixed upon a firm basis, the ecclesiastical authorities
applied themselves to the administration of the laws, by
which, in their spiritual as well as in their temporal relations, the Indians were henceforward to be governed.
But before we trace the further progress of government
in the northern division of the peninsula, attention must
be directed to the attempts which were being made to
effect the conversion of the inhabitants at the southern
extremity, which now belongs to Guatemala.

147

CHAPTER X.
BARTHOLOMEW
THE

DE

LAS

CASAS.—HIS

INDIANS.—HE

UNDERTAKES

PROPOSITION
A

FOR

MISSION.— THE

CONVERTING
TERMS

FOR

W H I C H H E S T I P U L A T E D . — T H E ROYAL C E D U L A . — T H E CANTICLES, OR
SACRED ROMANCES

OF T H E

VOYS .-—FAVOURABLE
MASS

PREACHED

MISSIONARIES.—TEACHING

RECEPTION

BY

FATHER

LUIS CANCER.—THE

INDIANS.—FORMATION
CEIVED

AT

RETURN.-—PROJECT

OF

TOWNS.—THE

SANTIAGO.—LAS

FOR

CA-

ANGULO.—THEY

CONVERTING

CONVERTED

CASAS AND RODRIGO

EN-

EIRST

CONVERTED

C I Q U E . — D E P A R T U R E OF LAS CASAS W I T H P E D R O D E
P R O C E E D TO COBAN AND

OE T H E

OE T H E I R P R O P O S A L S . — T H E

CACIQUE

D E LADRADA

THE
REGO

AGAIN TO C O B A N . — T H E " C O U N T R Y O F W A R " C H A N G E D TO THAT O F
"TRUE

PEACE."—FURTHER

EXTENSION

OF

CHRISTIANITY.—DEATH

OF P E D R O D E ANGULO, T H E F I R S T B I S H O P OF VERA P A Z .

BUT while the Franciscans of Hispaniola had been endeavouring to establish the Christian religion in the
north of Yucatan, the zealous missionaries, who had already extended their labours from Mexico to the confines
of Guatemala, were not unmindful of the existence of a
barbarous people in the south of that province, on whose
idolatrous ignorance they were anxious to shed the light
of the true faith.
Foremost amongst the energetic and devoted men was
the celebrated Bartholomew de las Casas, whose humanity in defending the Indians was no less conspicuous
than his zeal for their conversion.
In his famous work, ' De unico Vocationis modo/ he
L 2

148

MISSION OF LAS CASAS.

[CHAP. X.

had, according to his custom, severely censured the violence of the Conquistadors, and declared that the onlyeffectual way to convert the Indians was by the employment of mild and persuasive means. This book, which
was widely circulated in New Spain, fell into the hands
of the Spanish inhabitants of Santiago de Guatemala,
where Las Casas was then residing, and they, reading in
it their own condemnation, retorted upon him the necessity of giving a real meaning to his words by practising
the doctrines which he had preached. Las Casas at once
accepted the defiance.
At this time the only part of the Central American
continent which had not been subjugated by the Spaniards, was the country which Cortes had traversed on
his march to Honduras. The southern district of this
territory was known as the province of Tutzulutlan, or,
more popularly, as the Tierra de Guerra, because no less
than three expeditions had been sent from Guatemala to
reduce the inhabitants, all of which had ended in discomfiture and disgrace. It was to convert this fierce
and warlike people that Bartholomew de las Casas now
offered his services, relying solely on the efficacy of the
word of God and the truths of the Gospel. His preparations were made with the utmost simplicity, and, like
the apostolic teachers, he went forth, incited to his task
by no hope of present or prospective advantages, but
stimulated only by the desire to labour in his Father's
vineyard. He insisted however upon certain stipulations before he took his departure, and these were that
the pacification of the wild tribes amongst whom he was
about to venture should be attempted without force of
arms, or any armed interference, on the part of the
Spaniards; that no molestation should be offered to the

A. D. 1537.]

THE ROYAL CEDULA.

149

converted Indians; and that when the latter were collected into townships they should be permitted peaceably to enjoy their liberty, under the protection of the
Most Catholic King; for, added Las Casas and the companions whom he had chosen to accompany him on his
mission,—the Father Rodrigo de Ladrada and Pedro de
Angulo,—" we hope, by the goodness of God, that they
will not only embrace the faith, but that they will not
refuse to pay a tribute to the Crown of Castile."
These stipulations were agreed to by Alonso Maldonado, who signed a Cedula on behalf of the King and
the Council of the Indies, dated the 2nd of May, 1537,
prohibiting all Spaniards, under the heaviest penalties,
from interfering for five years from that date1.
As soon as the Convention was agreed on, Las Casas
and his Dominican brethren, with whom was also associated Father Luis Cancer, set about their arduous undertaking, and the commencement of their work was
characterized by a singular proceeding. Being well ac1
The Governor's reasons for acceding to the request of Las Casas
are set forth as follows :—" Y porque temeys que despues que vos
tragays los dichos Indios e Provincias de Paz, y a servivio del Rey,
que si se encomendassen a Espanoles, que serian mal tr atados, como
le suelen ser, y estorhados que no
recibiessen la Fe y dotrina Christiana. Y por tanto me requeristes
de parte de Dios y de su Magestad,
que si yo en su EeaL nombre os
prometiesse, e certificasse, que
todas las Provincias, e Inchas
delias que truxerederes de paz a
sujecion de su Magestad, los pornia en su Real cabeca, y no los
encomendaria ni daria a ningun
Espanol, que os porniades en ello,
y los assegurariades y trabajariades eo todas vuestras fuerzas a los

traer a lo suso dicho. JE que si
esto no os prometiesse, que no entederiades en ello: porque dezis que
no esperays sacar fruto ninguno,
ni los poder traer a q sean Ghristianos, ni a que sean dotados de
buenas costumbres. Y porque esta
es obra de muy senalado servicio
y gloria de Dios, para su Magestad,
y bien la salvacion de los naturales
Indios des las Provincias, y es manifiesto que su Magestad no dessea
mas otra cosa que, que estas gentes
infieles sea Christianos y se conviertan a Dios. Por ende digo, y
os prometo y doy mi palabra en
nobre y de parte de su Magestad,"
etc.—Historia de la Provincia de
Chiapa y Guatemala, por F r . Antonio de Eemesal, lib. iii. cap. ix.
(Madrid, 1620.)

150

SACRED ROMANCES OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, [CHAP. X.

quainted with the language of the country, they composed, in the Guatemalian dialect, a familiar narrative, in
the form of a canticle or metrical history, in which mention was made of the creation of the world, the sins of
our first parents, their expulsion from Paradise, the redemption of the human race by the death of Christ, his
passion and ascension, his coming to judge the world,
and the rewards and punishments of a future life. It
was, says Remesal, a very comprehensive work, and was
divided in its pauses and different versification after the
manner of the Castilians1.
Having arranged this sacred romance, Las Casas selected four Indian merchants of the province of Guatemala, who several times a year visited different parts
of the country, travelling with goods to Zacapula and
Quiche, and well known and welcomed wherever they
bought and sold. The reverend fathers carefully taught
these verses to the Indian merchants, who were Christians, and had them set to music, so that they might be
sung to the natives, and having provided them with a
supply of scissors, knives, small looking-glasses, bells,
and other objects which the Indians are fond of, despatched envoys to the " Tierra de Guerra," to prepare
the way for their own mission.
The Indian merchants proceeded at once to the dwelling of a powerful cacique with whom they were acquainted, and who received them very favourably. He
was pleased with the objects they brought, and interested
in their songs, which had for him and the people about
him all the charm that attached to novelty. The Indians
had never heard such musical instruments as those which
1
"Era esta obra muj larga, y
assi la division en sus pausas y diferencia de versos al modo de los

Castellanos."—Eemesal, lib. iii.
cap* xi.

A. D. 1537.]

TEACHING OF THE ENVOYS.

151

now greeted their ears, and the religious couplets (coplas) affected them by the glimpses they gave of a loftier
faith than they had hitherto conceived; arid as they listened, the cacique gave orders that all other arrangements
should be suspended the while. For eight days these
quasi-dramatic representations lasted, the cacique manifesting the utmost curiosity to know the meaning of all
he heard. The Indian merchants explained to him all
they knew, and when their knowledge failed them referred to their own teachers, who, they told him, were
fully capable of affording every information.
" We have amongst us," they said, " learned men, the
ministers of the great God who has made heaven and
earth, whose intentions are entirely pacific, who go unarmed, who seek neither gold nor silver, nor anything
that belongs to those who welcome them. So far from
desiring to rule over the people they wish to come
amongst, or to do any wrong to the inhabitants, their
rule is invariably to protect them, because their only desire is to make them happy. And two out of the number will joyfully teach you, without fee or reward, all you
desire to learn."
The cacique and his friends listened with much satisfaction to this intelligence, and hastened to reply that
he would not only willingly receive the members of the
mission, but that a deputation, praying them to come,
should be sent; the brother of the cacique placing himself at its head. Nor did he make this proposal without
immediately carrying it into execution; and the missionaries were as much delighted as surprised at the success
which had attended their experiment.
The cacique's brother, laden with a suitable offering,
was gladly welcomed at Santiago; not for the value of

152

THE FIRST MASS PREACHED BY FATHER CANCER, [CHAP. X.

what he brought, but for the invitation of which he was
the bearer. He admired all he saw in the city, gazed
with reverent wonder on the ceremonies to which he was
admitted, and returned to his countrymen deeply impressed with the religious worship of " the bearded men/'
Immediately after his departure, Father Luis Cancer
was charged with conveying a present to the cacique in
return, which consisted not only of curious articles of
Spanish manufacture, but of a number of crucifixes and
images, as emblems of the religion whose rites his countrymen had witnessed. The holy Father was received
with general acclamation by the Indians wherever he appeared, and when he reached the principal village, he
was welcomed by the cacique in person, with every demonstration of reverence and admiration. By his orders
an edifice was set aside as a church, and Father Luis
Cancer celebrated mass that same day before an attentive and wondering congregation, who were particularly
struck with the cleanliness of the Christian sacerdotal
garments, which formed so great a contrast to the
wretched dirty rags of their own native priests. Father
Luis Cancer continued to preach with great earnestness
during several successive days, taking care at the same
time to confirm the caciques in the assurance which had
been obtained from the Governor of Guatemala, that, in
embracing the faith of the Spaniards, the Indian proselytes should have all their social rights respected. The
cacique, in consequence, soon became a convert to the
new religion, brought all his idols to be burnt, and was,
with a number of his people, formally received into the
pale of the Roman Catholic Church. Father Luis Cancer then returned to Guatemala with the glad intelligence of his successful mission.

A.D. 1537.]

THE CONVERTED CACIQUE.

158

On the receipt of news so encouraging, Las Casas decided upon proceeding at once to the " Tierra de Guerra,"
taking for his fellow-labourer Father Pedro de Angulo,
who thoroughly understood the Tutzulutlan language,
with which however he was himself not unacquainted;
and these two set out together towards the end of October, 1537, when the periodical rains had ceased1.
In the meantime the converted cacique, who had received the baptismal name of Juan, gave a striking proof
of the sincerity with which he had embraced the Christian faith. His brother, the same who had been sent to
Santiago, was betrothed to the daughter of the Cacique
of Coban, and great preparations were being made for
the marriage. The territories of the two chiefs were
divided by a river, and it was intended, as was customary, to celebrate the passage of the bride by the performance of religious ceremonies and the sacrifice of
parrots and other birds to the idols. But before the
wedding-train had crossed the river, the cacique Don
Juan sent messengers to say that they might reckon on
an earnest welcome, as the preparations for their reception would convince them, but that he begged they
would forgo the old ceremonies, which were vain and
idle, and prompted by the evil spirit, and rather adore
the true and only God, the knowledge of whom had
been taught him by the strangers.
Great was the astonishment and indignation of the
Cacique of Coban when this message was delivered, and,
1
Father Touron, in Lis ' Histoire Generale de l'Amerique depuis sa decouverte' (Paris, 12mo,
1768), omits the name of Las Casas
from this expedition, and substitutes that of Luis Cancer, though,

with the text of Eemesal before
him, he must have read his author very carelessly. He has confounded the two expeditions together.

154

DEPARTURE OF LAS CASAS.

[CHAP. X.

taking back the bride, he hastily retraced his steps to his
own capital, resolving upon an immediate war with the
Cacique of Tutzulutlan, to avenge the insult thus offered
to himself and his religion. But when he had taken
counsel of his friends, and considered the impolicy of
breaking off with a chief so powerful as his neighbour
for so slight a cause, he changed his purpose, and sent
back for reply that the sacrifices should not take place,
and that whatever orders the Cacique of Tutzulutlan gave
should be promptly obeyed.
It was in the month of December that Bartholomew
de las Casas and Pedro de Angulo arrived at the village
of Don Juan, who received them with much distinction.
The Fathers set to work at once upon the objects of their
mission, preaching before great numbers of the people.
They visited the whole province in perfect security, undeterred by the badness of the roads and the dangerous
passes; and wherever they went the Indians manifested
great affection for them, bringing presents, and requesting
to be admitted into the Christian Church1. On reaching
the confines of Tutzulutlan they expressed their intention
of proceeding into Coban, the real " Tierra de Guerra,"
and though the cacique Don Juan opposed the measure,
fearing that it might be dangerous, they strenuously
persisted; the friendly chief gave them, therefore, a guard
of sixty chosen men, to whom he entrusted the lives and
safety of the Fathers, holding them responsible with their
own lives for any accident that might befall the mission1
There is a curious passage in
the text of Eemesal which somewhat qualifies the value of a part
at least of the admiration which
the Fathers inspired. He says :
" Y unos los miravan por lo que
eran, y otros con golosina de comer-

selos, pareciendoles que tendrian
buen gusto con salsa de Chila."
" Some admired them for what
they were, and others with a gluttonous desire to eat them, fancying
that they would taste well with
Chile sauce!"

A.D. 1538.]

PROJECT FOR CONVERTING THE INDIANS.

155

aries. But the escort were as willing to go, as the cacique
was to send them, and declared their desire to provide the
Fathers with everything they stood in want of, and, thus
accompanied, Las Casas and his companion set out.
The Indians kept their promise, serving them with the
greatest punctuality and obedience, and performing their
messages so swiftly that, says Remesal, " it seemed as if
they travelled through the air1." The expedition was a
very successful one, and, greatly satisfied with the result,
the Fathers returned to the dwelling of the cacique Don
Juan.
But the missionaries felt that, as long as the Indians
remained scattered over the country, the work of conversion must be slow, and one of their principal objects
was, therefore, to collect them into towns, that they
might gradually acquire notions of civilization, and be
under more immediate supervision. Las Casas communicated this desire to Don Juan, who was quite ready to
aid his efforts, as the result would be to his own advantage ; but he represented that there would be great difficulties in the attempt to induce the inhabitants to alter
their old customs.
The missionaries found that such was the case, and it
needed all the confidence and affection which the natives
entertained toward them, to bring about the change.
The secret cave, or the distant mountain, where the
Indian first saw the light, were to him sacred, and he
thought of them as his only home; a wandering life had
moreover become so habitual, that he shrank with aver1
"Yendo yviniendoa los mensages con tanto presteza que parecia que caminavan por el ayre."
This swiftness of foot appears to
have suggested ideas amongst the

Spaniards that the Indians were
rather wild animals than men,, for
in a marginal note Hemesal alludes
to a prevalent opinion " que los
Indios no ercrn Jiombres"

156

FORMATION OF TOWNS.

[CHAP.X.

sion from the idea of living in community with others.
The cacique exerted himself personally in the cause, and
assembling a number of his people, pointed out to them
the advantages of living together, with so much success,
that they agreed to abandon their huts and wild retreats.
The Fathers endeavoured to enforce the arguments of the
cacique, but their mode of reasoning not being so well
understood by the Indians, the latter retracted their promises, and dispersed to their woods and valleys much dejected1. But Las Casas and Angulo were not disheartened ; they laboured unremittingly, and at length succeeded in persuading a smallj number of the tribe of Rabinal to erect their dwellings in one spot, to which the
same name was given. About a hundred houses were
thus raised, and a church was straightway built, in which
sermons were preached, and mass was performed daily2.
The ceremonies of the new faith were ever captivating to
the simple Indians, and the example spread, which was
set at Rabinal. By degrees they began to draw together,
and the internal police and government of these small
towns were regulated after the manner which prevailed
in the larger cities of Mexico; care was taken to select
their judges and superiors from those amongst their
own tribes whose age, or birth, or natural qualifications
fitted them for the office; laws were established in conformity with the wants and character of the natives, and
1
" Salieron con las manos en la
eabeca."—Bemesal.
2
Some conception of the nature
of the labours of these estimable
men may be formed from the following passage in Torquemada's
' Historia de la Monarquia Indiana' (fol. Madrid, 1723), when he
describes their missionary avocations: "They preached," he says,

" first, to the Mexican Indians >
secondly, to the Matlatcintas; and
thirdly, to the Spaniards. And
many times, after all this work,
they sang masses, baptized children, which were very numerous,
and interred the dead. And with
all this they contented themselves
with a pitcher of fresh water, and
never desired to drink wine/' etc.

A.D. 1538.]

THE CACIQUE AT SANTIAGO.

157

at the head of all the newly-made authorities was their
own cacique.
At this juncture Las Casas sent word to Santiago that
it was desirable Father Luis Cancer should join him.
The zealous priest readily answered the call, and declared his willingness to penetrate still further into
Coban,—a proposition which was hailed with great satisfaction by Las Casas and Angulo, and they all three
earnestly began to make themselves masters of the language of that country.
But previous to extending the mission into the heart
of the Tierra de Guerra, it appeared advisable to Las
Casas to return to Guatemala to consult with the bishop
of that diocese on the best course to be pursued for the
conversion of the inhabitants. The cacique Don Juan
was easily persuaded to accompany him to Santiago,
with a number of his converted followers, and Father
Luis Cancer was left behind alone. Don Pedro de Alvarado, the Governor, and the Bishop of Guatemala, received the cacique with great kindness and courtesy,
the former taking off the plumed hat which he worej
and placing it on the head of the Indian chief; though
his doing so gave great offence to the proud Spanish
soldiers who surrounded him, and who murmured loudly
at the act, saying that " it did not become the lieutenant
of the Emperor-King of Castile, to take his hat from off
his head, and place it on that of an Indian dog 1 ."
The cacique was conducted over the city by the Governor and the Bishop, who showed him much that must
1
" No dexo el Adelantado de
Uevar sus murmuraciones de los
soldados y capitanes que lo vieron, porque les^parecio mal, y assi
lo dezian, Que un Lugarteniente

del Emperador-Rey de Castilla se
quitasse el sombrero de la cabeea
y le pusiesse en la de un perro
Indio."-—Remesal, cap. xviii. p.
145.

158

SECOND MISSION TO COBAN.

[CHAP. x.

have seemed quite wondrous to his eyes; but the natural
gravity of the Indian caused him to refrain from expressing any astonishment; and he gazed upon all that was
pointed out to him with as much indifference, says Remesal, " as if he had been born in Milan!" Many objects
of value were offered to him, but he would accept of
nothing save an image of the Virgin, which, when the
Bishop had it taken down and presented to him, he reverently received on his knees. After a brief sojourn in
Santiago the cacique and his companions returned to
Tutzulutlan, highly satisfied with his visit; Las Casas
and Rodrigo de Ladrada accompanied them to prosecute
their mission, and, entering the province of Coban, continued to reap the fruits of their exertions, the inhabitants showing themselves very peaceable, and well disposed to receive the doctrines of the Christian faith.
To trace the footsteps of the worthy Fathers through
regions which no longer retain their ancient denominations, would convey but little information to the modern
reader, neither does the history of their mission offer any
strikingly salient features. The principle laid down by
Las Casas, that mildness and persuasion should be the
only agents employed to ensure the conversion of the
idolatrous Indians, was never departed from in the expeditions which he originated, and which, after his departure from Spain, was continued by Pedro de Angulo and
the Dominican and Franciscan monks by whom he was
subsequently joined. This principle was fully recognized
by the Council of the Indies at the Court of Castile, and
the amplest instructions were transmitted for the protection of the Indians, and the punishment of those who
dared to violate the decrees in their favour, as is apparent by the royal letters addressed to Pedro de Angulo

A.D. 1538.]

THE LAND OF THE TRUE PEACE.

159

from Barcelona on the 1st of May, 1543, and to the
Licentiate Maldonado, from Valladolid, on the 7th of
September, in the same year1. In both these documents
the service of God, the protection, the, liberty, and the
good government of the Indians are strongly insisted on.
While these ordinances were observed, Christianity
continued to make great progress in the country; and,
by the command of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, the
name of "Tierra de Guerra" was changed to that of
" Vera Paz/ 5 because it had been conquered, not by the
sword, but by the word of peace2.
A few years later the capital of the province was built,
and received the same name, at which time, at the desire
of the Emperor, it was made by the Pope an episcopal
city, and Pedro de Angulo was selected as the first
bishop, it being judged that none could more easily
guide the people than the man who had begun his career
by becoming their apostle. The good bishop however
did not live long enough to wear his mitre, for, laden
with years and worn out with toil, he died before the
Papal bull arrived at Vera Paz, on the 1st of April, 1562,
having preached a sermon that same day to his wellbeloved Indians at a place called Zalama.
1

Remesal, lib. iv. cap. 12. p.
199.
2
" A esta provineia le dieron
los soldados Castellanos el nombre
de Tierra de Guerra, porque no la
pudieron sugetar con la industria
de las armas. Los religiosos Do-

minicos le dieron, en odio de la
guerra, el nombre de Vera Paz,
porque no vino a, la obediencia Seal
con la fuerza de la espada, sino
con la eficacia de la palabra Evangelica."—The. Eccl. p. 169, cited
by Father Touron, vol. v. p. 294.

160

CHAPTER XI.
ECCLESIASTICAL
PROHIBITION
SENT

FROM

GOVERNMENT
OF

OP

SPAIN.—DEPARTURE

HIS DEATH.—NEW

YUCATAN.— T H E

SLAVERY.—THE

"REAL
OE

ENCOMIENDAS.—

PROVISION."—AUDITOR

MONTEJO

EROM

YUCATAN.—

CODE OE LAWS EOR T H E I N D I A N S . — L A B O U R S

T H E M I S S I O N A R I E S . — D I E G O D E L A U D A . — H I S COURAGEOUS
I N SAVING A Y O U N G I N D I A N

EROM

SACRIFICE.—INTRODUCTION

ROMISH M I R A C L E S . — " MIRACULOUS" CURES.—SEPARATION

OE

CONDUCT
OE

OE YUCA-

TAN E R O M M E X I C O . — F A T H E R FRANCISCO TORAL A R R I V E S AT M E R I D A .
— D I F F E R E N C E S W I T H LAUDA.—EXCULPATION

OF T H E

LATTER.—HE

SUCCEEDS TORAL I N T H E B I S H O P R I C S : . — H I S D E A T H . — C I V I L GOVERNM E N T OF T H E P R O V I N C E . — S U C C E S S I O N

OF

GOVERNORS.—PIRATICAL

D E S C E N T ON T H E COAST.—PROCLAMATION OF P H I L I P T H E

THIRD.—

A P P E A R A N C E OF AN E N G L I S H CORSAIR, W H O ATTACKS C A M P E A C H Y . —
R E N E W E D ATTEMPTS OF T H E P I R A T E S .

THE religious establishments of Yucatan having now been
fixed on a broad and secure basis, the administration of
the laws by which, in their spiritual as well as in their
temporal relations, the Indians were henceforward to be
governed, became the chief object of their rulers.
Although, according to the terms of the original grant
from the Crown of Spain, supreme power was nominally
vested in the Adelantado, the circumstances under which
the country was finally pacificated deprived that officer
of much of his real authority, and threw it into the hands
of the religious communities.
The Council of the Indies, presided over by a church-

A. D. 1549.]

THE EJSTCOMIENDAS.

161

man, and numbering many ecclesiastical dignitaries
amongst its members, kept a jealous eye upon the proceedings of all the governors of the Transatlantic provinces, and omitted no opportunity that afforded it the
means of controlling their acts, and extending the influence of the Church. It was in many respects advisable that such control should exist, for the adventurous men who conquered those distant lands were too
apt to exercise an authority that was purely military, to
the neglect of many of the provisions by which they had
consented to be bound.
It has been shown how Montejo departed from his
instructions with respect to the ecclesiastics who should
have accompanied him when he left Spain for Yucatan,
and in what terms of severity the Council of the Indies
censured him for his conduct: he afterwards gave that
body additional cause for visiting him with reproof. It
arose out of the question of the " Encomiendas,"—those
military commanderies or settlements in the conquered
provinces which were assigned to the " Conquistadors"
as their private property, in reward for the services
which they had rendered. To make these estates of
value, it was necessary that more labour should be bestowed upon them than the Spaniards were able to give;
but, as the protection of the natives was always a main
point with the Council of the Indies, the owners of the
"Encomiendas" were strictly prohibited from employing
the Indians as slaves.
In spite however of this prohibition, slavery was the
principle on which all these estates were worked in
Yucatan, and the reports which the missionaries sent
home satisfied the Council of the general disobedience to
its orders which prevailed in this important particular.
M

162

AN AUDITOR SENT FROM SPAIN.

[CHAP, XI

Steps were therefore taken to enforce the royal commands; and, in the year 1549, a writ, or "Real Provision," was sent out from Spain on the subject of the
" Eiicomiendas," renewing the former prohibitions, and
ordering the Adelantado, and all others, to release the
slaves on their estates forthwith, a certain compensation
being provided, in order to cover past expenses. To see
this order carried into execution, an Auditor accompanied the writ, whose power, for the time being, entirely
superseded that of the Governor; indeed the capacity
in which he appeared, as a corrector of abuses, actually
clothed him with the chief authority. Father Lizana
says that the name of this auditor was Herrera; but
Cogolludo calls him " the Licentiate Santillan," stating
that he is so designated in the " Real Provision" dated
June 16, 1549. He arrived at Campeachy, and immediately proceeded to Merida, where he took up his residence, being received with much deference and respect
by the Adelantado. The Auditor lost no time in ordering the restoration to liberty of all the slaves on Montejo's " Encomienda," and this part of his instructions
was speedily performed; but the promised compensation
was long before it arrived. Indeed neither Montejo
himself nor his immediate descendants were benefited
by it, for although a suit for its recovery was instituted,
after the Adelantado's death, by his daughter Dona
Catalina Montejo, the proverbial delay of the law—nowhere so slow-footed as in Spain—kept the question
open for almost seventy years, the final decision in her
favour not being given till the year 1618.
While the Auditor was engaged in the settlement of
this matter of the " Encomiendas" throughout the province, the Adelantado took leave of Yucatan, with the

A. D. 1549.]

DEATH AND CHARACTER OF MONTE JO.

163

purpose of proceeding to Spain to render up an account
of his government; but he did not live long enough to
reach his native country, his death occurring, says Bernal
Diaz, before he left New Spain1.
After a stay of a few months in Yucatan the Auditor
went to Mexico, his functions being performed by the
ordinary alcaldes of the different towns, until the Royal
Tribunal (" Real Audiencia") should send some one to
govern the whole of the province, with the title of Alcalde
Mayor2. It was nearly six years however before this
new system of government was acted upon; and in the
meantime the missionary Fathers gave their closest attention to the Indians. They felt that, to reclaim them
1
Bernal Diaz thus describes
Montejo: " The Chief Justice and
Governor of Yucatan, Montejo,
was of middling stature, had a
pleasant-looking countenance, was
a good horseman, and much addicted to all kinds of pleasures.
He was about thirty-five years of
age when he came to New Spain,
but was rather a man of business
than a soldier. He was generous
of disposition, but lived beyond his
income."
2
Although the government of
Yucatan was not continued in
Montejo's family, the "Adelantazgo" remained with it: not however in the person of his son, Don
Francisco de Montejo the younger,
because of his illegitimacy, but in
that of his daughter, Dona Catalina, who was born in lawful wedlock. Don Francisco was the son
of the Adelantado and an unmarried lady named Ana de Leon; he
was legitimatized by the Emperor
Charles the Fifth, in a royal letter
from Yalladolid of the 6th" of April,
1527, who at the same time conferred upon him the dignity of nobility. But this legitimation could
not affect the rights of Dona Catalina, who married the Licentiate

Alonso Maldonado, the first President of the Hoyal Tribunal of the
" Confines;" and the title of Adelantado was transmitted to their
son, Don Juan Maldonado Montejo. He eventually gave up the
dignity, and all that pertained to
it, to his nephew Don Alonso Suarez de Solis, the son of Don Christobal Suarez de Solis, and Dona
Aldonca de Guzman, natives of
Salamanca, in Old Spain, whose
descendants enjoyed the title and
pre-eminence of Adelantado of Yucatan. It was in favour of Don
Alonso de Solis that judgment was
given in the lawsuit of Dona Catalina.
Don Francisco Montejo the
younger married Dona Maria del
Castillo, and had by her three
children, Juan, Beatriz, and Francisca. He seems to have inherited
his father's profusion as well as his
embarrassments, for he died in
1564 very poor, and much in debt.
"Tan pobre," says Cogolludo,
"por averle quitado los Indios
encomiendados, que para aver de
casa sus dos hijas, antes que muriesse, se empen.6 de suerte q
quando fallecio debia de veintecinco a treinta mille pesos."
M 2

164

NEW CODE OF LAWS.

[CHAP. XI.

from the abuses and customs of their heathen state, it
was necessary to enact laws more suitable to their existing condition, and under the superintendence of the
Licentiate Tomas Lopez, who was sent from Guatemala
for this purpose, a code was framed and issued in 1552.
At the time Gogolludo wrote his ' History of Yucatan/ these laws were preserved in the ancient Chapterbook of the city of Valladolid1. He cites them at some
length, but it will be sufficient here to give an outline of
the principal ordinances.
The caciques, and all in authority under them, were
ordered to reside in their own towns, nor absent themselves for more than forty or fifty days at a time, under
pain of losing their situations. The inhabitants generally were prohibited from moving from one town to another, without leave from the Spanish authorities. They
were not allowed to attend meetings for the purpose of
celebrating their old rites, nor hold any nocturnal assemblages whatsoever. In the construction of their houses,
they were enjoined to build them of stone, and lay out
their dwellings with regularity. The caciques were
bound to keep a roll of the inferior people ("Maceguales2"), distinguishing the married from the single,—
the baptized from those who were not so. The Indians
were not to be removed from the towns under colour
of their being slaves; and if any exchange of residence
took place between them, it was not to be for a longer
period than from thirty to forty days. It was decreed
that churches should be built, but not more than one in
each town, where the Christian doctrine only should be
preached, and the same to be subject to the spiritual ordinances of the missionary Fathers; moreover no church
1

In Yucatan.

2

Called also " Zamaguales."

A. D. 1552.]

NEW CODE OF LAWS.

165

Was to be founded without a license from them. The
people were ordered to bring their children to be baptized, heathen names being strictly prohibited,—to adore
all the holy images, venerate the Host, go morning and
evening to church, repeat the Ave Maria and Paternoster, hear masses and sermons on fast-days, keep all
the sacred festivals, and bear about them no signs of
their former heathen customs, either in their ears, lips,
or nostrils, or stain themselves of divers colours. In
case of having numerous wives, they were to give information thereof to the priests,—more than one wife being
forbidden; clandestine marriages were not allowed, nor
were they suffered to marry within the prohibited degrees. The punishment for adultery was flogging, to the
extent of a hundred lashes, and clipping; for bigamy,
public flogging and marking on the forehead with a hot
iron, " a manera de 4," and the loss of half the offender's goods, which were to be given to the first wife. It
had been the custom of the Indians to let out their
daughters, and sell their wives; this was forbidden, as
well as the practice of keeping female slaves in a household. It was decreed that hospitals should be built in
every town, the size varying according to the quality and
number of the inhabitants. Encouragement was given
to farming; and, as the principal tribute of the country
consisted of cotton garments, the men were to be taught
to spin, to assist their wives in this manufacture. The
women were not to be permitted to go naked, but to
wear long dresses, neither were they to go to the bathing-places at the same time as the men, nor to go into
the men's houses except on festivals. " They were not to
be allowed to play on the musical instruments of the
country during the night, and if they played on them by

166

NEW CODE OF LAWS.

[CHAP. XI.

day, it was not to be during the celebration of mass or
sermon; and they were to use no antique customs in
their dances or songs, only such as the missionaries
taught them1/'
Drunkenness was severely punished, and the use of
all intoxicating beverages, and the wines of Castile especially prohibited. To restrain them from the indulgence
in their wandering habits, the men were not allowed to
go to the mountains to hunt, but were ordered to burn
their bows and arrows; in case however of the irruption
of a tiger, or other fierce wild animal, each cacique was
to keep in his house two or three dozen bows, and a
proper supply of arrows. Making and repairing roads
was one of the employments to which the Indians were
to be constantly set. Salt-gathering and fishing on the
coasts was to be common to all.
Such were the chief enactments of this code, and the
missionary Fathers laboured as energetically in giving
vitality to it, as in the endeavour to add new converts to
the numbers whom they had already brought within the
pale of comparative civilization.
It would occupy too much space, and prove, after all,
but a repetition of such events as have already been
described, were the separate labours of every mission
in the north of Yucatan to receive the full illustration
of them in this place, which they occupy in the elaborate history of Cogolludo. These missions amounted in
all to* three and twenty, and were continued at intervals till the year 1623. In every phase of their laborious and self-denying efforts, the missionaries were
1
" Ni tocassen a tambor, Toppnubuzles, 6 tuncules de noche, y
si por festejarse le tocassen de dia,
no fuesse mientras Missa y Ser-

mon; ni usassen de insignias antiguas para sus bayles, ni cantares,
sino los que los Padres les ensenassen."—Cogolludo.

A.D. 1552.] COURAGEOUS CONDUCT OF FATHER LANDA.

167

distinguished by their humanity, no less than by the
evident sincerity of their motives. Father Landa was
as conspicuous a defender of the Indians in Yucatan as
Las Casas is known to have been wherever the colonial
domination of Spain prevailed; and to ensure what he
believed to be their spiritual welfare, he spared no toil,
and left no danger unaffronted. When the inhabitants
of the province of Valladolid had been for the most part
brought to receive the Christian faith, Diego de Landa
removed to that of Ytzamal, and thence to the eastern
part of the peninsula, preaching wherever he went, and
preventing the idolatrous rites of the Indians at the risk
of his life. On one occasion1, as Cogolludo records, he
released a young Indian, barely eighteen years of age,
from the stake to which he was already bound, and
decked with flowers for sacrifice, overturning the idols
and breaking the sacred drinking-vessels, although
alone in the presence of more than three hundred of
the natives, at whose hands he expected nothing but
instant death. But his courage overcame them, and
they suffered him to do what he pleased, listening with
attention to his words, and the scene ended in their
general conversion.
It is not to be supposed, however sincere the missionaries may have been to propagate " the true faith/' that
the alloy of superstition was withheld from the means
employed to govern the minds of the Indian population.
They were a race whose original religion, as we have seen,
1
" Tenian un mancebo de liasta
diez y ocho anos de edad, muy
cargado de nores, y bie amarrado
a tin palo para executar en el el sacrificio. Sin mostrar tremor, el Padre Landa, ni dezir cosa alguna a
los Indios, se fue azia el palo, en
que el miserable mancebo estaba

atado, y le desato, poniendole junto
a si. Derribo los idolos de donde
los tenian colocados, quebro las vasijas de aquella idolatrica bebida,
y con espiritu de Dios les dixo,
que le oyessen lo que queria ensenarles para el bien de sus almas."
—Cogolludo, lib. v. cap. xii. p.287.

168

ROMISH MIRACLES,

[CHAP. xi.

was debased by superstitions and delusive practices, and
we must not wonder if we find that the " pious frauds "
which the Church of Rome enacted in Europe, found
their way to the newly-erected altars of Yucatan. In
proportion as the number of converts increased, and with
them the foundation of fresh religious establishments,
certain localities acquired a celebrity which raised them
above the rest. And this was but a natural process in a
country like Yucatan. The Indians, in the days of their
idolatry, had been accustomed to go in pilgrimage to
Cozumel to worship their blood-bestained idols, and
yield implicit belief to the juggling of their priests. It
cost them therefore little effort to fancy, as they were
told, that particular shrines were endowed with peculiar
efficacy.
True to his vocation as a chronicler of the Romish
Church, Cogolludo enters at considerable length into
the question of "miracles," recording in two chapters, especially devoted to them, the miraculous cures
which were wrought by images of the Virgin at various
places. The chief of these were at Ytzamal, where he
says were wrought " innumerabiles milagros, de que se
pudiera escrivir un gran voltimen;" and to give greater
weight to his assertions, he draws the portrait of the
imaged Virgin as it was carved by the most cunning
artificer of Guatemala1.
The other principal images
were in the convent of Calotmul, and at Bakal, where
they were reverently worshiped under the titles of " L a
purisima Conception" and " L a Natividad." As these
1
" Es esta Santa Imagen de escultura de talla entesa con su ropage estofado, de altura de cinco
questas, y seis dedos, el rostro muy
Magestuoso, y grave, el color de
el bianco, algo palido, las manos

juntas sobre el pecho, y levantadas, y causa respecto venerabile
mirarla. Tiene muy ricos vestidos
y joy as, que devotos le han dado,"
etc.—Lib. vi. cap. iv. p. 317.

