History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas Part 3

They Capture an Indian. "The camp-scouts had by now reached the sh.o.r.e of the Lake itself, and they brought to Cortes an Indian whom one Pedro de Ayuda, one of the explorers, had taken from a canoe. Then Cortes asked this captured Indian (as he did to all the rest) whether or not the Spaniards or Bearded Men, like him and his men, had been through that region or were still in it, as he had been given to understand was the case.

"The Indian replied that in that town nothing was known of such men as they. He added, that if they wished to go to the town, there were some cultivated fields near the largest arm of the Lake where they could take many boats from the laborers who were tilling their fields, and he offered to lead them thither if it pleased them that he should do so.

"Don Fernando Cortes, with twelve crossbowmen, followed this Indian on foot by a very bad path which, after pa.s.sing for a long distance through swamps with mud up to the knee, at length led to the water. And because the party had delayed a long time in reaching the farms, on account of the badness of the path, it was discovered by the laborers, who, judging that harm was intended, fled into their canoes and made for the island in the Lake, rowing as hard as possible.

"The army encamped in the farms on the sh.o.r.e of the Lake and fortified itself very well, because that Indian guide had told Cortes that the Itzas were a people well skilled in war and that they were feared by the whole region. And also this Indian told the Spaniards that if they would let him go he would cross to the city in his canoe and would speak to Canek, Lord of those Lands of the Itzas, and would tell him of their intention, and of their arrival."

The Indian is Sent to Tayasal. "Cortes acceded to this request, and gave orders that he should be set free. At midnight the Indian returned to the army. As it was two leagues from mainland to the Island or _Peten_ (as they called it), he could not return earlier. He brought with him two chiefs of that City who came to visit Cortes by order of Canek, who had told them to see on his behalf the Captain General of that army and learn from his lips what it was he wished."

Some Indians Come to Cortes from Tayasal. "Don Fernando Cortes gave these personages some Spanish soldiers as hostages, so that the Canek or Lord might be able to come to the Royal camp. And after Cortes had treated them with so much courtesy, kindness, and graciousness that those Indians were delighted with him, as well as with the Spaniards'

beards, clothes, arms, and horses, he took leave of them and they went away. And on the following day Canek came to the camp with thirty-two chiefs and many _Zamaguales_ or common people, who came in their canoes, bringing with them the Spanish hostages and without showing any signs of fear or of hostility."

Canek himself Comes and is Courteously Received. "Don Fernando Cortes received Canek with much love and urbanity. After saluting one another, and speaking by means of interpreters, Cortes, to honor him and to show Canek how the Christians adored their G.o.d, had a ma.s.s sung with all solemnity to the sound of the reed instruments, sackbuts, or flageolets which he had with him, and he had out his best table ornaments, so as to treat Canek with great majesty."

Canek Hears Ma.s.s and Promises to Put away his Idols. "Canek listened to the ma.s.s with great attention and took good notice of the Ceremonies, decorations, and the altar-service, and he derived much pleasure from what was shown him. He praised highly the music, saying that such a thing had never been heard before, and those who were with him were astonished and fascinated at seeing and hearing it.

"And when the religious and clerics had finished the divine office, they preached to Canek, urging him to put away his idols and see how good was the Law of G.o.d.... They told Canek that his idols were but pieces of stone or old wood harboring demons and that he was deceived in them and that all who believed in them would lose their souls and would be carried to the Infernal regions.

"Canek replied that he would willingly leave his Idols and that he wished to know the manner in which they venerated the True G.o.d of whom they told him and whom they declared unto him, and he asked for a cross in order to place it in his village. Don Fernando Cortes told him that soon it would be given to him, as it had been done in the other pueblos through which they had pa.s.sed. The Padres said the same and added that as soon as possible men should be sent to him to instruct him and all his va.s.sals in the Faith of Christ our Lord, for at present it could not be done, as many important things were pressing....

"Don Fernando Cortes made to Canek a very full and eloquent speech about the Emperor Charles V and his many dominions and his great sovereign power; Cortes begged Canek and urged him with affectionate arguments to be the va.s.sal of the Emperor, as were already the Lords of the great Kingdom of Mexico and many others. Canek replied, saying that he thus gave himself up; for, many years before, men of Tabasco, when pa.s.sing through his lands into the wilderness, had told him that certain Strangers had arrived at their villages and that they fought much and well, for they had conquered the Tabascans in three battles.

"And Cortes told Canek that he himself was the Captain of those of whom the Tabascans spoke, and that he had conquered them and subjected them to his will. Thereupon the conversation came to a close and they all sat down to eat with much ostentatious magnificence. And it was suitable that it should be so, in order that those Indians might come to esteem and fear the Spaniards, and thus know how majestic was their King.

