History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas Part 13

Avendano Takes Steps to Protect the Itzas from Further Molestation.

"Suspecting that in my absence some Spaniards might come either from this Province or that of Guatemala to make war on them, from their being around there in opening the road, they therefore asked me, in order to calm their hearts and as a token of peace, to give them some sure signs or well understood token, so that (in case any Spaniards should come to their lands from this Province of Yucathan or from the other one of Guatemala) they should do them no harm nor make war on them, when they showed them the said sign and well known token, which I should leave them."

The Letter of Counsel. "Then I left them the following letter:--

"Captains of whichever of the two Poles, North or South. My dear Lords.

Our Lord was pleased to communicate to us his divine favor, in order to succeed in obtaining that which for many ages no one has been able to obtain. (But nothing is impossible to the divine power, to whom may the glory be ascribed.) Because for his glory he has given opportunity to humble the neck of this unconquerable Ytzalana nation, humbling itself at the first suggestion of the ministers of the gospel, and sons of my holy Padre, San Francisco, by promptly offering their children to the most pure was.h.i.+ng of baptism, I having baptized up to this time many of them, with the sure hope of baptizing them all in a short time; though the fathers and mothers, although gentle and peaceable with us, are nevertheless slow in giving up their idolatry; and for this reason especially it is necessary to show moderation with great patience, so as to bear many such vexing acts as are due to the darkness in which they have lived; on this account I beg your Graces to act with much prudence (if by chance you should come to this nation of the Ytzaes, whose patron is Saint Paul) so as not to lose in a short time what is so much desired and has been attained, thanks be to G.o.d! They are inclined to receive you in peace when your Graces appear and to give you what supplies, etc., that may be needed by you, in barter for hatchets, _machetes_ and other merchandise of Castile, which they wish for exceedingly, but I do not know whether you will be well paid. This is as much as occurs to me now. After expressing my joy for the good health of your Graces, to whose service I offer humbly my own health, asking our Lord to keep you many years, as I wish. In the Town of Great Saint Paul of Peten Ytza, on the sixteenth of January, 1696. I kiss the hand of your Graces. Your most humble servant and chaplain,--Fray Andres de Avendano, Apostolic Missionary Commissioner...." There follows the certification of this letter by the Apostolic Notary.

"... With this I delivered the letter to the King in the presence of many chiefs and the greater part of the common people, so that all were satisfied with such an agreement, and agreeing moreover, they with me and I with them, that within the said four months, I should come back to see them."

Before Leaving Tayasal, Avendano Shames Covoh. "Finding ourselves now very near our departure, I notice how, after the last disturbance above referred to, although it is true that the sermon that I preached to them calmed their spirits, nevertheless the devil did not fail to sow tares in the hearts of the Cacique Covoh, whom I have spoken of many times, and in another cacique named Ahcan, a relation of the King of Peten, and in the Captain Covoh, with all his followers, all of whom are Cha Kan Ytzaes, noting here that the first settlement which I met with on my entering the land of the said Cha Kan Ytzaes, was that of the said Cacique Ahcan and his Captain Covoh, to whom I showed (as I said at the beginning of my said entrance) what I was bringing for the King of Peten Itza; and these were the men who took away from us all that we carried at the time of our embarking on the lake. These men I did not fail to put to shame in Peten, before the King and the rest of the chiefs, not complaining of what they had taken from us, from the poor supply of the priests and of the four Indian singers, who carried their change of clothes with them, but my regret was that they had stolen the entire suit of clothes, with its _sombrero_ and _baton_ which the Governor had given me to give to the King in his name. This I scolded them for in earnest, asking them: 'What sort of way that was to receive a messenger, taking away from him all that he had brought, instead of giving a very kind reception?' This, with other effective reasons, I repeated on various occasions, until the clothes appeared, so that I myself clothed the King with them."

The Hatred of the Chakan Itzas for the Padres Increases. "The said Chakanytzaes then, abashed that the said clothes had been found in their possession, conceived a hatred against me.... They made a plan among themselves to kill us, when we pa.s.sed through their territories, without the King and the others in Peten knowing it. On account of this, the said Cacique Can came with his Captain Covoh, with a great gourd full of _posole_, and with it entering the house of the King, in which. I was at the time stopping, he told me to drink what he had brought me. I drank it without suspicion, for always had I trusted in that text of the Evangelist '_si morfirum quid biberibit, non eis nosevit_.' And scarcely had I drank it, when they told me that they had come to ask me for two of the four Indians whom I brought with me, who were the fattest, so that the next day when I should pa.s.s by their house on my return, they should have made me something good to eat; for the Indians would know how to prepare food for us in the way to which we were accustomed. I, who recognized the wicked intention of the said invitation, said to them, 'I cannot go without them, nor can they stay here without me. When I go, they will go.' Then they replied, 'Tomorrow, when the sun is up, we will all come for you, to accompany you as we accompanied you hither.' 'Well and good,' I answered them.