A. D. 1561.]

SEPARATION OF YUCATAN FROM MEXICO.

169

"miracles" however do not differ in any respect, save
that of the local circumstances attending them, from the
thousands which have been recorded elsewhere, it is
scarcely worth while to disinter them from the pages of
Cogolludo.
After the meeting of the first Custodial Chapter at
Merida in 1549, the system of Church government in
Yucatan proceeded in regular order. The peninsula had
been originally made a spiritual dependency upon the
province of Santo Evangelio in Mexico, but the rapid
progress of conversion, and the increasing extent of the
newly christianized districts, made it desirable that Yucatan should no longer depend upon Mexico, and in
1561 the separation took place. But it was in the first
instance rather a transfer of authority than complete independence, for the arrangement provided that the Provincial Chapters should alternately be held in Guatemala
and Yucatan. It was found however that so much inconvenience arose from the great distance between Santiago de Guatemala and Merida, that six years later, in
1567, the province was made wholly independent^ and
from that time forth was governed by its own spiritual
authority.
In the interval Father Francisco Toral arrived to take
possession of the bishopric. He was the third prelate in
nomination, but the first who actually visited the country
in that capacity. He was a native of Ubeda in Andalucia, and had previously been Provincial of Santo Evangelio in Mexico; but, in 1562, he was appointed to the
see of St. Joseph of Yucatan. Untoward circumstances
arose immediately upon his arrival in his diocese, reports
having been made to him highly prejudicial to Father
Landa; and although an interview took place between

170

LANDA MADE BISHOP OF YUCATAN.

'

[CHAP. XI.

the bishop and the provincial, the latter was unable to
remove from his superior's mind the prejudices instilled
into it by those who envied the reputation of the excellent missionary. So strongly impressed was the bishop
that Father Landa had exercised his functions imperfectly, that he wrote to the King to that effect; and
when the Provincial received intelligence of this fact he
at once resigned his office, and proceeded to Spain to
justify himself before his sovereign, Philip the Second.
The King, on the receipt of the bishop's letter, placed it
in the hands of the General of the Jesuits, asking his
opinion of the proceedings of Father Landa. The reply,
considered apparently with much deliberation, was highly
favourable to the Provincial; and, in 1566, Philip despatched a royal letter from Madrid, informing the bishop
of the satisfaction he had derived from the course which
Father Landa and his colleagues had pursued1. The
bishop received this intimation in all humility, and demonstrated the sincerity of his regret by a public acknowledgment of the error he had committed in depriving the province of the services of so able an assistant
as the Provincial. The difference was thus healed; but
Father Landa felt unwilling to return to Yucatan, though
urged to do so by the King in person, preferring to
remain in the Convent of San Antonio de Cabrera, at
Toledo, of which he had recently been elected the Superior ; and in this retirement he iremained till the death
of Francisco Toral, in 1572, when, yielding to the renewed solicitations of the King and the Council of the
Indies, he agreed to accept the bishopric, and return to
the scene of his former labours. His career was too brief
for the accomplishment of all the good he meditated, for
1

Cogolludo, lib. vi. cap. vii. p. 527.

A.D. 1564.J

SUCCESSION OF GOVERNORS.

171

he died in 1579, when only in the fifty-fourth year of
his age and the seventh of his episcopate, having devoted
thirty years of his ecclesiastical life to the conversion of
the Indians. Gregorio de Montalvo and Juan Izquierdo
were the bishops who, until 1602, severally filled the see
of Yucatan; but beyond the ordinary incidents of Church
government and the gradual advance of Christian civilization, the narratives of the chroniclers supply little that
calls for especial record.
Of the same complexion was the civil administration;
though it may be necessary briefly to glance at the order
of succession of the respective Governors of the province,
and the manner in which their appointments were made.
In the year 1555 the Koyal Tribunal of Mexico sent
Gaspar Xuarez de Avila to Yucatan with the title of
Alcalde Mayor, and in this capacity he governed the
country for two years. He was succeeded by the Licentiate Alvaro de Caravajal, sent thither by the Tribunal
of Guatemala, Yucatan having been subjected to that
province by a royal decree. He remained till 1558,
and was followed by Alonso Ortis de Argeta, Juan de
Paredes, and Jofre de Loaysia, the last of whom held
the government till 1562, when the appointments proceeded direct from Spain.
The first Alcalde Mayor sent out by the King was
Doctor Diego Quixada. His successor, in 1564, was Don
Luis Cespedes de Oviedo, in whom greater authority
was invested than in his predecessors, power being given
to him to appoint a lieutenant-governor. His administration was not however a successful one, for he fell into
disgrace on account of malversation, spending the public
moneys (" ayudas de costa") partly on his relations and
followers, and partly in the discharge of his personal

172

PIRATICAL DESCENT ON THE COAST.

[CHAP. XI.

debts. A royal Cedula was consequently issued, prohibiting any private appropriation of the "ayudas de
costa," and Oviedo was superseded by Don Diego de
Santillan, whose appointment took place in 1569.
Santillan's government was marked by one feature of
interest, which relieves the annals of this period from the
monotony thrown around them by Cogolludo.
Soon after his arrival he received a letter from the King,
informing him, on the authority of Don Francisco de
Alaba, the Spanish Ambassador at Paris, that the French
were fitting out an armada for the purpose of making a
descent upon the coast of Yucatan. Santillan visited all
the ports of the province, to provide against the threatened attack; but his arrangements were somewhat imperfect, for the northern coasts afforded a few piratical
vessels the opportunity they sought, and, in the month
of May, 1569, a small force landed, without resistance, at
Zizal1. They advanced as far as a town called Hunucma,
about four leagues inland on the road to Merida: they
plundered the convent there, carried off the plate and
other valuables, committed sacrilege by drinking wine
from the sacred vessels and profaning the holy images,
and crowned their exploit by making the cacique and
several officials prisoners. Captain Juan Arevalo de
Loyasia was sent 'against them with a company of soldiers, and forced the pirates to retire. They hovered
however upon the coast till a reinforcement put out to
sea, and then took the direction of Cozumel, which place,
being without a garrison, they took possession of; but
they were eventually dislodged by Gomez de Castrillo,
one of the old Conquistadors, who made them all pri1
Cogolludo calls them "unos
Franceses hereges," all the ene-

mies of Spain being heretics- in
his eyes!

A.D. 1596.]

PROCLAMATION OF PHILIP THE THIRD.

173

soners, and they were sent to Mexico, where some of
them, says Cogolludo, " were burnt for Lutherans." '
Another calamity also befell Yucatan during the time
of Diego de Santillan, in a great famine which happened
in 1571, in consequence of the failure of the crops of
maize; and, tired of the unproductiveness of his appointment, Santillan petitioned the King to allow him to resign the government of Yucatan, and grant him another
more lucrative. His request was acceded to, and he
was sent to Tucuman, being succeeded in the peninsula
by Francisco Velasquez Guijon, who arrived in Merida
in 1573, and remained till 1577.
The period of office appears to have been fixed hence-,
forward at about four years, as the following governors
appear in regular succession:—Guillen de Las Casas, from
1577 to 1582; Francisco de Solis, from 1582 to 1586;
Antonio de Voz-Mediano (an exception to the rule),
from 1586 to 1593; and Alonso Ordonez de Navarez,
till 1596. In the last-named year—whether from death
or displacement, has not been ascertained—the government of Yucatan was temporarily vested in the person
of Don Carlos de Samana y Quinones by the viceroy of
New Spain. Don Diego Fernandez succeeded to the
permanent administration, and during the period of his
government occurred the death of Philip the Second of
Spain. The form in which his son and successor was
proclaimed in this remote region may be worthy of a
passing illustration.
The Royal Cedula, announcing the death of Philip the
Second and the succession of Philip the Third, having
been duly received, the proclamation was made with the
same ceremonies that were observed in Old Spain. On
the 18th of April, 1599, the inhabitants of Merida and

174

APPEARANCE OF AN ENGLISH CORSAIR.

[CHAP. XI.

all the surrounding districts being assembled in the
Plaza Mayor of that city, the King's letter, acknowledging the oaths and obligations under which he assumed
the crown, was read in the presence of the Governor and
all the authorities, and Prancisco Martin Redondo, the
Alferez Mayor, advancing to the point of the platform,
raised the royal standard, and, in a clear voice, uttered
these words three times :—" Yucatan, Yucatan, Yucatan,
Cozumel and Tabasco, for the King, Don Philip, our
lord, the third of that name, whom God preserve for
many years!" and every one, uncovering, replied in a
loud voice, " Amen, Amen, Amen ! x "
The successor to Don Carlos de Samano y Quinones
was Don Diego de Velasco, the son of the Conde de
Niebla, who was sent out by the King in the year 1597.
A memorable event is recorded of that year in the appearance, off the port of Campeachy, of a squadron of
English pirates commanded by Captain William Park2.
He remained to windward of the harbour with a large
ship, a tender and a launch, until he found means to
communicate on shore with a certain Juan Venturate,
who agreed to facilitate his entrance into the town. Park
disembarked his men, and surprised the place in the
middle of night, killing and plundering the inhabitants
in true piratical fashion. The confusion caused by this
sudden attack was heightened by the absence of the
1
"Llevantado en el tablado el
estandarte real Francisco Martin Redondo, Alferez Mayor, y
diziendo a vozes intelligibles tres
vezes: Yucathan, Yucathan, Yucathan, Cozumel e Tabasco, por el
Hey Don Phelipe nuestro Senor,
Tercero de este nombre, que Dios
guarde mucbos anos! Y quitandose todos las gorras, respondie-

ronen altas vozes: 'Amen, Amen,
Amen!'"—Cogolludo,lib.viii.cap.
i. p. 418.
2
" Aquel mismo ano de 1597 dio
vista al puerto de Campeche una
esquadra de navios Ingleses cosarios, por andar al pillage, cuyo
cabo y capitan se llamaba Guillermo Parque."—Cogolludo, lib. viii.
cap. i. p. 419.

A.D. 1597.]

ATTACK AND DEFENCE OP CAMPEACHY.

175

Alcaldes, one of whom resided at a country-house at
some distance, and the other at a convent outside Campeachy. Messengers were however despatched to them
immediately, and a force was collected; but the Alcalde
did not venture to march till daylight, when they found
the town still given up to sack and pillage. They posted
their men at the ends of the streets to cut off the retreat
of the pirates, and a sanguinary fight took place, which
lasted for two hours, at the end of which Captain Park
fell mortally wounded, and his party succeeded by a
desperate effort in carrying him off with them to the
shore, where some of their number had been left to secure
their embarkation. They were harassed by the Spaniards
to the water's edge, and lost several men, besides leaving
a great part of their booty behind them. The pirates
took revenge for their discomfiture by informing the inhabitants of the treachery of their fellow-townsman Venturate, and he was put to death on the spot. As soon
as the English had returned to their vessels, a ship was
manned with troops which were sent from Merida, and
put out to sea under the command of Alonso de Vargas
Machuca. A sharp skirmish took place, and the English
tender was captured, when the pirates, finding the resistance they met with so great, after hovering about for
seventeen days, finally took their departure, and Don
Alonso, carrying his prize to Campeachy, landed there,
and returned to Merida, where he was received in
triumph.
In the following year however another squadron of
English pirates reappeared in still greater force, and
made a descent upon the island of Cozumel, where, for
a time, they established themselves, after detaching one
of their vessels to the Rio de Lagartos, called by the

176

RENEWED ATTEMPTS OF THE PIRATES.

[CHAP, XL

Indians Holcoben. But the Spaniards were now too
well prepared, and after fruitless attempts to penetrate
beyond the coast, the enemy again withdrew. In the
year 1600 the same squadron, numbering four vessels,
once more returned, but departed without achieving
their object; in 1601 they made another attempt, with
no greater success; but in the following year the pirates effected the capture of a Spanish vessel near Cape
Catoche, and this seems to have been their last appearance for several years.
Freed from external alarm, the pacification of the
country surrounding the Bay of Ascension became the
next object of the Government, with the further design
of extending the Christian religion to the central region
of the peninsula, which was peopled by the warlike
Itzaex. This arduous attempt constitutes a remarkable
feature in the history of Yucatan, and requires to be narrated at some length.

177

CHAPTER XII.
T H E VAEIOUS T R I B E S OP I N D I A N S I N T H E P E N I N S U L A OF

YUCATAN.—

V I L L A Q U I E A N ' s E E P O E T . — C L I M A T E AND GKENEEAL ASPECT OF YUCATAN.
— G E O G E A P H Y OF T H E P E N I N S U L A . — A T T E M P T E D P A C I F I C A T I O N OF T H E
LAC AND O N E S . — U N S U C C E S S F U L

EFFOET

OF F A T H E E

CASILLA.—APOS-

TASY OF T H E I N D I A N S . — F A T E OF F A T H E E D O M I N G O D E Y I C O . — W A E LIKE

MEASUEES

EESOLVED

ON.—EXPEDITION

OF

QUINONES.—HIS

I N D I A N A U X I L I A E I E S . — E E N D E Z V O U S AT C O M I T L A N . — M A E C H TO T H E
LAKE O F L A C A N D O N . — S I E G E OF T H E C I T Y . — T H E FAVOUEABLE O M E N .
— N E G O T I A T I O N S . — V E S S E L S L A U N C H E D ON T H E L A K E . — C A P T U E E AND
BUENING

OF

THE

CITY.—TOTILTEPEQUE

TAKEN.—PUCHUTLA

CAP-

T U E E D . — E E T U E N OF Q U I N O N E S . — E E S U L T S OF T H E E X P E D I T I O N .

AT the period of the conquests of Guatemala and Yucatan, there remained between those provinces a considerable tract of country peopled by savage Indians,
known by the appellation of Itzaex, Petenes, Lacandones,
Acalans, Manches, Choles, Quiches, Puchutlas, Tirumpics, and others. The details which we have already
given of the march of Cortes, and the religious missions
of Las Casas into the Tierra de Guerra, will have afforded
some indications of the condition and character of these
barbarous tribes; but it is to the ample accounts which
have been given by the Spanish historian Villagutierre1,
1
Here is the title of Villagutierre's work in all its lawyer-like
and Castilian prolixity : " Historia

de la Conquista de la Provincia de
el Itza, reduccion, y progressos de
la de el de Lacandon, y otras NaN

178

VILLAQUIRAN'S REPORT.

[CHAP. xn.

that we must look for the most precise information concerning a people who, for nearly two centuries, were the
cause of so much anxiety and disquiet to the.Crown of
Spain and the subjects of that monarchy.
At a period considerably later than that of which we
must in the first instance treat, in describing the attempts that were made to pacificate the districts which,
for convenience, we call " the country of the Itzaex," a
report of the physical aspect of the central region of
Yucatan was drawn up for the information of the Council of the Indies, which may not be inappropriately
introduced in this place. It is set forth in a minute
presented to the Council, in 1639, by the Licentiate Antonio de Leon Pinello, on whom had devolved the duty
of condensing the information contained in the various
documents on the subject which had been laid before
that body by Don Diego de Vera Ordonez de Villaquiran. He says:—"The lands which it is proposed to
pacify and to people lie to the north of the district of
Guatemala. Its immediate boundaries are the great lake
of Xicalango or Terminos, which lies between Yucatan
and Tabasco; on the east, the western part of Yucatan
and the interior part of the Gulf of Honduras as far as
the Gulf of Dolce; on the south, the city and district of
the province of Guatemala; and on the west, Vera Paz
and the territory of Chiapa, which joins Tabasco. Within
these limits is comprehended a portion of the territory
ciones de Indios barbaros, de la
Mediacion de el reyno de Guatimala, a las provincias de Yucatan,
en la America septentrional. Primera parte. Escriyela Don Juan
deYillagutierreSoto-Mayor,Abogado, y Relator, que ha sido de la
real chancilleria de Yalladolid: y
aora Relator en la real, y supremo

consejodelaslndias. Yladedicaa
el mismo real, y supremo Consejo.
En Madrid: en la imprenta de Lucas Antonio de Bedmar, y Narvaez, Portero de camera de su
Magestad, Impressor de los Eeynos de Castilla, y Leon, en la calle
de los Preciados. Ano M.D.CC.I."

A. p. 1552.]

CLIMATE OF YUCATAN.

179

which extends from 15° to 17-J° of latitude, that is to
say, more than forty leagues; and, upon the parallels, it
has four degrees, or seventy leagues; in some parts more,
in some less. These are the most probable dimensions^
although some who have given information on the subject have made the distances greater."
This description, though not very precise, is sufficiently clear to establish the fact that the entire territory now denominated Belize, or British Honduras, must
have fallen within the limits thus imperfectly sketched.
The Indians who inhabited this tract of country, and
whose civilization it was considered important to effect,
are thus described in the same Report.
"The people whose pacification was proposed are
known by the names of Manche and Lacandone, which
are the two principal provinces, and include the lands
occupied by the Acalans, Taizacs or Atizacs, Quiches,
Tirumpics, Puchutlas, and other tribes of less repute,
which are either subject or belonging to them. The
province of Manche is nearest to Vera Paz and Golfo
Dolce. Acalan and Taiza, or Atitza, lie towards Yucatan,
the Quiches and Tirumpics nearer Tabasco. The L^candones and Puchutlas occupy the interior as far as
Chiapa. These facts are inferred from such information
as we have been able to gather, the map before us1
being imperfect, and failing to supply the information
necessary to set forth accurately the true situation and
description of these lands. The chief and the most
barbarous and ferocious amongst these nations, and
whose pacification ought to be first attempted, on account of the mischief which they have caused, and are
now causing, is that of the Lacandones."
1

We have been unable to procure a copy of this map.
N 2

180

GEOGRAPHY OF THE PENINSULA.

[CHAP. XII.

Of the climate and general aspect of the country, we
have the following account.
"The climate of these provinces is warm, and somewhat humid, in consequence of the rains which are prevalent for nine months in the year, but neither the heat
nor the rain are sufficient to render the climate sickly,
or inconvenient to inhabit: on the contrary, it is regarded as a healthy climate. It is in some parts mountainous, has plains and valleys, some clear and others covered with bush, almost impenetrable; it has also some
ridges of little height and of easy ascent. Prom the continual fall of water from the mountains, four large rivers are
formed, which divide the country, three of them emptying themselves into the lakes of Xicalango, and through
them into the Mexican Gulf, and the fourth into the
Bay of Honduras. The one is called Tuhalha, which,
rising in the province of Guatemala, passes through
Vera Paz. The other is called Canguen, and comes
down from the province of Manche. The third is called
Zebolai, takes its rise in the ridges of Vera Paz, and
passes through the town of Coban, whence its exploration was attempted in 1625. The fourth is Petena,
which rises in the interior of these lands, and is six days'
journey from Coban by way of the Manche country : it
has a port, by which it is said you may reach San Tomas of Castillo in two days1."
Thus much premised of the central regions of the peninsula, we revert to the period when, through the exertions of the Dominican Fathers, the peaceful reduction
of the province of Tutzulutlan was effected.
1
There can be no doubt that
this last-mentioned river, the Petena, is that which is npw called
Belize, or Old River, at the mouth

of which the principal, and indeed
the only commercial town in the
British settlement of Honduras,
now stands.

A. D. 1556. J ATTEMPTED PACIFICATION OF THE LACANDONES. 1 8 1

The accomplishment of these objects, and the conversion of the natives to the Christian faith, were viewed
with great suspicion and dislike by the Lacandone Indians, the fiercest and most warlike of the central tribes,
nor were they long before they openly manifested their
hostile intentions. In one of the Cedulas issued by the
Crown of Spain, it is stated that, in the year 1552, the
Lacandones and Puchutlas, having combined, made a
night attack upon two Christian towns fifteen leagues
from Chiapa, on which occasion they killed many of the
inhabitants, and made numerous prisoners, " sacrificing
children at the altars of the churches and at the foot of
the crosses, tearing out their hearts, and besmearing with
blood the revered images which they had erected in
God's holy temples : further, that they destroyed and
burnt their towns, vociferating, ' Christians, call on your
God to defend you/ with many other opprobrious and
insulting epithets, and that the principal aggressors in
these proceedings were Indians who, after having received the Sacrament, had become apostates from the
faith."
In consequence of these depredations, a Royal Cedula
was despatched, on the 20th of January, 1553, to the
Audience of Guatemala, commanding that it should endeavour to pacify them by obtaining a footing amongst
them, and establishing schools for their conversion. It
was at the same time recommended that the Dominican
Friars should be charged with this duty, in consequence
of the success which had already attended their efforts
in Vera Paz. The exertions however of these venerable
men having been unsuccessful, the Lacandones continuing to persecute and to injure all those who embraced
Christianity, a second Royal Cedula was issued on the

182

APOSTASY OF THE INDIANS.

[CHAP. xir.

22nd of January, 1556, directed to the Audience of Guatemala, which, after recounting the injuries committed
by the Lacandones, already detailed, urged the adoption
of vigorous measures. To remedy this state of affairs,
it appears that Friar Thomas Gasilla, Bishop of Chiapa,
proceeded fifty leagues into their country with an escort
of soldiers, but his mission was not attended with success ; on the contrary, some Indian messengers whom
he sent to the Lacandones were murdered, with two
Spaniards who accompanied them. On the return of
the Bishop to Guatemala, these occurrences were duly
reported to the Audience, and application was made to
it to adopt measures to defend their Christian subjects;
but, Philip II. having issued positive instructions that
war should not be waged against the Indians of Puchutla or Lacandone, it was determined not to send a
military force into the country. The result of this determination was that four other towns which had been
formed, and had adopted the Christian faith, revolted
and became apostates, seeing that the outrages which
had been committed by the Lacandones and Puchutlas
in Vera Paz and Chiapa had remained unpunished.
A short time previously to the issuing of the lastmentioned Cedula, the province of Acalan had begun to
receive the Christian faith, and the Indians of one of its
towns had been baptized, their first apostle being Father
Domingo de Vico. The towns however which continued
in their idolatry determined to destroy those whose inhabitants had been baptized, together with their holy
preacher, and, to carry their design into execution,' they
invoked the aid of the Lacandones. Pather Domingo
de Vico, together with his companion, Father Andrez
Lopez, and thirty Indians of Vera Paz who had accom-

A. D. 1558,]

WARLIKE MEASURES RESOLVED ON.

183

panied him, were all slain with arrows at Acalan by the
Acalans and Lacandones in the year 15551.
This melancholy event appears to have been occasioned
in a great measure by the blind confidence which Father
Vico reposed, not in his cause only, but in the peaceable
dispositions of the Indians.
The sufferings which these provinces had undergone
during the last few years, induced the Dominican Friars,
in a Chapter which they held at Coban, in the year
1558, to take into consideration how far it would be
just and lawful to make war on the Lacandones and
Puchutlas, not because they were infidels and cannibals,
but because they had destroyed many churches and sacrificed Christian children to their idols; and they resolved that it was the bounden duty of His Majesty to
protect his Christian subjects, and to exterminate, in
consequence of the cruelties they had committed, the
Lacandone and Puchutla Indians. At the same time the
Council of the Indies, continuing to receive such disastrous accounts of the occurrences which had taken place
in these provinces, despatched a new Cedula, dated the
16th March, 1558, commanding that, as the Lacandones
were in the habit of issuing from their fortresses, and
invading the peaceable inhabitants of Vera Paz and Chiapa, they should be driven out from their present lands
and relegated to a desert spot situated beyond Chiapa;
and for the better accomplishment of this, recommended
that the inhabitants of Chiapa and Guatemala should be
urged to assist the enterprise, and that they should be
rewarded by receiving a tribute from the Lacandones
who were thus removed; and that, if by this means
they could not succeed in reducing them to submission,
1

Villagutierre, book i. cap. 9, 10.

184

EXPEDITION OF QUINONES.

[CHAP. XII.

a general war should be declared against them, and that
all prisoners who might be captured should be treated
as slaves.
In consequence of these instructions, it was determined (it being impossible to compel these Indians to
inhabit Chiapa, as had been suggested) to make war
against the refractory tribes of Lacandones, Puchutlas,
and Acalans; and the Audience of Guatemala appointed
to the command of the troops to be sent against them
the Oidor of the Province, Pedro Ramirez de Quinones,
who had already given proofs of his efficiency in the
field, having served under Pedro de la Gasco in Peru,
and being one of the five captains who warred against
Gonzales Pizarro.
The number of volunteers who flocked to his standard
was very great, and consisted of many of the most important personages of the province of Guatemala, who
offered their services at their own expense, " as much,"
says Villagutierre, " out of zeal for the cause of Christianity, as in the hope of obtaining the reward His Majesty offered." If we reverse the order of this sentence,
we shall probably give a more accurate idea of the motives of these pious Spaniards, who, whatever their Christian zeal, were never behindhand in making a display of
it where temporal advantage was conjoined. It is evident moreover, from the preparations which were made,
that other considerations than the mere pacification of
a horde of barbarous Indians influenced the Spanish
adventurers.
The actual force assembled under Quinones is not
stated, but there can be no doubt of its being a very
large one, for the contingents of Indian auxiliaries, furnished by the towns of Chiapa and Zimacantlan and

A. D. 1558.]

RENDEZVOUS AT COMITLAN.

185

the city of Santiago de Guatemala, numbered nearly two
thousand men. Large quantities of provisions,—maize,
meat, and vegetables,—were purchased, and a great number of natives were employed to carry them for the use
of the army. Every soldier was also provided, in addition to his arms, with a large hollow gourd to carry
water through the uninhabited and mountainous districts, as well as to assist him in swimming across the
rivers and lakes, if necessary.
The Indian troops from Chiapa were very gaily appointed : they carried very bright and showy flags, the
drummers and trumpeters wore feathers in their headpieces, and their equipment of arms consisted of swords
and bucklers and spears, as well as bows and arrows.
They carried themselves so well, were so dexterous in
the use of their arms, and showed so much quickness in
all their manoeuvres, that, to look at them, they seemed
equal to any of the Spanish disciplined troops. The
Guatemalan contingent was neither so cleanly nor smart
as that from Ghiapa, but the men who composed it were
not deficient in strength or courage, and altogether they
presented a very martial appearance. As for the Spanish soldiers, their array was very brilliant, for they spent
all the money they had in ornaments, weapons, and military accoutrements.
The place of rendezvous for the various bodies was
Comitlan, and there Quinones reviewed them all; Casillas, the Bishop of Chiapa, blessed their arms, and,
having been regaled at the good prelate's expense, the
army took the road to the mountains, preceded by a
great many Indians, who acted as pioneers, for the ground
was both difficult and intricate. The march lasted fifteen days, at the end of which time the troops reached

186

SIEGE OF LACANDON.

[CHAP. XII.

the shore of the lake of Lacandon, in the centre of
which rose a lofty rock, surrounded by several smaller
ones, on which the town was built. It was a very strong
position, and could easily be defended from assault, for
the rocks were so bare that there was not earth enough
on them to admit of the natives burying their dead, and
they threw them into the lake. " From feeding on these
bodies," Villagutierre relates, "the fish in the lake*became very large, especially the turtle; and, during the
whole of the siege the Spaniards would not touch them,
so disgusted were they with the nature of the food which
produced such plump and savoury creatures1." The Indian auxiliaries however had no scruples of this sort,
and, being neither dainty nor particular, feasted plentifully on them, laughing at the overstrained delicacy of
the Spanish soldiers.
The appearance of the town was imposing, the houses,
which were white, being large and well built; and the
Lacandones, trusting in the strength of their position
and fortified walls, took little notice of the army; for,
although it was very numerous, they said that, from
former experience, they were not afraid of what the Spaniards could do against them,—alluding to the ill-success
that had attended the previous efforts made to reduce
them. Another reason why they considered themselves
safe, and felt secure of victory, was the great faith they
placed in what they imagined a good omen. While the
Spaniards were marching towards the lake, and the cavalry had nearly reached it, a little Negro boy, belonging to Juan de Guzman, the camp-master, saw some
green heads of maize in an enclosure surrounded by
deep ditches. He climbed into it to gather some, but
1

Villagutierre, lib. i. cap. 2.

A. D. 1559.]

NEGOTIATIONS.

187

had hardly touched the maize, when he was seized by a
party of Lacandones who were lying in ambush. The
horsemen with whom the boy had been marching, attempted to rescue him, but their animals were unable
to leap the ditches, or clear the fences; and the Lacandones, gathering round the child, threw him on the
ground, opened his breast with a sharp knife, and took
out his he&rt, which they offered as a sacrifice to the sun.
They then fled with all speed to their canoes, and paddled across the lake to the town, to tell the inhabitants
it was impossible they should be conquered, because of
the sacrifice they had made, so pleasing to their God.
Hostilities nevertheless were not immediate, for as
soon as the Spanish troops had pitched their camp on
the borders of the lake, several Indians left the rock in
small canoes, and came without the least fear, to inquire
what the strangers wanted. The reply made was that
they came to see them and speak to them of peace. On
receiving this answer, the Lacandones withdrew; but,
returning shortly afterwards, they said that they too
were desirous of peace, and would gladly be good friends
with the Spaniards and receive their religion. These
embassies however were looked upon as feigned; the
reason being that, after the messengers had been well
received and treated with attention, they were asked to
bring their canoes to carry the Spaniards to the town,
and having consented to do so, they only brought eleven
small ones, saying that they had no more, though it was
well known that a great many were concealed.. The
Spaniards therefore conjectured that it was the intention
of the Lacandones to convey the army across in parties
so small that they might easily put them to death as they
arrived on the rock.

188

CAPTURE AND BURNING OF LACANDON.

[CHAP. XII.

But the delay which these embassies occasioned, was
turned to good account by Quinones, for he took advantage of it to put together the framework of one or two
large vessels which the army had brought with them
from Comitlan. The timbers were put together, caulked,
and then launched amidst general acclamation. The
astonishment of the Lacandones, when they beheld this
large monster, filled with armed men, floating towards
their town, was excessive. They immediately took to
flight; but a hundred and fifty of their number were
made prisoners, and amongst them were the principal
cacique and the high priest, both of whom had been concerned in the murder of Father Vico and his companion
in Acalan. This capture was effected by the Indians of
Chiapa, who were far more skilful and courageous swimmers than the Lacandones, none of whom, save those in
canoes, being able to escape.
The troops now entered the abandoned town, and, after
having examined the houses and places of worship, it
was discovered that the Lacandones, unlike the other
tribes whom the Spaniards had met with, had not a
single idol, but only adored the sun, and that they simply
made their offerings and sacrifices before it in its actual
presence, and under no other form. The only things
found which might have belonged to Father Vico and
his companion were a scapulary and small cape: it was
subsequently known that these had been worn by the
priest who presided at the festivals of the Lacandones,
when.they held their drunken revels; there were also
found two small images. The town was then given up
to pillage, and afterwards set on fire amidst great rejoicing, the rest of the army on the shore, who could
see what was going on, joining heartily in the cry. Qui-

A. D. 1559.]

TOTILTEPEQUE TAKEN.

189

fiones also despatched a force of thirty Spanish soldiers
and a great number of Indian auxiliaries in pursuit of
of the fugitive Lacandones, who had descended a large
river in their canoes, but the pursuers, having no means
of following them further, returned to the main body.
The camp of the Spaniards was now raised, and the
whole of the troops having crossed the lake, the brig was
scuttled and sunk, and the army advanced upon the town
of Totiltepeque, which also belonged to the Lacandones.
Their march was a very disorderly one, all the ordinary
precautions being neglected, as they never imagined the
enemy would dare to attack victims who were so numerous and well appointed. This confidence nearly caused
their ruin, for in a narrow defile the army was waylaid
by a body of about a hundred Lacandones, who, appearing on the heights, attacked the Spaniards so suddenly,
showering down such heavy flights of arrows, that the
troops were thrown into great confusion: several were
very badly wounded, and amongst these Juan de Guzman, the master of the camp. They rallied however
after the first shock, and as soon as the Indians had exhausted their quivers, the Spaniards scaled the heights,
but the foe had taken flight.
No further interruption was offered after this ambuscade, and Totiltepeque was gained in safety; the place
was abandoned, but was found to be well provided with
stores and provisions. This was a great relief to the
army, whose means of subsistence were beginning to fall
short. From Totiltepeque the Spaniards proceeded to
Puchatla, which, like the first town they came to, was
situated in a small lake, and the inhabitants waited for
them while they were making rafts to cross over. When
these were ready the Spaniards embarked, the Chiapa

190

PUCHUTLA CAPTURED.

[CHAP. XII.

Indians swimming and guiding them for upwards of
three hundred yards, carrying bundles of canes upon
which they rested on the water. They were so expert
as to swim with one hand guiding the raft, and in the
other bearing their bows and arrows, which from time
to time they discharged against the enemy, diving to
avoid the discharge which the latter directed against
them in return. Others of the Chiapanos swam on the
gourds, also shooting while swimming, and covering a
distance of more than a league; while another body protected the Spaniards on the rafts from the darts of the
Lacandones in their canoes, thus giving them the opportunity to load their muskets as they advanced. The
Puchutlans who were in the town, finding that their
people in the lake were being hemmed in, and that the
Spaniards drew nearer, took to their canoes, and rushing
to the fight, a regular naval engagement took place, in
which both sides fought with the most determined bravery ; but the action did not last long, the effect of the
fire-arms being too great for the barbarians to withstand:
a panic seized them, and they fled in every direction,
leaving several of their numbers killed, and many prisoners. The Spanish troops then entered Puchutla without further opposition, and, as usual, they found the town
deserted.
Having accomplished so much, it was expected by the
followers of Quinones that he would not have paused
here; but, for reasons which he did not choose to assign,
the expedition was prosecuted no further, and, greatly to
the discontent of those who had put themselves to such
serious charges in the outset, orders were given for the
army to return to Guatemala. But beyond the fact that
they had driven the enemy before them wherever they

A.D. 1559.]

RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION.

191

appeared, the expedition was wholly fruitless. The Spaniards carried back with them upwards of one hundred
and ninety Lacandones prisoners, including amongst
them the cacique and the high-priest; but, shortly after
they arrived at Guatemala, the whole of them effected
their escape.
An amusing incident is related by Villagutierre, which
took place on the return of the army:—
" The spoils of the war amounted to nothing; but as
it was considered by the Indians highly dishonourable to
return from battle without trophies, one of them, who
had not been lucky enough to pick up anything, hit
upon a notable expedient: ashamed to enter the town
empty-handed, he filled a basket with stones, covered it
with his cloak and bore it on his shoulders, like the
booty carried by his companions who had been more
fortunate than himself. He went home in the same
manner, and his wife received him with rapture, believing that he had brought a great treasure. Eager to examine it she tore away the cloak, but saw nothing save
stones. These however she made the instruments of her
vengeance, and so pelted her unhappy husband with
them, thait he was obliged to seek refuge in an ignominious flight."
Villagutierre thus sums up the result of this expedition against the Lacandones:—" Many of the Knights
and Esquires who had taken part in the war, were rewarded with crosses and honours, but the greater part
of them had spent so much money in finery and ornaments, bright arms and accoutrements, that they contracted considerable debts, and left their houses and
estates involved for several years, and perhaps they are
even yet not free/'

192

CHAPTEE XIII.
F E I G N E D SUBMISSION OF T H E I T Z A E X . — T H E F I R S T MISSIONARY
DITION

TO I T Z A . — V O Y A G E U P T H E R I V E R

QUALITIES.—ARRIVAL
B E H A V I O U R OF T H E
ITZALAN

OF T H E

OE T I P U . — I T S

M I S S I O N A R I E S AT

EXPE-

SINGULAR

TIPU.—RELIGIOUS

I N D I A N S . — E M B A S S Y TO T A Y A S A L . — R E T U R N

WARRIORS.—THE

MISSIONARIES

SET OUT F O R

OF

TAYASAL.—

PROTRACTED J O U R N E Y . — A R R I V A L AT T A Y A S A L . — T H E F I R S T MASS P E R F O R M E D . — FUENSALIDA'S
FATHER

ORBITA'S

EXHORTATION.—THE

INDISCREET

IDOL

ZEAL.—ATTEMPT

TO

TZIMINHAC.—
CONVERT

C A N E K . — N A R R O W ESCAPE OF T H E M I S S I O N A R I E S . — T H E Y

THE

R E T U R N TO

TIPU.

the people called the Itzaex had never been
subdued by force of arms, a paramount authority over
them had always been claimed by the Crown of Spain
in virtue of the right supposed to be derived from the
formal act of taking possession of the country generally.
This authority however was merely nominal, nor had any
attempt been made to reduce the inhabitants of the central region of Yucatan to submission since the failure of
the expedition against the Lacandones and Puchutlas in
,1559. The principle of military conquest had indeed
been abandoned by the Council of the Indies, as far as
related to the subjugation of the small independent
tribes in the interior, and the extension of authority by
religious means had become the substitute. Had it
rested with the Governors of Yucatan, war would have
ALTHOUGH

A.D. 1614.]

FEIGNED SUBMISSION OF THE ITZAEX.

