Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/178

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SECOND ENTRADA OF PADRE AVENDAÑO
155

natives of his district, which (as I have said) take their names from those who rule the said districts, although they may have, as they do, their own surnames, each one from the father and mother. A priest more than fifty-four years old, according to his appearance, called Chomachculu, rules this town, a great comrade and confidant of the King Canek, to whom the said King sent us, well recommended, so that he might give us as good reception and attention as he would to himself. And this they did, for, as soon as we came, they gave us very good things to eat and took us to a new house, which was only thatched, but they had not put down the floor. This house, they told us was for us,... and (they told us) how in the month of September of the past year of ninety-five, there had gone to Merida, four Indians who said that they were from Tipu, with whom I had intercourse, and I gave them something to eat in our cell.... I heard that the said Indians asked for ministers of the gospel so that they should administer to them the divine word and the holy sacraments.... So when we came to this town of Yalain, its inhabitants began to ask us about these four Indians who went to Merida in the said month of September, (who had not yet come back).... In reply I asked them if the men were one Achan with his younger brother, and another called Ahtec, and another Anu, and they said 'Yes.' To this I replied that I did not know why they had not come to their town, as they had started so long before I did.... We stopped in that town two days, its inhabitants treating us very well. From there they were to give us a guide to pass on to Tipu, as the priest Chomachculu promised us in compliance with the request which the King of Peten made of him, and on this supposition the son and son-in-law of the King, who had guided us up to that time, returned home. But they said that this guide was to be an Indian of Tipu, who came to Peten while we were there, and, though the said Indian saw us leave Peten, he never came at all, but rather stayed there.

Trouble with Soldiers. "We were staying on in hopes that this man would come, when we saw coming six or eight Indians from Peten, who (as they told us) were coming to their farms