With this they went off to their town very well satisfied, to prepare, without doubt, the _pib_ or fire where the two fat Indians, whom they asked me for, were to be cooked, and the stakes on which we were to be spitted, as we found out later."

Canek Helps the Padres to Escape. "As soon as these men had gone, the King said to me,--'You have done well in not giving them your servants, nor is it best for you to go back by their house nor by the road by which you came, but by the opposite road, which is that of Tipu, to which place I will accompany you; since you must know that this invitation is to kill you, in order that the Spaniards may not know the road by which you came. And they say that they are going to follow the Cehaches Indians who guided you, as far as their houses in order to kill them; and so you must go tonight and when they come tomorrow they will find that they have been tricked.' The Queen and her daughters confirmed the truth of this, for, when the time came to embark, they said to us, 'They say that they are not going to kill you in any other way than by cutting you in little pieces,' and they made gestures with one hand over the other, to show that they were going to make mince meat of us and eat us. We started that night, as I have said, and I will tell about it more fully farther on. So that, when they came for me, they found themselves tricked.

"In a rage at seeing their purposes frustrated, the said Cacique Can and his Captain Covoh and the other Cacique Covoh returned to their homes with sixty Indian warriors of their followers.... The said Chakanytzaes Indians came painted red and ready for war to the camp of the General Alonso Garcia de Paredes, saying that I had sent them for the ornaments and the rest of the baggage which I had left in the deserted town of Chuntuci, a land adjoining the nation of the Cehaches, and that they came for the Padre who was taking care of these things.... On their saying to the General that they came for the ornaments, being sent by me, the said General said to them, 'Nor does his servant come with you?' 'Neither does he come,' they replied, 'so he merely sends us in this way.' Then he brought out wine to give them and sent them with the Padre Apostolic Notary to the said town of Chuntuci, which was distant some few leagues from the camp, that he might deliver to them the baggage and sacred vessels."

Paredes' Stupidity; the Plot of the Chakan Itzas. "Cursed be the ignorance which causes so great losses in this way! Of how great importance is knowledge and experience for the proper despatch of things! This General has no more knowledge or experience, except for cutting wild trees in the forest where he has always been placed, cutting timber for building the s.h.i.+ps which sail from the port of Campeche. And so he missed at the present time the greatest victory which could be gained in this kingdom of Yucatan.... Is it possible that reason did not tell him, even if he was ignorant of the said points and of the military laws, that a priest and minister of G.o.d was not going to send sixty Indians for the sacred vessels and the Padre who guarded them, without sending him a message in writing (as I promised to do when I took my leave) or without writing to the said Padre my companion to come with them? Is it possible that, on seeing that neither had I sent even one of the four Indians who accompanied me, even if I was not able to write, so that they could deliver the sacred things to him, he was not surprised enough to infer from that, either that what the sixty Indians said was false, or that they had killed us,--especially as he saw them come painted red and in warlike array and had entered impudently into the camp? Spare me from such an act, for in this case (although I do not understand military laws) reason dictates that he ought to have imprisoned them and disarmed them until he had satisfied himself whether what they said was true, taking two of them as guides, and sending an officer with the necessary people behind them, to investigate the truth of what had happened, and according to the result, to act in the following way,--if it was true that I sent them without a letter or sure token, he should have laid the blame on me and should have honored the prisoners by accompanying them with all his people to take possession of their lands in the name of the King our Lord, since then he would know that this was the sign which I gave him when I took my leave of him, that the said Ytzaes wished to become Christians and accepted the friends.h.i.+p of the Spaniards; and if it was not true, he should then have made use of severity and the military laws. For, if the story that I sent them was false, as it was, and if he had used military severity with their three princ.i.p.al chiefs, who were the Cacique Covoh and the Cacique Can and the Captain Covoh, all of whom the King of Peten, in his answer to the message, told me were his enemies, and said that if the Governor executed them, he (the King) would deliver over all the _Petens_, then all the nations of the Ytzaes would have been conquered and delivered to the King our Lord, and at this moment they would all have been Christians without the said victory costing a shot of powder.... And he ought not to have allowed them to go behind the said Padre, my companion, some leagues away, with the risk that the said heathen might kill the priest without the merit of being in the service of G.o.d; and with the risk of their stealing and misusing the sacred vessels."

