Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/136

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FRAY ANDRÉS DE AVENDAÑO Y LOYOLA
113

of Zahcabchen, who, by order of Captain Alonso Garcia de Paredes, came out from another direction to the abandoned town of Tzucthok, which the said Captain with these soldiers had destroyed fifteen years since. Therefore he knowing beforehand of the said farms, gave orders that they should proceed to take possession of them before the Spaniards whom he had brought with him should come up. The Indians obeyed the orders of their Captain, and entered upon the farms with great imprudence, shooting without any cause, and killing till they had killed five Indians, without more reason than that of the avarice which led them to inspire the owners with fear, so that they should flee, as many did, in order to rob them safely of as much as they possessed; as they did. And to me it is evident that they made a very imprudent entry on to these farms.

Fifty-one Indians of Buete Surrender. “Notwithstanding this imprudence, fifty-one Indians delivered themselves up, with their wives and children. These were from the said town of Buete, besides those who had fled from Kantemo, and from the town of Yames, now today called the town of the dead, from the five aforesaid having died there. Of these Indians who gave themselves up, two were left as guides and the rest, with their wives and children, they took as prisoners to the said abandoned town of Tzucthok. The two guides who remained I treated kindly and with special attention, as the first fruit of our love, I mean, of our labors, and this they surely recognized, for from the love they felt for me, they embraced me and asked me that I should be a petitioner for them to the Captain Alonso Garcia, so that he should tell his soldiers that they should return all the clothing and wax which they had collected; since they themselves had neither resisted nor defended themselves, but had on the other hand surrendered voluntarily, when they might have run away and did not do so; but calling out to the soldiers, they not only surrendered themselves, but acted as guides to the other towns, at the convenient hour of dawn, so that they gathered them all in without any noise;— they call all these Indians who voluntarily surrendered, the Mayas.

Avendaño Argues with Paredes about his Plundering. “In