Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/92

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48
A STUDY OF THE MANUSCRIPT TROANO.

1542 (whether we count 20 or 21 years to the Ahau), while according to Landa it closed with 1540.

He asserts, while writing his work in Spain in 1666, that: "It is now 120 years since Mayapan was destroyed." As this number could have been obtained only by counting Ahaues, it must have been understood by him as covering just six of these periods, and hence the correct number would be 144 years instead of 120. This number carries us back to the year 1422 or 1423, the last of the Xth or first of the Vlllth Ahau. Cogulludo places the destruction of Mayapan about 1420 of the Christian era; the Perez manuscript places it in the 8th Ahau. As the above calculation places it in the last of the tenth or the first of the eighth, the discrepancy is but slight, and the agreement as close as could be expected in an attempt to reconcile such general statements.

Señor Perez seems to have taken as his chief authority, in comparing dates of the two systems, the statements of certain writers to the effect that the year 1392 of our era corresponded with the year 7 Canac of the 8th Ahau of the Maya system.[1]

Unfortunately he mentions but one of these authorities-Don Cosme de Burgos—whose work he informs us "has been lost."


  1. "Serie de los años corridos en dos Ahau Katun, tomando su principio en 1392 en que pasó segun los manuscritos el 8 Ahau en el año 7 Cauac":

    "El punto de apoyo de que se valen para acomodar los Ahau Katunes á los años de la era Cristiana y contar los periodos y siglos que en ella han pasade, y entender y saher concordar los años que citan los indios en sus historias con los que corresponden á los de dicha era, es el año de 1392, el cual segun todos los manusoritos, y algunos de ellos ápoyándose en el testimonio de D. Cosme de Burgos escritor y conquistador de esta peninsula cuyos esoritos se han perdido, fué el referido año, en el cual cayó 7 Cauac y dió principio en se segundo dia el 8 Ahau; y de este como de un trunco se ordenan todos los que antecedieron y sucedieron segun el orden numerico que guardau y va espuesto: y como con este concuerdan todas las séries que se hallan en los manuscritos, es necesario creerlo como incontrovertible."