193

been carried as far the arms of the Spaniards could have
reached, but hostilities were strictly forbidden.
The Itzaex, or Itzalanos, had the reputation of being
very bad neighbours, and, to a certain extent, appear to
have deserved it, for they were not only powerful but
aggressive, and besides the continual warfare which they
waged with surrounding tribes, made frequent incursions
on the border provinces, occupied by the converted Indians and their Spanish protectors. They trusted for
impunity to the difficulty of approach to their country,
and to the security of their stronghold, the city of Tayasal, which was situated on the Peten, or island, of their
great lake. It was also asserted of them that they were
eminently deceitful, in proof of which we are told that,
in the year 1614, a feigned submission was made by a
party of Itzalanos who were sent to the city of Merida,
with a message from their King, or Canek. They declared that their lord was anxious to yield obedience to
the King of Spain, expressed a strong desire for peace,
and earnestly solicited the friendship of the Spaniards.
The Governor was satisfied with these assurances, accepted the obedience which they offered, and appointed
them Alcaldes of their city, at the same time bestowing
upon them the wands of office, together with numerous
presents, with which, well satisfied, they returned to
Tayasal. Figueroa expected that this friendly reception
would have induced the Itzalanos to become Christians;
but no such change having been operated, he considered
that he had been deceived, and made an application to
the Royal Council of the Indies for permission to make
war upon them, but this request was refused, and the
state of affairs remained unchanged.
About four years afterwards, however, when Figueroa
o

194

PROPOSITION OF FUENSALIDA.

[CHAP. xra.

had been succeeded in the Government by Francisco
Ramirez Brizeno, a provincial Chapter of the Order of
St. Francis was held, on the 25th of March, 1618, in
the city of Merida, at which Father Bartolomeo de Fuensalida and Father Juan de Orbita, impressed with the
spiritual necessities of their heathen neighbours, made
an offer to go amongst the Itzaex and preach the Gospel
to them. Both these priests were men of learning and
consummate virtue, and well versed in the Maya tongue,
which was the language of the Itzalanos as well as of
the inhabitants of Yucatan. This proposal being accepted by the Chapter, it was determined that they
should at once proceed on their mission. The Provincial
gave them the requisite letters of leave, which they presented to the bishop, Gonzalo de Salazar, who approved
so highly of their resolution that he would fain have
joined them; but as his position made this out of the
question, he gave them a most ample commission, in
which he granted them the fullest authority over the
Spaniards and all classes of persons in the town of Salamanca de Bacalar, which comprised the district of Tipu,
from whence the missionaries were to set out for the
country of the Itzaex. He gave directions also for their
being supported, until the time of their departure arrived,
out of the baptismal, marriage, and funeral dues that
were paid by the Indians to their priest at Tipu; for the
Governor, Brizeno, alleging that he had no orders from
the King, and being fearful of incurring blame in the
event of any accident befalling the missionaries, refused
to advance them funds to enable them to prosecute their
journey. Besides these orders for their assistance, the
Bishop gave them a number of rosaries, crucifixes, knives,
scissors, and toys, with which to propitiate the Itzaex,

A. D. 1618.] FIRST MISSIONARY EXPEDITION TO ITZA.

195

and the clergy and people of Merida liberally followed
their prelate's example. The Fathers of the Order of
St. Francis supplied them also with chalices, chasubles,
and missals, for the ornament and use of their church,
all of which objects were to be carried by the Indians
who were to accompany the mission. The Governor
alone withheld his aid, refusing even the letter of assistance which the missionaries had been promised on the
day of their departure for Salamanca; on their application for it, he told them that they would receive it at
their convent at Tecax, a place at some distance at the
foot of the mountains, but in this respect also he failed
to keep his word.
Accompanied by the prayers and earnest wishes of all
the inhabitants of Merida, Fuensalida and Orbita set out
barefooted on their perilous journey. They soon reached
Tecax, and, after waiting in vain for the Governor's letter for several days, proceeded to Calotmalr across the
mountains to the town of Chumhuhul, a distance of fifteen leagues of uninhabited country, intersected with deep
marshes, and very difficult to cross. Thence they passed
on to Pacha, through fifteen leagues more of inhabited
country, over even a worse road than the former; to
Xoca next, and finally arrived at Salamanca de Bacalar.
The Alcalde of this place, one Andres Carillo de Pernia,
a native of Valladolid de Yucatan, received the missionaries and their attendants with great kindness, and finding that they were very desirous of reaching Tipu before
the periodical rains set in, caused a large piragua to be
constructed, manned, and victualled at his own expense,
and, to ensure them favourable reception at Tipu, resolved to accompany them so far on their journey. Tipu
was connected with the port of Salamanca de Bacalar
o 2

196

THE RIVER OF TIPU.

[CHAP. XIII.

by the river Nohukun (or "Great River"); and the soft
beauty of the scenery on its banks, the thick woods with
which they were fringed, and the number of islands that
studded the stream, afforded a charming contrast to the
rugged and desolate country through which the missionaries had recently passed. They were amused too by the
dexterity of the Indian boatmen, who struck and caught
fish with harpoons without delaying the progress of the
piragua, and the only inconvenience they suffered was
from the multitudes of mosquitoes. " The voyage/' says
Villagutierre, " lasted three days, for the stream is very
rapid, and so strong that for a distance of twelve leagues
it is necessary, instead of oars, to use iron-shod poles,
and at the slightest neglect the current carries the canoe
back again. This river of Tipu," he continues, "has
various rare qualities: it is as large a stream as any in
Spain; its waters good and clear, more so than that of
the Tagus. In the twelve leagues of the ascent which I
have spoken of, it is divided into a hundred and ninety
impetuously rapid branches, and, strange to say, the Indians have given an individual name to each, and know
and call them by their names. A quantity of medicinal
shrubs grow on the banks of the river; it contains a
great deal of gold, and, either from this or from some
hidden virtue, the drinking of its water cures the dropsy
and excites an appetite, both in the sick and those who
are well; even when drunk soon after eating heartily, in
a short time it causes hunger again. At noon, when the
sun is at the hottest, the water is cold; and at night it
gets warm, so that a vapour rises from it, like a cauldron
put on the fire1."
The intelligence of the approach of the missionaries had
1

Villagutierre, book ii. cap. i.

A. D. 1618.] ARRIVAL OF THE MISSIONARIES AT TIPU.

197

preceded them, and about two leagues from the town they
met the alcaldes, caciques, and leading persons of Tipu,
coming down the river to receive them, with offerings of
food and a drink called Zaca, made of cacao and maize.
The Fathers saluted the deputation with great joy and
gladness, and proceeded under their escort to the landingplace, where, all being prepared, the Indian inhabitants
welcomed the missionaries with the dances of the country,
and then, amidst great rejoicings, conducted Fuensalida
and his companion to the church, where they returned
thanks to God for their safe arrival at Tipu, " the outport
of Christianity and fortress of its valiant spirits." The
arrival of the missionaries took place on the eve of Whitsunday, and Father Orbita, who was particular in all
matters pertaining to divine worship, immediately caused
the church to be cleaned and decorated with the ornaments which he had .brought from Merida, and on the following day the services were performed with great solemnity, to the great satisfaction of the Indians, whose opportunity for witnessing them was rare, their priest only
coming amongst them at distant intervals from Bacalar.
The festivity of Corpus Christi was kept with still greater
ceremony; and the missionaries being fairly installed, and
well taken care of by the people of Tipu, the Alcalde
Carillo took his leave and returned to his own town.
The Fathers were now left alone with the Indians of
Tipu, "but," says the chronicler of this mission, "they
had God and his fervent spirit with them," and they
were rejoiced to fiijd that the Indians were attentive to
their religious duties, attending the Church services with
great punctuality, and sending their children to hear
mass and sermon. The population of Tipu amounted
to upwards of five hundred, all of whom were natives.

198

EMBASSY TO TAYASAL.

[CHAP. XIII.

Their cacique was named Cristoval Na, and amongst
the leading people was Francisco Cumux, a descendant
of the lord of the island of Cozumel, who received Hernando Cortes when on his way to the conquest of New
Spain. " In his manners and actions/' observes Villagutierre, " Cumux well showed his nobility and good
blood, Indian though they were; he was very attentive
to the Fathers, and a great singer; he went much to
church, and sang in the services, as if he were a private
Indian."
As the missionaries were very anxious to make a beginning of their expedition to Itza, which was the object of their going to Tipu, they held a consultation with
the principal people of the town, and it was agreed that
it would be the best plan to send some trusty Indians to
announce their approach. There was no one so fit to
head this embassy as Cumux; and to give greater weight
to it, it was resolved that he should be accompanied by
several Indians of note. He made no difficulty of accepting the office, and cheerfully set out on an errand
that was not without danger; his instructions being to
inform the Canek what peaceable purposes the Fathers
had in view, and to request him to send some of his
chiefs to see them at Tipu, to ascertain their character
and objects, before they presented themselves before him.
The journey from Tipu to Tayasal, the island-capital of
Itza, which occupied six days, was successfully performed,
and the message brought by Cumux favourably received.
A council was held by the Canek to consider the request
of the missionaries, and, there being some of those Itzalanos present at it who had visited Merida, and could testify to the peaceful intentions of the Fathers, it was not
only agreed to, but two caciques with a proper suite were

A. D. 1618.]

ITZALAN WARRIORS.

199

ordered to accompany Cumux on his return to Tipu, and
inform the missionaries of the consent given by the Canek. The appearance which these Itzalanos made is thus
described by Villagutierre.
"The two captains carried their halberds with heads
exactly like ours, excepting that, instead of steel, they
were made of flint, and just below the head was a
large bunch of feathers, of various beautiful colours, like
the ribands our ensigns have at the head of their colourstaves; the head was about nine inches long, doubleedged, and its point like that of a very sharp dagger.
The other Itzaex Indians were armed with their bows
and arrows, which they always carry when they go beyond their island and its territory, in case of their meeting with Chinamita Indians, a nation with whom they
have been continually at war. These Itzaex piqued
themselves on being very bold warriors."
As soon as the party arrived at Tipu they were presented by Cumux to the missionaries, whom they saluted
according to the custom of the country, by placing the
right hand on the left shoulder in token of peace and
friendship, to which greeting the Fathers replied in the
most affectionate and courteous manner, returning many
thanks for the permission granted to them to go to I V
yasal. The Itzaex remained at Tipu for four or five
days, greatly admiring the novelty of the Christian worship and being particularly taken by the singing; they
then took leave, and the missionaries prepared for their
journey.
All things being ready, on the 15th of August, 1618,
Fathers Fuensalida and Orbita, accompanied by their
chapel-master^ singers, and sacristans, and escorted by
the cacique Cristoval Na, and a body of twenty armed

200

PROTRACTED JOURNEY.

[CHAP. XIII.

Indians, left Tipu, but had not proceeded far before
they met with a serious obstruction in a broad lake
called Yaxhaa, which, stretching away to the right and
left, completely intercepted their route. The Indians
could not be persuaded to make the circuit of the lake,
in order to recover the road, alleging that the loss of
time which it would occasion would prevent them from
getting in their harvest, and it was finally resolved that
they should return to Tipu to have a canoe built. Workmen were consequently sent from Tipu to the brink of
the lake where the canoe was constructed and launched,
and the Indians having in the meantime secured their
harvest, fresh provisions were laid in and the expedition
was resumed about the end of September. The lake of
Yaxhaa was now crossed without difficulty, but fifteen
leagues further on another was encountered, called Zacpeten (or " white island"), which they were obliged to
avoid by striking into the mountains. The Tipu Indians seemed to have proved but very indifferent guides,
—not because they were unacquainted with the road, but
on account of the fear they entertained lest, on their
arrival at Tayasal, the Itzaex should put them to death;
and had it not been for the exhortations and steady
perseverance of the missionaries, in all probability the
journey would never have been accomplished. At length,
after enduring the greatest hardships, they came within
sight of Chultuna, the great lake of the Itzaex, and descended to the shore, where they took up their quarters
and built a large hut, in which they erected an altar, to
serve them for a church while they remained on that
spot. The Fathers then despatched several Indians to
Tayasal, to inform the Canek of their arrival; they were
laden with the presents which had been brought from

A. p. 1618.]

THE MISSIONARIES REACH TAYASAL.

201

Merida, amongst which was a handsome sabre, and a
small quantity of the famous cacao of Tipu was added
to them. The envoys were absent a whole week, and
the unusual delay began to excite some anxiety, when a
flotilla of four canoes arrived having them on board, together with the two caciques who had visited Tipu with
other Itzaex. Mass having been said, the missionaries
now embarked and crossed over to the Peten, or island, a
distance of about six leagues; but long before they reached
the city, they were met by a vast crowd of canoes filled
with the leading people of Tayasal, with the Canek,
and several members of his family at their head. When
they came to the shore the drink of peace was offered
them in cups filled with Zaca, and, as it was night,
torches of ocote, a species of pine, were lit, to show
them their way to the house set apart for their reception, a short distance from the palace of the Canek.
On the following day the missionaries prepared a room
in their dwelling and set up an altar, before which Father Fuensalida sang the mass of the Apostle St. Paul,
whom he selected and named the patron of the island,
many Itzaex being present at the ceremony and observing it with silent reverence. After the performance of
this duty, the Fathers repaired to the palace of the Canek, and, at the close of a long conversation, the Maya
language being quite familiar to them, requested permission to go through the city, to see the houses of the
inhabitants, and the Cues, or idol temples, in which they
worshiped. This request was at once acceded to, and
several Indian chiefs were appointed to conduct the missionaries, who resolved to take this opportunity of commencing their work of conversion. Accordingly, before
they made the tour of the city, Puensalida addressed

202

FUENSALIDA'S EXHORTATION.

[CHAP. XIII.

the multitude of Zamaguales, or common people, in the
presence of the Canek and his chiefs, and expounded to
them the doctrines of the Christian faith. Eloquent as,
no doubt, the words of Fuensalida were, the impression
which he produced on the Itzaex was not what he had
expected. They listened with great attention; but when
the worthy Father had made an end, they replied that
they too had their prophecies, by which they knew that
they were to become Christians, but that the time announced had not yet arrived. The Canek added that,
such being the case, the missionaries might return to
their own country, and come back at a future period, for
at present it was the intention of the people to remain
steadfast in their old religion.
Their dismissal was however accompanied by every
demonstration of courtesy, and the missionaries were
shown over the city, as the Canek had promised. It was
both spacious and well built, the Zamaguales occupying
the houses on the lower part of the island, and the more
elevated being assigned for the dwellings of the caciques
and the idol-temples. On going into one of the Cues,
the Fathers saw in the midst of it the great idol, shaped
like a horse, which the Itzaex, as has been already
stated1, adored as the God of Thunder, under the appellation of Tziminchac, "the horse of thunder/ 5 or "the
thunderbolt."
But it was not with the veneration of the Itzaex, that
Father Juan de Orbita gazed upon this statue. No
sooner had he heard the legend of the horse of Cortes
than his religious zeal awoke, and seizing a large stone
he mounted upon the image, and straightway began to
batter it to pieces, scattering the fragments over the floor
1

Ante, Chapter V., p. 77.,

A. D. 1618.]

FATHER ORBITA'S INDISCREET ZEAL.

203

of the temple. The Zamaguales raised a tremendous
outcry when they witnessed the destruction of their favourite idol, and loudly clamoured that the missionaries
should be put to death for having killed their god; but
Orbita preserved a calm countenance, and Fuensalida,
raising his voice above the din, addressed the enraged
people. He declared to them that the idol was no true
God, but only the image of an irrational animal similar
to the deer, which they themselves killed with their arrows ; that it had no power to do them good or harm,
save by the permission of the Superior Being who created it, and them, and all things on the face of the earth,
whom only they were bound to adore. He then, holding up a crucifix, dwelt upon the great sacrifice which
had been made as an atonement for our sins, and called
upon the Itzaex to believe in the only true God and
Saviour, exhorting them with so much earnestness that
they became dumb with wonder, and suffered the Fathers to leave the temple unmolested.
Fuensalida and Orbita directed their steps immediately to the palace of the Canek, who, though he had
heard of what had occurred, manifested no anger nor
made any allusion to it, which encouraged the missionaries to make another effort to convert him. A long
discussion ensued, but though the Canek willingly accepted a cross from the hands of the Fathers, he still
replied with the former argument, that the time for the
adoption of the Christian faith by his people had not
yet arrived. He did not hurry their departure from
Tayasal, but the missionaries themselves became aware
that the destruction of the idol had awakened a hostile
feeling in the breasts of the Zamaguales, and felt that
their stay was no longer secure.

204

NARROW ESCAPE OF THE MISSIONARIES,

[CHAP. XIII.

Fuensalida therefore informed the Canek that they
were ready to return to Tipu, and the Indians of their
own party having prepared a canoe, they took leave of
the King. Some of the more friendly Itzaex made them
presents of the clothes they were in the habit of wearing,
and gave them also a number of their smaller idols to
take to Yucatan; but the general feeling of the people
was so inimical to the missionaries, that on their voyage
across the lake they had a narrow escape of their lives,
being pursued by a party in several canoes, who pelted
them with stones, and would have slain them with arrows,
but for the interference of a Tipu cacique, named Gaspar
Cetza, who chanced to be on friendly terms with the
leader of the pursuing party. He told the Itzaex chief,
that as the Fathers were going to leave their country,
they ought not to seek further revenge on account of the
broken idol. The chieftain sullenly replied, " Then do
not bring those Xolopes here again;" and the fugitives
were suffered to proceed1. Freed from this danger,
they made all haste to the shore, and, fearing lest the
Itzaex might return, resumed their journey without delay, and at the expiration of four days found themselves
once more in Tipu.
It was then agreed that Father Fuensalida should proceed to Merida, to give an account of what had passed
at Tayasal, while Father Orbita remained at Tipu until
his companion should return to prosecute a second mission to the Itzaex.
1
They called the Spaniards
"Xolopes " from seeing them eat

the pineapple, which was so called
in the Maya language.

205

CHAPTER XIV.
ARRIVAL

OF

FUENSALIDA

INDIANS.—SECOND
N E K FOR T H E
CROSS

AT

AT

MERIDA.—IDOLATRIES

OE T H E

TO

WITH

MISSION

TAYASAL.—TREATY

S U R R E N D E R OF H I S D O M I N I O N S . — E R E C T I O N

TAYASAL.—OPPOSITION

CANEK'S W I F E . — T H E

ITZAEX

OF

THE

ITZALAN

TIPUAN
THE

CA-

OF T H E

PRIESTS.—THE

R E S U M E T H E I R IDOLATROUS

RITES.

T H E I R V I O L E N C E TOWARDS T H E M I S S I O N A R I E S . — E X P U L S I O N

OF

FA-

T H E R F U E N S A L I D A AND O R B I T A . — T H E T I P U A N S ABANDON T H E C H R I S TIAN

FAITH.—MISSION

FRANCISCO

OF

MIRONES. — HIS

DIANS.—THEIR

DISGUST

FATHER

DELGADO.—PROPOSITION

EXTORTIONATE

AND

TRADE

WITH

DISCONTENT.—DELGADO

Y A S A L . — T H E ITZAEX MASSACRE H I S F O L L O W E R S , AND
DEATH.—BERNARDINO

EK

ESCAPE.—CONSPIRACY

OF

MIRONES

AND

FATHER

ACT.—AHKIMPPOL

S E N T TO
THE

TAYASAL.—HIS

THE

GOES TO TAPUT

HIM

CAPTURE

I N D I A N S AT ZACLUN. — M U R D E R

ENRIQUEZ.—VENGEANCE

OF
IN-

TAKEN

FOR

TO
AND
OF
THE

HUNG.

arrived at Merida at the moment
when a great festival of the Church was on the point of
being celebrated in honour of " The mystery of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin/' which the chapter
of the cathedral in that city had made a vow to defend.
He could not, consequently, secure immediate attention
to his request; but as soon as the ceremonies, which
were accompanied by fireworks, masquerades, bull-fights,
tilting at the ring, processions, and other demonstrations
of rejoicing, were ended, the Bishop and the Provincial
eagerly addressed themselves to preparations for the
FATHER FUENSALIDA

206

IDOLATRIES OF THE TIPUAN INDIANS.

[CHAP. XIV.

return of Fuensalida to Tipu. The Governor was more
propitious on this occasion than before, and now supplied
the missionary Father with the letters he asked for, enjoining all the Indians throughout Yucatan to render
him every requisite assistance.
These orders appear to have been absolutely necessary,
for neither the spiritual nor temporal obedience of the
converted Indians remotest from the seat of Government
were much to be depended on. Father Orbita experienced the effects of this failure in obedience, as soon as
he found himself alone in Tipu, unsupported by the authority of the Governor, and deprived of the assistance
of his companions; for not only did the religious zeal
of the Indian converts completely evaporate, but they
ceased to manifest any tokens of respect for the person
of the worthy Father. It was therefore a great relief to
Orbita when Fuensalida arrived from Merida, as his presence had the effect of compelling the people of Tipu
to at least an outward demonstration of obedience;
though it was soon discovered that their sincerity in religious matters was more than doubtful, a number of
idols being found, which they were still in the habit of
adoring with the dances and superstitious rites of their
old heathen worship.
These practices might have continued with impunity,
but for the opportune arrival at Tipu of the Alcalde of Salamanca de Bacalar, accompanied by the Licentiate Gregorio de Aguilar, the curate of the district, and several
Spaniards who had been sent to visit and report upon
the condition of all the towns in that part of Yucatan.
After a strict inquiry had been made, the most guilty of
the offenders were seized, and ordered to be publicly
flogged, lighter punishments being inflicted on the rest.

A. D. 1619.]

SECOND MISSION TO TAYASAL.

207

A large fire was kindled in the square of the town; the
sentences on the idolatrous Indians were read before it;
the principal idols were thrown into the flames and
burnt, and then the sentences were carried into execution. Threats were at the same time held out, that on
conviction of any further relapse from Christianity, the
offenders would suffer the punishment of death. This
example had its effect, and, for a time, the people of
Tipu devoted themselves with apparent earnestness to
the performance of their duties as Christians.
Having checked this backsliding, the missionaries once
more turned their thoughts to the conversion of the
Itzaex; and Cristoval Na, the principal cacique of Tipu,
was despatched with a party of Zamaguales to Tayasal,
to request permission for them to repeat their visit. The
Canek readily granted this request, accompanying his
assent with many expressions of goodwill towards the
Fathers, who, thus encouraged, lost no time in availing
themselves of the opportunity of renewing their Christian
labours. Besides Puensalida and Orbita, the party consisted of forty Tipuans, headed by Cristoval Na, whose
faith seemed never to have wavered amidst the defection
of his countrymen.
An easier road than that by which they had formerly
travelled conducted the missionaries to the great lake,
where they found a number of canoes in waiting to convey them to Tayasal. The Canek received them with no
diminution of his first welcome, and they were lodged
in-the same house which they had occupied the year before. At the expiration of eight or ten days the Tipuan
escort announced their intention of returning, and the
whole party, including Cristoval Na, whose authority was
unequal to control them, carried their resolve into effect.

208

TREATY WITH THE CANEK.

[CHAP. XIV.

Being now entirely left to their own resources, with
nothing to rely upon but their courage and holy zeal,
Fuensalida and Orbita addressed themselves at once to
the purpose of their mission. The Canek appeared to
show greater readiness than any of his subjects to listen
to their doctrines; and while the Fathers endeavoured to
secure his conversion, they thought it advisable not to
neglect the temporal means by which it might be rendered more certain. They began therefore to treat with
him, in the name of the King of Spain, about the form
of surrendering his dominions to the Governor of Yucatan,
and eventually arrived at the following agreement:—
That the Canek should retain the caciqueship and government of Itza, as he then held it: that the title and
authority should continue in his family, one of them,
chosen by himself, to be his lieutenant, and assist him in
the government: that for ten years the Itzaex should
pay no tribute, and that, after that period, the King of
Spain should fix the amount, which would be rated at a
very moderate sum, in consideration of the peaceful submission of the country, and its adoption of the Christian
faith. It was also agreed that the Alcaldes and other
ministers of justice and government should be appointed
from amongst the Itzaex themselves, according to the
custom which prevailed in the province of Yucatan.
As if in ratification of this treaty, the Canek ordered
a great cross to be made, and had it erected near his palace, that the Itzaex might adore it there, in fulfilment
of the prophecy of their ancient priests, who had declared
that the day would come when that signal should be
raised, at the sight of which the nation should be called
to the worship of the true and only God. Nor did the
people generally evince any repugnance to the establish-

A. D. 1618.]

OPPOSITION OF THE ITZALAN PRIESTS.

209

ment of the Christian emblem, nor show any signs of their
former resentment. On the contrary, they now treated
the missionaries with great kindness, and, though the
latter were entertained at the sole charge of the Canek,
forced presents upon them of provisions of all kinds,
eggs, fish, cakes of maize, and a beverage called jpozol,
made also of Indian corn.
But notwithstanding this seeming adhesion, the missionaries were as far off as ever from the accomplishment of their great object, for a secret influence was at
work to frustrate all their efforts. The Canek and many
of his captains, the great mass too of the people, might
readily yield to the exhortations of the Christian Fathers;
but there was one class that was opposed to them on
every ground that might excite opposition : this was
the heathen priesthood, who saw in the substitution of
Christianity, the overthrow of all their own authority
and personal advantage. As the pious Villagutierre observes, " The rebel spirit had not forgotten how powerful is the persuasion of woman to deceive man,"—instancing, of course, the first temptation in Eden,—and
the wife of the Canek was the instrument selected by
the priests to destroy the work of the missionaries.
They found her "apt," and, at their persuasion, she
undertook to represent to the Canek how necessary it
was to expel the Fathers from Itza, threatening her husband, if he opposed her wishes, to leave him for one of
his caciques, named Nacompol, and declaring that neither
she nor any of his people had any desire to change their
religion, or ever would become Christians. The Canek,
who seems to have been easily influenced on all occasions, did not refuse his assent to what she proposed;
and the better to establish her hold on his mind, his wife
p

210

VIOLENCE OP THE ITZAEX.

[CHAP. XIV.

further persuaded him to go with her and the priests to
a beautiful garden on the mainland, whither the itzalanos
were in the habit of repairing, to celebrate the worship
of their divinities, with the feasts and dances which they
called Mitotes. He would there learn, she said, that the
Gods of Itza did not desire that the missionaries should
remain any longer amongst them.
It chanced, at this time, that the Indians from Tipu
had come to Tayasal, in all probability sent by Cristoval Na, to see what condition the Fathers were in, and
on the morning after their arrival observed a number of
canoes assembled on the shore of the island, and learnt
that the Canek, the priests, and a great many of the
people were about to proceed to the garden to perform
their idolatrous rites. The Tipuan Indians informed
the missionaries of this expedition, but of what took
place on the occasion they could learn nothing. It was
evident however that the object of the Itzalan priests
had been accomplished, for on the return of the Canek
and his people, having been absent the whole day, none
of them came as usual to visit the Fathers, nor was there
any message sent.
On the following morning the fears of Fuensalida and
his companion were changed to certainty, for scarcely
had day broken before a large party of Itzaex assembled
with arms in their hands before the house in which the
Fathers dwelt. They entered without ceremony, tore
down all the religious ornaments, collected the clothes
and everything that was there, and told the missionaries
that they must forthwith embark on the lake to return to
Tipu, for that their presence in Tayasal would be endured
no longer. The Fathers desired to speak to the Canek,
who was not present, though he was cognizant of all

A,D. 1619.]

EXPULSION OF THE MISSIONARIES.

211

these proceedings, and witnessed them indeed from his
own palace; but the infuriated Itzaex would listen to
nothing they had to say, and hurried them down to the
lake. Father Orbita made some resistance to the violence that was offered him, when a Gandul, or young
Indian, came up to him, seized his hood, and twisting
it at the collar, pulled with such force, that he brought
Orbita to the ground in a state of insensibility, leaving
the hood in the hands of the Gandul, who tore it in
twain, dashed it on the ground, and outraged the holy
Father by repeated kicks and blows. Fuensalida fared
but little better, and it was well for them that they were
not both killed on the spot. But the object of the Itzaex was to expel them at any rate, and, partly driven
and partly dragged, Orbita, still insensible, being literally thrown on board, the missionaries were embarked
with the three Indians from Tipu in a crazy old canoe,
to find their way back to the opposite shore, or perish
on the voyaage. Thanks to the exertions of the Tipuans, this calamity did not befell them, and Orbita having
recovered from the ill-treatment he had received from
the Gandul, the party landed in safety. The journey to
Tipu was perilous and toilsome, and they suffered severely from hunger; a few cakes of maize and a small
quantity of pozol, which the Indians had providentially
secured, being all they had to subsist upon. Dejected at
the ill-success that had now, for a second time, crushed
their efforts, Fuensalida and Orbita resolved no further
to attempt to convert the Itzaex, but made up their
minds to return to Merida. The people of Tipu affected
to regret their decision, but in reality were greatly
pleased to hear it; and when once they were freed from
the restraint which the presence of the missionaries enp 2

212

MISSION OF FATHER DELGADO.

[CHAP. XIV.

forced upon them, all further idea of continuing in the
Christian faith was abandoned, and, in the course of a
few years, not only the Tipuans, but the inhabitants of
the greater part of the province of Bacalar, had again
relapsed into idolatry. The churches were burnt, the
houses levelled to the ground, the townships abandoned,
and the mountainous districts became once more the
abodes of the apostate Indians.
Into whatever errors the zeal of the Roman Catholic
missionaries may, in the course of their ministry, have
led them, sincerity and self-devotion were at all times
conspicuous in their conduct. They needed no stimulus
to exertion beyond the promptings of their own religious fervour, and the failure of an effort seems only to
have furnished an incentive to its renewal, if not always by the same men, at all events by others equally
ardent in the same good cause.
About a year and a half had elapsed since the return
of Fathers Fuensalida and Orbita to Merida, after their
expulsion by the Itzaex, when a provincial Chapter of the
Order of St. Francis was held in that city, at which
Father Diego Delgado, a Friar of that Order, having
made a statement respecting the lamentable condition of
the Church in the province of Bacalar, offered to go to
the mountains to endeavour to re-convert the Indians
who had relapsed into idolatry. This proposition was
made in the beginning of the year 1621, when Arias
Conde was the interim Governor of Yucatan. It was
at once acceded to, and Delgado, furnished with the requisite letters, proceeded to his own convent at Xecchacan, to make the necessary preparations for his journey.
When his purpose was made known there, several Indians of the place offered to go with him who were well

A. D. 1621.]

PROPOSITION OF MIRONES.

213

acquainted with the mountains, and he was also joined
by others who volunteered to assist him on his mission.
His first effort was very successful, for by dint of
great exertions and much preaching he collected together
a numerous body of the wanderers in the mountains of
Pimienta, and founded a town, which he called San Felipe y Santiago de Zaclun, on the site of a former town
of the last-mentioned name. Delgado then, by the authority which had been vested in him, appointed Alcaldes and other municipal officers from amongst the Indians, and communicated the fact of his having done so
to Don Diego Cardenas, who had in the meantime arrived from Spain to assume the reins of government, and
who received the intelligence with great satisfaction.
It had a great effect also on the mind of another person, whose subsequent history is associated in a very
melancholy manner with the occurrences which shortly
afterwards took place in the southern part of what was
then the province of Yucatan.
This man was Captain Francisco Mirones, at that
time judge of the Cochineal territory on the coast, and
a very brave and experienced soldier. He had long meditated the project of attempting to subdue the Itzaex
by force of arms; and when he heard of the establishment of Zaclun, he conceived that the new town would
afford him a more favourable point of departure for Itza
than the difficult route which the' missionaries had taken
by the way of Tipu. He communicated his ideas on the
subject to the Government, and argued the matter with
so much ability that Cardenas gave his assent to the proposed expedition. An agreement was drawn up between
them, the terms of which are not exactly known, further
than that they principally related to the number of men,

214

EXTORTIONATE TRADE WITH THE INDIANS, [CHAP. XIV.

and the various measures to be taken for the time being
in conducting this war, till the circumstances should
be made known to the King of Spain and the Supreme
Council of the Indies.
As soon as this arrangement was made, Mirones set to
work to raise men for the expedition, and when he had
enlisted about fifty Spanish soldiers, marched with them
to Zaclun, intending to wait there until the remainder of
his recruits were collected; but this proved to be a work
of time, and he was compelled to remain in Zaclun till
the close of the year 1662. He was not however altogether idle, though it would have been much better for
himself and all concerned had he been so. Being provided with numerous articles in which the Spaniards
were accustomed to traffic with the Indians, he gave up
his thoughts to trading with the inhabitants of Zaclun,
driving such hard bargains, and overreaching and oppressing the natives to such an extent, that he greatly excited their disgust and resentment, and awoke a feeling
which afterwards displayed itself in the most fatal manner. He was warned against this mode of proceeding
by Delgado; but the remonstrances of the worthy Father only tended to excite Mirones to still greater acts of
extortion, which increased the discontent of the Indians
to such a degree that the town became ripe for mutiny.
In this state of things, and the disagreement between
Mirones and Delgado daily increasing, the latter, after
having fairly exposed the whole case in a letter to his
Provincial, at the commencement of the year 1623, requested permission to leave Zaclun; and, as orders had
in the meantime been received from Spain, forbidding
warfare with the Itzaex, he further asked for leave to
undertake a mission to Itza. This petition was granted,

A. D. 1623.]

DELGADO GOES TO TAYASAL.

215

and, as secretly as he could, Delgado quitted Zaclun, followed only by the Indians who had accompanied him
from Xecchacan. He took the road to Tipu, but when his
departure was known in Zaclun, Mirones became fearful
lest some accident might befall him, and despatched an
officer, named Acosta, and twelve men, to overtake him,
and, if Delgado could not be persuaded to return, to
escort him wherever he might go. This party came up
with Delgado before he reached Tipu, and conducted him
to that town in safety, and, as his orders were precise,
Acosta remained there.
The missionary, firm in his resolve to go amongst the
Itzaex, now sought for a messenger whom he might despatch to the Canek, to demand, as his predecessor had
done, permission to visit Tayasal. The same faithful
Cristoval Na volunteered for that service, as he twice had
done before, and performed it with the same result. The
Canek gave the required permission, and Father Delgado, the Spaniards, the cacique, and eighty Indians to
carry the baggage, took the accustomed road, and, being
met on the shores of the great lake by the Itzaex, were
carried over in their canoes to the Peten, with every demonstration of friendship and welcome.
But this aspect of affairs was of very brief duration,
for scarcely had the strangers landed, when the whole of
the people of Tayasal fell suddenly upon them, and, taking them completely by surprise, succeeded in making
them prisoners. The Itzaex then bound their hands—
Indians and Spaniards alike—and without further delay
immediately put them all to death, with the exception of
Father Delgado, who however was only spared till he
had witnessed the fate of his companions. The manner of the execution of these unfortunate men was most

216

MURDER OF DELGADO.

[CHAP. XIV.

barbarous, and consonant with the universal treatment of
their prisoners by the Indians of the whole peninsula.
They first made a deep incision in the breasts of their
victims, tore out their hearts, which, all warm and reeking,
they offered as sacrifices to the idols, and then, cutting
off their heads, stuck them on stakes, and planted them
on an eminence where all might see them. When this
scene of blood had been enacted, the Itzaex brought forward Father Delgado, whom they had kept apart to prevent his preaching from being heard, and before they
put him to death told him the reason why they intended to do so: it was, they said, because he had not
come to Tayasal alone, and because their idol had been
destroyed, and their gods taken away, by Fathers Orbita
and Fuensalida. Delgado listened with a placid countenance to the announcement of his fate, which, horrible as
it was, and exactly resembling that of the rest, he met
with the most heroic courage, continuing to the last to
exhort them to Christianity. When he was dead, his
body was cut in pieces, and his head placed also on a
stake. Such was the end of this excellent missionary,
and so, too, died the faithful cacique of Tipu.
From the time when the Spanish officer Acosta intimated his arrival at Tipu, Mirones was left in complete
ignorance of what further had befallen the party, and,
becoming anxious about them, despatched two Spaniards
from Zaclun, in company with a very sagacious Indian
servant of his, named Bernardino Ek, who was to serve as
their interpreter and guide. Mirones gave them orders
to proceed first to Tipu, and afterwards, if necessary,
follow them to the country of the Itzaex, sending him
word by some trustworthy messenger of the state in
which affairs continued. When they reached Tipiu, the

A. D. 1623.]

CAPTURE OF BERNARDINO EK.

217

Spaniards and Bernardino learnt that Delgado and all
his company had gone out to Itza, and, as the shocking
events which had taken place at Tayasal were unknown
to them, they also proceeded thither. On arriving at
the brink of the lake, they made a large fire of leaves
and branches, that the smoke from it might show the
Itzaex that strangers were there who wished to cross to
the Peten. On perceiving the signal, the Itzaex came
over in their canoes, ferried the Spaniards and Bernardino across, and, when they landed, tied their hands, and
conveyed them to an enclosure within very strong and
lofty palisades, where they kept them for two entire days.
On the third morning, a number of the Itzaex came armed
with bows and arrows, and, taking them from the enclosure, paraded them through the city with great uproar
and hostile cries, after which they took them to the hill
where they kept the heads of Father Delgado and his
companions, and having shown them these ghastly relics,
carried them back to the palisaded prison, with the intention of sacrificing them the next day to their accursed
gods.
The Itzaex left their prisoners shut up that night as
before, surrounded by a guard who amused themselves
with dancing, drinking, and great merriment, and finally
fell asleep on their watch. Perceiving how quiet their
gaolers were, Bernardino Ek suggested to his fellowcaptives that they should attempt an escape, and worked
so hard at his bonds, that he succeeded in freeing his
hands, and then untied the Spaniards. Bernardino then
quickly scaled the palisades, and waited outside them for
his companions, but in spite of their efforts they could
not succeed like him, their hands being so dreadfully
bruised, and their wrists almost dislocated by the way in

218

ESCAPE 0E EK FROM TAYASAL.

