“Twenty days before the Feast of the Nativity my mother died; soon after, my late father was carried off (xchaptah) while they were burying my mother; my father took medicine but once before we buried him. The pest continued to rage for seven days after Easter; my mother, my father, my brother and my sister died this year.[58]”
It could not, of course, be the son of Balam, who died in 1521, who wrote this.
Under 1563 the writer mentions:—
“At this time my second son Raphael was born, at the close of the fourth year of the fourth cycle after the revolt.”
The last entry which contains the characteristic words ixnu
ahol, “you my children,” occurs in the year 1559, and is the last given in my translation. My belief is that the document I give was written by the father of Francisco Ernantez Xahila. The latter continued it from 1560 to 1583, when it was taken up by Francisco Diaz, and later by other members of the Xahila family.
The Abbé Brasseur was of the opinion that these Annals carry the record of the nation back to the beginning of the eleventh century, at least. A close examination of the account shows that this is not the case. Gagavitz, the earliest ruler of the nation, can easily be traced as the ancestor in the eighth remove, of the author. The genealogy is as follows:—
1. Gagavitz, “he who came from Tulan.”
2. His son, Cay Noh, who succeeded him.