A curious circumstance is mentioned by him as happening during his march against Utatlan. On the way, and near some rising ground, he saw the Indians sacrifice a woman and a dog, and he says that his interpreters told him that this act meant defiance. This statement is remarkable because it has always been supposed that dogs were not found amongst the Mexicans. Bernal Diaz observes that these dogs were of small size, that they were used for food, and did not bark.
Approach to Utatlan from the plain.
Height of mound is about 30 feet.
Before leaving Utatlan, Alvarado placed in office as chief of the Quichés, an Indian named Sequechul, who was according to the laws of that race the next in succession. From this time nothing more was known of the Quichés, until the licentiate Alonzo de Zurita, passed this way about the year 1554, in the execution of the duty assigned to him by the command of the king, to report upon the condition and customs of the Indians, both before and after the conquest. Zurita was informed that, before the conquest, the Quichés had three chiefs. The first had over his seat or throne three canopies of feathers, the second two, and the third one. He says that the city had at one time contained several kues, (small pyramidal altars) dedicated to idols, but that they were then in ruins, and the successors of the caciques were in the utmost poverty.
I passed over the ground where Alvarado’s camp had been pitched, and where the caciques were sentenced to be burnt. Certainly the sixteenth century witnessed most extraordinary scenes of cruelty and carnage in this unhappy country. At this distance of time it is difficult to understand what could have been the reasons which impelled the Spaniards to burn the Indians in such numbers. Many of them were consigned to the flames for disobedience to orders, others upon suspicion of treasonable designs against the conquerors, others for being discovered worshipping their ancient gods, or for not conforming to the new religion. Perhaps the most inexplicable of all these cruelties is what happened soon after the conquest of the city of Mexico. Cortes, upon his return there after his expedition to Honduras, heard that during his absence, there had been a rising of Indians in one of the distant provinces, a sort of local rebellion which had been suppressed. Upon his making inquiries as to the cause of this disaffection, the principal inhabitants of the province came and reported to him that the Spaniards under whom they had been placed had burnt alive eight of their principal chiefs, five of whom died on the spot, and the remaining three a few days afterwards, and although they had demanded reparation and justice it had not been granted to them.[68]
Later in the century all the penalties of the Inquisition were established, but it was found that the results of these acts to enforce the Spanish rule, and to convert the Indians were unsatisfactory. The Indians fled to the hills and forests, and would not obey the orders to form communities or villages and thus be exposed to such cruelties. Finally the punishment of burning alive was abolished, and the milder punishment of whipping at the post was introduced and has remained. It is at the present time the customary method of punishing the natives for any default or misconduct.
In considering this subject of the treatment of the Indians at the time of the conquest, due weight has to be given to the influence of the priests, their enthusiasm, and their intense desire to convert the natives by persuasion or by force. The well-known inveterate hatred of the Indians towards their conquerors, a hatred which still exists, was a dangerous element always present and to be guarded against by adopting severe measures of repression. The good fortune that had attended the operations of Cortes and his handful of Spaniards in the conquest of this region, was doubtless in a great measure due to the condition of the country, and the never ceasing tribal wars. Cortes and his generals were consequently always able to obtain the assistance of numerous allies who were glad to seize any opportunity of destroying their enemies. But when the conquest was completed and the Spaniards had the lands distributed amongst them, and the system of encomiendas was adopted, it became necessary, at all hazards, to prevent any combinations of Indians against them, and to put down or crush out with unmerciful firmness the slightest tendency to rebel against the iron and cruel rule under which they found themselves to be subjected. Many risings were quelled, all tendency to insubordination was punished, and the Indians remained under control. But this result was only obtained after these unfortunate tribes had been subjected to the most astonishing severities that have ever been inflicted by a civilised race of conquerors.
At the convent at Santa Cruz, Padre Guicola spoke much about his parishioners. He said that he was impressed with the conviction that the Quichés in many respects still followed their old idolatries, and worshipped their idols secretly. He thought that he had discovered that certain Indians were “sacerdotes” to these idols, and that in some manner which he had not been able to find out, they, amongst themselves, maintained their ancient priesthood.
The accommodation for strangers was more monastic than I had expected to find. My cell contained nothing but a wide hard board placed upon four legs, and there were neither hooks nor posts to which I could hang my hammock, consequently it was not practicable to make convenient arrangements for securing comfortable quarters at night.
Before my departure I had a conversation with the Padre about the history of the convent, and the work that used to be carried out by the monks. Some of the descendants of the caciques of Utatlan were educated by them, and the traditions of the origin and migrations of the Quichés were composed by them, whilst they were still capable of remembering what had been related concerning their early history. The most important of the manuscripts is stated to have been written in 1544, by the son of one of the Quiché caciques, who took part in the operations of war at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards. The Padre was not well acquainted with the subject of the past history of his convent, and like the other priests that I had met in the Indian parishes, his attention was almost exclusively directed to his duties, one of the most significant of which, in the opinion of his Indians, was the performance of the rite of baptism.