"Canek ordered his va.s.sals to bring from the canoes birds, fishes, cakes, honey, and gold (though only a little of the latter), and beads of red snail-sh.e.l.ls, which the Indians value highly. They ate, and Cortes gave Canek a s.h.i.+rt, and a cap of black velvet, and some little things of iron, such as scissors and knives.

"Once again Don Fernando Cortes asked Canek about some Spaniards of his who should be on the coast of the sea, not far from there. To this Canek replied that he indeed had news of them and that he would give Cortes a man who should lead him to where they were without wandering from the road, although it was rough and bad on account of the great forests, rivers, and marshes that had to be traversed; once the sea was reached the going would not be so difficult."

Cortes Goes to Tayasal with Canek. "Don Fernando Cortes thanked him very much, but told him that the horses could not go in the canoes in order to cross the Lake and continue their journey. Canek replied that after a matter of three leagues the Lake would be left behind, and he begged that while the army was marching around by land Don Fernando Cortes should come with him to his city to see him burn the idols. Don Fernando Cortes did so, against the advice of all his captains, who held that he was of great foolhardiness and overconfidence."

The Itzas Give Cortes News of Olid. "Cortes embarked with thirty crossbowmen, Canek, and the chief Indians for the town on the Island, which town was very large, and from a long way off they saw the whiteness of its many houses and adoratoria. And on reaching the town Canek received Cortes with great rejoicing, regaling him, as well as he could, with a present of poor gold of little value (for it is not found in that country) and some mantles. And there the Indians informed Cortes of where the two villages of the Bearded Men (as they call the Spaniards) were. They said that one of them was called Pueblo de Nito (Ferns) and was on the coast to the north, while the other was called Pueblo de Naco and was inland.

"This news brought great joy to Cortes and his men on account of the great desire they all had to find the Spaniards in search of whom they had undertaken this perilous journey.

"Those of the army who were marching along the sh.o.r.e of the Lake went with great care, being suspicious lest the affability of Canek was but a piece of premeditated craftiness to enable him to perpetrate some treachery."

Cortes Takes Leave of Canek, Leaving Morzillo. "But things did not take such a course as they had feared. Indeed, Don Fernando Cortes was ahead of time (at the meeting place) with all his crossbowmen, and when he joined with the main body of his army he rid the rest of all the anxiety they had suffered during his absence.

"He took leave of Canek and the Itza Indians who had accompanied him to the mainland. He left in their charge his horse Morzillo, which had been injured in the ankle, charging them to take good care of him, and to cure him. Cortes said that he would send after the horse from the place where he should meet those Spaniards for whom he was seeking.

Such horses were, he said, esteemed highly, for it was a good horse."

Idols not Burnt. "There was no burning of the idols, nor anything else of the sort, in that city of Tayasal (as they call it) or Chief City of Canek. Some say, however, that the idols were burnt in the presence of Cortes, but in truth, from the time when he left his horse among the Itza Infidels, they had a worse and more abominable idol than they had had before, as we shall see later...."[3.6]

Cortes Arrives in Honduras. "With ... innumerable other excessive trials, at the end of many days, they arrived at Honduras and met the Spaniards in search of whom they had come, in the villages of Naco and Nito, which Gil Gonzalez de Avila and Christoval de Olid had settled with Spaniards. The town of Nito was founded by Avila and was called San Gil de Buena Vista. All that happened is to be found and read in the Histories of the Indies and it does not concern this History.

"Only this concerns us: on account of a variety of circ.u.mstances Don Fernando Cortes neither returned himself through the land of the Itzas, nor did he send after his horse, nor did he send the Missionary Fathers to the Itzas, as he had offered to do.... So that that wretched little ruler, Lord of the Itzas or Canek, and all his subjects, remained as barbarous and idolatrous as they were before, and even daily grew more so, as well as becoming more horrible, cruel, atrocious, and formidable. And in this state we must leave them until the time comes for us once more to speak of them...."

Though this account of the entrada made by Cortes into the country of the Itzas seems full enough, it differs, nevertheless, from some of the others.

Comparison of Villagutierre with Other Authorities. In the first place Villagutierre tells us that the motive which led Cortes into sending an expedition to Honduras was that "it was a very good land," and when, because of Olid's treachery, it became necessary for him to go thither himself, Villagutierre says he took four hundred Spaniards and thirty horses. Bernal Diaz (vol. iv, p. 283 ff.) differs widely from this account in several respects. He says that Cortes hoped to find a pa.s.sage to the Spice Islands, and that it was for that purpose that he sent out Olid, on whom he believed he could rely. Olid, though brave enough, was not a wise or faithful man. He fell a victim to the machinations of Diego Velazquez, Governor of Cuba, who was a mortal enemy of Cortes.