[CHAP, XIV,

which they had been bound. In the attempt to reach
the top, one of the Spaniards slipped and fell back into
the enclosure, and the noise awoke the Itzaex, who rose
hastily to learn the cause, calling out loudly to each
other. Hearing these voices, Bernardino ran down to
the lake, got into a sorry canoe which he found on the
beach, and plied the paddle with all the speed of a man
escaping from the prospect of a cruel death. The Itzaex heard, and pursued him across the lake, following
him even into the mountains on the opposite side; but
he managed so effectually to conceal himself, that they
failed to discover him, and desisted from the pursuit.
As to the two Spaniards who were left within the palisades, their fate in all likelihood was the same as that of
Father Delgado and his party, for they were never heard
of afterwards. Bernardino Ek succeeded in reaching
Tipu; from thence he went to Salamanca de Bacalar,
where he laid his formal declaration of what had happened before the Alcalde of that place, who remitted it
to the Governor, Don Diego de Cardenas, at Merida,
and sent the Indians to Mirones to report the account
to his master, who at first would not believe the news,
and actually put Bernardino to the torture, thinking that
he had deceived him. He soon found however that the
statement which his servant made was the truth.
The policy of Mirones towards the people of Zaclun
had not changed during the interval, and much discontent continued to prevail. He was urgent with the
Government that some member of a religious community should be sent there to replace Father Delgado,
and eventually Father Juan Enriquez consented to settle
at Zaclun. He was conscious that there was great danger in taking such a step, but not aware that a con-

A.D. 1624.]

MURDER OF MIRONES.

219

spiracy had been formed amongst the Indians, who were
only waiting for an opportunity to carry their plans into
execution.
The occasion presented itself on the 2nd of February,
1624
On that day, which was the Feast of the Purification
of the Blessed Virgin, Mirones and all his soldiers attended Mass without arms, leaving only one soldier at
the guard-house in charge of them. The Indians, observing this neglect, stole to the guard-house, overpowered the sentinel, and seized all the weapons; they then
painted their faces, and rushing with loud cries to the
church entered tumultuously, and falling upon the defenceless Spaniards, took them all prisoners. The scene
that took place is thus described by Villagutierre:—" Mass was not ended, only the consecration of the elements, when, guessing the cause of the uproar, Father
Enriquez immediately consumed them, not however
omitting any of the proper forms in doing so, and leaning against the altar, turned his face towards the Indians, while they were binding the Spaniards before they
killed them. In a loud voice he called to Ahkimppol,
the leader and priest of the Indians, to keep back his
men, and consider the crime they were committing, or
at least to let the innocent prisoners die like Christians,
after confessing themselves. This all the poor Spaniards
did, loudly declaring their sins. Ahkimppol then went
up to Captain Mirones, who was tied to one of the props
of the church (the pillars that supported its straw roof),
on the Epistle side1, and, taking a dagger or knife from
the Captain's belt, struck him so fierce a blow on the
breast that he laid it entirely open, on which he thrust in
1

Epistle and Gospel side * the left and right, looking from the altar.

220

ATROCITIES OF THE INDIANS.

CHAP. XIV.

his hand and tore away his prisoner's heart. The rest
of the Indians followed the example of their leader, and
similarly sacrificed all the Spanish soldiers. While these
ministers of Satan thus glutted their infernal rage, other
Indians tied Father Enriquez, in his robes as he was, to
another wooden prop opposite to the Captain, on the
Gospel side. The Indians wished afterwards to loose
him and leave him alive, but the sacrilegious Ahkimppol,
without saying a word, came up to him and gave him a
blow with his dagger, as he had done to Captain Mirones, and instantly tore his heart out of his body. To
the moment of his death the holy friar, with great spirit,
boldly preached to them without ceasing on the horrible
and abominable impiety they were committing by their
inhuman murders, and on the errors of their idolatry.
All this was known by the subsequent confessions of
many of the aggressors, who were taken and punished,
for they left none of the prisoners alive to bear witness
to what had passed. They dragged the crosses from the
church, and cast the bodies of Father Enriquez and
Captain Mirones into a grave made in the white earth,
and, leaving them there, they took the rest to the cross
in the road, by which the Spanish soldiers would pass
who were coming to Zaclun. There they left them,
each stuck upon a $take. They afterwards burnt the
town and the church, and again fled to the mountains,
to commit idolatry and lead a barbarous life1."
The Spaniards alluded to by Villagutierre consisted
of a party of fifty men, under Captain Juan Bernardo,
stationed at a town called Mani, but who, when the news
was brought of the death of Father Delgado and his
companions, were ordered to proceed in all haste to re1

Villagutierre, lib. iii. cap. 10.

A.D, 1624.]

CAPTURE AND DEATH OF AHKIMPPOL.

221

inforce Mirones. On their way to Zaclun they met some
Indians driving the mule of Father Enriquez, and being
questioned where they were taking it, the latter replied,
that they had been sent to Merida for some wine and
provisions which were wanted. The Indians were therefore allowed to pass, and soon afterwards the Spaniards
came to the cross by the wayside, where they found the
mutilated remains of their unhappy countrymen. Captain Bernardo caused them to be decently interred, and,
finding that no chance existed of effecting the purpose
for which he set out, returned with his men to Merida.
Summary vengeance was executed on these murderers a short time afterwards, the greater part of them
being made prisoners by an Indian captain, called Fernando Carnal; Ahkimppol, their leader, did not escape,
but was hung in Merida, refusing to the last to confess
himself before death.
With this and other insurrections, especially that of
the Indians of the district of Tipu, which happened
some years later, the whole of that very extensive range
of mountains, and the many tribes who inhabited it, became impracticably shut up and lost. The people of
Tipu returned to their idolatry, and, closing the mountain passes, erected statues in them, "like ridiculous
figures of Spaniards, and in front of them other formidable figures of idols, saying that they were the Gods of
the ro^ds, who kept them closed to the Spaniards, to
prevent them from entering into their country1."
1

Yillagutierre.

990

CHAPTER XV.
CONTINUED DISTURBANCES
CHY

SACKED

STOEM AND

BY

THE

ON T H E N O R T H E R N
PIEATES.—DON

T H E MIRACLE.—CEDULA

OF

TION.—THE

ARRIVES

JOURNEY

ARIES.—TREACHERY

DE

PHILIP

DON DIEGO D E V I L L A Q U I R A N . — P R O P O S E D
PERO.—VILLAQUIRAN

EEONTIEE. —CAMPEA-

JACOBO

I N YUCATAN.—MISSIONARY

V1LVA0.—RETURN

OE

OE T H E
FATHER

M E R I D A . — V I L L A Q U I R A N SETS OUT FOR N O H H A A . — T H E
DELAYED.—VILLAQUIRAN
THE

REACHES

INDIANS.—VILLAQUIRAN

EOUETH

TO

SETTLEMENT OF E L PROS-

TO N O H H A A . — R E C E P T I O N

OE

YAKSON.—THE

THE

EXPEDIMISSION-

SIMON

TO

EXPEDITION

N O H H A A . — T H E TOWN B U R N T BY

TAKES R E F U G E AT

PETENECTE.—HIS

D E A T H . — A B A N D O N M E N T OF T H E S C H E M E OF S E T T L E M E N T .

the massacre of Zaclun and the revolt of the
people of Tipu, who, abandoning that town, fled to the
mountains, there to renew their old idolatry, the progress
of " pacification" in the interior of Yucatan, to the south
of Salamanca de Bacalar, was for some time suspended.
Indeed, the Spaniards, notwithstanding their tenure of
the country for nearly a century, held their ground in
many parts but insecurely, the tendency of the Indians
to apostatize and rebel being continually manifested.
Thus in the town of Bolonchen, about twelve leagues
from Campeachy, the natives rose on one occasion, put all
the Spanish men to death that were there, and carried
off all the Spanish women, children, and slaves, and all
the moveable property which they could seize. In the
AETER

A,D. 1644.]

CAMPEACHY SACKED BY PIRATES.

223

district of Zahcabahen revolt was general; the greatest
atrocities were committed by the Indians, and it was
long] before order was perfectly restored. Petenecte also
was the scene of a frightful massacre, and the southern
frontier of the province was always in a state of disquiet
and disturbance.
Nor were these the only evils which the Governors of
Yucatan had to contend with, for piracy filled the seas
of the western world, and their descents upon the newly
founded Spanish towns became more and more frequent.
Campeachy was constantly exposed to their attacks. In
the year 1632, when Don Fernando Zenteno Maldonado
held the interim government of the province, a fleet
of corsairs, Dutch, English, French, and Portuguese,
headed by a noted pirate, called Diego el Mulato, sacked
the town for two days, and held possession of it till a
sufficient ransom was paid for their withdrawal. They
returned the following year, when the Mulatto made a
prize of Dona Isabella Caraveo, the widow of Maldonado, who had died at Xecchacan. This lady had embarked at Campeachy for Vera Cruz, and was taken by
Diego; but the corsair treated her with courtesy, and
suffered her to accomplish her voyage. During the
Easter of 1640 the same famous rover made a demonstration at Zizal, and in 1642 he landed at Salamanca
de Bacalar, plundered the city and the churches, and
ravaged the whole coast. But the most formidable descent was made in the month of September, 1644, when
a squadron appeared off the western coast consisting of
thirteen vessels, described by Cogolludo as "English
pirates/' though it was most likely they were filled by
men of all nations. On board these vessels were fifteen
hundred troops commanded by " General Don Jacobo

224

THE PIRATE JACKSON.

[CHAP. XV.

de Yakson" (James Jackson, it is to be presumed), " calling himself Conde de Santa Catalina1." He threatened
Campeaehy, and afterwards running southward, landed
at Champoton, where his men committed the greatest
outrages, profaning the churches, defacing the sacred
images, and making numerous prisoners, amongst them
several priests, who survived to tell how fatally the expedition terminated with regard to those who planned it.
Three of the pirate-ships ran aground and were stranded
on the coast, and of the remaining ten nine were caught
in a "temporal" and foundered at sea, one vessel only,
which had the priests on board, escaping total shipwreck.
Father Andres Navarro is the narrator of the direful
catastrophe, which he describes as having been caused by
miraculous interposition. " The pirates," he says, " consisted of Huguenots, Calvinists, Arians, Sacramentarians
(who deny the real presence), Protestants, Zuinglians,
and other different sects, and," to his great grief, " of
some who were Catholics." Here are some nice distinctions with respect to the religious persuasions of the
pirates; but we derive one consolation from the " Confusion Babilonica," as Navarro calls the assemblage, and
that is, that the members composing it could scarcely all
have been English. This reverend witness goes on to
say that when the " temporal" broke loose he saw " Our
Lady of Champoton and the eleven thousand virgins"
(to whom he had previously commended himself) "in
the waist of the vessel on board of which were the Spanish friars,"—an omen of the safety which awaited them
when the pirates went to the bottom; and accordingly
they were saved, and eventually reached the Havana2.
1
2

Cogolludo, p. 682.
"Jurare con juramente afir-

mativo, que vl a JN"uestra Senora
de Champoton con las Virgenes,

A, D. 1645.]

CEDULA OF PHILIP THE FOURTH.

225

Having enough to do to repel external assaults and
suppress rebellion within their own limits, the authorities of Yucatan forbore to extend either their arms or
their religion beyond the districts which had acknowledged civilization. But the Kings of Spain, viewing
the question from the other side of the Atlantic, could
never bring themselves to believe that the difficulties
were insuperable which prevented their delegates from
making a complete conquest of all the lands that were
peopled by the Indians. Guatemala and Yucatan were
theirs already, and the intervening country must, in their
opinion, be occupied. To this end, the issue of Royal
Cedulas wras of constant occurrence, addressed to the
Viceroys, Presidents, Governors, and Audiencias of New
Spain, Guatemala, and Yucatan, enjoining them to endeavour by all means in their power to propagate the
doctrines of the Gospel, and bring within the pale of
spiritual and temporal subjection all the barbarous tribes
wherever their authority could reach.
The most precise and important of these Cedulas, because the objects which it desired to accomplish were
more strictly defined and more capable of practical enforcement, was that which was expedited by Philip IV.
from Madrid on the 29th of March, 1639.
An offer had been made to the King by Don Diego
de Vera Ordonez de Villaquiran, a captain in the Spanish infantry and retired Alguazil Mayor of the Inquisition of Barcelona, and at that period in possession
que anduvieron en el combes rinendo con los Ingleses, quando
todos se ahogaron, y no quedo sino
nuestro navio, en que ibamos entrambos Frayles. Y a mi ver fue,
porque despedacaron de un alfanjazo la cabeca de Nuestra Senora,

y la saquearon a la Santa Imagen
y a todo quanto tenia, y el castigo
dignamente merecieron por el ahogarse todos, sin quedar ninguno a
vida sino es nosotros, etc."—' Eelacion' cited by Cogolludo, p. 683.
Q

226

PROPOSED SETTLEMENT OF "EL PROSPERO." [CHAP. XV.

of the " encomienda" of Mita in the province of Guatemala, to undertake at his own expense the conquest
and pacification of the warlike Indians who occupied
the country bounded by Guatemala, Tabasco, Yucatan,
Vera Paz, and Soconusco, on certain conditions of present and prospective personal advantage. This offer had
been taken into consideration by the Royal Council of
the Indies, of which Don Garcia de Haro, Conde de Castillo, was at that time President, and was finally agreed
to. The chief stipulations were the following:—
Villaquiran was reminded in the outset that the projected " pacification" was to be undertaken at his own expense, and it was set forth that the people whom he was
to reduce were " the Lacandones, Taiezaes, Mancheses,
Tirumpics, Concaches and other barbarous Caraibs, who
eat human flesh and dwell in the country between
the said provinces (Guatemala, Tabasco, etc.) which are
peopled by my Christian vassals, as they and other barbarians, apostates and rebels, have stirred up that land."
The title of Governor and Captain-General of the whole
of the province, which thenceforward was to be called
" El Prospero," was conferred upon him, as a reward for
the services, trouble, and expense attendant on its reduction. The title was granted for Villaquiran's life, or that
of his son or of the heir whom he might appoint. He
was to administer justice in civil as well as criminal
cases, with authority similar to that which was conferred
upon the Governors and Captains-General of all the
other Spanish West Indian Provinces, after having taken,
the necessary oaths with due formality; and obedience
was enjoined upon all the officials and inhabitants of the
province. Instructions were given to him as to the
course he was to pursue in the deportation of criminals

A.D. 1645.J

STIPULATIONS WITH VILLAQUIRAN.

227

to Spain, with regard to the payment of fines and penalties into the Royal Exchequer, and he was moreover
told that he was to receive a competent yearly salary
"from the maravedis collected for rents, tributes, and
dues" belonging to the King; but, adds the Royal Capitulacionj "should there be .no rents or perquisites, I
am not bound to pay you anything."
Villaquiran's appointment was not, however, unattended by personal outlay; some heavy fees accompanied
it. " You will have to pay," so runs the Capitulacion,
" for your appointment, when called upon, one hundred
and fifty double silver ducats into my royal exchequer
of the province of Guatemala: your son, or heir, or any
person you may appoint in his stead, will have to pay
the same amount: and when you take possession you
will also have to pay as a fee one half-year's salary, and
a third of the perquisites and emoluments: and your
successor will have to do the same when he succeeds to
the government." There were other items with respect
to the payments to be made if Villaquiran governed by
deputy. Permission was given to him to correspond directly with the Council of the Indies, independently of
all other viceroys or audiencias; and for this permission,
when the time arrived for his enjoying it, he was further
enjoined to pay the sum of one thousand ducats, which
fine was to be renewed on the succession of his son or
heir. Villaquiran arrived in Yucatan to prosecute the
subjection of El Prospero in 1645. Don Estevan de
Azcarraza was at that time Governor of the province,
and offered him every assistance in his power. He met
with a good reception also from the Provincial, it being
a prominent feature of this, as of every other attempt to
pacificate the Indians, to trust mainly to the instrumenQ2

228

MISSIONARY EXPEDITION.

[CHAP. XV.

tality of religious assistance. Villaquiran made the terms
of his Capitulacion generally known, raised his standard,
made a distribution of military offices, and offered terms
of enlistment. He requested the Provincial to let him
have missionaries, and the Father Preachers Hermenegildo, Infante, and Simon de Villasis were selected, the
former acting as commissary to the mission.
The Priars, being anxious to precede the expedition,
sailed in a small vessel from Campeachy in Pebruary, 1646,
without the General being able to send them any assistance for their voyage, and after a very dangerous passage
arrived at the small port of El Baradero, at the entrance
to the Bay of Terminos. Prom thence they proceeded
round the Bay to the Beneficio of Usumasintla, the most
remote religious establishment of Yucatan, and situated
on its very confines. They were here joined by the
General, who arrived with only his wife, Dona Angela,
and two servants, having left all his staff at Merida to
collect the troops for the expedition. Villaquiran's object was to confer with the missionaries before they took
their final departure, but he was unable to do more
towards their comfort than give them two dogs which
he happened to have with him, and it was to the Beneficiary, Juan Velasquez de Arismendi, that they were
chiefly indebted for the means of prosecuting their journey ; he gave them provisions, and paid for the boat
which was to convey them from Usumasintla to that
point up the river, from which they were to continue on
foot. Villaquiran however furnished them with a letter
addressed to Captain Juan de Vilvao, a Mestizo, in command atNohhaa, and to the other Indian authorities in
that place, ordering them to render every assistance to the
missionaries, the object of whose journey he explained.

A. D. 1646.]

THE JOURNEY TO NOHHAA.

229

On the 3d of April the Fathers set out from Usumasintla, and at Tenozic, the last village in Yucatan, were
met by twenty Indians from Nohhaa. It was not to welcome, but rather deter them from proceeding, that these
Indians presented themselves, for thfey declared that the
country was suffering from famine; but the missionaries
were^resolute, and persisted in advancing, poorly supplied as they were. Their first day's journey from Tenozic, under the guidance of the Indians, was a very
distressing one, owing to the great heat and want of
water, but it improved on the next, and by noon on
the third day they arrived at a small farm, where the
Mestizo Vilvao and the Cacique of Nohhaa awaited
them. The journey that day had been a pleasant one,
the road being skirted by lofty cedar, mahogany, and
other well-grown trees, which cast a delightful shade,
and by plants that bore all the fruits of a hot climate;
they found amusement also in the number of monkeys
that disported themselves in the woods, " great bearded
creatures and small ones, which are very playful and
entertaining1."
But there was not much more amusement in store for
the missionaries, for no sooner had the Mestizo Vilvao
saluted them, than his intentions declared themselves.
Like the Indians whom he had sent to Tenozic, he was
unwilling that they should proceed further, telling the
Fathers that they were going to throw away their lives,
the natives being so evilly disposed, that no subsistence
was to be procured, and a variety of other figments of a
1
" El camino de esta dia era
bueno, cercado de alta arboleda de
cedros, caobanos, y otros arboles,
may crecidos, que hazia sombra
al camino, y gran cantidad de mo-

nos de los grades barbados, y de
los pequenitos, que son muy juguetones, y graciosos."—Cogolludo,
lib. xii. cap. iii. p. 687,

230

RECEPTION OF THE MISSIONARIES.

[CHAP. XV.

similar nature. To all this the missionaries replied that
God would protect them and provide for their wants,
and so they pursued their way, with constant toil and
great fatigue, until they arrived at Nohhaa. On approaching that town they were received by a great
number of men, women, and children, who came out to
greet them with branches in their hands, and forming
into a procession accompanied them to the church, where
prayers were offered up, and Father Simon addressed them
in a brief discourse. On the following day he preached
to the people, and dismissed them well contented, returning with Father Commissary Infante to the house of
Vilvao. But their host's hospitality was of the scantiest, and the missionaries very soon had reason to
complain of their treatment. The Father Commissary
therefore wrote a letter on the subject to Villaquiran,
but the Mestizo, suspecting that it was a complaint
against him, took the letter from the messenger, and the
General was left in ignorance of what had occurred.
Vilvao, having the chief authority in Nohhaa, employed
every means he could to disgust the Friars with their
mission, and, amongst other things, endeavoured to prejudice the Indians against them, telling them that what
Father Simon preached was all lies. The missionaries
heard of these proceedings, and resolved to send an account of them to Villaquiran by a Spaniard, who had
accompanied them, and to this man they confided their
letters. But the Mestizo was determined, if possible,
to prevent their delivery, and chose for the Spaniard's
guides three of the least serviceable Indians of the town,
instructing them to take him into the mountains and
leave him there to perish; moreover, out of apparent
kindness, he gave the Spaniard poison in some pinole,

A.D. 1646.]

VILLAQUIRAN SETS OUT FOR NOHHAA.

231

which he was to drink on the journey1, and the result
very nearly answered his expectations, for the poor fellow
took it, and was brought to death's door. He recovered,
however, and was' able to accomplish his journey to
Campeachy, where he found the General, who thus became aware of the Mestizo's treacherous conduct. It
would be tedious to detail all the devices which the Mestizo employed to annoy the missionaries, nor are the
particulars more worthy of note than to show that the
success of the mission could not, under such circumstances, be reckoned on. To establish matters on a
better footing, Father Simon decided upon returning to
Merida; but he was taken ill on the road, and when he
reached that city remained so long confined by his malady, that his services in the cause of the mission were
afterwards of no avail.
In the meantime Villaquiran had also returned to Merida, to make arrangements for marching with the expedition, which set out finally in the beginning of the
year 1647, and took the route of Nohhaa. "But," observes CogoUudo, "although this cavalier was a good
Christian, and of very capable intelligence in matters of
speculation, he was very unfortunate in their execution;
a twofold disposition working within him, which set his
practice in complete opposition to his theories;" an augury this, of the ill-success which awaited him. Thus,
instead of proceeding at once to Nohhaa, he halted for
some time at Usumasintla, waiting, as he said, for further information from the Father Commissary Infante,
by which delay he laid the foundation for the failure of
the expedition.
1
Pinole is a powder used in Yucatan to give the chocolate an aromatic flavour.

232

THE EXPEDITION DELAYED.

[CHAP. XV.

While Villaquiran was waiting at Usumasintla, affairs
had gone badly at Nohhaa, for on the occasion when the
Father Commissary proposed to have celebrated the Festival of the Institution of the Holy Sacrament, upwards
of three hundred Indians assembled at one of their own
feasts, and having drunk the customary "Balche 1 ," went
to the Infante, and told him that they had met to determine on remaining no longer in the town. They had,
they said, entertained the thought, at first, of killing
the Father Commissary and his companion, Father Gabalda (who had joined him a short time previously),
but reflecting that they had done them no harm, they
meant to content themselves by taking away the priest's
garments.
The Father Commissary entreated them to alter their
resolution, but in vain; he was despoiled of his robes
and the church ornaments, and the Indians abandoned
the town for the mountains.
Instead therefore of hearing from the Father Commissary by letter or messenger, Villaquiran saw him arrive
at Usumasintla in person. The "Friar was very urgent
with the General to give him twenty men to return with
him to Nohhaa, representing that, with that number to
support him, he could induce the Indians to re-enter the
town; but Villaquiran replied, that he could not have
such assistance till he went thither himself, and forthwith issued an order prohibiting any of his men from
proceeding to Nohhaa. He suffered five-and-twenty
days to go by in inactivity, and the soldiers, observing
how lax was his discipline, stole away from his camp in
such numbers, that at the expiration of that time five
only remained in his company.
1

"Bebida acostumbrada en sus idolatrias."

A.D. 1647.]

VILLAQUIRAN REACHES NOHHAA,

233

During this fatal pause, the cacique of Nohhaa and
four other Indians arrived at Usumasintla, to ask pardon
of the General for what they had done, saying that they
alone remained in the town. Villaquiran was moved, on
this, to do what he ought to have done long before, or
have left undone now; he set out with his wife Dona
Angela, his five soldiers, and the Father Commissary, for
Nohhaa, which place he reached about the end of July,
1647. But he was entirely without money, and to obtain some, it was thought advisable that the Father Commissary should make his way to Guatemala, to solicit aid
from the Royal Treasury. Father Infante set out for
that purpose, and had proceeded as far the town of Palenque, distant thirty leagues from Nohhaa, when he was
overtaken by a messenger with a letter, telling him
that the General was very ill. During the Father Commissary's absence, Villaquiran had threatened to hang
the cacique of Nohhaa unless he were supplied with provisions, and the Indians of the neighbourhood hearing
of this meditated severity came down upon the town and
set it on fire, the General being glad to escape with his
wife, and the "poor remainder" of his men, leaving all
the property he had behind him. He took refuge in
Petenecte, a place about twenty-two leagues from Usumasintla, and here the Father Commissary found him
both sick and delirious. Villaquiran's condition was truly
pitiable, and what he could do to alleviate it, the Father
Commissary performed; his first care being to send on
another Friar named Elizondo, who had followed the
expedition from Usumasintla, to fulfil the errand on
which he had himself set out for Guatemala. Some
months were consumed in this journey; and before Elizondo returned to Petenecte with a sum of fifty pieces-

234

DEATH OF VILLAQUIRAN.

[CHAP. XV.

of-eight for the relief of the General,—Don Diego Ordonez de Vera y Villaquiran, Knight of the Order of Calatrava, and Adelantado of the (future) province of El
Prospero, was dead. He lingered till April, 1648, being
able shortly before his death to make his will, in which
he substituted in the Royal Capitulacioii the name of
Don Estevan de Azcarraza, the Governor of Yucatan,
for his own, in conformity with the powers allowed him,
and also named the Father Commissary Infante, Abbot
of El Prospero. But the Governor died of the plague
at Merida the same year, and the pacification of El Prospero was abandoned.
Thus ended an expedition, if indeed it deserves the
name, which had been heralded by such a magnificent
prologue, and was brought to so miserable a close. Dona
Angela did not long survive her husband, but died a few
months afterwards in the city of Chiapa.

235

CHAPTER XVI.
MISSION TO T H E C H O I R S AND

LACANDONES F E O M

MISSIONAEIES P E O C E E D TO C A H A B O N . — T H E Y
ESCUEEUCHAN.—THEIE
SIONAEIES

CEOSS

THE

SAN JACINTO MATZIN

WELCOME

FEOM

THE

YAXHA.—NTJMEEOUS
FOUNDED,—SUCCESS

GUATEMALA.—THE

EEACH THE CLIFF
CHOLES.—THE
INDIANS

OF

MIS-

BAPTIZED.—

OF T H E MISSION AT CO-

B A N . - — E E L A P S E S . — A N E W M I S S I O N . — D I S C O V E E Y OF A N C I E N T B U I L D I N G S . — T H E MISSION

EELINQUISHED.

the abandonment of the attempt to pacificate the
country of the Laeandones, and establish the province
which was to have borne the name of " El Prospero," an
interval of several years elapsed without any renewal of
the endeavour of the Governor of Yucatan to subjugate
the interior, whether by secular force or religious persuasion.
But in the year 1675, the question of conversion was
again brought forward, at the instance, it is averred, of
some Indians of Chole, one of the districts to the north
of Vera Paz, conterminous, if not identical, with the
south-eastern part of British Honduras. These Indians,
who had been visited while on a mission by Father Jose
Delgado, a Friar of the Convent of Santo Domingo, of
Guatemala, came of their own accord to the city of Santiago, to request that ministers of the Gospel might be
AFTEU

236

MISSION TO THE CHOLES.

[CHAP. XVI.

sent into their country to baptize the people and establish
the Christian faith. The Audiencia of Guatemala communicated this proposal to Father Francisco Gallegos,
the Provincial of the Convent of Santo Domingo, and
he, glad to avail himself of the opportunity, volunteered
to go thither in person, choosing Father Delgado for his
associate. They took the route of Cahabon, a town situated on the river of the same name, which swells the
waters of the Polochic on its course to the Gulf of
Dulce; and penetrating the mountains to the eastward,
began their work of conversion by gathering together
the first Indians they encountered, and forming them
into a community or kind of town, to which they gave
the name of San Lucas, a place which, like many others
similarly founded, has no present existence. They also
formed two other establishments or villages, which they
called respectively Our Lady of the Rosary, and Santiago.
This part of the Chole country was but thinly peopled, and, the number of converts amounting to barely
thirty, the missionaries resolved to bend their steps in a
northerly direction, where the inhabitants were more
numerous., Taking with them some of their neophytes as
guides, they journeyed about twenty leagues, where they
found some more Indian families, whom they baptized
and formed into a township, appointing an alcalde over
them. But when the Fathers expressed their intention
to proceed further, the Indians, one and all, endeavoured
to dissuade them from doing so, urging the danger of
the attempt, for, said they, the god of the mountains,
Escurruchan, who dwells there in the likeness of a
lofty cliflF or rock, would not suffer them to advance. The
missionaries however persisted, and induced three of the

A. D. 1675.]

PROGRESS OF THE MISSION.

237

Indians from San Lucas (who, notwithstanding their
conversion to Christianity, seemed to hold their ancient
deities in great reverence) to go on with them; and,
with the slight provision of a small quantity of chocolate
and some biscuits, two hammocks for their beds, and a
coffer containing church ornaments, they took the route
to the forbidden pass, accompanied also by the Alcalde
and two porters from the last-formed township. Their
manner of travelling was characteristic: the Alcalde led
the way, opening the road with a hatchet, the missionaries and Indians lending their assistance, and possession
of the country being taken in the name of the King of
Spain at every fresh encampment they reached.
Having crossed a wide stream called the Maytol, they
again ascended the mountains and approached the cliff
of Escurruchan. Here the Indians conferred together,
and then represented to the missionaries that, if they
desired to effect a passage in safety, they must make
an offering of some copal, or incense, to the god of the
mountains. Father Gallegos made answer, that his companion and himself were servants of the God who made
the mountains, which they feared not, and that the incense
which they carried with them was only to be used at Mass,
and for no other purpose. They continued their way,
driving their mules before them, and reached the summit
without accident. There they found a small square space,
which was swept perfectly clean and surrounded by a
wooden fence, with a clear fire burning in the centre.
They inquired the reason of this fire, and learnt from
their guides that it was never extinguished, every Indian
travelling that way considering it his duty to be provided
with copal and other aromatic herbs wherewith to feed
the flame. The Indians very urgently entreated the mis-

238

INDIAN WELCOME.

[CHAP. XVI.

sionaries to make the same sacrifice, to which the latter
replied that they had not yet been permitted to descend
the mountain; but pledged their words that, if they did so
safely, they would, on their return, make an offering of
incense. The descent was effected without any obstruction on the part of the dreaded Escurruchan; but the Indian guides were either offended at the slight put upon
their national deity, or were afraid to proceed further,
for they here took leave of the Fathers, who were left
alone with the two porters and their beasts of burden.
They did not however remain long in solitude, their presence in the country being soon discovered by the roaming natives, numbers of whom flocked to meet them, with
much courteous greeting. The usual salutations over,
the missionaries declared the object of their visit to be
to make the Indians acquainted with the knowledge of
the true and only God; and that the King, whose subjects they were, had no desire to receive tribute from
them for many years to come. Proselytism was never a
difficult task amongst these tribes, and the Choles, in
reply, not only expressed their willingness to be converted,
"but," says Villagutierre, "were so rejoiced at hearing
this, that they embraced the Friars, saying, 'Welcome
to our country; you come like the sun, the moon, and
the fire, to enlighten us ; our fathers and mothers being
ashes at the feet of the devil for ever, in consequence
of their ignorance1." We are further told by the same
authority, so zealous were the Indians on this occasion,
that a dispute arose among them as to which of their
towns the Friars should visit first. " They opened a large
and wide road for them, clearing it of all impediments,
travelled in their company the whole day, with great re1

Villagutierre, lib. iii. cap. ii. p. 154.

A. D. 1675.]

THE MISSIONARIES REACH THE YAXHA.

239

joicing, and when the Friars came to any stream which
they could not pass on their mules, the Indians carried
them over in their arms. If they descended a hill where
they might accidentally slip, the Indians laid hold of
their leathern girdles, and held them as firmly as if they
had been fastened to poles, cautioning them at the same
time to be careful; for they knew if the Friars were killed
the Spaniards would exact their own lives as the penalty/5
There may be some exaggeration in this account; but
one inference remains, that the Choles were a tractable
and gentle race, whose chief moral defect appears to
have been that which characterized the Indians of this
peninsula in general,—a too great facility of disposition,
which showed itself most manifestly in the readiness
with which they abandoned their national religion.
The first halt which the missionaries made was on the
banks of a large and fine river, called Yaxha1, the water
of which was esteemed the finest in the province. The
Indians formed themselves into a circle round the Friars,
and began to eat; the latter would willingly have done
the same, but their slender stores were exhausted, and
they were obliged to ask for some food. Several Indians
immediately ran down to the river, and speedily caught
some small fish, called "chillan," which were wrapped up
in palm-leaves and then broiled over embers; these were
eaten with " tamal," and sufficed to appease the hunger
of the tired travellers. " On the following day the party
arrived at the dwelling of a cacique named Matzin, who
afterwards received the baptismal appellation of Don
Martin; he supplied them with better fare, giving them
1
The " Yasja" of Baily's map
of Central America ; one of the
head-waters of the .Rio de la Pa-

sion, which, unites with theLaeantun to form the Usumasinta.

240

SAN JACINTO MATZIN FOUNDED.

[CHAP. XVI.

not only fish, but eggs and excellent cakes. The cacique
also bestowed his company upon them during the repast,
and, as all the Indians were gathered round them, and
it was necessary to give a mouthful to each, Matzin grew
angry, and said to the Fathers, ' Eat, that you may not
die, and take no notice of them; they are at home1.' "
Father Jose Delgado, who was well acquainted with
the language of the country, now preached to the assemblage ; they listened to him with pleasure, and requested
that some of their children should be baptized. The
rite was performed at once, the children chosen being
those of the cacique, who undertook to form a town on
the spot, to which the missionaries gave the name of San
Jacinto Matzin. Conversion amongst such a people made
rapid progress, and, passing onwards, several other townships of baptized Indians were founded; but the rainy
season coming on, and apprehending scarcity, the Fathers
determined upon returning to Cahabon. They therefore
took leave of their converts for the present, assuring
them of their speedy return, and on departing planted
crosses in all the villages they had named. They again
climbed the Escurruchan, and when they reached the
summit the missionaries raised a large cross, and kneeling before it, performed their devotions with great fervour. The Provincial also performed his promise of burning incense on the spot, but took care to inform the Indians who accompanied him, that this was no act of
1
"Levantaron de alii, y llegaron a otro dia en casa de un cazique, a. quien llamaron despues
Don Martin, que el se llamava
Matzin, y les dio huevos, pescado
y admirables tortillas. Assistio el
Cazique a ver comer a los Padres;
y como todos los Indios estavan

rodeados de ellos, y era preciso
darles algun bocadillo a cada uno,
lo llevava a mal el Cazique, diziendo a los E-eligiosos : Corned, no
os murais ; dexadlos a ellos, que en
su casa estan."—Yillagutierre, lib.
iii. cap. ii. p. 155.

A. D. 1675.]

NUMEROUS BAPTISMS.

241

idolatrous worship, but one of devotion to the God
whose religion he had come to make known in that land.
No further incident occurred on their way back; they
found the small towns of converted Indians in the condition in which they had left them, and reached Cahabon in safety.
The sojourn of the missionaries in that place was not
long, for while they were in the country of the Choles
they had heard that in the neighbourhood of Coban
there existed a tribe called the Axoyes, who were reported of as well-disposed to become Christians. The
Friars therefore went to Coban, and, on the invitation of
the Provincial, a hundred and eighty adult Indians of the
Axoyes repaired to the town. It was discovered that
these persons had already been baptized, and were anxious
to confess and receive the sacrament: the first request
was acceeded to, the missionaries being astonished to
find how well versed the converts were in the doctrines of
Christianity; but the Provincial being called away from
that district, the celebration of the Eucharist was deferred.
In 1676 the mission was renewed, and with remarkable success, the Priars of San Domingo baptizing no
fewer than two thousand three hundred and forty-six
persons in eleven villages which they founded; and these
numbers were subsequently increased to thirty thousand.
But this willing adoption of a new faith, which has been
spoken of as a characteristic of all the Indian tribes in
Yucatan, seems rather to have had its origin in a craving after novelty, than in the desire for true enlightenment. The hold of the Christian religion upon the
minds of the converts was very precarious, for it generally happened that in the absence of their teachers the
Indians relapsed into their original idolatry; and such

242

-A NEW MISSION.

[CHAP. XVI.

was the case with the Choles and Manches in 1678,
when a severe epidemic prevailed, which broke up the
villages and scattered the natives far and wide: the roads
were closed, cultivation ceased, and in a great degree
the people resumed their former habits. The progress of
conversion was moreover suspended, in consequence of
dissensions and misunderstandings which arose amongst
the civil and religious authorities of Guatemala, the Dominican and Franciscan Friars being accused of want
of zeal, though what in truth they wanted was more efficient assistance, and funds for constructing roads, by
means of which the country they desired to penetrate
might be made accessible.
In the beginning of the year 1685 another movement
was attempted, at the head of which was the Bishop of
Guatemala himself, his coadjutors being the Provincial
Diego de Ribas and Augustin Cano. They began to
operate on three different points at the same time. The
bishop entered the Chole country by the way of Cohalco
in Vera Paz, Ribas by Gueguetenango, and Cano by
San Lucas. Nothing of any consequence was effected
by the bishop, who sickened from the hardships which
he underwent on the road, and returned to Guatemala.
Neither do we find that Father Cano did more than
settle at San Lucas, with the view of making it an important town, to serve as a point cfappui for subsequent
operations; but even the religious establishment founded
here was not of long duration, for towards the end of
1688 the inhabitants broke out into open rebellion, set
fire to the town, burnt the church, apostatized, and fled
to the mountains. Father Ribas employed greater personal exertion, and made good his entrance into the territory of the Lacandones. Proceeding from Gueguete-

A. D. 1685.]

ANCIENT BUILDING.