The Chakan Itzas are Foiled by G.o.d. "But G.o.d, who looks after his affairs, arranged that on the said Chakanytzaes coming near the ornaments, they, pretending a need, told the Padre to await them there, and they went into the woods and went to their town without having accomplished any of the many purposes for which they came; the first, to see if they had got ahead of me and my companions (understanding that we had pa.s.sed through their territories by night) so as to carry out their intention of killing us; the second, to see if they could catch the three Cehaches Indians, our guides, who returned to their homes by that road, so as to kill them; the third to see how many Spanish people were in the camp for working on the road which they were opening, so as to flee if they were many and to resist them if they were few; the fourth to satisfy their greed by stealing the sacred vessels with the rest of the wares of Castile which they thought I brought with me. But they found it all in vain, thanks be given to G.o.d, who thus looked after his priests and the materials for celebrating ma.s.s; and not to the inconsiderate action of the said princ.i.p.al head, by which he showed so little regard for looking after the things of G.o.d and his ministers; but thus G.o.d has brought out all things well, according to the purposes for which he has worked...."

The Departure of the Padres from Tayasal. "Let us turn from this digression to the departure from Peten. In order to frustrate the pretended invitation which the Chakanytzaes gave us, we left with grief and tears enough on the part of the family of the King and his friends, at about nine o'clock at night in the company of the King, his son and his son-in-law,--all three rowing in the canoe at a good speed. We came to the other part of the lake in the direction of the East, which is the road to Tipu, at between three and four o'clock of the next morning. When we landed here, on renewing our signs of affection with the King and he with us, he again recalled to me the past agreement, saying 'See that you do not forget to tell your Governor that I love him much and wish to be his friend and that of the Spaniards, and not to fail to kill my said rivals, the Chakanytzaes, for I am sure that I shall deliver to him the _Petens_ which I rule. And do not fail to come to see us, as you say, and let it be by this road of Tipu, so that I with all my people may come out to receive you.' All these words did the King say to me, holding me in a loving embrace.

"He remained alone on the canoe to return before they should miss him, and to us he gave his son and son-in-law as guides, with their bows and arrows to defend us from anyone who might wish to do us harm. They guided us through some very large plains or meadows, though afterwards there were some very good bits of hills, with some bad stretches of mud and water, and larger hills, so that, considering that it rained every day, wetting us very thoroughly, since we did not have any place or wherewithal to shelter us, the journey was the more troublesome and dangerous."

Avendano Goes Eastward to Yalain. "In this way we came to the first settlement of Peten Ytza, on the main land, in an easterly direction, which is called Yalain, which is distant from Peten Ytza to that place, ten very long leagues,--six on the water and four on land up to said town. This town consists of very few houses close together, but also of many farms well peopled, at a distance in a circle of one or two leagues. All are Indians of Peten Ytza, who came there to farm, although there are also some from Tipu, and all are dwellers in the said town, in which are found many Indians called Canekes, like the King of Peten, but they are not relations of his, but are natives of his district, which (as I have said) take their names from those who rule the said districts, although they may have, as they do, their own surnames, each one from the father and mother. A priest more than fifty-four years old, according to his appearance, called Chomachculu, rules this town, a great comrade and confidant of the King Canek, to whom the said King sent us, well recommended, so that he might give us as good reception and attention as he would to himself. And this they did, for, as soon as we came, they gave us very good things to eat and took us to a new house, which was only thatched, but they had not put down the floor. This house, they told us was for us, ... and (they told us) how in the month of September of the past year of ninety-five, there had gone to Merida, four Indians who said that they were from Tipu, with whom I had intercourse, and I gave them something to eat in our cell.... I heard that the said Indians asked for ministers of the gospel so that they should administer to them the divine word and the holy sacraments.... So when we came to this town of Yalain, its inhabitants began to ask us about these four Indians who went to Merida in the said month of September, (who had not yet come back).... In reply I asked them if the men were one Achan with his younger brother, and another called Ahtec, and another Anu, and they said 'Yes.' To this I replied that I did not know why they had not come to their town, as they had started so long before I did.... We stopped in that town two days, its inhabitants treating us very well. From there they were to give us a guide to pa.s.s on to Tipu, as the priest Chomachculu promised us in compliance with the request which the King of Peten made of him, and on this supposition the son and son-in-law of the King, who had guided us up to that time, returned home. But they said that this guide was to be an Indian of Tipu, who came to Peten while we were there, and, though the said Indian saw us leave Peten, he never came at all, but rather stayed there."

