them with demonstrations of great love and good will, and with much content. He invited the Religious to a House which he had made for them, although it was not very large, near his Palace, or rather, large House where he resided, and which was some twenty paces from that of the Padres, which was ample for their necessities. Two very good Barbacoas (=?) were set up, according to their usage as Beds, and all those who were with the Padres were quartered nearby.
“The House of Canek was some forty paces from the Lake and before it was a small Square in which was the House which he had had built for the Religious and with which they were much pleased, seeing how near it was to his own and how easy it would be to communicate with him frequently. Besides, the site was a very good one. And on the day after their arrival they embellished a Room in their House and erected there an Altar so that they might say Mass; and Padre Fuensalida chanted that of Saint Paul the Apostle, to whom they gave the Patronage of that Island.
Mass is Said. “Very many of the Itzaex were looking on from outside with profound silence and without making a single sound that could disturb what the Religious were doing. They, after having said Mass, went to see Canek, and after having saluted him, they remained in conversation with him a great while, for they knew the Language very well. They asked his leave to go all through the Village and to see its Houses and all its Cues or Temples, which were numerous. Canek conceded it, and gave them important Indians who were to go with them through the Village and show them all that they wished to see. The principal purpose of the Padres in soliciting this permission was to make a beginning to their preaching; from that time on, in the presence of Canek, of the Chiefs and of a great crowd of Zamaguales or Common People, they began to preach the Law of God….
Fuensalida Preaches; Orbita Destroys an Idol. “With great attention the Indians who were congregated there listened to the discourse of the Padre Fuensalida….” For a brief time it looked as if the Padres might attain success in the errand, but as we saw in Chapter III, Padre Orbita, in
