Respecting the ensuing period of Cocome rule, we have no record until at a subsequent but undetermined date a new people, the Tutul Xius, appeared from the southern region where they had wandered long and suffered great privations, and settled in the vicinity of Mayapan, being kindly received by the Cocomes. All agree that they came from the south; Herrera brings them from the Lacandon mountains, and speaks of them as having entered Mayapan, where they lived in great peace together with the former inhabitants. Landa judges from linguistic and monumental resemblances that they came from Chiapas. Morelet suggests that they were a band from Palenque.[XIII-13] I have already shown that the Tutul Xius were probably, like the Quichés and Toltecs, among the tribes that migrated from Tulan in Chiapas at some time between the third and fifth centuries.[XIII-14] They were not like the Toltecs a purely Nahua nation, that is, they did not speak the Nahua language; but they were, like the Quichés, a branch of the ancient Maya, or Xibalban, people, which had in Chiapas been subjected to Nahua influences and had adopted to some extent the Nahua institutions. In language they were kindred to the Cocomes, Itzas, and all the aboriginal inhabitants of Yucatan; but like the Cocomes they were also followers of Cukulcan and Quetzalcoatl. Their kind reception is not therefore to be wondered at, and their subsequent prominence in the history of the country accounts for the Nahua analogies observed in Yucatan institutions and monuments.
THE PEREZ RECORD.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE RECORD.
I now present in full the Perez document which contains nearly all that is known of the Tutul Xiu annals. I quote the version given in Mr. Stephens' work, adding in parentheses the variations and a few explanatory notes from Brasseur's translation.[XIII-15] "This is the series of Katunes, or epochs, that elapsed from the time of their departure from the land and house of Nonoual, in which were the four Tutul Xiu, lying to the west of Zuina (probably the Tulan Zuiva of the Popol Vuh) going out of the land of Tulapan (capital of Tulan). Four epochs were spent in traveling before they arrived here with Tolonchantepeuj (Holon-Chan-Tepeuh, in both the Maya text and in Brasseur's translation) and his followers. When they began their journey towards this island (peten, meaning literally 'island,' is the word used, but Brasseur tells us that it was applied as well to regions almost surrounded by water, and the Mayas knew very well that their country was a peninsula), it was the 8 Ahau, and the 6 Ahau, the 4 Ahau, and the 2 Ahau[XIII-16] were spent in traveling; because in the first year of 13 Ahau they arrived at this island (peninsula), making together eighty-one years they were traveling between their departure from their country and their arrival at this island peninsula of Chacnouitan. In the 8 Ahau arrived Ahmekat Tutul Xiu (an error perhaps, for 13 Ahau as above, or this may refer to a later arrival of another party), and ninety-nine years they remained in Chacnouitan. Then took place the discovery (conquest) of the province of Ziyan-caan, or Bacalar (Bakhalal, Chectemal at the time of the conquest, probably near the site of Bacalar). The 4 Ahau, the 2 Ahau, and the 13 Ahau, or sixty years, they ruled in Ziyan-caan, when (since) they came here. During these years of their government of the province of Bacalar, occurred the discovery (conquest) of Chichen Itza. The 11 Ahau, 9 Ahau, 7 Ahau, 5 Ahau, 3 Ahau, 1 Ahau, or one hundred and twenty years they ruled in Chichen Itza, when it was abandoned and they emigrated to Champoton (Chanputun) where the Itzas, holy men, had houses (had had dwellings). The 6 Ahau they took possession of the territory of Champoton. The 4 Ahau [and so on for twelve epochs to the 8 Ahau] Champoton was destroyed or abandoned (Brasseur has it, "4 Ahau, etc., etc., and in the 8 Ahau Champoton was destroyed"). Two hundred and sixty years reigned (or had reigned at the time when Champoton was destroyed) the Itzas in Champoton, when they returned in search of their homes ("after which they started out anew in search of homes," according to Brasseur), and then they lived for several epochs under the uninhabited mountains ("for several epochs the Itzas wandered, sleeping in the forests, among rocks and wild plants, suffering great privations," as Brasseur has it, noting an omission of a part of the text in Perez' translation). The 6 Ahau, 4 Ahau, after forty years they returned to their homes once more, and Champoton was lost to them. (The French version is entirely different; "6 Ahau, 4 Ahau"—they wandered as above—"after which they—the Itzas—had again fixed homes, after they had lost Champoton"). In this Katun of 2 Ahau, Acuitok Tutul Xiu established himself in Uxmal; the 2 Ahau [and so on in regular order for ten epochs to 10 Ahau] equal to two hundred years, they governed and reigned in Uxmal with the governors (powerful lords) of Chichen Itza, and Mayapan. After the lapse of the Ahau Katunes of 11, 9, 6 Ahau, (Brasseur says 7 instead of 6 Ahau, as indeed it must be in order to preserve the order) in the 8 Ahau the governor (the powerful lords) of Chichen Itza was (were) deposed (ruined) because he murmured disrespectfully against Tunac-eel (Hunac Eel); this happened to Chacxibchac of Chichen Itza, who had spoken against Tunac-eel, governor of the fortress of Mayalpan (Mayapan). Ninety years had elapsed, but the tenth of the 8 Ahau was the year in which he was overthrown by Ajzinte-yutchan (Ah-Tzinteyut-Chan) with