Trouble with Soldiers. "We were staying on in hopes that this man would come, when we saw coming six or eight Indians from Peten, who (as they told us) were coming to their farms. These brought the news that there had been a disturbance in Peten, on account of there having come in the part where we had entered Indians from this side of the Province, and that they had heard musket shots, with a rumor of Spaniards. I do not know if this was true, but what we experienced from this time on from the Indians of that town where we were staying was that they cooled off entirely in that affection with which up to that time they had regarded us, showing us a thousand slights without paying any attention to giving us the guide which we asked for. The change in their hearts came to such an extreme that they called a meeting (drinking a great deal of their drink, with which not only they get drunk, as they were then, but with which they wors.h.i.+p). We came then to a time when on that night the taking of our lives had been determined on, had not G.o.d wished that I should learn about the matter; and so I taking from them the implements of their feast, and reproving them for the little firmness of their hearts, they came to understand that we knew the wickedness of their actions. Then they all gathered together around us, and without any more noise or disturbance, they kept us company all night. Scarcely had the dawn come when (perhaps in remorse for their sin) they began to treat us with the same affection as at the beginning and to give us an Indian who guided us to the other farms, half a league from there, which, from the abundance of the fruit, appeared an orchard. There was another priest called Chomach punab, who received us with very great kindness, giving orders to call all the Indians, men and women, in the vicinity, so that they might see us, and asking us to stop and have something to eat. We yielded to his importunity in order, by showing ourselves pleased, to reciprocate so much kindness as they showed us.

The wife of one of the four Indians who I said before came to Merida, named Ahtec, spoke to me. Hardly had we accepted the invitation, when all the Indian women went to their houses, to make something for us to eat; and in a short time they came back, each one of them with her bowl of meat, according to what they had, with many _tortillas_, so that we, with the Indians who accompanied us, should eat; the Indians promising us that some of them would accompany us. And, scarcely had we eaten and told them to come to guide us, when suddenly they turned back, without our being able to get anything from them, except that an Indian came about half a mile, to set us upon that obscure path, which led towards the direction of Tipu, telling us that up to that place, we had to speed on the way twelve days, from sunrise to sunset; and that, two leagues before that, we should come across a great river, which we had to pa.s.s, but he did not tell us how nor where."

The Padres Suffer Hards.h.i.+ps and Lose their Way. "With this he returned to his house and we went on with twenty maize tortillas which we had kept, of those which they had brought us to eat. With these we sustained ourselves, seven people of us, for five days, at the end of which we came across a great river, having before this met with many and very large _aguadas_ and having pa.s.sed many ridges and hills, with so many other evident dangers that some fatality might happen to us.

Notwithstanding this, we took some pleasure at having found this great river,--first, because we thought that we had not lost ourselves, since we had found the river with signs which they gave us; and second, because we found ourselves (as it appeared to us) near Tipu, where we could remedy the want of supplies from which we were suffering. But our pleasure was marred, since, following the footsteps or obscure path, along the banks of this river, on the fifth day of our following them, and on the tenth day of the want of supplies from which we suffered, we found ourselves entirely lost, in a greater perplexity than any human being could find himself;--that is, surrounded on one side by the great full and broad river and surrounded on the other sides by another mult.i.tude of little streams with great density of low trees, so that it did not appear possible that we could pa.s.s through them; and on another side were some cliffs and very high ridges so that we were not able, by making use of the trees, to climb up the heights. In the midst of this struggle determined to follow the direction to the Northwest, so as to reach the deserted town of Chanchanha, and to cross the head streams of the great rivers and _aguadas_ which surround it, since in this direction it was not possible for us to fail in finding it. We went three days in this direction, and from thinking that, if we missed the convent of Chanchanha, in this direction, there was afterwards no place to have recourse to, on account of the great distance that we were from a town on all sides, a great sadness came over my companion Padres, so that they told me that we should change our direction, since, if we did not, it was certain that we should perish in these forests, and that the best thing was to try to strike the road which was being opened from this Province to that of Guatemala, which runs from North to South. To please them I yielded the opinion which I had determined on.