243

nan^o, by way of Chiantla, his party penetrated through
roads which they made as they advanced, in a northerly
direction, sometimes crossing a thickly wooded and
mountainous country, and at others striking the banks
of a large river, which, as it is said they travelled " with
the stream," was most probably the Selegua, known,
nearer its junction with the sea, in the Gulf of Campeachy, as the river Grijalva or Tabasco. Occasionally
they came upon plantations of maize and other signs
of cultivation; remains of ancient edifices of stone and
mortar were found; and in one place an interesting
building arrested their attention. It stood upon a high
hill, and the ascent, to it was by a circular flight of
steps. On the top of the temple, which from the absence of fire appeared to be deserted, stood an idol a
foot and a half high, in the shape of a lion. In the
fervour of his religious zeal, Father RAbas ordered the
whole to be destroyed, and in a short time not a vestige of the temple remained. In its place a cross was
erected, the site was blessed, and the Provincial gave it
the name of Nuestra Senora de Belen.
After this the mission travelled westerly for some
leagues along some Indian tracks, and> following them
up, fell in with a party of Lacandones, who fled precipitately on seeing them. These people the missionaries
supposed to be spies, and a consultation was held, when
it was resolved that they should not proceed further at
that time, but return to Gueguetenango. In relinquishing the expedition, Father Ribas was anxious to show
that he had no idea of giving up his first-formed project,
and wrote a very full report of what he had done to the
President of Guatemala, describing the country as excessively fertile, with plenty of fine water, abounding with
a 2

244

THE MISSION RELINQUISHED.

[CHAP. XVII.

honey and tropical fruits, and of a far milder temperature than the mountainous region of Gueguetenango.
He added, that a Spanish settlement might very easily
be made in any part of the valley adjoining the great
river, which would be serviceable not only on account
of its productiveness, but because it was situated about
half-way between Vera Paz and Ocozingo, and opened
the way into Lacandon. This recommendation of
Father Ribas, with regard to a settlement, does not
appear to have been adopted; but advantage was afterwards taken of the route which he had indicated, when
it was determined to pacificate the interior by the aid of
a military force.

245

CHAPTER XVII.
MILITARY

EXPEDITIONS

THE PROPOSITION
YUCATAN

TO

AGAINST

OE

DON

THE

LACANDONES

MARTIN URSUA

GUATEMALA.—THREE

EXPEDITIONS

VANCE OE M A Z A R I E G O S . — P I C T U R E S Q U E
TOWN, W H I C H

EIVE
THE

WITH

OE

SAN

LACANDONES

TO

REPORTS

LOS

TO R E A C H

TEMPT.—ACCOUNT
THROUGH THE

THE

OE

THE

THER

AEERAYS.—VELASCO
THE

FOLLOWS

SIGHT OF T A Y A S A L . — H E
WITH THE

OE

TO

ITZALANS

IN

HIS

OE D E

BARRIOS.—
EN-

EAILS I N T H E AT-

VELASCO.—HE

PASSES

AND APPROACHES
OE

THE

ITZALANS.—FUR-

MOPAN.—HE

AGAIN

DISAPPEARANCE

TRACK

F I N D S TRACES OF

DE
OE

A PARTY

RETURNS

BAR-

OE

THEM.—RETURN

ITZA, BUT

CHAXAL.—MYSTERIOUS

PARTY.—AMEZQUITA

OE

BY

MOPANES

WITH

DE

DISCOVERED.—ALCAYAGA

OE

THE

OE

VELASCO.—CAPTURE

MADE

PROGRESS

COUNTRY OE

OE I T Z A . — E N C O U N T E R

TO

OE

TOWN

LAKE

LAKE

VANCES

ORGANIZED.—AD-

D I O S . - ^ JUNCTION

DOLORES.—RETREAT

EXPEDITIONS.—NEW

DEAVOURS

DE

MAZARIEGOS.—NEWS

LACANDONES.—THE

ERESH

JUAN

ON.—

S C E N E R Y . — D I S C O V E R Y OP A

NAMED " L O S D O L O R E S . ' 5 — R E T R E A T

IS

RIOS.—FOUNDATION
BARRIOS

RESOLVED

TO O P E N A ROAD PROM

AND COMES

OE

ADHIS

WITHIN

VELASCO.—INTERCOURSE

ON T H E BORDERS OF T H E

LAKE.—AMEZQUITA

FAILS TO DISCOVER T H E FATE O F VELASCO, W I T H D R A W S F R O M ITZA,
AND F I N A L L Y R E T U R N S TO GUATEMALA.

IT had long been felt by the local authorities that a
merely religious mission was insufficient to accomplish
the complete pacification of the central provinces of the
peninsula; but without an express permission from the
Royal Council of the Indies, neither the President of
Guatemala nor the Governor of Yucatan durst venture
to impart to it a military character. This permission

246

THE PROPOSITION OF URSUA.

[CHAP. XVII.

was granted in the year 1689 to Captain Juan de Mendoza, who had already been employed in reducing the
natives of Honduras; and it was settled that, similarly to
the religious missions, the troops employed should enter
the province of Lacandon on three sides,—from Chiapa,
from Gueguetenango, and from the side of Yucatan. But
circumstances delayed the execution of this plan, and it
was not till the year 1692 that any effectual measures
were adopted, when a memorial, addressed to the King
of Spain by Don Martin Ursua, who had been named as
the future successor of Don Roque de Soberanis, the
then Governor of Yucatan, praying that he might be employed to reduce the Lacandones, was taken into consideration and finally acceded to.
Ursua's proposal was, to open, at his own expense, a
high road from Yucatan to Guatemala, passing through
the provinces of Itza and Lacandon, and peaceably, by
means of preaching the Gospel, to subdue the Indians
as he advanced; but he dwelt on the paramount importance of first constructing the road, being of opinion
that the establishment of a line of traffic would greatly
facilitate the work of conversion. It was directed in the
Uoyal Cedulas that the road should be opened simultaneously at both ends; that great care should be taken
to select a spot for opening, where water could be obtained from day to day; that towns should be established
from four to eight leagues apart, and that, in the event
of its being difficult to accomplish this latter object, ventas should be constructed at intervals along the line for
the convenience of travellers. It was further enjoined
that the original project of entering Lacandon from separate points on the side of Guatemala should be adhered to.

A. D. 1695.]

THREE EXPEDITIONS ORGANIZED.

247

The order contained in these Cedulas reached Guatemala and Yucatan in 1693, but the remainder of that
year and the whole of the next passed away without
anything being done, owing to the unsettled condition
of the Government in each of those provinces.
The restoration of Don Jacinto de Barrios to the
Presidency of Guatemala, afforded the first favourable
opportunity of attempting to carry out the scheme of
general pacification; and at the commencement of 1695
orders were issued for the simultaneous advance of three
different expeditions: the first, from the province of
Chiapa, headed by the President himself; the second,
from Gueguetenango, under the command of Melchor
Rodriguez Mazariegos; and the third, from Cahabon,
under that of Diego de Velasco. A communication of
this purpose was at the same time made to Don Roque
de Soberanis, the Governor of Yucatan, with the request
that he would co-operate on that side.
It will be advisable that for the present we should
treat only of the efforts that were made from the province of Guatemala.
The rendezvous of the expeditions commanded by the
President and Mazariegos had been fixed for Gueguetenango, and at that place the greater part of the troops,
who were divided into companies of Spaniards and Indians, together with the ecclesiastical staff, including the
Fathers Diego de Ribas, Pedro de la Concepcion, and
Cano, with several more, assembled in the month of
January. The President arrived there on the 23rd, and
on the 29th Mazariegos was sent with his force to Istatan, being followed ten days afterwards by De Barrios, who had conceived the idea that he should find
greater facilities for entering the Lacandon country from

248

ADVANCE OF MAZARIEGOS.

[CHAP. xvn.

Santa Eulalia than from Chiapa, as it was nearer, and
lay more to the eastward. But on reaching that place
the President found he could not obtain the information
he desired, and after conferring with Mazariegos at Istatan, respecting their future proceedings, he decided upon
taking the route by Comitan, or that by Ocozingo: the
latter was finally selected, and he arrived there on the
12th of February. It will be our province however to
follow the fortunes of Mazariegos, as he was the first
who made any discovery in Lacandon.
On the last day of February, the period fixed for his
march being come, mass was said in the camp at a very
early hour, and all the troops confessed, and received the
sacrament at the hands of the Provincial Ribas and
Father Pedro de la Concepcion. Mazariegos then set
forward at the head of his division, and advanced towards the mountains in a north-easterly direction. The
progress of the troops was very slow, in consequence of
the rugged nature of the ground, the steepness of the
hills, the density of the woods, and the slipperiness of
the soil, occasioned by the small fine rain that was constantly falling. Five leagues from Istatan they came upon
the vestiges of some ancient edifices of stone, put together with the usual skill of the Indians of this country ; but what purpose they had served could not be ascertained, as the walls that remained rose little more
than a yard from the ground, and the interior was
thickly overgrown with trees. They encamped that night
on the bank of a stream called Chimp, having performed a day's march of seven leagues.
On the following day the troops resumed their route,
cutting their way through the same kind of rough,
broken country, all enclosed by lofty mountains. They

A.D. 1695.]

PICTURESQUE SCENERY.

249

were filled with enormous monkeys, turkeys, pheasants,
quetzales, and other birds of fine plumage, and numbers
of hogs were seen, of a kind that have a gland on their
backs, which must be cut out as soon as the animal is
killed, or the flesh immediately becomes tainted. They
found also abundance of honey, an excellent vegetable
called "pacayas," and some "soste" trees, which yield a
resinous gum that gives out a very sweet smell when the
wood is burnt. This day they marched eight leagues,
and arrived at night at a place called by the Indians
Labconop, which had been visited by Father Ribas in
the expedition of 1685, when he gave it the name of
San Pedro Nolasco. In this manner the march was continued, till, on the sixth day, the troops came to a great
hollow in the mountains, more than a league in diameter,
where there were more remains of ancient buildings,
but similarly overgrown by trees and thick underwood.
The spot was further remarkable for a small lake, which
disclosed an outlet for the waters which it received from
a rapid mountain-torrent. It was necessary to make a
halt at this place, as the cattle and baggage were some
distance in the rear, and the intricacy of the country had
greatly increased. A small party was therefore sent on
to explore, and, after a day's absence, word was brought
back that a broad river ran in front of the line of march.
It was forded on the 10th of March, the name of " San
Ilamon" being given to it, and the expedition continued
its further course along its banks, which, where it was
level, were fringed with cocoa-nut trees; in the river
was abundance of fish, consisting chiefly of " moharras,"
" icoteas," and others of the same prickly sort, besides
"water-dogs" ("perros de agua"), and alligators; kingfishers, herons, and geese, flew over its waters, and the

250

THE TOWN OF LOS DOLORES.

[CHAP. XVII.

woods were thickly peopled with parrots, macaws, pheasants, and an endless variety of many-coloured birds.
The beauty of the scenery was increased, but the difficulties of the march were by no means diminished. At
one moment the expedition was hemmed in by high and
densely-wooded hills, at another its progress was stopped
by inaccessible cliffs, and the labour to clear a passage
was everywhere excessive. The San Ramon was crossed
and re-crossed several times, discovery being made of
another river, broader and deeper than the first, which
received the name of San Jose. Between these two
streams the troops pursued their route, anxiously looking out for traces of the Lacandones, whose territory, it
was presumed, they had fairly entered. At length they
made the discovery of some cuttings of firewood, and the
charred remains of sticks half-burnt, which assured
them that the Indians could not be far off. A few
leagues further on they found the impression of naked
feet on the sandy shore of one of the rivers; then they
came upon a " tapesquiho," or fire-place, where fish and
other food had been dressed, the shells of the icotea and
skins of the plantain being amongst the fragments; the
marks of a canoe, which had been hidden amongst some
reeds, afforded further indications of being nearer the
objects of their search; and finally a hut and a narrow
pathway were descried by an exploring party which was
conducted by Father Pedro de la Concepcion. The path
led towards a plain, in the midst of which the missionary beheld a town, to which, as it was discovered
on Good Friday (April 6th, 1695), he at once gave the
name of Los Dolores, and sent back the Indians who
accompanied him to convey the news to the camp, while
he went on, and, undismayed, entered the town alone.

A. D. 1695.]

MEETING WITH THE LACANDONES.

251

Father Pedro's reception by the inhabitants was at first
of a very doubtful kind. The people came flocking
round him, surprised at the novelty of his garb and
general appearance, and their language and gestures
were far from encouraging; but they became calmer as
they listened to his words, though his knowledge of their
language was but imperfect.
In the meantime, on the receipt of the intelligence of
Father Pedro's discovery, Mazariegos ordered the expedition to move onwards towards Los Dolores. As they
were ascending a hill two Lacandones suddenly appeared
at the top with bows and arrows, and presently afterwards a body of upwards of sixty more showed themselves similarly armed. The missionaries advanced in
front of the Spaniards bearing crucifixes in their hands,
at the sight of which the Indians paused, and one of
their number knelt down and wept; another however,
less given to the melting mood, advanced for a different
purpose, and made a snatch at the machete, a short
sword worn by one of the Christian Indians, but failing
in his attempt, and being thrust backwards into a brook,
he leapt up, and, taking an arrow from his quiver, bent
his bow and prepared to shoot. The Spaniards upon
this made a movement to advance, which caused the
Lacandones to cry out repeatedly in a loud voice, " Utz
impusical, utz impusical" (literally, "my heart is good"),
to signify that their intentions were not hostile. No
weapons therefore were drawn, and while the Spaniards
remained uncertain what their gestures and words implied, the Lacandones gradually drew off. It was not
thought advisable to make any further advance till the
baggage came up, and the troops, retracing their steps
for a short distance, encamped for the night. On the

252

THE LACANDONES DESERT THEIR TOWN. [CHAP. XVII.

following morning they were joined by Father Pedro,
who came from Los Dolores, and gave a full account of
what had happened to himself. He said that, on the
return of the Lacandones to the town,-after having seen
the Spaniards, they treated him with more respect, giving him to understand that his countrymen would be
welcome on their arrival. But he was not himself of
that opinion, as he had observed that the natives had
been occupied during the night in taking the lighter
moveables out of their houses, and in making sacrifices
of fowls to their idols, from which he concluded that it
was their purpose to evacuate the place.
Father Pedro was right in his conjecture, for when
the troops that afternoon entered the town, they found
it entirely deserted, not a single person being visible.
There were, however, plenty of stores left behind, the
houses being filled with maize, beans, and cotton, together with the women's weaving instruments, shootingtubes for blowing arrows, calabashes, grass-ropes, and a
variety of tools and other implements, all made of stone;
the small beds of clean reed-grass in which the children
were rocked, arranged and tied with great precision,
were still hung over the " tapescos," or fire-places, after
the usual fashion, which enabled the mothers to give
their infants suck while they were cooking. Many domestic fowls, Spanish as well as native, were also found,
besides numerous dogs and tame macaws. The number
of houses in Los Dolores amounted to one hundred and
three, of which a hundred were private dwellings, two,
much larger than the rest, were appropriated to general
purposes, and a third, larger still, served as a temple,
for it was filled with idols of strange shapes, and contained brasiers in which the ashes of the gum-copal

A.D. 1695.]

EXPEDITION OF DE BARRIOS.

253

incense were yet warm. These last-named relics were
all destroyed, and the temple was straightway converted
into a church; the Spanish troops made barracks of the
larger houses, and the Indian soldiers, with the stores of
the expedition, occupied the rest.
It was a source of great inquietude to Mazariegos and
the Missionary Fathers that none of the inhabitants
were to be seen, for they could not tell what was the
actual disposition of the people towards the expedition;
but after the matter had undergone considerable discussion it was finally decided that they should continue
to occupy the town until news could be obtained of the
President Don Jacinto de Barrios. Mazariegos also
gave orders that nothing belonging to the Lacandones
should be taken from their houses, and every effort was
mode to draw some of the fugitives back to the town,
that they might perceive the object of the Spaniards was
not to injure them or their property.
While the first division of the expedition had thus far
successfully prosecuted their journey, the President of
Guatemala had entered Lacandon from Ocozingo. The
identical spot to which the unfortunate Villaguiran gave
the name of El Prospero, as the future capital of the
province, which was so designated in the Royal Cedula,
cannot easily be ascertained, but it must have been at
no great distance north-eastward from Ocozingo, since we
find from Villagutierre that the first day's march of the
President terminated at a locality which received the additional appellation of Santa Cruz, and was supposed by
him to be the site of El Prospero. There was nothing
to fix its identity, not even a hut, and the stone cross
which was raised by the troops marked only their point
of departure from the province of Chiapa.

254

FOUNDATION OF SAN JUAN DE DIOS.

[CHAP. XVII.

It would be only a repetition of what happened to
every expedition from the time of Cortes downwards,
to describe the difficulties and dangers of a march
through a country not at all improved in its means of
communication since the conqueror of Mexico passed
that way. It will be enough to say, that when the President, on the 12th of March, reached the place which
bears the name of San Juan de Dios, he was forced to
remain there for eight days to refresh his men, though
the quantity of venomous snakes that swarmed there
rendered it anything but an agreeable halting-place.
At the expiration of that time the march was renewed
towards the east, and on the 30th of the month he
paused for a fortnight at the foot of a mountain called
Monte Santo. A broad lake was the next impediment
ta the progress of the troops; and while the country was
being examined, to see if a road could be made round it,
one of the parties so employed captured a naked Indian,
one of four whom they found armed with bows and
arrows in the woods; his three companions fled, leaving
their weapons behind them, but the captive discharged
all his arrows at the Spaniards before he was taken.
He was brought into the camp without being ill-treated,
and the President determined upon making use of him
as a guide towards the chief town of Lacandon.
The Indian, who was treated with great kindness, led
the expedition to the banks of a considerable river,
where had formerly been a wooden bridge, in all probability one of those constructed by Cortes, but of which
only a single beam or plank remained. This being of
no service as it stood, the troops were at once employed
in cutting away the banks so as to admit of the river
being forded. While they were thus engaged several men

A.D. 1695.] JUNCTION OF DE BARRIOS WITH MAZARIEGOS.

255

were seen approaching, and as they drew nearer, to the
infinite surprise of the President, he recognized Captain
Mazariegos, who, with a party, was exploring the country, in hopes of obtaining some tidings of his expedition.
This meeting was as joyful as, on the part of the President, it was unexpected, and he heard with interest of
the discovery of the town of Los Dolores, though it was
equally a subject of regret to learn that the inhabitants
had fled. On the 19th of April De Barrios reunited
his troops with those of Mazariegos, and the question
then arose as to what was to be done next. A council
of war was held, at which the question was discussed,
whether it would be desirable to send the missionaries,
under the guidance of the Indian prisoner, to pacificate
the country by preaching, or whether the Indian should
be set at liberty, and encouraged by presents to persuade his countrymen to return to Los Dolores. The
latter course was adopted, and after he had been taken
over the town, and shown that nothing had been touched
that belonged to the Lacandones, he was dismissed,
and took his way to the mountains. He left behind
him his " petaguilla," or small travelling-basket, and
other things belonging to him,—a token, the Spaniards
thought, of his intention to return,—but he was never
seen again.
At this juncture a messenger arrived in the camp
with a letter from Captain Juan Diaz de Velasco, which
had been forwarded by him to Guatemala, and was now
sent on to De Barrios by the Vice-President Escals. It
was written from Mopan, whither Velasco had been
sent on his way to Itza, and related what had befallen
him, to the following effect. On quitting Cahabon with
his party, accompanied by Father Augustin Cano as the

256

NEWS OF VELASCO.

[CHAP. XVII.

chief missionary, he had passed through the country of
the Choles, a great number of whom he brought under
submission, and had then entered the territory of the
Mopanes, hitherto unexplored by Christian men. After
encountering various difficulties, he had succeeded at
last in making friends of this tribe, and, hearing that
the climate was excellent, and the land extremely fertile, he believed that a Spanish settlement might be very
advantageously made in the centre of Mopan; and on
this account he now wrote, to obtain the sanction of the
President of Guatemala to form an establishment there.
Velasco added, that the Mopanes, who numbered about
ten or twelve thousand families, occupied the very heart
of the mountain country of the Infidels; that to the south
of Mopan was the province of Choi, to the east and
north the nation of the Itzaex-Petenes, and to the west
the Lacandones and Xoquinocs. We shall have occasion
shortly to speak further of Velasco's expedition, but for
the present we must continue with that of the President.
De Barrios was well pleased to hear that Velasco had
advanced so far on that side, and, considering what had
also been effected by himself and Mazariegos, augured
favourably of the termination of the attempt to pacificate
the whole country. He resolved to proceed with the
greater part of his troops towards the great Lake of Itza,
after securing Los Dolores within a strong palisade, and
establishing a Spanish garrison for its defence. The fortifications being completed, and leave having been given
to several of his men to return to Chiapa, on account of
sickness and private affairs, the President prepared for
his march to the Petenes. He was on the very point
of departure, when the advance was countermanded, in

A.D. 1695.]

REPORTS MADE BY INDIAN PRISONERS.

257

consequence of a party of the soldiers who were going
home having returned with five Lacandone Indians whom
they had taken prisoners on the road.
"All that evening," says Villagutierre, "was spent in
carousing and welcoming the prisoners, who seemed by
their behaviour to be very joyful, going through their
games and dances with the other Indians of the army,
saying that they had a good heart, and asking, by their
signs and gestures, if the Spaniards had a good heart
too, with more to the same effect, all showing partiality
and affection towards them."
The next day, by order of the President, and in conformity with the opinion of those who voted in the councils of war, the Lieutenant-General Bartolomeo de Amezquita took their declarations by means of interpreters.
With great difficulty, partly by signs and partly by inference, he was enabled to understand, if not what they
said, at least what they meant to say, which amounted
to this:—-that they and the other inhabitants had fled
from the town, because of the report of the fire-shooting
tubes 1 of the Spaniards (so they called the muskets),
that they were all scattered about in the woods and
mountains, and that they would go there to call and
assemble them, and tell them that the Spaniards had a
good heart. They said that they had no town but that,
for the others had been burnt, and the inhabitants were
wandering in the woods and mountains. The same
thing had happened to five other towns on the borders
of the neighbouring lake, a little lower down, by two
other rivers much larger. The Lacandones said that
they had canoes on that river, which were now hidden;
1

In the original, " Zerbatana," an Indian tube for discharging arrows
or balls by blowing.
S

258

RETREAT OF DE BARRIOS.

[CHAP, XVII-

that their wives and children were in the woods, where
they might die of hunger, as they had nothing to eat but
fruits and roots, and were without maize or anything
of that kind. They concluded by saying, that in going
up the river it was fifteen days' journey from thence to
Coban, and eighteen days by land, and that the Indians
of Coban used to come down and have intercourse with
the Lacandones1."
By the employment of these Lacandones, with a missionary, and an escort of war-Indians, a body of ninetytwo of the inhabitants of Los Dolores were induced to
return, and amongst them were included the Cacique of
Lacandon, named Cabnal, and his wife. All the houses
of these people were given up, and the friars and soldiers
who had lodged in them were encamped in huts outside
the town.
• The project of marching upon Itza was now resumed,
but it was not thought expedient that the President
should go thither himself, and Amezquita, with one part
of the troops, and another party under Captain Lorenzo
Morador, were despatched in the direction of the great
lake. They were absent for several days, but dependent
entirely on the information they received from their Lacandone guides;, who first misinformed them as to the
relative distances of Itza and Mopan, and then deserted
them. When the periodical rains set in, both commanders
decided upon returning to Los Dolores. It was then
that the President, perceiving that nothing more could
be accomplished that season, came to the conclusion of
withdrawing the whole of the army from Lacandon, with
the exception of a garrison of thirty Spanish soldiers and
a body of war-Indians, who were left in Los Dolores,
1

Villagutierre, lib. iv, cap. 18.

A. D. 1695.]

FRESH EXPEDITIONS.

259

under the command of Ignacio de Solis. Owing to the
heavy rains,, which swelled the rivers and flooded the
roads, the troops endured greater hardships on their
retreat than on their first march; but, on the 4th of
July, they all arrived in safety at Santiago de Guatemala,
where they were disbanded for the winter.
With the opening of 1696 the preparations for effecting a junction with Yucatan through the province
of Itza were resumed; but before the enlistments were
completed, Don Jacinto de Barrios died. He left the government of Guatemala, both civil and military, under
the charge of Don Jose de Escals, the former Vice-President, who lost no time in carrying out the intentions
of his predecessor. A twofold expedition was determined on: Don Bartolomeo de Amezquita was named
to the command of the troops that were to enter from
Vera Paz into Mopan, and Don Jacobo de Al?ayaga to
fehat of the second expedition into Lacandon.
Alfayaga proceeded direct from Gueguetenango to Los
Dolores, where he found upwards of five hundred Indians peaceably settled; they had readily submitted to
be baptized, and performed their Christian duties in a
very satisfactory manner. Leaving Los Dolores, Al?ayaga went in search of some of the other towns of which
the Lacandones had spoken, and succeeded eventually in
discovering two, named Peta and Mop, though in what
precise locality is not stated. Peta contained a hundred
and seventeen families, and Mop a hundred and five, and
the inhabitants of both places yielded very readily to the
exhortations of Pather Ribas and his reverend associates
to become Christians. They agreed also to a singular
proposition for concentration,—that of burning the towns
they lived in, and going to settle at Los Dolores. We
s 2

260

ATTEMPT TO REACH ITZA.

[CHAP. XVII.

do not hear further of the proposed conflagration, but
many families at once carried the design of removal into
execution.
After the discovery of Peta and Mop, Alfayaga was of
opinion that no more Lacandone towns existed, and his
thoughts turned upon the Lake of Itza. He seems to
have been more desirous of the fame of a discoverer, than
of completing his share of the great road between the
two provinces, for instead of advancing by land in the
direction of the Petenes, he cast about for the means of
approaching it by water. He considered that this could
be effected by descending the river Lacandon, and gave
orders for the construction of fifteen pyrogues. When
they were ready, he embarked the troops and missionaries, and committed himself to the course of the stream.
After descending for a distance of thirty-two leagues he
met with another river, carrying a much greater body
of water, a hundred and sixty yards wide. " It ranf
says Villagutierre, " between Vera Paz and Campeachy"
(rather a vague definition), " and uniting with the Lacandon, receives lower down several minor streams, which
altogether discharge themselves into the North Sea1."
1
It is impossible to determine
with any certainty the actual site
of Los Dolores, or even to ascertain exactly what are the rivers so
frequently spoken of in this expedition to Lancandon. Baily's Map
of Central America, published in
1850, is the most elaborate of any
we have met with, and has the
appearance of having been constructed on authoritative grounds ;
but still the description given by
the old Spanish writers, and by
Yillagutierre in particular, are utterly discrepant with the positions
which Mr. Baily assigns to several remarkable places. Los Do-

lores, for instance, is marked in
the map as situated considerably
to the south-east of the Lake of
Itza, near the source of a river
which takes its course to the eastward, and is either the Belize, or
else falls into it; while the context
of Yillagutierre's narrative assures
us that if the expedition descended
the Lacandon they must have traveiled in a north-westerly direction. In this case, the town of
Los Dolores must have been greatly
to the south-west of the Lake of
Itza, and indeed no other position
is reconcilable with the historical
account.

A.D. 1696.]

ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OF VELASCO.

261

Instead of proceeding with the stream, Alfayaga now
turned back on their former course, and ascended the
newly-found river for one hundred and forty leagues1,
making a close search along its banks in the hope of
discovering traces of an approach to the capital of Itza.
But he was wholly unsuccessful, and finding that his
men began to sicken and provisions to fail, he gave up
the attempt and returned to Los Dolores, after an absence of fifty-seven days fruitlessly spent. With this
effort the operations ceased that were to connect Guatemala and Yucatan on the side of Lacandon; but besides
the failure of Alpayaga, there were other determining
causes arising out of the expeditions which were sent to
Mopan, and these must be briefly described before this
sketch of the measures which originated in Guatemala
can be concluded.
After forwarding his despatches to Santiago, Juan
Diaz de Velasco moved onward from Mopan to the frontier of the territory of the Itzaex, and pitched his camp
on the 1st of April, 1695, at a distance of about forty
leagues from the great lake, according to the account
given him by his guides. He then sent forward two
Spanish soldiers and a Mopan Indian',' to explore the
route. They made their way to within about four
leagues from the lake, where they encountered a party of
thirty Itzalans, well armed, who were out hunting. The
Itzalans, on seeing the strangers, rushed towards them
with loud outcries, and the Spaniards, through the interpretation of the Mopan Indian, demanded a parley, and
stated the object for which they had come. The only
1
This distance must be greatly
exaggerated; even the convolutions of the Rio San Pedro, if we

suppose that river to have been the
one in question, would not have
afforded so much,

262

AFFRAYS WITH ITZALANS.

[CHAP. XVII.

reply which the Itzalans made was to bend their bows
and salute the strangers with a flight of arrows. This
provoked the Spaniards to fire in return, and three of
their enemies were killed, on which all the rest took
flight. The victors then fell back to rejoin Velasco; nor
could they have escaped the pursuit which followed their
retrograde movement, had they not stopped it by setting
fire to the long dry grass of the savannah. By this
means they were enabled to unite themselves with Velasco's force, which they met advancing.
On arriving at the banks of a very clear and beautiful
river, called the Chaxal, ten leagues from the lake, Velasco pitched his camp, till the country round was explored. To this end he sent out a party of twenty
Spanish soldiers and twenty-five war-Indians, who, on
reaching the great savannah, fell in with a solitary Itzalan. They wanted to question him, but he took to his
arms, and, had it not been for their wadded coats, many
of the Spaniards would have been wounded. His
movements were so quick and agile, that it was some
time before they could take him prisoner; but when at
last they succeeded in doing so, he was bound and sent
into the camp. On the following day ten more Itzalans were met with, and an affray ensuing, six of their
number were killed, one was made prisoner, and the
remainder fled. The captain proved to be a cacique of
one of the towns on the borders of the lake. He gave
out, and truly enough, that his countrymen were exceedingly numerous in the islands on the lake; and Velasco,
finding that his force was too weak to attempt to cope
with a people so warlike as the Itzalans, yielded to the
representations of Father Augustin Cano, who accompanied him, and consented to retreat to Mopan. When

A.D. 1696.]

AMEZQUITA'S EXPEDITION.

263

the intelligence of this resolution reached the Vice-President Escals at Guatemala, he was extremely indignant,
and sent stringent orders to Velasco to return to the
banks of the Chaxal, construct an entrenchment there,
and maintain his position. Velasco disobeyed these orders, and, on learning his disobedience, Escals directed
him to give up his command to Pedro de Horozco, and
return within twenty days to Guatemala, on pain of
death, and of being declared a traitor; Horozco received
instructions at the same time to occupy the position on
the Chaxal. While these orders were on their way, Escals received a letter from the President Don Jacinto de
Barrios, informing him of his intention to return from
Los Dolores, and counter-orders were accordingly sent
to Horozco. It is not known whether these fresh instructions were received, but Horozco remained with a
garrison in Mopan, while no further proceedings were
taken against Velasco.
In the following year, as we have already stated, a
fresh expedition to Itza, by way of Mopan, was determined on, the command of which was given to Amezquita. He reached Mopan about the end of February,
1696, and paused there to complete his arrangements.
It was then represented to him by Velasco, that an immediate advance upon Itza was necessary, and he offered
himself for that service. His former disobedience was
overlooked, and Amezquita entrusted him with the command of five-and-twenty men, with orders to proceed
to the Chaxal, incorporate his troops with some who
had already gone before, together with a party of Zamala Indians, and not advance more than six leagues
beyond the river; he was then to halt, and send on the
Itzalan cacique Quixan, who had been made prisoner

264

MAUCH OF VELASCO.

[CHAP. XVII.

in the former expedition, as an ambassador to the Peten, and, as soon as he received an answer from thence,
to forward it to General Amezquita and await his further
directions.
In so far as related to combining his force, Velasco
obeyed his orders, and by the time he reached the Savannah of San Pedro Martyr, he found himself at the
head of forty-nine soldiers, besides thirty-six Zamala
Indians, all of them admirable archers; but instead of
waiting for the General, he at once pushed on; and his
subsequent fate, with that of his troops and the missionaries and servants of his party, was thenceforward
involved in mystery.
It was not many days after Velasco's departure from
Mopan, that Amezquita followed, with the main body of
the troops. At the Savannah, he learnt from those who
had been left in charge of certain stores, that Velasco
had set out from thence with his people on the 12th of
March, and so lightly accoutred that many of the soldiers left their kits behind. Amezquita continued to
advance, hoping to hear news of the embassy to the Peten, but even when he reached the Chaxal there were no
tidings either of that occurrence, or of the position of
Captain Velasco. He waited for three days, and then,
becoming impatient, took with him a party of twenty
soldiers and some Indians, with provisions for only four
days, and set out in search of the missing party. His
first day's march was eight leagues from Chaxal, but still
all was a blank; the second day, and the result was the
same; on the third day the track of Velasco was discovered by the marks which his troops had left of their
having passed the night at a Xagui, or watering-place,
about fifteen leagues from the Chaxal. Under the im-

A.D. 1696.]

AMEZQUITA AT THE LAKE OF ITZA.

256

pression that the lake could not now be far off, and that
Velasco had disobeyed orders to be the first to reach
it, Amezquita hurried on, and, after two more leagues,
beheld it stretched out before him, and in the centre the
large Peten, rising in the form of a sugar-loaf, with many
smaller islands scattered around.
On a nearer approach to the shores of the lake,
Amezquita could discern the city of Tayasal, and notice
that the whole of the neighbouring country was covered
with villages. He continued along the brink, following
the tracks of horses and mules, which he could have no
doubt were those of the people of Velasco, as pieces of
leather and one or two saddle-cloths were found. At the
mouth of a creek two Itzalans were discovered at a short
distance in a canoe. " They spoke to them, but could
make them understand nothing, except a few signs.
Then Don Bartolomeo cried out, ' Quixan, Quixan, Padres, Capitan, Castilazine/ which means people from
Castile, in order to make them understand whom he was
looking for, and that they should carry the intelligence
to them; but in consequence of not having an interpreter, nothing of what they spoke and answered was
understood 1 /'
On hearing the exclamations of Amezquita, the two
Indians rowed away hastily, making loud vociferations,
which led him to suppose they were going to Velasco
and his party, whom he imagined to have reached the
Peten.
"Our people," continues Villagutierre, "then continued along the borders of the lake, in order to get
directly opposite the island, to reconnoitre it the better,
when they came to another creek, which they could not
1

Villagutierre, lib. vi. cap. 8.

266

INTERCOURSE WITH THE NATIVES.

[CHAP. XVII.

cross, as it was very deep; they were obliged to go
round it, opening a road through the foot of a mountain.
They had come upon several footpaths, all leading to the
lake, and everywhere covered with marks of horses' shoes,
and they observed that they all showed the beasts had
gone into the water, but there were no signs of their
having come out again." At another creek yet further
on the Spaniards saw many canoes, with some Indians
on shore, to whom they beckoned, trying to make their
wishes understood. Failing to do so, General Amezquita
wrote on a slip of paper to Velasco, telling him that he
had arrived with a number of troops, and was followed
by many more, who were quartered a short distance off,
and that a large force was coming on from Guatemala,
and begged him to let him know what was going on in
the island. A soldier tied this paper to a sweetmeat, and
threw it across the creek. The Itzalans caught it, and
one of them, showing both the sweetmeat and the paper
in his hands, folded the latter in some leaves, and made
signs that he was going to carry it -to the island, at
which the Spaniards made signs of approval, and he
embarked immediately,
" The object of this paper was not only that Captain
Juan Diaz should receive it, if he were on the island,
but also that the, Ajao, king, or chief cacique, should see
it, for he knew the Castilian language, and could read
and write; moreover, Quixan had told them that there
was a white man in the Peten, very like Sergeant Roderigo Perez, who had come from a foreign land and
he had married there, that he had two sons, and that
was in the habit of reading a book very like one the
Priars had, called the Daily Manual. Hopes were entertained that this foreigner might turn out a Spaniard,

A.D. 1596.]

EFFORTS MADE TO DISCOVER VELASCO.