According to Cogolludo (lib. i, cap. 13) it was very much against the advice of his a.s.sociates in Mexico that Cortes went in person to Honduras. He tells us that the vanguard of the Spaniards, after capturing ten Indian men and two Indian women, who were treated kindly, sent one of their canoes to the island of Tayasal with six Indians and two Spaniards, who were to give Canek some small Castilian presents. As a result of this, when the main body of the army, under Cortes himself, reached the sh.o.r.e of the lake, Canek and several of his chiefs were waiting for them. The rest of the account of Cogolludo is the same as that of Villagutierre.

In his Fifth Letter, Cortes furnishes some interesting details with which we will complete our account of the first entrada into the Itza territory. He tells us (The Letters of Cortes to Charles V, Mac.n.u.tt's translation, vol. ii, p. 259) that Apospolon. Lord of Izancanac, first pretended to be dead, being in fear of Cortes, but that later he took the Spaniards to Izancanac, which was "quite large, and has many mosques." This Apospolon was a sort of merchant prince and had widespread trading connections. At Nito, where Cortes met Gil Gonzalez de Avila, a whole quarter "was peopled with his agents under command of one of his brothers." The articles of trade were, of course, only such things as cocoa, mantles, red sh.e.l.ls, and dyes. As the people of Izancanac were near neighbors of the Itzas, and as the latter lay between them and Nito, it seems as if it must have been almost inevitable that the two tribes, the subjects of Apospolon and those of Canek, should have had much in common.

When Cortes left Izancanac he pa.s.sed through the fortified village, the name of which no one mentions, and later came to that of Tiac, which was still larger and very well built. From the province of Mazatlan (in which was Tiac) to that of Taiza (Itza) was a matter of four nights. At length he reached the lake, which he thought to be an arm of the sea, and from the sh.o.r.e he saw Tayasal. He found that his scouts had captured an Indian, who gave valuable information. From this point the account of Cortes agrees absolutely with that of Villagutierre, even to the number of the crossbowmen (twelve) whom Cortes took with him.

Now that we have compared all the important accounts of this entrada we must summarize our impressions. In the first place it is clear enough that a possibility may exist of Villagutierre having copied Cogolludo minutely. In the second place it is equally clear that in those instances where Villagutierre puts aside Cogolludo he draws from someone else of even more authority. Therefore we may safely believe that in quoting the accounts of various events given by Villagutierre we shall be availing ourselves of the best possible information.

Canek's Att.i.tude toward Cortes. At the time when Cortes was at Tayasal (1525) a tolerant att.i.tude toward the white men was prevalent. Far from resenting the proposed change in religion, the Canek of that day seems rather to have welcomed the new faith, and one can readily believe that had Cortes been able to do all that he promised, an early Christianization of the Itzas would have taken place. Instead, however, as we shall see, their idolatrous ways were to continue for many decades, and their att.i.tude was to suffer a great change which, we must concede, is largely to be accounted for by Spanish brutality and bad faith.

The foregoing is all in harmony with what Gomara says. He especially emphasizes the friendly att.i.tude of Canek. (Gomara, 1826, vol. ii, p.

136 ff.)[3.7]

CHAPTER IV

THE ENTRADA OF FRANCISCO DE MONTEJO AND HIS SON, AND THE ARRIVAL OF THE FRANCISCANS, 1526-1542

Francisco de Montejo and his Son. Although northern Yucatan was reduced to the condition of an orderly Spanish possession some one hundred and fifty years before the Peten region, it was done, nevertheless, only at the cost of many years of desperate struggling. Two men, Don Francisco de Montejo the Elder and Don Francisco de Montejo the Younger, his son, were the leading figures in the undertaking. The elder Montejo seems to have been a man of gentle birth and of fairly good property. He came to America about 1514 under Pedrarias Davila. Soon after that, however, he left Davila and settled in Cuba, where he served under Velazquez. He also served, a few years later, under Cortes in Mexico.

Soon after the granting of a patent or general order Francisco de Montejo the Elder set forth on his undertaking. Several officials were appointed to accompany him. Alonso Davila was Contador (Paymaster), Pedro de Lima was Tesorero (Treasurer), and Hernando Moreno de Quito was Veedor de las Fundiciones (Overseer of the Smelters). (Cogolludo, p. 73.)[4.1] Of these three offices the last was a sinecure by reason of the absence of mines in Yucatan. Davila had taken an active part in the conquest of Mexico.