From there we took the direction to the West, although the distance in leagues and forests which we intended to traverse was more than sixty or seventy. This distance was a great one, for us to be able, breaking through such bad thickets and suffering from hunger for thirteen days, to come through alive, without exaggeration."

Hard Travel in the Wilderness for Fifteen Days. "In those fifteen days that we traveled in a northwesterly direction, we met with many _akalchees_, or swamps, which consist of very bad pa.s.sages through water and low and th.o.r.n.y shrubs with a kind of square gra.s.s, which, if it caught our clothes, held us by the mult.i.tude of thorns, which grow on the four corners from top to bottom; and if it caught our face, hands or legs, it cut them like a small saw; so that as most of the woods are _akalchees_, which consist of this gra.s.s, except on the high places, we were always walking with our feet, hands or faces wounded, so that we did not know what to do. Thus wounded, we went through some very long _akalchees_, when we directed one of the Indians whom we brought, to climb a tree so as to look out and see where we could make a short cut through the said _akalche_, for we were not able to suffer any longer on account of the many sores which the said gra.s.s caused us.

This said Indian climbed the tree, and gave us the news that he had discovered a great meadow or plain towards the northwest. Some instinct made me believe it, but to see whether imagination and the wish we had to find it, had this effect, we took that direction, so that in a little while we came upon the said meadow; but as we entered it, at the beginning it had half a yard of water; we went ploughing through it and at each step there was more water, and it took a long time to cross it, causing us pain enough in our wounds. But with the care that we took not to get submerged, we forgot that feeling, since the earth of the said marsh was so spongy that though we doubled up the reeds which grew there in large number, so as to step over it, so that the water might hold us up, yet if we stopped a moment, the overflowed earth drew and sucked us in in such a way, that if we should fall, we could not help one another, since he who should stop to help the other, would be submerged with him."

Miracle of the Bent Branch. "At the end of a long stretch of this trouble, we reached some little woods, with trees of considerable height, which were as much, or more, covered with water as what we had pa.s.sed through. We pa.s.sed through these as well as we could, having in mind that that was now coming to an end, when suddenly we came across a very large _aguada_ of the kind they call Kaxek, in which no bottom is found. Armed with patience, although with some trouble from the fact that the sun was about to set, considering that we had to stay there that night, I made an Indian climb one of the said trees, so as to see where the _aguada_ ended, or where we could make a short cut through the said _aguada_; and the said Indian not discovering a pa.s.sage in any part to our great sorrow, we, looking towards one side, saw a branch of a tree broken, like those which the Indians break so as not to lose themselves in the woods. We attributed this sign to a miracle, as it was not probable that a human being could place that sign in that place. We followed that sign in an easterly direction, which was that towards which the said branch was bent, until, when, at a little distance, we came upon another branch bent in the same way and very recently. At this we were consoled by the miracle which G.o.d kept continuing. We went on with sticks in our hands, trying the shallow places, because, when we least expected it, we came on many holes of alligators (since they are found in abundance in the said overflowed woods) and then we were submerged almost to our heads. We discovered a piece of level ground, about as large as the ante-room of a cell, and thinking that it was solid, we started to pa.s.s over it, but on its bearing the weight of the body, not only did all the ground shake, but the part where we pressed on it, sinking, submerged us also with it; many alligators starting from under it and fleeing from their holes, so that we went on with great misgiving--one, so as not to sink in, the other, for fear that some of these alligators would cut off a leg of ours at a mouthful. This was all a pure miracle, since there also we came across the third branch close by a ridge, where we went to sleep that night very well contented, although so wet, because G.o.d had freed us from that trouble in which we were."

An Uncomfortable Night. "We came out of that place about sunset, and climbing the high ridge which we met with, we went to rest there, cold enough from being drenched with water, even to the lint which we had for striking fire, unable to get comfort by warming ourselves. We offered to G.o.d the trouble we had pa.s.sed and even with more fervor the trouble which follows from sleeping in wet clothes. But remembering that the Indians are accustomed to make fire with two dry sticks, and having no other than the staff which I carried, we broke it, and with this G.o.d willed that we should obtain fire. We made a great fire, with which we not only dried our garments and underclothes, but warmed ourselves very well. In the vicinity of the fire we went to sleep.