267

and that he and one of the chiefs would read the paper,
and that it might serve to intimidate the Itzalans."
When the messenger had departed, the Indians who
remained became less shy, and some of them crossed
over the creek to the Spaniards. One of them presented twro very large turtles and some fish to Amezquita, who gave him in return tassajo, biscuit, and a
knife, upon which the Indian embraced him, kissing the
General on the neck, and repeatedly exclaiming, " Utz
pusical, utz pusical" (I have a good heart). Another
Indian then brought a large pumpkin and a large fish,
and his companions became very urgent for the Spaniards
to go with them to the Great Peten, saying, " Ajao,
Ajao," and pointing to it and to their canoes. The
Spaniards now repeated the words which the General
had used, and at length they elicited the word " Cuman,"
more than once repeated, which Amezquita had heard
before, but could not then recollect its meaning. He
afterwards found that it signified a palisade.
But while thus engaged in attempting to make the
Itzalans understand them, the Spaniards were not unmindful of their comrades, whose attention, if they were
on the island and alive, they sought to attract by constantly beating their drums and blowing their trumpets :
to no purpose, however, for no similar sounds were
heard in reply; neither did the Indian messenger re-appear with any answer to the paper written by Amezquita.
Still the Itzalans kept urging the soldiers to embark in
their canoes ; but the General refused to allow a single
man to do so, feeling persuaded that their object was to
drown the Spaniards when they got them upon the lake,
a suspicion founded upon a precedent in the case of some
Franciscan Friars on a former occasion elsewhere. Amez-

268

. AMEZQUITA WITHDRAWS FROM ITZA.

[CHAP. XVII.

quita began also to entertain the idea that it was perhaps
in this manner the party of Velasco had been made away
with, and the conjecture appears a very probable one.
He was confirmed in his suspicions of foul play by receiving no intelligence from the island, and became lost
in perplexity as to what steps should now be taken, for,
in addition to his anxiety respecting the fate of Velasco
and his men, he had to consider the dangerous position
of those whom he had brought with him. To advance
in an enemy's country without supplies, and with so
small a force, was out of the question; to remain was
equally hazardous; to cross over to the island was an impossibility, having no means of constructing rafts for the
passage. With deep grief, therefore, after having waited
on the shores of the lake from eleven in the morning till
six in the evening, without obtaining any tidings of Velasco5 s party, he found himself compelled to relinquish
the hope of rescuing them; and giving them up for
dead he passed the word for returning to the entrenchment at the Chaxal. As a last experiment he caused all
the bugles to sound; innumerable canoes came off from
the island, but evidently with only a hostile intention,
and slowly and sadly the Spaniards turned their faces to
the south, and commenced their retreat.
When Amezquita mustered his forces at the Chaxal,
now greatly diminished from what they had been at Mopan, he felt convinced that his position was not tenable
with such formidable and numerous enemies in front of
him as occupied the islands of the lake. This was not
merely matter of opinion, for .while encamped on the
river, the Itzalans came out in great force and repeatedly attacked him by night, till at length, defence beingno longer possible, he evacuated the entrenchment, and

A.D. 1966.] THE SOUTHERN EXPEDITIONS ABANDONED.

269

made good his retreat to the Savannah of San Pedro
Martyr, where he proposed to construct a fort and wait
the course of events. He wrote an account of all that
had happened to the Vice-President Escals, and a similar
communication was also made by Father Augustin Cano,
with such statements in addition of the danger of continuing to occupy a place so remote as San Pedro,—the
distance being sixty leagues from Vera Paz, and only
thirty-two from the Lake of Itza,—that Don Gabriel
Sanchez de Berospe, who had in the meanwhile arrived
as President at Guatemala, thought it advisable to issue
orders for the complete withdrawal of the troops, not
only from the country of the Itzaex, but also from Mopan. And as, at the same time, the President learnt of
the failure of Alfayaga in Lacandon, he too received instructions to return to Guatemala; and the summer of
the year 1696 witnessed the abandonment of all the expeditions from the south.

270

CHAPTER XVIII
APPOINTMENT

OP

TJBSUA

B E G I N S TO CONSTETJCT

AS

I N T E E I M GOVEENOE

THE

GEEAT

E N T E U S T E D TO P A E E D E S , W H O

OP

CLEAES

LAKE OP C H U T U N Q U I . — N E G O T I A T I O N S

THE
WITH

SENT

AMBASSADOE

PEOM

TAYASAL.—ITS'

APTEE

BEING

THE

EECEPTION

BAPTIZED

OPENING

G E O U N D BEYOND

— P A C I P I C ASSUEANCES OP T H E C A N E K . — U E S U A ' s
BASSY

YUCATAN.—PIE

MILITAEY EOAD.—ITS

CANEK

LETTEE.—AN
AT

EETUENS

THE

OP ITZA.
EM-

MEEIDA.—THE
TO

THE

GEEAT

P E T E N . — O E D E E S SENT TO P A E E D E S TO OCCUPY I T Z A . — V I S I T OP T H E
MISSIONAEIES

TO

TAYASAL.—DOUBTPUL

AEGUMENT.—EEMAEKABLE

SPEECH

OP

P A T H E E AVENDANO'S I N T E E P I D I T Y . — T H E

WELCOME.—THEOLOGICAL
THE

S U B J E C T H I S COUNTEY TO S P A I N . — A V E N D A N O ' S
T H E M I S S I O N A E I E S LEAVE

CACIQUE

CANEK

CIECULAE

TAYASAL, AEE LOST I N T H E

B U T E V E N T U A L L Y E E S C U E D . — E E P O E T OP T H E

CABOXH.—

O P P E E S A N E W TO
LETTEE.—
MOUNTAINS,

MISSIONAEIES.

the attempts were being made which have just
been narrated, Don Martin de Ursua was no less actively employed on the side of Yucatan.
It has been shown that the proposition for connecting
the two provinces by means of a high road from Merida
to Santiago de Guatemala originated with Ursua; and
it fortunately fell to his lot to carry it into execution.
Previous to the commencement of the general undertaking, the President of Guatemala had written to Don
Roque de Soberanis, the Governor of Yucatan, requesting his co-operation, which the latter very readily promised as soon as he was freed from certain embarrassWHILE

A.D; 1695.]

THE PROJECT OF URSUA.

271

ments which clogged his free agency. The difficnlty of
Soberanis arose from various causes: in the first instance, from a dispute which had arisen between himself
and the Bishop of Yucatan on points of jurisdiction, the
result of which was that the Bishop had placed him
under ecclesiastical censure, and during his continuance
he was unable to attend, as he desired, to the affairs of
the province; and, in the second place, from the proceedings of some of the citizens of Merida, who were
discontented with the acts of his government, and had
brought a lawsuit against him before the Royal Audiencia of Mexico. The complaints of the citizens having
been laid before the Viceroy of New Spain, one of the
Ministers of the Audiencia was appointed to examine
into them, and his decision was so unfavourable to Soberanis, that he gave a sentence depriving him of the
government of Yucatan. Against this decision Soberanis appealed to the higher tribunals of Mexico; but to
make his appeal effectual it was necessary he should
appear in person, and for this purpose he left Merida for
the capital of New Spain, the Viceroy appointing Don
Martin de Ursua to act as interim Governor of Yucatan
during the absence of Soberanis.
The moment Ursua was installed in office he addressed himself to the subject which had so long occupied his thoughts, and, that no time might be lost, began
to take such measures as were necessary to enforce the
success of the enterprise. His first care was to collect
a force of fifty Spaniards and a great number of Indian
pioneers, and to purchase a large quantity of provisions,
ammunition, and stores; his next object was to place
the men whom he had raised under an efficient commander, and he made choice of Alonso Garcia de Pa-

272

MARCH OF PAREDES.

[CHAP, XVIII.

redes, the Regidor of Campeachy, and captain of the district of Sabachan. Paredes was a man of courage and
enterprise, but his first attempt was unsuccessful. He
set out from Sacabchen, and when he had reached the
frontier, where the old road terminated, proceeded to
reconnoitre the mountains before he began the new one.
He here fell in with a numerous party of Quecheaches,
whom he could not restrain from attacking him; a
sharp encounter accordingly took place, and, though the
Indians were defeated, and several of them made prisoners, the soldiers of Paredes became disheartened at
this unexpected opposition, and, sorely against his will,
he decided on returning to Campeachy, and carried his
purpose into execution at once.
It was with great dissatisfaction that Ursua learnt the
step which Paredes had taken; but believing that his
failure arose from the want of a sufficient force, and
that personally he was not to blame, he resolved to continue him in the command, and strengthen the expeditionary army by all the reinforcements he could obtain.
Voluntary assistance came from all quarters, the number
of troops was greatly augmented; they were well supplied with necessaries, and in the beginning of June,
1695, the second expedition set out. Paredes pursued
his march in good order through the populated districts
of Yucatan, and arrived on the 11th of June at Chavich,
" the boundary and frontier of Christianity in that direction." The pioneers now led the way, making a passage
for the army to advance, and, except the obstacles which
the country itself offered, nothing impeded their progress,
not a single Indian being encountered between Chavich
and Zucthoc, a place which they did not reach till the
middle of July. In the neighbourhood of Zucthoc,

A.D. 1695.]

PAREDES ADVANCES BEYOND CHUTUNQUI.

273

however, several of the natives were captured, and the
zeal of the missionaries who accompanied the expedition
prompting them to attempt the immediate conversion
of the Infidels, who now flocked to the camp, Paredes
made a halt of four-and4wenty days, being additionally
induced to do so by the fact that his pioneers, from the
increased difficulty of the ground, were unable to open
the road so fast as they had previously done.
During the pause which Paredes made in this place
he received fresh instructions, together with more soldiers, from Ursua, wrho, since the departure of the expedition, had heard of the return of the President Jacinto de Barrios to Guatemala, with his object unaccomplished. These new instructions were to the effect
that Paredes should now make his way to the town of
Los Dolores, but not proceed beyond it; and that,
when he had arrived there, after erecting a fort, which
was to bear the name of " Our Lady of Los Remedios,"
•—the Virgin, under that designation, being the protectress of the enterprise,—he was to endeavour to subjugate the Itzaex by conversion.
Obedient to these orders, Paredes resumed his march
on the 10th of August, and advanced upon Bateab,
where the heavy rains detained him for nearly a fortnight. After crossing the river Ucum (the Concepcion)
the next place of any note that was reached was Chutunqui, but, like so many sites that were discovered, the
town was entirely deserted. Beyond this point the road
was opened for a distance of seventeen leagues; but
the heavy rains which flooded the country made it impossible for Paredes to bring up his provisions, and he
felt himself under the necessity of falling back with his
troops to the north of Zucthoc, until the dry season,
T

274

VOLUNTARY SUBMISSION OF THE TIPUANS. [CHAP, XVIII.

leaving the missionaries behind at the places which he
had occupied. According to the statement of Zecera,
the engineer of the expedition, the extent of new road
already opened, when the second retreat took place, was
not less than eighty-six leagues, and, from the accounts
given by the Quecheache Indians, the termination was
only a few leagues distant from the Lake of Itza, and
within twenty or four-and-twenty leagues of Los Dolores.
At this juncture, the trial of Don Roque de Soberanis
having terminated in his favour, a dispute immediately
arose between him and Ursua respecting the completion
of the road. It was referred to the Viceroy of Mexico,
who reserved his decision until he had fuller information
on the subject; and pending its delivery, Soberanis
being still detained in Mexico to terminate his suit with
the Bishop of Yucatan, Ursua continued in the direction
of affairs.
At all times, as has already been frequently shown,
pacification without force was the general object of the
governors of Yucatan: hence the exertions of the Missionaries to convert the Indians, and the other efforts
that were made to conciliate them. Thus, at this juncture, while the Franciscan monks were labouring in their
vocation at Zucthoc and Bateab, negotiations were set
on foot to come to a better understanding with the Canek of Itza.
The opportunity for making the attempt arose out of
the voluntary submission of the Indians of Tipu, who
addressed themselves in a body to Captain Francisco
Hariza, the Alcalde of Salamanca de Bacalar, praying
him to re-admit them to the Christian community. This
he agreed to most readily, and, when once more brought
into contact with the Tipuans, he learnt from them that

A, D. 1695.]

LETTER FROM THE CANEK OF ITZA.

275

the Canek of Itza had recently expressed a strong desire
to be on good terms with the Spaniards. Hariza resolved
to improve the occasion, and selecting from among the
newly-converted Tipuans a man of intelligence named
Mateo Bichab, despatched him to the Canek with various
presents, and a letter expressive of the earnest wish of
the Governor of Yucatan to establish a friendly intercourse between the Spaniards and Itzaex, being well assured that Ursua would confirm the step he had taken.
As far as outward demonstration went, nothing could
be more satisfactory than the conduct of the Canek.
The reply which he made to the overtures of Hariza was
as follows :-—•
" Tell the captain who sends thee that I will gladly
receive him, and I promise to lay myself at his feet, with
eighty thousand Indians whom I have at my command
as my vassals and subjects ; all of whom, with myself, are
ready to accept the water of baptism. Tell him besides
not to deceive me for the purpose of taking my life, as
I promise him four thousand Indians for his Governor
in the city of Merida, my desire to see his King being
great. Say to him also, that when he arrives at that
town whence thou comest, he must send for me, and on
receiving his letter I will go down to see him, to know
if he bring peace; but if he comes straight to my town,
I will make war upon him. Let him know that the
time has now arrived which was prophesied by the
priests of old, that I urgently wish to see him, and that
I proffer peace, being willing to render vassalage to the
governor of that captain, as my ancestors came from the
province of Mayapan1."
When Hariza received this answer, he forwarded it im1

YUlagutierre, lib. v. cap. 11.

T 2

276

AN EMBASSY SENT FROM MERIDA.

[CHAP.XVIII.

mediately to Ursua, whom he had already informed of
his proceedings; and Don Martin was so rejoiced at the
intelligence, that he at once determined on sending an
embassy to the Canek in his own name and that of the
King of Spain, in order to influence him yet more
strongly to carry out the intention he had expressed.
The person whom Ursua chose as his ambassador was
the Father Commissary Andres de Avendano, who was
made the bearer of a very long letter from the Governor,
in which he entered at great length into the mystery
of the Christian faith, explaining who were its spiritual
teachers, to whom was entrusted the duty of extending
it throughout the world, and calling upon the Canek to
fulfil the promises made by his ancestors to Cortes, to
Kgueroa, to Puensalida, and others. Ursua's letter concluded in these words :—" And now I send thee a very
handsome machete1, with its sheath, and its broad belt,
and three yards of scarlet silk stuff, that thou mayest
wear them in my name. Written at this city of Tihoo,
which is Merida, the 8th day of the month of December,
in the year of the birth of Christ our Redeemer, of four
twenties2, which are counted for four four-hundred, with
fifteen more/'
Directions were given to Father Avendano to proceed
to Itza by way of Zucthoc, and, taking with him two
other Franciscans and the usual retinue of the missionaries, he quitted Merida. But he had scarcely taken his
departure before an intimation reached Ursua that an
embassy had already set out from the Peten, headed by
the nephew of the Canek, and that it was approaching
1
A sort of long knife, chiefly
used for hewing down underwood
2
Ursua gives the year thus,
probably as the only way in which

the Canek could understand it, as
the Itzaex reckoned by cycles of
twenties. The year 1695 is intended.

A.D. 1695.]

AN ITZALAN CHIEF COMES TO MERIDA.

277

through Tipu. On the receipt of this intelligence the
Governor made preparations for receiving the embassy
in a manner proportionate to the importance which he
attached to it; and as soon as he heard of the Canek's
nephew being at hand, he went out to meet him on the
road, accompanied by the civil and military authorities,
and all the principal inhabitants of Merida. Ursua encountered the ambassador and his attendants at the convent of Mejoxada, a short distance outside the city walls,
where mutual salutations took place between him and
the Itzalan chief; the latter was then conducted to the
Governor's carriage, and was driven back with him to
the cathedral of Merida, the other Indians following in
charge of the officials.
After a mass had been performed, the Governor carried the ambassador to his own residence, the royal palace, where, in the presence of all the suite and the ecclesiastical authorities, the Itzalan chief produced a crown
of feathers of divers colours, which he had brought with
him, shaped like a tiara, and presented it to Ursua with
the following speech:—
" Senor, I come as the representative of my uncle, the
great Canek, King and absolute Lord of the Itzaex, in
his name and on his behalf to prostrate myself at thy
feet and to offer his royal crown, in order that thou
mayest receive us in the name of thy great King, whose
representative thou art, and admit us into his royal service, and place us under his care and protection, and grant
us priests to baptize us, and administer the sacraments,
and teach us the law of the true God. This is the object of my visit, and the desire of my King and that of
his subjects1."
1

VUlagutierre, lib. vi. cap. 2.

278

THE AMBASSADOR BAPTIZED.

[CHAP, XVIII.

The Governor took the crown, and through the interpreter replied that he received him right willingly under
the care and protection of the King of Spain, and promised him and his followers the rites of baptism; he
then embraced them all, and they were afterwards handsomely feasted, with great demonstrations of cordiality.
On the following day the ambassador, and the Itzaex
who accompanied him, were urgent in their demand for
baptism and for permission to see the city ; the last request was at once acceded to, and they were taken
through Merida, the most notable thing in their behaviour being that nothing seemed to cause them any surprise, though all the objects which they beheld were
so entirely new to them; but the nil admirari appears
always to have been a feature in the Indian character.
Ursua was anxious to fathom the motives of the Canek in sending this embassy, and questioned the Itzalan
chief very closely on the subject, as well as on matters
pertaining to himself and his country. The ambassador,
who said that his name was Can, repeated the statement
he had already made, adding that his uncle, the Oanek,
was desirous of "drinking the same water and living
under the same roof" with the Spaniards, because the
determined time when they should exchange their creed
for that of the Christians had passed ; that previously to
sending the embassy, the Canek had consulted the four
kings who were his tributaries, as well as his principal
councillors and chief people, and all had unanimously
approved the measure, and made preparation for coming
to Merida to be baptized. The ambassador also gave a
description of the produce of his country, and entered
into various details of more or less interest to his hearer,
concluding by a repetition of his desire for baptism.

A. D. 1695.]

THE ITZALAN EMBASSY LEAVES MERIDA.

279

Thus urgently entreated, the ceremony was no longer
delayed. Villagutierre thus describes the manner of it,
with what followed.
" The name of Don Martin Francisco Can was given
to the ambassador; his godfather was Don Martin de
Ursua. Count de Miraflores stood sponsor to his brother,
Don Miguel Can; another was baptized Don Manuel Jose
Chaioxs • and the other Itzalan, and two Mugules (who
completed the embassy) were baptized in their turn. The
holy sacrament of baptism was administered in the cathedral. On their way there and back to Governor Ursua's
house they were attended by a numerous and brilliant cortege, accompanied by all the pomp that could be imagined.
The Governor dressed them all splendidly, according to
their rank, and then gave them presents in a very courteous manner; and now the ambassador being convalescent from a slight indisposition by which he had been
affected, the Governor gave him letters and a handsome
present for his uncle, the Canek, explaining what he
wished to have said on his behalf, and then took leave
of him and his companions with great show of friendship
and kindness. He sent a large retinue to accompany
them to the first town, thence thirty men-at-arms and
Captain Francisco de Hariza were to form their escort;
four ecclesiastics were to be left in Tipu, and seven
others, granted by the Chapter of Merida, were to proceed with Don Martin Can and his suite to the great
Cayo of the lake of the Itzaex, or, if necessary, to the
Great Peten 1 ."
As soon as he had thus honourably dismissed the ambassador, the Governor sent an order to his Lieutenant,
Paredes, at Zucthoc, informing him of all that had oc1

^Villagutierre, lib. vi. cap. 4.

280

FATHER AVENDANO AT TAYASAL.

[CHAP, XVIII.

curred, and desiring him to desist from any further attempt to open the road, but, instead of that work, to
proceed and take possession of the country of the Itzaex
in the name of the King of Spain. At the same time,
as Ursua was ignorant of the distance between Zucthoc
and the Peten, and uncertain how long it might take
Paredes to reach it, he forwarded similar instructions to
Hariza with a copy of those he had sent to Paredes, that
whichever arrived first might carry them into execution.
In the interim, however, it is necessary that the result
which attended the embassy from Merida, under Avendano, should be related.
After an interview with Paredes at Zucthoc, Avendaho and his companions set out for Tayasal, and for six
days travelled across a very intricate country, until they
reached a town called Chaban, where their reception was
not in the first instance of the most agreeable kind; but
the inhabitants were soon reconciled to their presence,
and not only treated the Fathers with hospitality, but
escorted them to a town called Nichen, on the brink of
the Lake of Itza, a distance of about four leagues. Having previously despatched an Indian messenger to announce their arrival, they were visited within two hours
of reaching Nichen by the Canek in person, accompanied by four hundred Itzaex, who came in a great many
canoes. They were all painted black, in their war costume, and wrere provided with large baskets full of
arrows, which however were left lying at the bottom of
the boats. Much courtesy did not attend the meeting,
on the part of the Itzaex, who somewhat unceremoniously embarked the clerical embassy, and conveyed them
to Tayasal. On arriving at the Great Peten they landed,
and went to the palace of the Canek. On entering it,

A.D. 1695.]

THE CACIQUE C0B0XH.

281

the first thing they saw was the table on which the sacrifices took place; it consisted of a large stone upwards
of two yards and a half long and a yard and a half wide,
with twelve seats round it, for the priests who officiated.
It was not an omen of good augury, neither was the impatience shown by the multitudes of people who were as. sembled; but Father Avendano put the best face he could
on the doubtful position in which he felt himself placed,
and, having obtained the Canek's permission, read to the
crowd the letter which he had brought from the Governor of Yucatan, and followed it up by a spiritual lecture, calling upon the Itzaex to bring their children to
be baptized. The appeal had its effect, and during the
next and the several succeeding days, while Avendano
was waiting for the answer to the embassy, no less than
three hundred baptisms took place. •
But these baptisms, and this avowed readiness to
adopt Christianity, seem to have been, for the most part,
a mere craving after novelty; or, if a few were in earnest
in the desire to adopt a better faith than the barbarous idolatry they followed, the priests, the leaders of the
people, and the general mass were wholly opposed to the
projected conversion of their nation. The most formidable opponent to the scheme was a cacique named Coboxh, who condescended however to argue with Father
Avendano, demanding of him the reason why he had
determined upon coming to Tayasal.
The Father
Commissary replied by showing him, after the computation of the Itzaex, that the period had arrived for the
fulfilment of the ancient prophecies, and directed his
attention to certain characters and figures which were
painted on flexible pieces of wood, called Analtecs, which
the Indians used as calendars, and which confirmed his

282

THE CANEK'S PROMISES.

[CHAP, XVIII.

reckoning. Coboxh, unable to refute Avendano's argument, retorted hastily: "And what signifies it if the
time be come ? the sharp flint that points my lance is not
yet wTorn away;" and, uttering these words, he significantly raised his weapon. Avendano replied to him
with the greatest calmness, that God alone, who had sent
him there, could give the cacique power to kill him, there
being a time appointed for all things. " If thou," he
said, " who talkest in this manner, hadst been able, thou
wouldst already have executed thy threat upon me, conjointly with the devil Pacoc, whom thou adorest, and who
instils these ideas into thee. Thereby thou seest that
in my presence he has no power, since he only dares to
prompt you, but does not dare to come and carry his
prompting into effect."
Avendano's intrepidity, if not his logic, had the effect
of preventing personal violence, but he received little
more than fair words in reply to Ursua's letter, instead
of the active demonstration which the Canek had originally promised; but, considering the inconstant nature
of these Indians, it was something to leave the place
unscathed. The Canek expressed his great willingness
to become a Christian, and live on terms of amity with
the Spaniards; in corroboration of which assertion, he
gave Avendano two feather-crowns and a fan in return
for the presents sent him, expressed fears of his own respecting the rivalry of the Cacique Coboxh, offered anew
the surrender of the Petenes, and asked the Father
Commissary to return and visit him at the end of four
months. This Avendano promised to do, and, to calm
the minds of the Itzaex and remove the apprehension
they entertained of the Spaniards making war upon
them, he left with the Canek a written paper, telling him

A.D. 1695.]

AVENDANO'S CIRCULAR LETTER.

283

he would distribute copies of it everywhere amongst his
countrymen, the contents of which were as follows:—
" Gentlemen Captains, belonging to either Pole, North
or South: Dear Sirs.—Our Lord has been pleased to
give us his Divine Grace, to enable us to accomplish what
has not been done in many ages; but nothing is impossible to the Divine power. With it, he has made this
invincible Itzalan nation bow down its head and humble
itself at the first effort of the Evangelical ministers and
sons of our Seraphic Father Saint Francis, and bring
their children to the pure washing of baptism; having
up to this hour baptized many, and hoping to a certainty
baptize the whole shortly. But although their fathers
and mothers are friendly and well disposed towards us,
they are still very slow in renouncing their idolatry.
To succeed in making them do so, it will be necessary to
use them kindly, to have a great deal of patience, and
put up with many troublesome and disagreeable acts,
the result of the dark ignorance they have lived in.
Wherefore I beg of you all to behave with great forbearance if you should readh this nation of the Itzaex,
whose patron is St. Paul, in order not to lose in a short
time what has been so long sought, and, thanks be to
God, obtained. They are instructed on your arrival
to receive you in a friendly manner, and to supply
you with necessary provisions, in exchange for axes and
hatchets and other goods from Castile, which they ardently long for; but/' concludes Avendano, with commendable caution, " I know not if they will pay well for
them/'
After writing this letter the Father Commissary and
his companions took leave of the Canek, who gave them
for a short distance the escort of his son and son-in-law

284

AVENDANO'S RETURN TO MERIDA.

[CHAP, XVIII.

as a protection; but after the Itzaex had left them they
lost their way amongst the mountains/and wandered
about for nearly a month, being at last reduced to such
sore extremity, the fruits and herbs which they found
being their only sustenance, that they nearly died of
famine and fatigue. Providentially however the Yucatan
Indians, who had accompanied the embassy, succeeded
at last in falling in with some muleteers, who were carrying provisions to the camp of Paredes, and the Franciscans, nearly at their last gasp, were saved and safely
carried to Zucthoc. From thence, when they had sufficiently recovered, they proceeded in safety to Merida,
and gave the Governor a full account of what had befallen them since their departure, together with the result
of their observations and what they had learnt from the
inhabitants of Tayasal.
The sum and substance of this information was to
the following effect.
That, as well as they could ascertain, the number of
people living on the Great Peten and the four smaller
islands amounted to about five-and-twenty thousand of
all ages and sexes, but the Itzalan population surrounding the lake was infinitely greater, and could not be calculated. That to reach the Petenes no reliance could
be placed on any native means of transport, but that a
Spanish force once arrived on the borders of the lake
must construct their own vessels. The Great Peten, or
city of Tayasal, contained, they said, nineteen temples
for idol-worship, four of which they had themselves seen;
these buildings were low, but built with great solidity,
and were thatched in the same manner as the churches
of Yucatan. The dress of the natives consisted of a
sort of sack without sleeves, of cotton woven with various

A. D. 1695.]

INFORMATION ACQUIRED BY THE EMBASSY.

285

colours, and their cloaks, or mantas, were also variegated
and of the same material. They were well limbed, and
of a clearer colour than the Indians of Yucatan; many
had their faces marked with stripes, and their ears and
noses bored; in the former they had rings, and in the
latter they used to wear vanilla. The soil was very rich
and fertile, and, they added, some of the rings which they
wore were of silver and others of gold, which led them
to believe that there must be mines of those metals in
that country. In answer to the questions of Ursua as to
whether any mention had been made of the embassy of
Don Martin Can, the Fathers said that neither the Canek nor any of the people of Itza had even spoken of
the embassy, nor had they heard of it themselves in any
shape till informed of the fact at the camp of Paredes.

286

CHAPTER XIX.
MILITAEY

E X P E D I T I O N TO

T H E LAKE OF I T Z A . — Z U B I A U E

TO T H E

COMMAND.—HE

EEACHES

HOSTILE

E E C E P T I O N . — A BATTLE

THE

APPOINTED

L A K E , AND MEETS W I T H A

FOUGHT.—DIFFICULTIES

IN

COM-

PLETING- T H E GEEAT E O A D . — D O U B T S E N T E E T A I N E D OF T H E A U T H E N TICITY
THE

OF

THE

EXPENSE

ITZALAN
OF T H E

EMBASSY.—ITS

CANEK'S

TEUTH

ESTABLISHED

EEPUTATION.—THE

LASCO'S PAETY A S C E E T A I N E D . — E O Y A L CEDULA E X T E N D I N G T H E
T H O E I T Y OF U E S U A . — H E

SETS OUT I N

PEESON FEOM

AT

FATE OF V E AU-

CAMPEACHY,

AND E E A C H E S T H E GEEAT L A K E . — A FLAG OF T E U C E F E O M T H E I T Z A E X . — I N T E E V I E W B E T W E E N UESUA AND T H E H I G H P E I E S T

QUIN-

C A N E K . — A COUNCIL OF W A E , AND P E E P A E A T I O N S MADE F O E CEOSSI N G OVEE TO TAYASAL.

IT was after the departure of the Franciscans on their
embassy to Itza, that Paredes received his instructions
from Don Martin de Ursua to advance upon that place,
and take possession of the country in the -name of the
King of Spain. Being an invalid at the time, and unable to carry them out in person, he gave the command
of the expedition to Pedro de Zubiaur, who took with
him sixty men-at-arms, some more Indians and other
servants, Father Juan de San Buenaventura, and a lay
brother who accompanied him. The troops left the
camp at Zucthoc during the time that Avendafio and his
companions were wandering about the mountains on
their return from Tayasal, and performed their march

A.D. 1696.]

BATTLE WITH THE ITZAEX.

287

to the lake without difficulty. As they relied upon a
friendly reception, no apprehension was felt at the appearance of vast numbers of armed Itzaex, who, on the
approach of the Spaniards, rowed swiftly over from the
Great Peten and landed on the shore. But Zubiaur
was speedily undeceived, for the Itzaex first seized upon
some of the Indians who were carrying the provisions,
and on the expostulation of Father Buenaventura, who
explained to them the reason of their coming, they
seized him too, together with the lay brother and another
Spaniard, and hurrying them prisoners into a canoe,
rowed off with them so swiftly that it was impossible to
rescue them. Nor did the Itzaex stop here, but, without
any provocation given, laid hold of two Indian carriers
and beat them to death with their clubs. They also
seized a Spanish soldier, and cut his throat before the eyes
of his countrymen. It was time therefore for Zubiaur
to assume an attitude of defence; but scarcely had he
done so before his men were assailed with showers of
arrows, as well from the Itzaex on the lake as from those
who had gathered on the shore, who numbered altogether
more than ten thousand.
The battle then began in
earnest, and the first discharge of musketry brought
down full forty of the enemy; but Zubiaur, perceiving
that it would be vain to contend against such a vast
disparity of numbers, gradually withdrew his men and
retreated into the mountains, making the best of his
way back to the camp, from whence information of what
had taken place was forwarded to Ursua.
On the eastern side of the province the expedition
ordered to proceed under Hariza had, in the meantime,
been stationary, in consequence of intelligence having
been received at Tipu, first, of the sailing of Avendano's

288

THE DISTANCE OF ROAD COMPLETED.

[CHAP. XIX.

embassy, and secondly, of the result of the skirmish
under Zubiaur; so that the attempted pacification of
the Itzaex remained for the present unaccomplished.
Something, however, had been done towards laying the
foundation for subjugating the country, and this was
the completion by the force of Paredes, of upwards of
a hundred and ten leagues of road from Merida, on
which herds of cattle and muleteers could now pass
without let or hindrance, leaving only a distance of
about eight leagues still unexplored to the north of
Nuestra Sefiora de los Dolores. This was, however,
the most difficult part of the enterprise, as its course
lay through an enemy's country, and could scarcely be
carried on with safety until the reduction of the Itzaex
was effected.
There were also other difficulties arising out of the
divided authority between Don Roque de Soberanis and
Ursua; the former, who about this time returned to his
government, being solicitous of the honour of completing the much-desired highway, though all the labours
hitherto performed had been made at the cost and by the
direction of Ursua. The question was strenuously urged
by the principals on both sides and by their respective
friends; but, after more than one conflicting decision, it
was determined by the Bishop of Mechoacan, ad-interim
Viceroy of Mexico, that the task of finishing the road
should be confided to Ursua, who began it, and that
Soberanis should give him every assistance in his power.
Most unwillingly was this assistance rendered, and not
until every kind of reclamation had been made, and recourse had even to the subornation of hostile testimony,
to convict Ursua of mismanagement in the construction
of the road, and of credulity in giving implicit belief to

A.D. 1696.]

IMPRISONMENT OF MARTIN CAN.

289

the ambassador of the Canek of Itza, who, it was now
affirmed, was no relation of the king, nor charged by him
with any mission, but only a common Indian of Tipu,
who had got up the embassy for his own advantage.
It will for a short time interrupt the course of Ursua's
proceedings, to dispose of the last-named accusation
against him; but as other circumstances of interest are
connected with the explanation, the digression becomes
necessary.
When the news first reached Tipu of the untoward
events that had taken place on the borders of the Lake
of Itza, Don Martin Can, fearing danger to himself, fled
with his companions, and whither they went no one
knew. But one person remained behind, whose situation was no less precarious: this was one Pablo Gil, a
native of Salamanca de Bacalar, who had been the first
to inform Captain Francisco de Hariza of the alleged
embassy, and was, to a certain extent, the guarantee of
its authenticity. The flight of Martin Can and the reports
which became current, that the embassy was altogether
a sham, combined to fix upon Pablo Gil the odium of
having abetted a falsehood which involved very serious
consequences, and Hariza, who had been the first upon
whom the deceit—if it were one—was practised, immediately caused him to be arrested, and thrown into prison. During his confinement he underwent very close
examinations, but he resolutely persisted in his original
statement that the embassy was what he had represented
it to be, though, in the absence of Martin Can and his
companions, he could adduce no proof that it was so.
Fortunately however for the prisoner, when his incarceration had lasted five months th,ere came to the town of
Salamanca de Bacalar, entirely of their own accord, a
u

290

THE FATE OF VELASCO ASCERTAINED.

[CHAP. XIX.

party of four Indians of a nation bordering on the great
Lake of Itza, and about a day's journey from it. These
Indians were appealed to, to ascertain whether the story
of Pablo Gil were true or false, and their answers completely exonerated him. They stated that they knew
the Indian Can, and that he was the nephew of the Canek, who had despatched him on a mission, the nature
of which they were ignorant of; but they had learnt that
a mutiny had broken out amongst the Itzaex at Tayasal,
when the people became aware that Can had been sent
to Yucatan, and that, to appease the rebels, the Canek
had subsequently ignored the embassy, and refused to
allow his nephew to return.
But the information given by these people went further ; and what they related removed all doubt respecting the fate of Juan Diaz de Velasco and his party, of
whom all trace had been lost after they reached the
southern shore of the Lake of Itza. The account they
gave was, that fifteen Spaniards had arrived at the lake,
where their first demand was for provisions, which the
Cayo Indians (as they termed them on that side) brought
them. While the Spaniards were at their meal the noise
of fire-arms was heard at a distance, and fancying that a
party of their countrymen had followed them, and were
engaged in a skirmish, they hastily seized their arms,
and prepared to join them,—never thinking that the
shots which were fired had been meant as a signal only.
The Cayo Indians, observing the movement, put their
own interpretation upon it, and immediately fell upon
and slew the Spaniards, though the Canek, who was himself present, did his utmost to prevent the deed. In
proof of the truth of this story, the Indians said that the
Canek was woupded in the affray, and bore upon his

A. D. 1696.]

FRESH ROYAL CEDULAS.

291

neck the marks of a blow inflicted by one of the Spaniards. Such was the tale now told, and—saving the
incident of the Canek's interference—it is probably the
true account of what befell Velasco and his men.
At the conclusion of their statements, these Indians,
who declared themselves the constant enemies of the
Itzaex, volunteered their services to aid in the subjugation of the latter, offering to procure provisions, and
construct a certain number of vessels, and otherwise
assist any further expeditionary force, indicating at the
same time the safest and most convenient spot for a rendezvous.
We now return to Ursua. That which had most
effect in causing Don Roque de Soberanis to assist his
rival was the receipt of a Royal Cedula from Spain,
highly commending Ursua for all that he had done, and
enjoining Soberanis not to embarrass his efforts under
any pretext whatever. A second Cedula to the same
effect was addressed to the Governor, in terms neither
to be misunderstood nor disobeyed. Both were dated
from the Buen Retiro, on the 29th of May, 1696; and
a private letter accompanied them, addressed to Ursua
by Count Adanero, then Governor of the Council of the
Indies, reiterating the kind expressions employed by the
King. In consequence of these orders Soberanis now
placed everything that was necessary at the disposal of
Ursua, who at once made his arrangements for conducting the enterprise in person, retaining Paredes, Estenoz,
Zubiaur, and Gutierrez, four captains on whom he relied,
as his chief assistants.
His preparations being completed, and a much larger
force collected than had ever been under arms for this
purpose before, Ursua sent forward his infantry, artillery,
u 2

292

URSUA SETS OUT FROM CAMPEACHY.