Montejo's Preparations and Sacrifices. The expedition numbered some four hundred soldiers, in addition to the crews who manned the four s.h.i.+ps. The expense, all borne by Montejo, was heavy. To furnish the necessary arms, horses, and munitions the Adelantado found himself obliged to sell a Mayorazgo (entailed estate) yielding one thousand ducats a year ($2500, equal to about $10,000 of modern money). The seamen received pay, but the rest of the expedition received no money, depending on their fortune in the New World for remuneration. Only one cleric, Francisco Hernandez, accompanied the expedition; he was its chaplain. He later attributed the failure of the expedition to the lack of priests.

He Sets out. Setting out in 1527, the expedition arrived at Cozumel, where a landing was effected. There, as elsewhere, the Spaniards found themselves at a great disadvantage in having no interpreter. By various makes.h.i.+fts, however, they made themselves understood, and poor Montejo, misled by the seeming docility of the natives, flattered himself that he had an easy task before him.

Montejo and his Men Go along the Sh.o.r.e of Yucatan. Skirting the eastern sh.o.r.e of Yucatan, the fleet arrived at a point near the first site of Valladolid, where all the soldiers landed, leaving the seamen to guard the s.h.i.+ps and supplies. What seemed a sufficient number of horses, munitions, and provisions was taken. As usual on such occasions, the first thing to be done was to take formal possession of the land for the King of Castile. Accordingly appropriate ceremonies were carried through, and the standard bearer, Gonzalo Nieto, unfurled the royal banner. Cogolludo is very definite as to the region in which the conquest of Yucatan had its beginning. Valladolid,[4.2] not Bakhalal or Campeche, is, he says, the site of the first operations. He quotes as his authority on this point the Bachiller Valencia, a native of Valladolid, whose Relacion was made in 1639. Coni, a village in the province of Choaca,[4.3] was reached. Some of the chiefs of the region came to see the Adelantado and were well received; they, however, were treacherously minded, but their attempt to kill or injure Montejo was foiled. From Coni the Spaniards went to the village of Choaca, where their real trials began.

Description of the Campaign. In their early wanderings the Spaniards suffered greatly from lack of proper water and from bad roads. Often they found the villages deserted by their inhabitants or, still worse, bristling with armed warriors. Led by an Indian whom they had picked up at Coni, Montejo and his followers traveled through the province of Choaca to a place called Ake. On the way they ran into an ambush of armed Indians. The weapons of these latter consisted of arrows hardened by fire, lances with sharp flint points, two-handed swords of very hard wood, and s.h.i.+elds made of very large tortoise sh.e.l.ls adorned with snail sh.e.l.ls and antlers; their bodies were naked save for breech clouts of flimsy material, and they were all painted. Since the Indians were as stubborn as they were brave, and as the Spaniards found themselves at a disadvantage, being unable to use their horses properly on account of the rough country, the fight was a fierce one; the Adelantado himself acted well, showing the less experienced of his followers the best way to combat the Indians. The Spaniards, greatly outnumbered, kept up the fight all day, receiving many lance wounds in their faces and bodies; many died; more were seriously wounded. The horses and bloodhounds also suffered greatly. Only after a second day of fighting did the Indians finally flee, leaving twelve hundred of their companions dead behind them. This first victory over the Indians took place in the last weeks of 1527. Cogolludo dwells at great length on the errors of Herrera (Dec. ix, lib. iii, cap. 3) concerning the founding of Tihoo or Merida and of Chichen Itza. According to Herrera, Montejo went to Tihoo, where he came into contact with the Cheles, who showed him Chichen Itza, seven leagues away. The Tutul Xiu, Lords of Mani, were then ruling there, and with them, Herrera says, the Spaniards made a peaceful arrangement. All this, according to Cogolludo, is wrong. In the opinion of Cogolludo, events were as follows. After the battle of Ake, Montejo determined to proceed cautiously and to endeavor by peaceful means to win over the natives to obedience to the king. Slowly he made his way to Chichen Itza, which, by reason of its great buildings, seemed to him a suitable place for one of the two fortresses he was to build. Having fortified himself against attacks, he set about subduing the country.

He managed to win the friends.h.i.+p of the Indians of that neighborhood. A village of Spaniards with houses built after the native plan was erected. The dwellings were made of vertical wooden logs and had palm-leaf roofs. One hundred and seventy Spaniards were left in the new settlement. One of the first things done was to divide the land among them. Cogolludo thinks that the name first given to the new village was that of Salamanca. Misled by the seeming peacefulness of the Indians, Montejo determined to divide them up into _encomiendas_. The plan was carried out, to the secret disgust of the Indians, who determined to get free as soon as an opportunity offered.