"On the next day when we left this place, we discovered a large plain or meadow, which horrified us just to see it, on account of what had happened on the preceding afternoon, but as it was free from woods, we were happy in pa.s.sing over it, and more so as we had seen in the distance many pine trees all about it, so that, thinking of their fruits, we had hopes of getting something to eat; but our hope was in vain, since, when we came to see whether they had cones, they had them, but without seeds. We had recourse to other trees, which appeared to be evergreen oaks, with the acorns of which, if there were any, we might give our bodies some sustenance; but they were nothing but oak trees which had nothing but leaves. Crossing this field, we came upon a path well frequented by animals, and as the gra.s.s was tall, their tracks were not seen; notwithstanding which, in some marshes, where there was no gra.s.s and the soil was only damp, we saw that the tracks were like those of an ox or bull. We wondered at this, from there not being seen in a long distance from there any herd of cattle, so that for the time being we suspended judgment.... But when in the Province I told this to people who go through forests, they told me that those tracks were of deer, for there are such in this Province. I offer no objection to there being as many wild animals as can be imagined, since the woods are very well fitted for them."

Great Want of Food. "At the end of the said three days in which we pa.s.sed through these troubles, taking a westerly direction, we again began to break through woods and with greater difficulty (than before), since hunger kept wearing out our strength and the ridges which we met in the s.p.a.ce of three days were so high in all four directions, that it seemed impossible that men could cross them, on account of the great height of their summits and the depth and shallowness of their ravines.

The trees of these hills of which we availed ourselves so as not to fall, are some palms which are called _c.u.mes_, covered with thorns whose sharp points are very long and cover the tree from top to bottom as far as the roots; so that all our bodies were wounded by the said thorns from head to foot, particularly our feet, since we went barefoot. At this time came the day of Purification of Our Lady, when we prepared in spirit for celebrating that day, all of us confessing one another, as men who at every moment had death before their eyes, on account of the great want of food. And in order to obtain the holy indulgences of that day, we had antic.i.p.ated it by finding on the preceding days some date palms, with the fruit in season, of which we made use for eating on those days, as well as some _sapote mameys_, which, though they were as hard as stone, from their not being in season, we cooked for eating."

The Situation Grows Still Worse. "All this appeared to us now very hard, to have to live only on these dates without any food. But in two or three days after we found the dates and _sapotes_, the situation became more serious (and much worse after many days); for not having found anything to eat for three days, nor even to drink, as my mind turned more and more to spiritual things, since it was not hindered by any bodily functions, which would prevent its reasoning powers, so great was the occurrence of texts of scripture, examples of saints, and incidents which it remembered, that I recalled very readily everything that I had read; so that sometimes the said conditions brought about greater resignation to G.o.d, knowing that it was then that he was of more a.s.sistance to his creature, when he purified him more in the crucible of affliction; and at other times such memories served as a greater encouragement; (although my resignation never failed). Then remembering that there was no bird nor animal among the forest trees of which divine Providence does not take care, as well in the adornment of clothing as in giving his daily sustenance, and that to us, who were rational beings, created in his image and likeness, the contrary happened, without our having, not only anything to eat, but not even water to drink, this was an intellectual argument which we kept meditating on, as we went along the road without stopping.

"But this meditation of mine beginning to search the recesses of my conscience in my past life, scarcely had it come to the threshold of this argument, when, knowing that its faults deserved much greater punishment, it bore the present ones with patience and prepared itself for greater ones in the future; but as the disordered appet.i.te of this unrestrained body called out each day for our daily food, remembering that G.o.d himself had taught us to ask for it, though I knew that its not being found was a chastis.e.m.e.nt of my sins, not on this account did I fail to continue the pet.i.tion every day, particularly at the hour when I knew that my brothers were eating in the refectories, with such pleasure and tranquillity, without perhaps remembering us....

"When the hour of noon was pa.s.sing, on which at the accustomed hour of eating we remembered said pleadings, there pa.s.sed also our desire for the said meal, considering that, since G.o.d did not give it, it was not suitable for us, and thus that his most holy will should be done in everything, and that if it was best for us to suffer more, his holy Majesty sent it. Here the soul ruled, but it could not fail that the body also asked for an offering which would preserve our lives, which it brought forward by continually asking for it, as one who needed it so much. I then, leaning on the faith which I had in my Father, San Diego, on the one side, and on the great need which I suffered on the other, seeing that in reply to my prayers, San Diego had accomplished nothing as it appeared to me, in my mind I directed the said Saint, in holy obedience, now that my prayers were not accepted for my many sins, that he should go, moved by his great charity, to the gates of Heaven to ask alms in the name of his brothers who were lost in these parts and peris.h.i.+ng from want,--an extraordinary thing truly. A wonderful event which I relate for the greater confusion of me and my audacity and for the greater glory of the humility and prompt obedience of my Father, San Diego."