Tzuntecum, Taxcal, Pantemit, Xuch-ucuet (Xuchu-Cuet), Ytzcuat, and Kakaltecat; these are the names of the seven Mayalpans (lords of Mayapan). In this same period, or Katun, of the 8 Ahau, they attacked king Ulmil (king of the Ulmil) in consequence of his quarrel (festivities) with Ulil, king of Izamal (Ytzmal); thirteen divisions of troops had he when he was routed by Tunac-eel (Hunac Eel, 'he who gives intelligence'); in the 6 Ahau the war was over, after thirty-four years. In the 6 Ahau, 4 Ahau, 2 Ahau, 13 Ahau, 11 Ahau (Brasseur says in the 8 Ahau), the fortified territory of Mayalpan was invaded by the men of Itza, under their king Ulmil, because they had walls and governed in common the people of Mayalpan. Eighty-three years elapsed after this event and at the beginning of 11 Ahau, Mayalpan was destroyed by strangers of the Uitzes, (perhaps Quichés) or Highlanders, as was also Tancaj (Tancah) of Mayalpan. In the 6 Ahau (8 Ahau according to original text and Brasseur), Mayalpan was destroyed (finally abandoned). The epochs of 6 Ahau, 4 Ahau, and 2 Ahau, elapsed, and at this period the Spaniards, for the first time arrived, and gave the name of Yucatan to this province, sixty years after the destruction of the fortress. The 13 Ahau, 11 Ahau, pestilence and small-pox were in the castles. In the 13 Ahau, Ajpula (Ahpulá) died; six years were wanting to the completion of the 13 Ahau; this year was counted toward the east of the wheel, and began on the 4 Kan (the 4 Kan began the month Pop). Ajpula died on the eighteenth day of the month Zip, in the 9 Ymix (in the third month Zip, and on the ninth day Ymix); and that it may be known in numbers, it was the year 1536, sixty years after the demolition of the fortress. Before the termination of the 11 Ahau, the Spaniards arrived; holy men from the east came with them when they reached this land. The 9 Ahau was the commencement of Christianity; and in this year was the arrival of Toral, the first (new) bishop."
Such is our chief authority on the aboriginal history of Yucatan. It is, as Perez remarks, "rather a list than a circumstantial detail of the events," was doubtless written from memory of the original records after the Spaniards came, and may be inaccurate at some points. Perez claims to interpret its chronology according to his theory that the Ahau Katun was a period of twenty-four years;[XIII-17] while Brasseur, following most of the Spanish writers, reckons an Ahau Katun as only twenty years. I do not propose to enter into any further discussion on this point, but it should be noted that while Perez adduces strong arguments in favor of his general theory of the length of these periods, neither his translation of the document in question nor his comments thereon are at all consistent with his own theory. The document states clearly that Ahpula died in 1536, six years before the end of 13 Ahau, which must have closed in 1541. An accurate calculation, reckoning twenty-four years to an epoch, would make the 8 Ahau in which the Tutul Xius left their ancient home, begin with the year 173, A.D.,[XIII-18] instead of 144 as Perez gives it. If we compute the epochs at twenty years each, we have 401 as the date when the migration began. I have not attempted to fix the date of the migration from Chiapas, of which this forms a part, further than to place it before the fifth and probably after the second century; but the date 401 agrees better than that of 173 with the general tenor of the authorities,
I therefore follow this system in forming the following résumé, although I give in notes the dates of the other system, together with some of Perez' dates.
The Tutul Xius left their ancient home in Chiapas in 401, wandering for eighty-one years before their arrival in 482 at Chacnouitan, or the southern part of the peninsula, under the command of, or together with, Holon Chan Tepeuh.[XIII-19] Ahmecat Tutul Xiu arrived with them or at a later period,[XIII-20] and they remained ninety-nine years in Chacnouitan, down to 581.[XIII-21] Then took place the conquest of Bacalar, where they ruled for sixty years, or from 581 to 641; but at the same time the 4 Ahau, 2 Ahau, 13 Ahau, of this period, correspond to the years 701 to 761, leaving the years 641 to 701 unaccounted for.[XIII-22] During this rule at Bacalar, or at its end, they took possession of Chichen Itza, where they remained for six epochs, or one hundred and twenty years, from 761 to 881.[XIII-23] Then they went to Champoton where the Itzas had been, taking that country in 941,[XIII-24] nothing being said of them during the three epochs from 881 to 941. The Itzas had ruled in Champoton for two hundred and sixty years, from 4 (or better 6) Ahau to 8 Ahau, or from 681, when they were probably driven from Chichen,[XIII-25] to 941 when they were driven out by the Tutul Xius.[XIII-26] The Itzas wandered for two epochs, from 941 to 981, suffering great hardships,
and then again obtained fixed homes. Where they settled the record fails to state.[XIII-27]
TUTUL XIU ANNALS.
Returning to the annals of the Tutul Xius, in 2 Ahau, 981, Ahcuitok Tutul Xiu settled at Uxmal, where his people ruled conjointly with the kings of Chichen and Mayapan for two hundred years, from 981 to 1181.[XIII-28] In the tenth year of 8 Ahau, or 1191, Chac Xib Chac, and other lords of Chichen, were deposed for some offence against Hunac Eel, the ruler of Mayapan. In the same epoch the Cocome king attacked and defeated the Itza king Ulmil. This war lasted thirty-four years, and was ended before 1221, by the Itzas invading Mayapan.[XIII-29]