Chapter V
[Footnote 5.1: Villagutierre's spelling of proper names and capitalization are given in most cases.]
[Footnote 5.2: Cogolludo adds some details concerning the mock embassy of the Itzas to Merida which the account of Villagutierre lacks. Cogolludo says (p. 472 ff.) that, in the time of Don Antonio de Figueroa, who was Governor of Yucatan from August, 1612, to September, 1617, Yucatan enjoyed a goodly measure of prosperity, which was interrupted in the following manner: "... there came in the time of this Governor [Figueroa] to the city of Merida some Itzaex Indians, saying that their purpose was to give their obedience to the King and to the Governor in his name, and he gave them staffs as Alcaldes, and appointed them a government, and they returned, leaving him in the belief that they were voluntarily his subjects, but soon it was all seen to be a trick. Now that it was known that the coming of those Indians had no better end than this, in the reign of this Governor a great reduction of this province was carried on, for many of the people of this Province were fugitives in the Woodlands of Zahcabchen. By these, says the Bachiller Valencia in his relation, were founded the Villages of San Antonio de Zahcabchen, San Lorenzo de Vlumal, Tzuctok, Cauich, by a commission headed by Captain Francisco de Villalobos, his [Valencia's] grandfather, who intended the reduction of these people...."]
[Footnote 5.3: This was the Juan de Coronel who was the author of an "Arte en lengua de Maya" published by Diego Garrido, Mexico, 1620. See Wilkinson Sale Catalog, 1914, number 193.]
[Footnote 5.4: A curious misuse of this word. The Caribs of the West Indies were so ferocious that their name became proverbial as a synonym for savagery; our own word "cannibal" is derived from it. Ancona says that the Caribs actually made invasions into Yucatan (1878, vol. i, p. 29). The present Lacandones are usually called Caribes by the Spanish population.]
[Footnote 5.5: _Vecino_ = citizen, i.e., freeholder. The non-freeholders were not citizens in Spanish America.]
[Footnote 5.6: The prophecies spoken of by Avendano (pp. 22, 23) are interesting. They are those of Patzin Yaxun, of Nahau Pec, of Ahkukil-Chel, of Ahnupuc-Tun, and of Chilan-Balam, High-priest of Tixcacayoc Cabich in Mani. The text of all of them is given by Villagutierre and by Cogolludo; translations appear in Fancourt and many other places.
We may believe that no matter when the events took place which gave rise to the present versions of the prophecies, the versions themselves probably grew up among the Itzas between 1524 and 1618, for, as we have seen, the Canek of Cortes's day displayed no aversion to the proposed introduction of Christianity among his subjects.
It is not denied that a foundation in fact may have existed for the belief that the seers of northern Yucatan foretold some calamity; the present contention is merely that the prophecies which the Itzas had in mind when they told Padre Fuensalida that the time for their conversion had not yet come were of comparatively recent origin among them. The Catholic character of the phraseology is too obvious to dwell upon.
Cf. Villagutierre, p. 35 ff.; Cogolludo, p. 96 ff.; Fancourt, 1854, p. 57 ff.; Lizana, 1633, pt. ii, chap. i; Brasseur de Bourbourg, 1858, vol. ii, p. 603; Orozco y Berra, 1880, pp. 73-74; Carrillo y Ancona, 1883, pp. 523-606.
It is impossible to pass over without remark the fact that Mr. Maudslay, in a note at pages 34 and 35 of the last volume of his edition of Bernal Diaz, creates a false impression of the reason why Padres Fuensalida and Orbita left Tayasal. As the two last paragraphs of Maudslay's note stand they imply that the Padres left Tayasal because of the hostility of the Indians caused by the breaking of the idol of the horse. As a matter of fact this was not the reason. Rather, their leaving was due to the fact that the Itzas refused to be baptized before the time which they believed to be appointed for their conversion.]
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