They Find Some Miraculous Honey. "Scarcely had we gone twenty steps from where I bade him for obedience sake, when we met with a sapote tree, rotten and fallen on the ground, in which we found a bee-hive, and the occurrence is the more wonderful in that, having no implement for cutting or taking out the said bee-hive, other than the pike or point of my staff, the said trunk happened to be rotten; so that with the said spike, we took the bee-hive out; besides the fact that the tree had laid fallen for many years, the hive was freshly occupied, so that there is no doubt that, while there were so many trees standing strong and sound, they went to swarm in a trunk, rotten and fallen to the ground; so that it is an evident miracle which my Glorious Father, San Diego, prepared for me. So when we came across the bee-hive, with great tenderness and to my greater confusion, I began to weep, confessing my sin to my companions, the Padres, which only my great faith and the want from which we were suffering could excuse. We ate that honey with its embryos and its excrement, without in our great hunger reserving any part of it; and though the honey which fell to our share was not much, since there were seven portions which were made of it, nevertheless it caused great thirst, as we had brought no water with us, and did not find any for a long time afterwards. This happened to us the day of the Purification of Our Lady, as I said before."

Two Padres Go Ahead. "On this day, it appearing to my two Padre companions, either that hunger and want were lasting a long time, since fifteen days of it were already pa.s.sing or that we now found ourselves near the road which we sought; guided as much by the law of nature which obliged them to save their lives, as by the love with which they loved me, seeing also that I was overcome as well by my needs as by the continual attacks of stomach troubles from which I suffered, and that they, by being younger, could walk more leagues than the three leagues which I walked each day, by which speed, if they reached safety first, not only would they save their lives, but also would aid me with some a.s.sistance, so that I should not perish in the woods, they said to me, 'Father our Commissioner, we wish to go forward with the benediction and permission of your Reverence, to see if we can make greater progress each day by some leagues, so as by this means to reach some settlement, from which to send you some a.s.sistance, to aid your Reverence; and if we should be delayed in getting out of the woods, and should meet with the soldiers, we would send some of them whenever we met them, so that they may extricate your Reverence and that you may not perish in these forests. We are of no importance, and as such, we shall not be missed. But as for your Reverence, on whose shoulders so much depends, such as giving an account to our Prelate and to our Lord the Governor of everything that has happened, your loss would be of importance. Therefore we beg your Reverence to give us your blessing in carrying out what has been said, giving us one of these Indians to accompany us, and one of the two needles which you have, so as to follow the direction to the west which we are taking.' I, that I might never be held responsible for any loss or harm that might come to them, granted them the Indian they picked out, the needle, blessing and permission, although I knew we were yet very far off from arriving in the four days that they thought.

"We took leave of each other with the mutual love and tenderness, which the loving companions.h.i.+p of those who had followed me faithfully through so great hards.h.i.+ps required. We charged each other to remember one another in our poor and humble prayers. With this they went off with the benediction of G.o.d and of myself, I remaining with the three Indians, though one was dying (and he died later) and the rest with their strength exhausted as mine was.

"The departure of the Padres, my companions, and my beginning to undergo new calamities, was all at the same time; for on those first three days it was all pa.s.sing through _akalchees_, or overflowed lands, although they were dry but very much obstructed and closed up with low and th.o.r.n.y trees which grew there, and with those cutting gra.s.ses which I spoke of above, so that we were in constant trouble in pa.s.sing through them, reopening once more all the wounds which we had on our legs. And at that time we found ourselves with bare feet and legs, and with our clothes in pieces, without getting any more comfort from them than to cover myself with them at night; also a steel for striking fire, which by a miracle we saved among the heathen Ytzaes, belonged to my companions, so that they took it with them, and I remained without any human comfort, nor did they take anything except the said steel."

