Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/173

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SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND THE ITZAS

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 passed 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 pass 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