[CHAP. XIX.

baggage, provisions, etc., under Zubiaur, with instructions, after leaving Zucthoc, to take the same route as
that by which he had previously marched, and halt in
the mountains two leagues from the lake, till Ursua
himself arrived with the remainder of the army.
These orders were punctually obeyed; and, on the
24th of January, 1697, Ursua followed from Campeachy,
which town had been his head-quarters during the formation of the armament, with the cavalry of the expedition,
the staff, the vicar-general and ecclesiastics who had
been named for Itza by the bishop, the royal standard,
and all the necessary appurtenances for the march. He
came up with the first division of his force at Bateab,
and shortly afterwards reached the borders of the lake,
where the first operation performed was that of cutting
down the trees required for building the vessels, in which
he proposed to cross over to Tayasal. He was a good
deal harassed by the Itzaex during the progress of this
work, but he would not permit of any hostile demonstration against them, trusting to effect their reduction
without bloodshed; and to such as came to the camp he
gave presents of various kinds, hoping by this means to
convince them that his intentions were pacific. Amongst
the latter, one day, Ursua was greatly pleased to recognize Don Martin Can, who, since the report made by the
four Indians at Salamanca de Bacalar, had returned to
Tayasal; he admitted him to his own tent, and there, in
the presence of witnesses, received a solemn deposition
from the Itzalan chief, to the effect that every particular
in connection with the embassy to Merida was perfectly
true, and the cause of his sudden departure from Tipu
arose from the fear he entertained that the consequences
of the skirmish with the troops of Zubiaur would be

A.D. 1697.]

INTERVIEW WITH THE HIGH PRIEST.

293

visited on his head; of Father Buenaventura and his
companions he could give no account. He reported also
that the Itzaex were all for war, and had constructed
several strong works of defence, with many other less
important particulars »
The Itzalan had scarcely furnished his narration before
a sudden call to arms was made, in consequence of the
approach of a body of Indians from the lake. They
proved however to be of the Alain tribe, who professed
themselves friendly to the Spaniards, and were headed
by their Cacique Chamaxculu and other Indians, some
of whom had already been baptized in Merida. Ursua
gave them a warm welcome, with every appearance of the
amicable purpose for which he had entered Itza, and
dismissed them with many presents. Hardly had they
retired before a fresh squadron of canoes was seen approaching from the Great Peten, and, by the white flag
which one of them carried, Don Martin Can recognized
the presence of the high-priest Quincanek, the eldest
first-cousin of the king, and next to him in authority.
He came accompanied by another chief, called Kitcan,
and, anxious to conciliate such important personages,
Ursua gave them a brilliant reception, the troops being
drawn up, and the music playing as they landed, and
were escorted to his tent.
Quincanek opened the interview by declaring, through
the interpreters, that his heart was greatly rejoiced at
the kindness which the Itzaex had always experienced
from the Spanish commander; and Ursua replied, that if
a similar disposition prevailed on their part, no hostile
proceedings would arise from his visit, but if he were
provoked to war the heaviest chastisement would befall
them. Quincanek returned that he wanted only peace,

294

VISIT OF ITZALAN WOMEN.

[CHAP. XIX.

and was ready to keep it; and, having spoken about
the Guatemala road, said, pointing to the south, that it
went in that direction as far as the sea, on the other side
of the lake. The General then told him that it would
be advantageous that the Itzaex should open a road
round the lake to join that of Guatemala, and Quincanek
at once promised that it should be done, Ursua agreeing
to pay the Indians for their labour. Before he parted
from the high-priest, the General obtained from him a
confirmation of the statement of Don Martin Can respecting the embassy, and having bestowed upon himself
and his followers a number of the usual presents, he
urged him, on taking leave, to request the Canek to visit
the Spanish camp in the same friendly manner. The
Quincanek undertook for his royal cousin that the visit
should be paid on a certain day, and the Itzalans returned to Tayasal,—all but Don Martin, who willingly
remained with the Spaniards.
But the period named by the high-priest went by,
and the Canek never appeared, though in his stead there
were numbers of Itzalan women, whose presumed object
was to convert the camp of Ursua into another Capua.
He prevented this by the strictness of his discipline, and,
though well received, the fair Itzalanas were compelled to
return to the Great Peten, with their purposes of conquest
unaccomplished.
It now became necessary to hold a council of war, to
decide upon what course should be adopted, for everything indicated that the Itzaex were not to be won over
by fair words and kindness. Yet Ursua was still for endeavouring to pacificate the country without force, and
strongly urged this view of the case in the speech which
he made to the Council. The chief officers, Paredes,

A.D. 1697.]

URSUA'S PROCLAMATION.

295

Estenoz, Zubiaur, and the rest, were however of a different opinion, and advocated a war of extermination;
but the General would not yield to their representations,
and though he had made up his mind to embark for
Tayasal,-—the vessels being now ready,—he forthwith
issued a proclamation to his troops, forbidding hostilities
with the Indians under any pretext, on pain of death,
unless a direct order from himself were issued on the
subject.

296

CHAPTER XX.
EMBARKATION
OF

OP T H E

THE, PICTURE

SPANISH

TEOOPS.—-MIRACULOUS

OE ST. P A U L . — U R S U A ' s

PEACEABLE

I T Z A E X MUSTER ON T H E L A K E , AND COMMENCE

APPEARANCE
EDICT.—THE

HOSTILITIES.—THE

SPANIARDS R E P E L T H E ASSAULT, ATTACK. T H E H E I G H T S OE TATASAL,
AND CAPTURE T H E CITY.—TAYASAL R E - B A P T I Z E D . — D E S T R U C T I O N

OF

I D O L S AND T E M P L E S . — F O R M A L POSSESSION TAKEN I N T H E NAME OF
THE

KING-

AND

FATHER

OF

SPAIN.—DISCOYERY

OF

BUENAYENTURA.—THE

THE

REMAINS

FUGITIVE

ITZAEX

OF

YELASCO

BEGIN

TO

R E T U R N TO TAYASAL.—CLEMENCY OF U R S U A . — T H E CANEK A N D T H E
HIGH

PRIEST BROUGHT

INTO THE

SPANISH

CAMP.—GENERAL

SUB-

M I S S I O N OF T H E I T Z A E X . — T H E

CANEK AND Q U I N C A N E K P L A C E D I N

DURANCE,

TRIAL.—AWFUL

AND

BROUGHT

STORM E X O R C I S E D . — R E S U L T

TO

OF T H E

HURRICANE.—THE

T R I A L . — A C C O U N T OF

A N D D E S C R I P T I O N OF T H E CUSTOMS O F T H E

TAYASAL

INHABITANTS.

HAYING published this edict, and every preparation
having been made, the day had scarcely dawned, on
the 13th of March, 1697, when General Ursua and his
army confessed, and received the Sacrament. They
then prayed to God for the success of the undertaking,
mass was said by the Vicar-General, Don Juan Pacheco,
the troops breakfasted, and, with the royal standard
flying, marched down to the waterside, where the vessels
were in readiness.
Before he embarked, Ursua harangued his men, and
the Vicar-General blessed the galliot that was about to

A.D. 1697.J URSUA EMBARKS FOR THE GREAT PETEN.

297

convey him. " He had scarcely done so/' says Villagutierre, "when an engraving, about six inches wide, was
seen floating on the waves and coming towards the
vessel; on taking it out of the water, it was given to
General Ursua. It turned out to be the picture of the
glorious Apostle St. Paul, and, in consequence of this
miracle, the galliot was called after his name1."
The force which Ursua took with him consisted of
158 Spanish soldiers and BO Indian servants, likewise
armed, together with Don Martin Can, the VicarGeneral, and the Under-Vicar Prancisco de Mora. He
left behind in the camp, which was well fortified and
provided with artillery, a garrison of 127 Spaniards,
besides a number of war-Indians, pioneers and others,
under the command of Juan Prancisco Cortes, a soldier
appropriately named to be, under such circumstances, on
such a spot.
•When the sun rose, the galliot was already on her
way, steering direct for the Great Peten, and the VicarGeneral, commanding silence, offered a Salve to Nuestra
Senora de los Remedios, for the success of the expedition ; and when the prayer was over, the soldiers raised
a great cry: " Viva la ley de Dios f Viva la ley de
Dios!" "Long live the law of God!" Ursua then
ordered the edict, which had been published the evening
before, to be read again. The drums and trumpets were
ordered to sound, and the Vicar-General addressed the
men:—" Sefiores," he said, " let all those who, at the
bottom of their hearts, are sorry for having offended
God, and would ask pardon for their sins, lift up their
hands and say, ' Lord, I have sinned, have mercy upon
me V " When all, apparently, had performed this act,
1

Villagutierre, lib. viii. cap. 8.

298

THE ITZAEX ATTACK THE GALLIOT.

CHAP. XX.

the Vicar-General, in a loud voice^ went through the
form of giving them absolution, and then with joy they
continued their voyage.
About midway across the lake a sentinel canoe was
seen making for the"Great Peten, and shortly afterwards
many more appeared from behind a promontory, drawn
up in regular order. On nearing them, the Spaniards
could perceive that the Indians who manned the canoes
were full of confidence, as they made a great hue and
cry, brandishing their weapons, and showing they were
quite ready to fight. But without taking any notice,
the galliot moved on through the midst of them, the
rowers being ordered by the General not to slacken
their speed till they came near the principal island, the
buildings on which were now distinctly visible.
The further the expedition advanced, the greater became the concourse of canoes, till at length they formed
a complete circle round the galliot, and when within
bow-shot the Indians rose and discharged a cloud of
arrows against her. This assault provoked no return,
for Ursua, whose anxiety to prevent bloodshed was extreme, exclaimed in a loud voice, "Let no one fire,—
God is on our side;" and though the Spaniards were
galled by the insults of the enemy, they refrained at his
command. The General then addressed the Itzaex in
words of peace, but they, misinterpreting his motives
and ascribing his forbearance to fear, replied by shouts
of derision and renewed flights of arrows, which fell like
a shower of rain. The canoes closed in more and more,
till they drove the galliot close to the shore, thousands
of darts flying on all sides, so that, says Villagutierre,
" it was a continued miracle that the Spaniards were not
all slain/'

A.D. 1697.]

DEFEAT OF THE ITZAEX.

299

At length however more than one arrow reached its
mark: a sergeant, named Juan Gonzales, was wonnded,
and a soldier also, called Bartolomeo Duran. The latter,
writhing with pain, forgot the edict, and discharged his
musket; his example was followed by the rest: Ursua
could restrain them no longer, and the battle then began.
So eager now were the Spaniards for the fray, that they
would not wait till the galliot had touched the shore,
but shouting to the oarsmen to cease rowing, jumped
into the water, which was up to their knees, and fought
their way to the land. Arrived there they closed into a
compact body, and then charged the Itzaex with such
fury, that the ranks of the barbarians were utterly
broken; a panic seized them: abandoning their defences they fled in the most precipitate manner, and, in
the hope of escaping to the mainland, plunged into the
lake, where vast numbers were either drowned or shot.
Villagutierre gives a brief but striking picture of the scene
that then presented itself:—
" The galliot, with twenty men-at-arms who had remained on board, previously selected for any emergency
that might arise, gave them chase on the lake. Those
in the canoes were seized with the same panic as those
on shore: they threw away their arms and oars, abandoned their canoes, and took to the water, so that really
nothing was to be seen on the lake, from the island to
the main, but the heads of Indians, men, women, and
boys, who were swimming as fast as they could."
Encountering no farther obstacle on land, Ursua, with
sword and shield, led on his troops to the height of Tayasal, and having reached the pinnacle of the Great Peten planted the standards of Castile, of " Nuestro Dulce
Jesus, and of his most holy mother of Los Remedios"

300

CAPTURE OF TAYASAL.

[CHAP. XX.

on the summit of the loftiest temple of the Infidels. The
General then, and all who accompanied him, fell on their
knees and returned thanks to God for having, in a few
short hours, enabled them to obtain so signal a victory.
Ursua's next proceeding was to baptize the city of
Tayasal by the name of St. Paul (Nuestra Senora de los
Remedios being given to the Peten), in consequence
of the "miracle" which had wafted the picture of the
Apostle across the lake: it was also in his recollection
that the Franciscan Fathers, Juan de Orbita and Bartolomeo de Puensalida, had, on their visit to the island,
bestowed upon it the name of St. Paul, and appointed
him its patron. The General then gave orders for the
dispersion of the troops in different directions throughout the city, to destroy every altar and idol they could
discover, as well in private dwellings as in the temples;
and so great was their iconoclastic fury, and so vast the
number of objects they found to wreak it on, that it was
impossible to count the number of images that were
either burnt or broken in pieces. " To give some idea,"
says the historian of the capture, " of the quantity of
the idols and statues which were reduced to ashes,
it will be sufficient to state that the Great Peten was
taken at half-past eight in the morning, and'that the
work of destruction lasted till half-past five in the afternoon, when the retreat was sounded that the troops
might get their dinner, which they stood much in need
of, after such hard work1."
On the following day Ursua assembled the troops,
and the royal standard having been removed from the
Teocali, where it had been fixed the day before, he took
it in his hand, and made the following speech :—
1

Villagutierre, lib. viii. cap. 9.

A.D. 1697.]

SPEECH OF URSUA.

301

" Senores.—Though His Majesty (whom God preserve)
is absolute King, lord, and master of this island of
Nuestra Senora de los Eemedios, of San Pablo of Itza,
and of the other adjacent towns, lakes, and territories;
notwithstanding, I take, in the name of His Majesty Don
Carlos the Second, real and actual possession of all the
lands and cities that have been under the sway of the
Canek of the Itzaex, who has abandoned them through
his great and enormous crimes, without any harm having
been hitherto done to him."
This allocution ended, he returned the standard to
the officer who had brought it, and it was replaced on
the summit of the Teocali, from whence it was visible
all over the lake.
The Vicar-General then congratulated Ursua on the
victory he had won, and demanded, in the name of the
Bishop of Yucatan, that he should grant him the power
of instructing the Infidels of those lands in the doctrines
of the Christian faith; and this request having been
complied with, the vicar, arrayed in full canonicals, bestowed his blessing on the water employed to purify the
temple, which was converted into a church, and consecrated to our Lady of Succour. Mass was then celebrated with the offices of the day, in the presence of the
General and his troops.
These ceremonies over, Ursua despatched Captain Zubiaur with a party of soldiers to the mainland, on that
side of the lake where he supposed they might find the
traces of the Guatemala road. After a brief absence
Zubiaur returned, and announced, not only that the road
had been discovered, as the marks of horses' hoofs were
still visible, but that he had likewise found the skeletons
of Diaz de Velasco and his party, their skulls knocked to

302

THE PETEN GARRISONED.

[CHAP. XX.

pieces, and bearing frightful testimony to the manner of
their deaths. He added, that his men had also found,
in a small island on the lake, the bones of Father Buenaventura and of the lay-brother his companion, whom
the Itzaex had made prisoners when Zubiaur first
reached the lake. He said he was satisfied with the
identity of the last-named remains because of a tassel
being discovered near them, which had belonged to
Buenaventura, and in corroboration he presented it to
the General. In consequence of this report Ursua sent
off the galliot to collect the remains of the murdered
soldiers, which were buried with great solemnity in the
new church; those of the Franciscans were also brought
away, and were subsequently conveyed to Yucatan, and
delivered for interment to the Father Provincial of St.
Francis.
Ursua's next care was to garrison the defences of the
island, in case of a sudden attack from the expelled Indians ; but fear of the Spaniards seemed to have wholly
paralysed them, for no such attempt was made. At the
expiration however of three or four days, some of the
fugitives began to return, timidly, and in small parties,
and proffering complete submission. Ursua met them
with kind words and good treatment: he ordered that
the women, especially, should be treated with decency
and honour, that the houses and goods of the people
should be restored to them, and proclaimed the severest
penalties against any of his troops who should do them
injury and wrong. These measures were of great use,
for when it was known that no punishment or molestation awaited them, great numbers came flocking both to
the island and to the towns that lay near the shores of
the lake.

A.D. 1697.] THE FUGITIVE KING RETURNS TO TAYASAL.

303

It was Ursua's great object to induce the Canek and
the high-priest, who had fled with the rest at the first
panic, to return to Tayasal, and for this purpose he sent
out many of the Indians with messages of friendship,
and promises of pardon for all past offences. Don Martin Can, who had proved himself a faithful adherent of
the Spaniards ever since he returned to the camp, was
very serviceable in these attempts to reconcile the Itzaex
to the new state of things. He persuaded the chief of
the important tribe of the Alains, named Chamaxculu,
to join Ursua, and through the instrumentality of the
latter the Canek and the high-priest were finally induced to yield obedience. On the morning of the last
day of March, Chamaxculu arrived at the Great Peten,
bringing with him the fugitive king and his cousin, together with their wives and children, and a numerous retinue of Indians. They were conducted into the
presence of Ursua, and there made a formal submission to the King of Spain, the Canek declaring that
such had always been his intention, and that it was for
that purpose he had sent the crown of plumes to Merida. Ursua received the Canek and high-priest with
great kindness, entertained them with mnsic and a milit a r y / ^ , seated them at his own table, and bestowed
upon them numerous presents,—doing everything, in
short, to set them at ease, and appearing himself to
have wholly forgotten their various acts of cruelty and
treachery.
This policy had the desired effect, and the submission
of the Indians now became general. Ursua made the
tour of the lake in the galliot, visiting all the smaller
islands and landing at various towns on the shore, where
the inhabitants proffered an unqualified obedience. One

304

THE KING AND THE HIGH PftlEST IMPRISONED, [CHAP. XX.

departure was however made by Ursua from the clemency which marked his general conduct, and that was
in the instance of the Cacique Coboxh, whom the Canek
and his cousin had accused of being the instigator of all
the hostilities against the Spaniards. This cacique was
made prisoner, and brought in fetters to Tayasal, where
he was confronted with his accusers, and a scene of violent recrimination took place between him and the Canek, each endeavouring to fix the charge upon the other.
But it came to the knowledge of Ursua, through Don
Martin Can, that, while the King and the high-priest
were thus professing their devotion to the Spanish
cause, they were secretly plotting their escape, with the
view of exciting the Indians to an insurrection. Ursua
therefore had the Canek and Quincanek, with two of
their accomplices, placed in irons, preparatory to their
being brought to trial. Villagutierre gives a quaint description of the condition of mind of the high-priest
when he found himself "in durance vile."
"The false priest, being in league with evil spirits,
and entirely in the power of the Evil One, performed
incredible feats, and threw himself on the ground and
against the walls of his prison like a madman: lie then
whistled. One of our people asked one of his female
servants what that noise meant. She replied that he
was calling the Demon Idols of his district to liberate
him, as they were in the habit of obeying him in everything he desired!"
, The trial began, and with something of the leaven of
the Inquisition in its proceedings.
" It was impossible to make him confess, although put
to some hind of torture, and he always denied intending
to escape or having persuaded the Canek to do so, be-

A.D. 1697.]

THE HIGH PRIEST'S CONFESSION.

305

cause having once surrendered and made his submission,
he said he could not do or dream of anything of the
kind/' He likewise denied having been an accomplice
or having interfered in the murders of the people from
Yucatan, or of those from Guatemala: he said they had
been committed by other Indians whom he named, including one of his fellow-prisoners, and that after killing
they had eaten them, but that "he had not tasted a
morsel." He added that the Spaniards had been beaten
to death.
" Having finished this confession," continues Villagutierre, "this cursed priest, addressing himself to our
people, said: 'You will see before night!' And it so
happened that at sunset there arose an awful hurricane
coming from the south, accompanied by tremendous
thunder and lightning, and such fearful howling of the
winds that the island seemed like the centre of hell;
many trees were uprooted, many houses unroofed, upwards of two hundred of those that were made of wood
and straw were swept entirely away, and the destruction
was general. Our people in this sore affliction had recourse to God, through the intercession of His Most
Holy Mother, de los Remedios, and the litany was recited before her image. The curates exorcised the
storm, and about three in the morning it cleared up and
the clouds vanished, after destroying half the island."
When the superstitious fear of the Spaniards was allayed, the trial proceeded. The incriminated Indian,
who was a relation of the Canek, confessed everything
that had happened, and declared categorically that the
King himself and the priest Quincanek had opened the
breasts of the friars who came from Guatemala, after
they were dead, in the principal temple; that they had
x

306

CONCLUSION} OF THE TRIAL.

[CHAP. xx.

killed the Spaniards who went with them into the water,
and that they had carried many still alive to the Great
Peten, where they had despatched and eaten them; that
they had killed the friars, soldiers, and Indians in the
canoes on the lake, and afterwards carried them on
shore, where they devoured them also." He ended by
exculpating himself and fixing the odium of these crimes
on the Canek, the high-priest, and various other Indians.
Amidst these counter-accusations it was impossible to
elicit the exact truth; but one fact remained tolerably
certain, that the manner of death of the unfortunate
Spaniards had been accurately described, and it is most
likely that all the Itzaex, without distinction, were participators in the act. At an earlier period of the history
of Spanish "pacification" the fate of Guatemozin and
the Cacique of Tlacupa might have been that of the
Canek and his companions; but a milder spirit now prevailed, and they were merely kept under sufficient restraint to prevent them from plotting against their conquerors, until the time came when they should voluntarily desire to be baptized. This happened after Ursua's return to Yucatan; but before we arrive at that
event, which very shortly preceded the latest efforts of
the Spaniards to pacificate the interior of the peninsula,
some account must be given of the appearance of Tayasal and the customs of its inhabitants, when the General first took possession of it, as well as the steps which
he took in conformity with the main objects which he
had in view.
Villagutierre has devoted three several chapters to a
description of the great lake, of the territories adjoining, with the religious observances and customs of the

A.D. 1697.]

CUSTOMS OF THE ITZAEX.

307

Itzaex, the produce of their country, and other matters,
which are here presented in an abridged form1.
After speaking of the Itzaex Indians as having belonged originally to the Maya nation, Villagutierre goes
on to define the limits of their territory, which he describes as much more temperate and less subject to
drought than Yucatan, because there are no rivers in
that province, and the supply of water is only from the
wells, or those natural cavities called Sonotes2.
" The mountain-ranges of the Itzaex and of the other
unconverted tribes extend, he says, for more than a hundred and fifty leagues from east to west. This country
is bounded on the south by the province of Vera Paz
and the kingdom of Guatemala; on the north by the
province of Yucatan; on the east by the sea; on the
south-east by the province of Honduras; and on the
west by the province of Chiapa, which extends to New
Spain. These Itzaex Indians always keep the same
surnames as they had in Yucatan (and to this day the
people of the province use them), with this difference,
that the people of Yucatan, whether sons or daughters,
take only their father's surname, as is common for the
most part among the Spaniards,' but the Itzaex are
called by the joint names of father and mother, putting
the mothers first. Thus the name of their Kings or
Lords, which is Canek, is the same as being called Can
from the mother and Ek from the father/'
Villagutierre then speaks of their idolatrous sacrifices
as being similar to those already described as practised
at Cozumel, adding some particulars.
" These barbarous Itzaex had an idol they called Hobo,
1
2

Villagutierre, lib. iii. c. 11, 12, 13.
See Appendix D.

x 2

308

IDOLATROUS PRACTICES.

[CHAP. XX.

before which, when they sacrificed any Indian man, woman, or child, they danced with such a din and noise of
flutes and other instruments1, and voices of singers appointed for these ceremonies, that it was impossible to
hear the victim who was burning in the hollow metal
idol; and that his or her parents or relations might feel
it less, they were made to join in the dance with the
rest; and the false priests persuaded them that they were
fortunate and blessed to have their children and relations thus sacrificed, and that their God Hobo wished
and asked for that sacrifice, that they might receive from
him what they asked him for, and from that time they
became people of note, and their houses and families became illustrious. They had two other idols, which they
adored as Gods of battles, one called Pakoc, the other
Hexchunchan; they carried these when they went to
fight the Chinamitas, their neighbours and mortal foes,
and when the battle was going to begin they burnt copal before them. Also, that when the Itzaex performed
any feat of valour, their idols, whom they consulted, were
wont to make a reply to them, and in their Mitotes, or
dances, they used to speak to them and dance with them.
This doubtless/' observes the historian with amusing
gravity,—" this doubtless was the cause why the Indians painted themselves so horribly when they danced
the dance of that sacrifice I spoke of, because it was
taught them by the devil; since each Indian appeared
like him, and in the form in which they must have seen
him!"
Of the Chinamitas Villagutierre tells us:—
" They had a great town of more than eight thousand
1
Tuncules and Tortugones are mentioned: the latter must have been
made of tortoise-shell.

A. D. 1697.]

FABULOUS ACCOUNT OF THE ALOE.

309

inhabitants, which was called Tulunqui; and when Fathers Orbita and Fuensalida were in the island of the Itzaex, they were told that in that great town of Tulunqui
there were some Spanish men and women captives; but
it was not known how and when they had come there,
nor was it known whether it was true or not. In that
Indian language Tulunqui means a fortress of aloes,
because it was all surrounded by a plantation of aloes.
The American aloe {Maguey) is a tree which of itself
alone yields almost everything that is produced and can
be produced from all others, for from it is taken water,
wine, oil, vinegar, honey, syrup, thread, needles, beams
and tiles for building, and innumerable other things1, of
which there can be no doubt; for if there were, it would
not be affirmed among other matters, by one so serious
and learned, and who ought to have known so many
things of the New World, as Juan de Solozano; who
speaks of it in his ' Politica' in the same words, enlarging
upon the strange wonders, the virtues and other properties of this and other trees of the West Indies, and their
numerous uses. What I know and can say with all certainty of this tree, from all the papers that' have passed
through my hands on this matter, for the determination
taken by the Royal Council of the Indies, is that the
maguey is a kind of tree from which, when the shoots
are cut off, a liquor like fluid honey exudes, from which
a beverage called pulque is made; and so abundant are
these trees in parts of the kingdom of New Spain, that
for this year 1700, and the following years, contractors
have engaged to pay His Majesty seventy-five thousand
dollars for the Royal duties on this beverage of pulque, in
the city of Mexico alone. In the year 1692, the Count
1

This description of the Maguey is slightly overdone.

310

DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT LAKE.

[CHAP. XX.

de Galve, the Viceroy, prohibited the drink, because it
was said that it caused great drunkenness among the
Indians, for, with the roots and other ingredients which
they mixed with it to make it keep, they made it so
strong that it quite maddened them, and they committed
many of the vilest crimes. . . . To return to our subject i the denseness of these aloe-trees served as an enclosure and wall to Tulunqui, there being only one close
and narrow entrance, surrounded by water. With these
fortifications the Chinamitas defended themselves from
their Itzalan enemies. . . .
" The circuit of the shores of that great lake, which
is called Chaltana, is more than twenty-six leagues. Its
length is much greater than its width; in some places it
is fathomless, in others thirty fathoms deep, and from
this and its continual waves it very much resembles the
sea. It is very delightful and pleasant, and its waters
are very sweet, clear, and light; here is a multitude of
large, middle-sized, and small fish, very well flavoured,
and good to eat; and there are also icoteas, fresh-water
tortoises, and other similar animals. The lake has creeks
and arms in all directions, numerous streams fall into it,
and it is secure from pirates, as it has no outlet for its
waters anywhere, unless there be a subterranean one.
The Indians had innumerable canoes upon it, for on the
day of the assault and capture of the Peten more than
five hundred and fifty canoes were taken, merely of those
that had been abandoned. In the narrowest part of this
lake, at the distance of two leagues from the mainland,
is the great island on which stood the capital, called Tayasal, or Taisai This island is very steep and lofty,
with a table-land at the top; its extent is equal to that
covered by the town of San Francisco de Campeche,

A.D. 1697.]

PRODUCTIONS OF THE COUNTRY.

311

about three-quarters of a league. It was all covered with
houses, some with stone walls to the height of about
a yard, and of wood above that, with straw roofs, and
others only of wood and stone. There were no streets
formed, and the insides of the houses were filthy and
unswept; the inhabitants lived in a brutal way, all the
members of one family, however numerous, occupying
the same house, whence it arose that the number of Indians in that island was very great. Within a short
distance of the principal islands were four smaller ones,
also covered with houses and thickly populated, and
another Peten, which was uninhabited, where our men
found the bones of Pather Buenaventura and his companions. And the two towns and islands of the Alains
are at the distance of six leagues towards the end of the
lake, and there is another larger town belonging to them
on the mainland. On parts of the shores of the lake
there are pleasant groves of trees, and in the direction of
the mountains many.towns of the Coboxes and other
nations, who were all under the rule of Canek, though
he had his captains and governors. There is also another parallel lake, measuring five leagues round its shores,
in the direction of the road to Yucatan, with another inhabited island in the midst of it • and in the direction of
the plain country, at a little distance from the great lake,
there is another town, which is very populous.
"The country round the lake is in some parts covered
with wood, where there are herds of wild animals, such as
deer and mountain-hogs, which have their navel on the
back1, and there are hares and rabbits in warrens, cocks
and hens of the country, which are like turkeys and of
1
These animals have a gland on the back, which was mistaken for
the navel.

312

A MARVELLOUS TREE.

[CHAP. XX.

the same form, and many other birds, such as pheasants,
paaxes, and tewones, both of Spain and America. In the
woods near the lakes there are quantities of pepper and
balsam-trees, oaks, and pines of various kinds, trees
yielding precious resins, and other unknown trees, some
productive and some not; and in a wood about four
leagues distant from the island, there are other trees
which bear a kind of black cherry that is well flavoured.
Eight or ten leagues from the lake, and near the road to
Yucatan, begin the mountains and quarries of alabaster,
which is very rich and beautiful for churches and large
buildings; great part of the temples and idols which
General Ursua and his men found in Tayasal were made
of it. They also found idols of very precious jasper,
of green, violet, red, and other colours, and of unknown
metals, and a quantity of the arrows used by the Indians, with crystal heads, instead of-iron or flint, and
numbers of very large beads of the same material. . . .
And in the mountains, about eighteen leagues distant,
begin the forests of brasil-wood. / am told by a person of
great truthfulness, that one of the conquerors of the
island of Los Remedios wrote to him, saying that in the
woods near the lake there is a tree with long leaves and
branches, which stand up straight like palm-trees; and
as General Ursua and his army were passing by with
the writer of this incident, they observed that the trees
there had their branches so interlaced that each tree appeared to form the most holy name of Mary. . . .
" On the other side of the lake, opposite to that of the
woods, the land is all low and flat; here are large and
very wide savannas (thus they call the plains under seed)
extending beyond the range of the eye. The land yields
two crops in the year, and the ears or heads of the grain

A. D. 1697.]

CANNIBALISM PRACTISED.

313

of maize are extremely large. The vicinity of the lake
also produces fine cochineal, indigo of an excellent kind,
very thick and large vanilla, cacao, achiote1, cotton, wax,
honey, sweet pine-apples, frijoles (beans), plums, sweet
potatoes, all kinds of plantains, and various other vegetables. In short, all that land is very abundant in produce, the climate is healthy, and the whole territory very
pleasant and delightful, and it is said that there are not,
as in most parts of the Indies, snakes, lizards, alligators,
bats, mosquitoes, chiguas (niguas), or other noxious and
poisonous reptiles and insects. . . .
" The natives of those islands and of the vicinity of
the lake are extremely sagacious and deceitful, and after
they left Yucatan they became more ferocious and cruel,
for the people of Yucatan did not eat human flesh; on
the contrary, in ancient times they abhorred the Mexicans because they did so. But these Itzaex, after their
retreat, were given to this brutality, even more than the
Mexicans, for there was not a prisoner whom they took
in war that they did not sacrifice and devour. And
when this game failed them, they sacrificed the fattest of
their boys and young men. . . . The Itzaex Indians
have good countenances ; they have a brown complexion
inclining to be ruddy, and are cleverer than the people
of Yucatan. They are agile, well made, and have handsome faces, though some of them were marked with
lines as a sign of courage. They wore their hair as long
as it would grow; indeed it is a most difficult thing to
bring the Indians to cut their hair, for wearing it long is
a sign of idolatry. . . The clothes they wore were agates or gdbachos (loose dresses without sleeves), and their
1
A tree something like an orange-tree, from the grains of whose
fruit a red paste is made for dyeing.

314

COSTUME OF THE ITZAEX.

[CHAP. XX.

mantles were all of cotton woven in various colours. The
women, as well as the men, wore also sashes of cotton,
about four yards long and a foot wide, with which they
girded themselves, and at the end of this sash many of
them attached a quantity of coloured feathers, which
was their greatest ornament. In their wars, and when
they went to their sacrificial dances and festivals, they
had their faces, arms, thighs, and legs painted and naked.
The men are, for the most part, idlers and slow at work;
they spend much of their time in idolatry, dancing and
getting drunk at all hours. The women, on the contrary, are very notable, and apply themselves very diligently to their labours every day from sunrise to sunset,
without speaking a single word: the spun work and
cotton tissues of beautiful colours and shades which they
manufacture are so excellent, that though the work of
the Indian women of Yucatan was much esteemed from
the first, and has been improved by Spanish teaching, it
is far inferior to the productions of the Itzaex women.
Both sexes have their ears and nostrils bored; by some,
vanilla is put into the orifices, by others, small plates of
very inferior gold and silver. It does not seem that they
married more than one wife. Those who died a natural
death were buried in the fields in the dresses they had
worn; as for those whom they hilled, they buried them
in their stomachs ! Nothing was found in their houses
except some cotton, cochineal, indigo, achiote, wax, honey,
and idols.
" Of the twenty-one Cues, or temples, which General
Ursua found on the island, the largest was that in which
the high-priest Quincanek officiated. It was of square
form, with a handsome parapet, and was approached by
nine steps, all of beautiful stone, and each front of the

A. D. 1697.]

ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS IDOLS.

315

building was about twenty yards long and very high. On
the upper step, by the entrance, was an idol of human
form with a bad countenance, sitting on his heels, and in
the temple in front was another idol of unwrought
emerald, which those infidels called the God of Battles:
it was a span long, and remained in the possession of
General Ursua. Above it was another of gypsum, with
the face marked with mother-of-pearl, forming a sun and
its rays; and in its mouth was inserted teeth taken from
the Spaniards whom they had killed. In the midst of
the temple, which was formed like a castle, there was
hanging from the top, by three strips of spun cotton of
different colours, a leg-bone half-decayed; and below it
hung a little bag, three-quarters of a yard long, containing little pieces of bone, which were also decayed;
and on the ground beneath were placed three braziers
for burning perfumes or incense, with storax and other
aromatic substances in them, which they used to burn
in the sacrifices, and some dry maize-leaves ; on the top
of the upper part of this leg-bone was set a crown. It
was explained that these bones were the fragments of
what remained of a great horse which had been left in
their care by a king who had passed that way a long
time before : from which it was certain that it was the
horse of Fernando Cortez. . . .
" Another great temple, built in the same way, was
that of the Canek. In it was a great table or altar of
stone for sacrifices, with seats all round it, highly polished. It contained also many statues of stone, wood,
and gypsum, well sculptured, though some were horrible
figures. In the Canek's house, too, there were several
idols, a table for sacrifices, and the Analtckes, or histories
of all that happened to the people. In another temple,

316

THE PRIEST TUT.

[CHAP. XX.

which was under the care of a priest named Tut, there
was a hideous idol which they said had predicted the
arrival of the Spaniards, and offered his assistance in
defeating them, on condition of their being sacrificed to
him. But the day having come and the Spaniards
having landed, and seeing his countrymen giving way,
the priest Tut began in their presence to implore the aid
of his false god, reminding him of his promise. But
when he saw the Itzaex fly, the priest began to beat the
idol, and after abusing it in very opprobrious terms, fled
with the rest and threw himself into the lake/'

317

CHAPTER XXI.
COMPLETION OF T H E

ROAD

INTO

GUATEMALA.—URSUA

BEQUESTS AS-

SISTANCE F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T OF G U A T E M A L A . — D I F F I C U L T

MARCH

O F P A R E D E S . — U R S U A COMMENCES T H E F O R T I F I C A T I O N OF TAYASAL,
AND T H E N
BAPTISM

R E T U R N S TO C A M P E A C H Y . — I N T R I G U E S
OF

THE

REQUIRED I N
SOBERANIS,

CANEK AND

T A Y A S A L . — H I S EFFORTS

WHO

KEEPS

BACK

OF S O B E R A N I S . —

H I G H PRIEST.—URSUA's
TO

RETURN

PRESENCE
BY

CEDULAS.—-URSUA

T H E ROYAL

THWARTED

IS

MADE CAPTAIN-GENERAL OF T H E ITZALAN T E R R I T O R Y . — O P E R A T I O N S
RESUMED

FOR

THE

PACIFICATION

OF

THE

PENINSULA.—URSUA

AGAIN ARRIVES AT T A Y A S A L . — H E I S J O I N E D BY DON M E L C H O R
MENCOS F R O M G U A T E M A L A . — T H E CONCABO

COUNCIL OF W A R . — F A I L U R E OF S U P P L I E S . — T H E LAST J U N T A
— I T I S RESOLVED TO EVACUATE T H E

DE

GENERALS.—IMPORTANT
HELD.

COUNTRY.—CONCLUSION.