A Desperate Situation. "In this final and extreme need we remained so absolutely dest.i.tute of everything, that only by some angel bringing us food and placing it in our mouths, could we nourish this living body; because, even if we should find anything, either animals or birds of the forest, we had nothing to kill them with, and, even if they put themselves into our hands for killing, we had no knife nor machete to skin them with, if they were animals, nor anything to cook them with for want of a steel for striking fire. From this it can be inferred that, being wet every day, at least with the dew, besides the showers which caught us, and having to sleep on the bare earth, wherever night came upon us, whether it was wet or dry, we were unable to get any comfort, besides not having any means of making fire."

They Find Some Edible Thistles. "Notwithstanding, the said _akalchees_ were not what exhausted us most, nor were they so unkind to us that amongst them we did not find something to eat and drink; since on some trees there were _Chuis_, which are like large edible thistles, the leaves of which preserve the water from the dew and rains for a long time, and by tapping them in the stem, the water which they have preserved comes out, although it is dirty and bad smelling; but the thirst we felt was more so. These same plants served us for food, by eating the stems of each leaf, something like two fingers of white that they have, since that part is the most tender, and the rest is very bitter and hard. In the same way we used to find in the said _akalchees_ some roots of trees to gnaw, so that, as the proverb says, 'Afflictions with bread are of less account,' we did not feel the sores which those cutting gra.s.ses had caused us, as I have said, in exchange for what we found there of food and drink."

Some Hills are Reached. "These three days of _akalchees_ having pa.s.sed, there followed three other days of hills and very high ridges, so that we inevitably had to pa.s.s them, since they lay in all four directions.

These followed one after the other in such a way that, having finished climbing one, we went down it again, without finding an eighth of a mile level below. Upon which we again ascended the next one, for all of these were so high that their heights cannot be told except to say that in their deep valleys the rays of the sun do not penetrate. So weak did we become from ascending these hills on account of the fatigue, as well as by going down, because of the stony ground, or for both reasons, it was necessary to make use of the trees, which cover the hills, the most of which are the said palms called _c.u.mes_, full of penetrating thorns, which injured our feet, hands and bodies, since falling from weariness, we were wont to strike against them.

"On the top, then, of one of these hills, we found a broad _aguada_,--a thing which surprised us much, since there were not any other high places around it, from which the water could come. There were there very many flint stones which caused injury enough to our feet on account of our going barefoot. I do not know to what to attribute that water on that high hill top, since in the preceding ravines, which, for the most part, were rivers, although now dry, water was not found, except to a miracle, by which G.o.d gave us to understand that he had not forgotten our needs, since with so much climbing up and down as we had been through, we were thirsty enough, so that G.o.d furnished this _aguada_, from which we had a very good drink. In about an eighth of a mile we came to the descent from this height, after which we pa.s.sed two days of woods, some that were somewhat level, without so many or so high hills, but it is wonderful that though these forests in which we traveled for two days and the three preceding ones, consist of an infinite number of _sapote_ and _ramon_ trees, we did not find in them all a bit to eat,--a thing which happens in these woods as in the rest that I saw. Seeing their sterility, I said, 'They appeared in every respect like those of Gilboa.'"

Deserted Buildings. "With so few comforts and so great affliction, our strength went on diminis.h.i.+ng very quickly, knowing for truth the proverb which the Biscayans, my fellow countrymen, say: 'It is the guts which carry and support the legs and not the legs, the guts.' Among these high hills which we pa.s.sed over, there is a variety of old buildings, excepting some in which I recognized apartments, and though they were very high and my strength was little, I climbed up them (though with trouble). They were in the form of a convent, with the small cloisters and many living rooms all roofed over, and arched like a wagon and whitened inside with plaster, which is very abundant through that region, since all the ridges are composed of it. So that these buildings do not resemble those which are here in this Province, for the latter are of pure worked stone, laid without mortar, particularly the part which relates to arches; but the former are of rough stone and mortar, covered with plaster."

False Hopes; Further Hards.h.i.+ps. "It seemed to us that these buildings stood near a settlement, from the information which the soldiers had given us, when we were going on the new road to Guatemala, but it turned out to be the dream of a blind man, since we found ourselves, as we saw afterwards, very far from a settlement. We traveled through these woods when we came upon a dry river, which we followed a long while to see if we found water, which we came across, though late, which is better than never. Before that, G.o.d willed that we should meet a _Kamas_, or a great mound of earth, which the ants build, in which we found a little honey to eat, and, as every sweet thing at once calls for water, and we were late in finding it, it did not fail to give us trouble. By following the abovementioned river, we came to the said _aguada_, which was quite large, similar to those which they call _Petens_. This made us go around through plenty of woods and affliction, so as to get past it."