THE first use to which General Ursua turned his capture
of Tayasal, was the employment of the pacificated Indians
in the completion of the Guatemala road. The Alain
tribe, who were good workmen, were very serviceable in
this particular, and in the course of a few days the road
was constructed round the head of the lake, connecting
the two lines at the points where each had stopped.
" The communication," says Villagutierre, " was now
quite practicable from Yucatan to Guatemala, for carts
and horses, and the lake caused not the slightest impediment ; indeed, had it not been for the trees which
were blown down by the hurricanes, and because the

318

COMPLETION OF THE ROAD TO GUATEMALA, [CHAP. XXI.

line from the lake to Cahabon was not very clear, litters
and carriages might have travelled very well upon it.
Many affirmed upon oath that it was more level and less
hilly than the road from Vera Cruz to Mexico, and from
Mexico to Acapulco, and other places. Shortly after,
couriers from Yucatan and Tabasco went and came along
it to Guatemala; and artillery and everything else were
carried to the Savannah of San Pedro Martyr, thence to
Cahabon de la Vera Paz, and on again to Guatemala.
The only objection found was, that it was much longer
than necessary from the lake to the province of Vera Paz,
and ought to have been made in a more direct line/'
On the 23rd of March, Ursua despatched letters to
the President of the Royal Audience of Guatemala, informing him of all that had occurred since he left Campeachy, representing the importance of his conquest, and
demonstrating the necessity for constructing a fort to
defend the Great Peten, but regretting at the same time
that the exhaustion of all his means by the expenses of
the expedition made it necessary for him to apply for
assistance from the President for the support of the
garrison. He added, that he would use his best endeavours to complete the reduction of the natives, as longas the dry weather lasted, during which time he should
be able to keep the field; but as the provisions which
he had brought with him would only last till May, when
the wet season began, he should then be obliged to retreat while the thoroughfare was practicable, as the
road was now open, and he had fulfilled his duty. He
concluded by saying that he would make what further
progress lay in.his power, when his turn to command
the provinces of Yucatan arrived, after Don Roque
Soberanis's term should have expired.

A.D. 1697.]

URSUA RETURNS TO CAMPEACHY.

319

This despatch was entrusted to Captain Paredes, who
took with him an officer, an escort of soldiers, and a
body of Indians, with provisions for twelve days, hoping
to reach the first town on the way to Guatemala within
that space. But the southern division of the road had
been much damaged by the rains since its first construction, and Paredes and his men, a part of whom he sent
back to Los Remedios, experienced great difficulty and
hardship before they reached their destination. At last
the journey was accomplished, and the news of which
Paredes was the bearer were received with great joy in
Guatemala.
The President forthwith summoned a council, to deliberate upon Ursua5 s request for aid: it was favourably
received, and the money he wanted was ordered to be
sent, for the pay and support of the troops to garrison
the fortress, fifty of his own men being selected for that
purpose. It was at the same time resolved that thanks
should be given to General Ursua, in the name of the
King, for the great service he had rendered. To this
public despatch the President, the Bishop of Guatemala,
and the Bishop of La Puebla de los Angeles, added private letters to the same effect.
On the receipt of this gratifying intelligence, Ursua
set immediately about the construction of the fort, in
the centre of the table-land on the highest point of the
Great Peten, and when it was finished, and the guns
mounted, he appointed Estenoz to the command, with a
garrison of fifty picked men, and gave him full instructions for his guidance during his absence. All his dispositions being made, Ursua and the remainder of the
troops crossed over to where the reserved force was
lying, raised the camp, and marched for Campeachy,

320

JEALOUSY OF SOBERANIS.

[CHAP. XXI.

where the army arrived in safety, and was then disbanded.
Ursua's success was gratifying to every one but the
Governor Soberanis. He, when he heard of the General's return to Campeachy, immediately forwarded a petition to the Viceroy of New Spain, requesting him to
give the necessary orders for Ursua, his wife and family,
to leave the province of Yucatan, and withdraw to Chiapa or elsewhere. Soberanis preferred this petition on
the plea that the vicinity of Ursua was against royal
orders: that he might foment disturbances against his
authority, and evince a desire to succeed to the Government of Yucatan before the period appointed for its relinquishment by himself, in the year 1700, had arrived.
Ursua, on his part, made a fair and temperate representation to the Viceroy, setting forth all he had done,
pointing out the extravagant jealousy of Soberanis, and
asking permission to be allowed to remain in the southern part of the province, in order the better to carry out
the wishes of the King with respect to the complete
pacification of the Itzaex. Pending the Viceroy's decision, Ursua was subjected to various annoyances from
his rival, but in the end an order came from Mexico
appointing Campeachy as his place of residence, or, at
his choice, the town of Xechelchecan, whichever might
be most convenient for his purpose.
At the beginning of the year 1698, Ursua, being then
at Campeachy, received a long communication from the
Vicar-General of Itza, informing him of the baptism of
the King, the high-priest, and others,—-the former under the name of Don Jose Pablo Canek, and the latter
under that of Don Francisco Nicolas Canek; the same
letter conveyed to him many particulars respecting the

A.D. 1698.]

URSUA'S DISTRESSED CONDITION.

321

character and resources of the various tribes of Indians
beyond the lake, whose subjugation had become an evident necessity. That Ursua's presence in the Great
Peten was further called for, he learnt in a letter which
he received shortly afterwards, by which it appeared
that almost all the Indians, including Don Martin Can,
and excepting only the new converts, who were prisoners, had quitted the island, and besides the garrison
in the fort, there remained no authority to control the
country. The situation, for one who, like Ursua, had
the pacification of Itza so earnestly at heart, was a
most painful one, but, thwarted by Soberanis in everything he attempted, and almost bankrupt in means,
he was wholly unable to raise either the men or money
which were requisite for undertaking another expedition. What added to his vexation was being aware of
the fact that Royal Cedulas had arrived, the tenour of
which, he judged, was highly favourable to himself,
since their publication was suppressed by Don Hoque
de Soberanis.
This indeed was the fact, for nothing could be more
commendatory of Ursua's conduct than the letter of the
King in Council, or more peremptory than the injunctions that they laid on the Governor to give him every
facility for carrying out the great enterprise in which he
had so long been engaged. These Cedulas were dated
from Madrid, the 24th of January, 1698, and were severally addressed to Ursua, to Soberanis, to the Viceroy
of New Spain, and to the President of Guatemala; but
notwithstanding the urgent nature of their contents, the
Governor of Yucatan kept back their publication within
his own province for several months, nor was it till the
Y

322

URSUA'S AUTHORITY ESTABLISHED.

[CHAP. XXI.

close of the year that he at last decided upon making
them known to the local authorities, who, unless officially informed of the fact, could render no assistance to
Ursua, but, on the contrary, were withheld from doing so.
Ursua had, in the meantime, been negotiating with
the President of Guatemala about making over the
Great Peten and all its dependencies to the latter, as his
own resources were insufficient to provide for the support of the garrison at Tayasal, and he was anxious that,
should it be necessary to abandon the place, the blame
for doing so might not fall upon him. But while
communications on this subject were passing between
the President and Ursua, the Governor of Yucatan
judged it expedient no longer to refrain from making
the King's orders known, and they were publicly proclaimed in the town of Campeachy. An important feature of the Cedula addressed to Ursua, was a paragraph
conferring upon him the jurisdiction of the Governor and
Captain-General of the whole country through which he
had constructed the road, dependent only on the Viceroy
of New Spain; and to this order Soberanis found himself obliged to give effect, by stating that in his new
capacity Ursua was " to be allowed in every place under
his command to use forthwith the baton and insignia
of Governor and Captain-General, and to appoint and
take with him one or more aides-de-camp." Ursua was
now invested with a more independent authority than
he had ever before enjoyed, and he was not slow to
profit by his opportunity. The military Governor of
Campeachy, Don Juan Geronimo de Obad, offered him
all the assistance in his power, and Ursua at once entered into an engagement with him, by which he pro-

A.D. 1699.]

RENEWED OPERATIONS.

323

mised, "out of his own pocket1," to pay for all that was
necessary for the campaign!
This event closed the year 1698, and at the beginning
of January, 1699, operations were commenced in the
hope of finally pacificating the interior of the peninsula,
not only on the side of Yucatan, but on that of Guatemala also. For this purpose the President of the latter
province got together a force of two hundred men-atarms in two, divisions, one of which was to enter Itza
through the town of Dolores, and the other direct from
Vera Paz, the commander-in-chief of the whole being
Don Melchor Mencos. A large commissariat, a medical
staff, and several missionaries, with supplies of all kinds
of necessary tools and toys for the Indians, added to
the efficiency of the expedition.
About the same time Ursua set out from Campeachy,
but in different guise. He was accompanied only by
his own servants and a few volunteers, and took the road
to Zucthoe. At Bateab he encountered a courier sent
to him with letters from the President of Guatemala,
informing him of the departure of the troops that he
had collected, and he accordingly made the best of his
way to the great lake of Itza. The garrison, who were
prepared for his arrival, received him on its borders with
great rejoicing, and welcomed him with a military salute ; he embarked on board the galliot, and landed on
the island of Los Eemedios on the 11th of February,
1699. He found the garrison greatly straitened for the
want of provisions and military stores, the supply of the
former from Guatemala having been very scanty, and
that of the latter altogether wanting, and he looked for1
" Pagandolo todo Don Martin
Ursua de su prc>i>rio caudal."-—

Villagutierre, lib. ix. cap. ix. p.
590.

T 2

324

THE CO-OPERATING GENERALS.

[CHAP. XXT.

ward to the arrival of the army of Don Melchor Mencos with much anxiety. A fortnight however elapsed,
and there being no signs of the expedition, Ursua sent
out some Spanish soldiers in search of it, with letters
to Mencos, praying him to hasten his approach, and
intimating that he placed himself under his orders.
These messengers fell in with the Guatemalian force
on the Savannah of San Pedro Martyr, where Mencos
had pitched his camp on the preceding day, the 3rd of
March. He returned for answer that he would advance
on Los Remedios as speedily as possible, and finally
made his entry to Tayasal on the 14th. " The war of
politeness," as Villagutierre not unaptly calls it, which
took place at the interview between the two generals,
was something perfectly ludicrous. Neither Mencos
nor Ursua would assume the supreme direction, each
professing his desire to serve as a private soldier under
the orders of the other, and two or three days were actually consumed in these pourparlers before they could
come to an understanding. It was at last agreed that
they should share the power between them, with the title
of " Concabo," or " co-operating generals."
This power appeared, after all, to be of no great value,
for, owing to the accidents which had delayed the march
of Mencos and the want of his commissariat, which,
through the misconduct of the Commissary Avalos, had
been suffered to linger far in the rear, with the loss of
most of the requisite materials for the campaign, the
season for commencing active operations was fast going
by without the opportunity of turning it to account,
provisions, ammunition, and implements of labour being
all wanting. A council of war was therefore held under
a junta of officers, formed to determine what should im-

A.D. 1699.]

DECISION OF THE JUNTA.

325

mediately be done. The questions which were brought
before the Junta were various: the principal related to
the site on which a new town, ordered to be built by
the Royal Cedula of 1698, was to be raised, and to the
subsequent course of proceedings. It was decided that
the town, with a fortress to protect it, should be laid out
on the borders of the lake, on the south side, from
whence all future operations were to be directed for
subjugating the numerous tribes of Indians occupying
the immense tract of country between the lake and the
inhabited part of Guatemala; that a garrison of eighty
men should be established, partly for the defence and
partly for the escort of missionaries; that a new and
more direct line of road to the south should be constructed, and that a certain number of Indians should
be constantly employed in the cultivation of maize near
the town, in order that a scarcity of provisions might
not ocqur.
Mention has hitherto been made of that division only
of the army of Guatemala, which was under the immediate command of Don Melchor Mencos. They were
still waiting at Tayasal for news of the other division,
which had taken the route of Los Dolores, and a party
was sent out in that direction to await their arrival in
the vicinity of that place and escort them to Los Reniedios. After several days' expectation, the missing division
came in sight near a place called Chachan; the delay
had been occasioned by the troops having lost their way
in a wide savannah, where they wandered about for
twelve days before they found the track that led to the
Rio de Los Dolores. They reached the Great Peten on
the 1st of April, and having now with him all the forces
that had been placed at his disposal, with the exception

326

FINAL OPERATIONS.

[CHAP. XXI.

of those under the Commissary Avalos, Ursua Sent out
parties in various directions to reconnoitre the country
in the neighbourhood of the great lake; and wherever
Indians were found, the commanders were instructed to
employ the gentlest means to induce them to return to
the allegiance to the King of Spain promised in their
name to the Canek, and to receive baptism at the hands
of the missionaries.
The result of these military expeditions was, on the
whole, unsatisfactory, for though in some instances the
Indians proved obedient, and showed their usual readiness to accept the laws and religion of their " pacificators/ 5 in others they displayed open and armed resistance, evacuating their towns and burning the maizeplantations. At last, in consequence of the discouraging nature of the reports, the general want of provisions,
and the sickness which began to spread amongst the
troops in the garrison and camp, it was resolved by the
Concabo Generals to call in all the parties, and convoke
another Junta, to discuss the state of affairs.
The Generals then entered into an expose of what
had been done, which chiefly consisted in the reduction,
though not in the occupation, of the towns of Nochicha
(which was burnt), Ixtal, and Chatha; but they considered that the inhabitants of these places would nevertheless soon settle down into a state of tranquillity, if
the Canek, the high-priest, and the other Indian prisoner, their relative, were removed to Guatemala, whither they thought it expedient that the army should return. The Junta coincided in the views of Ursua and
his colleague, and it was unanimously resolved that the
troops should withdraw to Guatemala, taking the three
prisoners with them, but leaving a sufficient garrison in

A.D. 1699.J

EVACUATION OF ITZA.

327

the Great Peten, with all the ammunition, accoutrements,
and provisions that could be spared.
It was with deep regret that General Ursua saw himself compelled to adopt this course, and thus put an
end to a campaign which had promised so well in the
outset, but which, from neglect, mismanagement, and
misfortune, had ended so badly. He laid the chief
blame of the failure on Don Gabriel de Berospe, the
President of Guatemala, who had neglected to furnish
the promised supplies, without which it was impossible
so large a force as that under his command could subsist
in a hostile country.
The retreat having been determined on, Ursua was
desirous, as the sickness continued to increase, to carry
it into effect as speedily as possible. Some opposition to
his wish was offered by Mencos, who, for various reasons
advocated delay, but the question was finally carried as
Ursua had proposed. Captain Francisco Cortes was
appointed Commander of the Fort and Chief Justice of
the towns and provinces of Itza, and remained at Los
Remedios, with a force of seventy men and officers, besides missionaries and private families, while the remainder returned with General Mencos to Guatemala.
The evacuation took place on the 11th of May, 1699,
and on the same day General Ursua set out with his
suite for Yucatan. He had not long arrived at Campeachy when intelligence reached him from Merida, of
the death of Don Roque de Soberanis, and of his accession to the government of the province.
Here the narrative of the Licentiate Villagutierre, as
a record of the " Conquest of Itza," the only one extant, is suddenly brought to a close. " I am now compelled," he says, " to bring to a conclusion this first part

328

CONCLUSION.

[CHAP. XXI.

of my history, as I cannot depend upon any further intelligence received from these provinces." But he promised,
if life and health were granted to him, and provided he
obtained the necessary materials for the work, to bring
to light a second part, and even more. The volume from
which the greater part of the information respecting the
people of Itza has been derived was published in Madrid,
in January, 1701, within two years of the latest events
recorded. It is therefore not impossible that the worthy
but prolix historian did not live to fulfil his intentions,
and unfortunately he left his mantle to no successor, the
interrupted narrative having never been resumed.
What further incidents consequently befell in completing the pacification of the interior of Yucatan, must remain matter for speculation. That the country of the
Itzaex was never completely subjugated, may be safely
inferred from the fact that the Indians who occupy the
Great Peten, to which they have given the name of
Flores, though nominally subject to Guatemala, are still,
in reality, an independent race1. Their warlike propensities however have yielded to the desire of commercial
intercourse with their neighbours, and a small trade is
carried on by them, on one side with Tabasco, by way
of the river San Pedro, and on the other with the Settlement of British Honduras. But with respect to their
actual condition, our present information falls short of
what was known by the Spaniards at the close of the
seventeenth century.
1

See Appendix E.

APPENDIX.

A. (p. 16.)
GOMAEA.
La diligencia y gasto que hizo Cortes en armar la flota y los
estornos que en ello tuvo.—CAPITULO VII.
COMO tardava Joan de Grijalva mas que tardo Fracisco

Hernadez a bolver: o embiar aviso de lo que hazia: despacho
Diego Velasquez a Christoval de Olid en una caravela en socorro y a saber del: encargandole q tornasse luego con cartas
de Grijalva. Empero el Christoval de Olid anduvo poco por
Yucatan: sin hallar a Joan de Grijalva se bolvio a Cuba: que
fue un gran dano para Diego Velasquez: y para Grijalva.
Por que si fuera a San Joa d' Ulbua o mas adelate: hiziera
por vetura a poblar alii a Grijalva. Mas dixo: que le convmo
dar la buelta por aver perdido las ancoras. Llego Pedro de
Alvaredo despues de partido Christoval de Olid: con la relacion del descubrimieto. Y con muchas cosas de oro : pluma:
y algodon: que se avian rescatado. Con las quales: y con lo
q dixo de palabra: se holgo y maravillo Diego Velasquez co
todos los Espaiioles de Cuba. Mas temio la buelta de Grijalva : porque le dezian los enfermos que de alia vinieron como
no tenian gana de poblar. Y que la tierra y gente era mucha
y guerrera. Y aun porque desconfiava de la prudencia: y
animo de su pariente. Assi que determino embiar alia algunas naos con gente y armas: y mucha quinquilleria: pensando
enriquezer por rescates y poblar por fuerca. Eogo a Baltasar

330

APPENDIX.

Vermudez que fuesse. Y como le pidio tres mil ducados para
yr bien armado y proveido : dexole : diziendo : que seria mas
el gasto de aquella manera: que no el provecho. Tenia poco
estomago para gastar: siedo codicioso. Y queria embiar armada a costa agena: que assi avia hecho casi la de Grijalva:
porque Francisco d'Montejo puso un navio y mucho bastimento. Y Alonso Hernandez Portocarrero: Aloso de Avila:
Diego de Ordas: y otros muchos fueron a su costa con Joan
de Grijalva. Hablo a Fernando Cortes para que armassen
ambos a medias: porque tenian dos mil castellanos d' oro en
copania d? Andres d' Duero mercader. Y porq era hobre diligete discreto: y esfor9ado. Rogo le que fuesse con la flota:
encareciendo el viaje: y negocio. Fernado Cortes: que tenia
grande animo y desseos: acepto la compaiiia y el gasto : y la
yda: creyendo que no seria mucba la costa. Assi que se
concertaron presto. Embiaron a Joan de Sanzedo: que havia venido con Alyarado: a sacar una licencia de los frayles
Jeronimos que governavan entonces: de poder yr a rescatar
para los gastos. Y a buscar a Joan de Grijalva: que sin ella
no podia nadie rescatar: que es feriar merceria por oro y plata.
Fray Luis de Figuerroa: fray Alonso de Santo Domingo: y
fray Bernaldino Mancanedo: que eran los governadores:
dieron la licencia para Fernado Cortes como capita y armador
con Diego Velasquez : mandando que fuessen con el un tesorero y un veedor: para procurar y tener el quinto del rey:
como era de costumbre. Entretanto que venia la licecia de
los governadores: comenco Fernando Cortes de aderecarse
para la Jornada: Hablo a sus amigos y a otros muchos: para
ver si querrian yr con el. Y como hallo trezientos que fuessen : compro una caravela y un vergantin: para con la caravela que traxo Pedro de Alvarado: y otro vergantin de Diego
Velasquez: y proveyo los de armas: artilleria: y municio.
Compro vino: azeyte: havas: garvancos: y otros cosillas.
Tomo fiada de Diego Sanz tendero: una tienda de bohoveria
en setecientos pesos de oro. Diego Velasqz le dio mil castellanos de la hazienda de Panfilo de Narvaez: que tenia en poder por su ausencia: diziendo que no tenia blanca suya. Y

APPENDIX.

331

dio a muchas soldados: que yvan en la flota dineros con obligation de manconum o fiancas. Y capitularon ambos lo que
cada uno havia de hazer: ante Alonso de Escalante escrivano
publico y real: a veynte y tres dias de Otubre del aiio de
deziocho.
Bolvio a Cuba Joan de Grijalva en aquella mesma sazon.
Y uvo con su venida mudanca en Diego Velasquez. Ca ni
quiso gastar mas en la flota que armava Cortes. BAquisiera
que la acabara de armar. Las causas porque lo hizo fueron:
querer embiar por si a solas aquellas mesmas naos de Grijalva. Ver el gasto de Cortes y el animo con que gastava.
Pensar que se alcaria: como avia el hecho al almirante don
Diego. Oyr y creer a Vermudez y a los Velasquez: que le
dezian no fiasse del: que el tremeiio : mafioso : altivo : amador de honras: y hobre que se vengaria en aquello de lo
passado. El Vermudez estava muy arrepentido : por no aver
tornado aquella empresa quando le rogaron: sabiendo entonces
el grande y hermoso rescate que Grijalva traya. Y quan rica
tierra era: la nuevamente descubierta. Los Velasquez quisiera como parientes : ser los capitanes y cabecal de la armada.
Aun que no eran para ello: segun dizen. Penso tambie Diego
Velasquez: que afloxando: el cesaria Cortes. Y como procedia en el negocio: echole a Amador de Larez persona muy
principal: para que dexasse la yda pues Grijalva era buelto:
y que pagarian lo gastado. Cortes: entendiendo los pesamietos del Diego Velasquez: dixo a Larez: que no dexaria
de yr si quiera por la verguenca. Ni apartaria compania. Y
si Diego Velasquez queria embiar a otro : armando por si:
que lo hiziesse. Ca el ya tenia licecia de los padres governadores. Y assi hablo con sus amigos y personas principales:
que se aparejavan para la Jornada: aver si le siguirian y favorecerian. Y como sintiesse' toda amistad y ayuda en ellos :
comenco a buscar dineros. Y tomo fiados quatro mil pesos
de oro de Andres de Duero: Pedro de Xerez: Antonio de
Santa Clara: mercaderes y de otros. Con los quales compro
dos naos: seys cavallos: y muchos vestidos. Socorrio a muchos: tomo casa: hizo mesa. Y comenco yr con armas: y

332

APPENDIX.

mucha compania. De que muchos murmuravan: diziendo
que tenia estado sin seiiorio. - Llego en esto a Santiago Joan
de Grijalva. Y no le quiso ver Diego Velasquez: porque se
vino de aquella rica tierra y pesavale que Cortes fuesse alia:
tan pusate. Mas no le pudo estorvar la yda: porque todos le
siguian: los que alii estavan: como los que venian con Grijalva. Ca si lo tentara con rigor: uviera rebuelta en la
ciudad: y aun muertes. Y como no era parte: dissimulo.
Toda via mando: que no le diessen vituallas: segu muchos
dize. Cortes procuro de salir luego de alii. Publico que
yva por si: pues era buelto Grijalva: diziedo a los soldados :
que no havian de tener que hazer con Diego Velasquez.
Dixoles que se embarcassen con la comida que pudiessen.
Tomo a Fernando Alfonso: los puercos: y carneros: que
tenia para pesar otro dia en la carneceria: dandole una cadena de oro: hechura de abrosos : en pago. Y para la pena
de no dar carne en la ciudad. Y partiose de Santiago d'
Barucoa a deziocho de Noviembre con mas de trezientos
Espanoles en seys navios."

B. (p. 20.)
The following is the text of Oviedo :—
" E el miercoles adelante, veynte e nueve del mes, dia del
Arcangel Sanct Miguel, por la mafiana parescio la tierra de la
isla Eernandina, e vieron una parte de la que se dice el Marien, e otro dia siguiente Uegaron a estar enfrente del puerto
de Carenas, y 9erca de la tierra, e por saber el general si avia
llegado en salvamento el capitan Alvarado que el avia enviado
delante, segund tengo ya dicho, salio en tierra con pocos, e
entro en una estancia de unos vecinos de la villa de Sanct
Chripstobal, e hallo alii quien le dixo quel navio de Alvarado
avia alii llegado en salvamento, aunque con harto trabaxo.
Y estuvo essa noche en tierra Grijalva, e otro dia luego se
quiso tornar a los navios; pero no los vido y pensso que

APPENDIX.

333

avian decaydo con las corrientes, e assi por esto se entro en su
barca el y los que con el avien salido, e anduvo todo el dia e
la noche siguiente hasta otro dia por la mafiana por la costa,
que foe Sabado dos dias de otubre que llego, delante del
puerto de Xaruco, a una estancia de Diego Velasquez; e salido alii pregunto si avian visto los navios, e dixeronle que no :
e a hora de las diez del dia parescieron enfrente del puerto
que Hainan de Chipiona, que es en la dicha estancia donde el
capitan Grijalva avia llegado, como es dicho. Y desde alii se
entro en los navios, y como el tiempo era contrario, no les
dexo tomar el puerto de Matanca, e assi andovieron dando
bordos a un cabo y a otro hasta el lunes siguiente, quatro
dias de Octubre, que porque la gente yba muy fatigada,
mando el capitan que tomassen el puerto de Xaruco: e assi
entraron en el la tarde a puesta del sol, y el dia siguiente se
desembarco todo la gente en tierra, y cada uno se foe por su
parte, excepto algunos pocos que quedaron y se fueron con el
capitan en el navio menor de todos, dicho Sancta Maria" de
los Remedios, basta el puerto que llaman de Cbipiona. E
desde alii foeron al que llaman de la Matanca, donde allego
a los ocbo del mes, e el Sabado adelante llegaron alii los otros
navios, e hallaron alii al capitan Chripstobal de Olit, al qual
el teniente Diego Velasquez avie enviado con un navio que
ahy tenia con gente armada, e artilleria, e bastimentos, en
busca del armada del capitan Grijalva. El qual dixo que avia
allegado a la isla de Cocumel, e que avia tornado la posession
de la isla penssando que estaba por descobrir, e que desde ella
avia ydo costeando la tierra de Yucatan por la vanda del
Norte, e avia llegado a un puerto que se hacia delante en un
boca que se hace al cabo de la tierra, y segund los pilotos de
la armada decian, debia de ser un puerto que esta entre la
misma Yucatan y Puerto Desseado: e que como no avia
hallado rastro ni memoria del armada, que assi por esto,
como porque avia perdido las ancoras e no tenia buenas
amarras 6 cables, se avia tornado a la isla Eernandina, e avia
allegado a aquel puerto de Metancas ocho dias avie.
"Estando alii el capitan Grijalva aderescando su partida e

334

APPENDIX.

ha^endo meter bastimentos en los navios, para yrse a la
cibdad de Sanctiago, donde estaba el teniente Diego Velasquez, le dieron una carta suya en la qual mandaba que lo
mas pronto quel pudiesse le enviasse los navios, y dixesse a la
gente que por quel aderes9aba a grande priessa para enviar a
aquella tierra que se avia descubierto, que todos los que quisiessen yr alia a poblar se esperassen alii hasta que el enviasse
los navios (que seria muy presto), y que de sus ba9iendas de
Diego Velasquez les seria dado lo que oviesse menester; y
assi lo envio a proveer e mandar que se es diesse a todos los
que esto quissiessen atender, y escubro a los alcaldes y regimiento de aquella villa de Sanct Chripstobal que les hi9iessen
todo buen tractamiento. E assi algunos se quedaron alii, esperando la vuelta de los navios, para yr a poblar la Isla Rica,
que es la tierra de Yucatan (e no isla, como enton9es se pensaba) : otros algunos se fueron a sus casas con penssamiento
de volver, quando fuesse tiempo. E luego fueron los navios e
capitanes con el general Johan de Grijalva a la cibdad de
Santiago e Inkier onse a la vela viernes en la noche, veynte e
dos dias de Octubre de aquel ano de mill e quinientos e diez e
ocho, los tres navios, e con ellos assi mismo el capitan Chripstobal de Olit con el otro navio que se dixo: e hizoles muy
contrarios tiempos, e assi tardaron algunos dias hasta llegar
a Sanctiago, donde hallaron al teniente Diego Velasquez, al
qual se le did r e g i o n de todo lo que se ha dicto que sub9edio
en este descubrimiento e camino que por su mandado hizo el
capitan Johan de Grijalva."

C. (p. 23.)
This passage, as well as its antecedent, has been already
cited in Appendix A, but both are repeated here to show how
the mistake of M. Fumee occurred. Gomara says, speaking
of the agreement which was entered into between Velasquez
and Cortes before the royal notary Alonso de Escalante:—

APPENDIX.

335

" Y capitularon arnbos lo que cada uno avia de hazer: ante
Alonso de Escalante escrivano publico y real: a veynte y tres
dias de Otubre del ano de deziocho."
Here ends the first sentence; what follows is the commencement of a new one:—
"Bolvio a Cuba en aquella mesma sazon. Y uvo con su
venida mudanca en Diego Velasquez."
The mistake made by Fumee is that of not observing the
punctuation, and paraphrasing the original text as follows:—
"Durant tels preparatifs le 23 Octobre, 1518, Jean de
Grijalva arriva a PIsle de Cuba, qui fat cause que le gouverneur commenca a changer d'avis, et deslors ne voulut plus
fraier aux frais des vaisseaux que Cortes faisoit armer, et eust
bien voulu que Cortes mesme eust delaisse ceste entreprinse,
se proposant alors d;y envoy er seulement a ses propres despens
avecques les mesmes vaisseaux que son nepveu Grijalva avoit
amenez, craignant que si Cortes y alloit, il se revoltast comme
lui mesme avoit faict contre TAmiral Dom Diego."—Histoire
Generate des Indes, livre ii. folio 67 verso.

D. (p. 307.)
Mr. Norman, in his c Rambles in Yucatan/ (Philadelphia,
1849,) gives the following description of one of these Sonotes
at Valladolid:—" During my walks about the city I came to a
sonato (sonote), reputed to be the largest in the province, and
supposed to be a portion of a subterraneous river; and caused,
as I judged, by some great convulsion of nature. It presents
a fine spectacle, resembling the mouth of a cavern, with its
overhanging rocks and broken fragments left or worn away
into the shape of inverted cones. Evidently, it was once hidden ; and when or how it effected an opening, no one hereabouts can tell. All that the Indian knows is, that it affords
him an abundant and good supply of water. The average
depth of the water is twelve fathoms; while the distance from

336

APPENDIX.

its surface to the surface of the ground above, is full fifty feet.
The well itself has no perceptible outlet, and is about fifty
feet in circumference. The surrounding rocks are principally
calcareous, with a siliceous intermixture. These sonatos
(sonotes) are held in superstitious reverence by the Indians.
They are reputed to be the places where most of their religious legends had their origin."
Mr. Norman mentions another Sonote in the town of Tabi,
of which the Bachelor Valencia, in his c Relation de los Beneficios' speaks in these words : " At midday, when the rays of
the sun are perpendicular, appears in the centre of the Zonote
a most beautiful palm-tree, which I have seen many times in
the company of divers Spaniards, natives of the city of Merida, who have gone purposely to see it at that hour,"—(" Al
medio dia, quando los rayos del Sol le hiesen de^lleno, se parece en la mitad dal Zonote una Palma vistosissima, la qual
he visto yo muchas vezes en compania de diversos Espafioles,
vezinos de la ciudad de Merida, que al proposito han gustado
de vefla a la hora dicha.")
Respecting the Sonotes, Cogolludo says:—" The whole
country of Yucatan is of an equally high temperature, cold
being felt at no season of the year. From October till March
the Norths which blow refresh the coasts, but where their influence is not experienced the heat is felt without any exercise. It is a moist country and very fertile, and there are
no rivers save in the interior. In many parts there are numerous creeks, some large, others small, opening naturally
through the live rock ten or twelve fathoms or more down to
the water and as much below it. There are large tanks also,
filled with fresh water, and containing quantities of fish. It
is believed that these are subterranean streams, and the water
of them is purer and better than that in the pits which are
dry."—Historia de Yucathan, p. 172.

In amothex place he tells us that" iieai the to^u of T&oh,
between the south and the north, which the Indians call Ika,
is another Zonot, into which if any one enters without holding his breath he dies instantly; therefore none are desirous

337

APPENDIX.

of bathing in it. In breathing or making any other noise
(ruydo) they say the commotion of the water is excessive, and
that the noise poisons the water (yerve prestissimamente), and
that it has caused the deaths of many Indians, strangers to
that place, who, not aware of the properties of the Zonot,
have gone to draw water from thence." Cogolludo adds that
this statement was certified to him by the Indians as a fact,
" on the day of the Apostle St. Peter, in the year 1655, in
the presence of their religious teacher, who told me also it
was a thing held to be true."
Cogolludo speaks also of other wells to which singular properties belong. " In the town of Chunhuhu, on the road to
Bakhalal, is a well, the waters of which will boil any meat."
. . . " On the eastern coast is a spring of water which has
this strange property, that if you drink of it sileritly it is
clear and good, but if you speak in doing so, it becomes
brackish, bitter, and turbid. The place is called by the
Indians ' Hiehi/ "

E. (p. 328.)
cc There is a district of country situated between Guatemala,
Yucatan, and Chiapas, that has never yet been subdued. This
section is surrounded by mountains, and is said to be inaccessible, except by one way, and that not generally known.
No one yet, who has had the boldness to follow the inhabitants
to their wild retreat, has ever returned to render an account
of their journey. The inhabitants are represented as speaking
the Maya and Tchole languages, and many of them as conversing well in Spanish. From the latter circumstance, they
are enabled to visit the nearest cities, sell their tobacco, the
principal article they cultivate, and afterwards return to their
retreats. They are constituted of the Lacandons and other
savage tribes; are expert warriors, remarkably athletic, and

z

338

APPENDIX.

very cruel. They are worshipers of idols, and their religious
ceremonies are said to have undergone little or no change."—
Norman's Rambles in Yucatan.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE CLIMATE AND PEODUCE
OF ITZA.
In chapter xii. of the tenth book of Villagutierre's i Historia de la Conquista de el Itza/ the following details are
given of the general character of the country, in justification
of Ursua's design of effecting a settlement there.
He says: " As some persons doubted Don Martin Ursua's
statement in reference to the quality of the soil of this country, and to the importance of the lake and islands of the
Itzaex, as also that their conquest and reduction would produce the advantages promised, and as so many unprejudiced
persons, who had seen and examined it, were now assembled
to remove these doubts, he, conjointly with the other general,
decreed that all the officers, missionaries, and other persons of
experience, should give their opinion in writing as to whether
the climate and water of the country were good, and whether
there were abundance or scarcity of fish in the lakes and rivers;
if the lands were good for farming as well as for breeding
cattle, if they were sterile or fertile, how many crops a year
they would give according to the best of their judgment;
whether, from the maize-plantations, farms, towns, and roads
they had seen, they considered the numbers of Indians large
or small; and whether from the annexation of these provinces
the Crown would lose or gain, or whether the commerce of
the vassals would receive any benefit therefrom; also whether
it would be advantageous to build towns on the parts they had
seen, and between that and Yucatan.
" The opinions given were generally to the effect that the
climate was good, the air exceedingly pure, the waters very

APPENDIX.

339

wholesome, and the lakes and rivers full of good fish of all
sizes, such as icoteas, turtles, and others; the temperature was
mild, and the savannahs and mountains full of deer, boars,
turkeys, pheasants, and many other birds and animals. The
proof of the healthiness of the climate was that only one soldier from Campeachy had died of the many who had accompanied Don Martin Ursua in both his journeys, and not one
of the many Indians who had carried the provisions.
" That the country was very extensive, and that it would be
very advantageous for the Spaniards to settle in i t ; that there
could be no doubt that when once the towns were built, the
roads mended, and the traffic commenced between the provinces, the country of Ttza would become one of the richest
imaginable, because the immense savannahs were capable of
. supplying every kind of cattle, and the valleys in the mountains produced tobacco, cacao, cochineal, achiote, indigo, and
many other things, the Indians having a small quantity of
each in their maize-plantations.
" The land moreover was so fertile, that the Indians said that
a maize-plantation would give fruit to the grandchildren of
the man who planted it, at the rate of two crops a year; and
in the mountains were to be found valuable aromatic and medicinal shrubs, likewise wood for all purposes of building, and
quarries of alabaster on the road to Campeachy, at about the
distance of eight leagues from the great lake. That no idea
could be formed of the multitude of Indians that were in the
surrounding country, without counting the seventeen nations
which, King Canek, his high-priest, and others asserted, inhabited the eastern side, and many others on the Yucatan
side, most of which had been pacificated, but now had retired
to the mountains. That it would be very advantageous to
people the country; that great benefits would redound therefrom to His Majesty, the merchants, and inhabitants of the
whole kingdom and provinces of Guatemala, especially in the
commerce of cheap goods, as, when once the roads were repaired, it would have the port of Campeachy, which was enclosed and fortified for a warehouse and general depot. If it

340

APPENDIX.

were to be peopled in a proportionate ratio to the Indians it
contained, it might be divided into many provinces: and as,
by the taking of the island from the infidels, they could no
longer commit the atrocities they were wont to do, it would
be very advantageous to build a town on the site which had
been chosen on the borders of the lake towards the south,
and thereby continue the reduction of the infidels, and people
the other towns, and build wherever it would be suitable, for
the natives were very ingenious, and could turn their hands
to whatever they chose; their buildings, cutting, and statues
were very neat, and worthy of admiration.
" Their houses had very wide sills of stone and mortar, well
polished, and wood-cuttings; they had books made of shells
or bark of trees, the leaves of betun, containing their prophecies ; these were in possession of General Ursua ever since
he had taken the island. Once permanently reduced and
christianized, they would become docile, obey the Government, and become instructed; then they would contribute to
the preservation of the conquest and to the formation and
prosperity of the towns> villages, and stations which might be
built in the country."

THE END.

JOHN" EDWARD TAYLOR, TBINTEB,
LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN EIELUS.

PiLbliskeclbv-JoAinA[nTra\'.Alhpm:ir[( i Stre«*1 , Loiirkm 1854*.

50, ALBEMARLE

STREET,

LONDON.

January^ 1854.

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