History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas / Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Hard University. Vol. VII.

by Philip Ainsworth Means

The Indians Explain why their Town was Deserted. "The Indians replied promptly that it was because they had been expecting their mortal enemies, the Lacandones, who were coming to attack them. If the Lacandones won in battle, they knew that all their property and fowls would be taken away. If the outcome was of that sort, they did not want their enemies to enjoy and avail themselves of their goods, so they had intended to eat them themselves. For if they should conquer the Lacandones in battle, they would go to their villages and take away all that they had, so that they would feel no lack of what they had already eaten in their own houses."

Cortes Takes Leave of them in a Friendly Spirit. "Don Fernando Cortes said to them that he was much grieved by their wars and quarrels, and that, because he was forced to continue his journey, he could not stop, nor could he aid them and defend them against those enemies of theirs. But, he added, had the situation been otherwise, he would have done so, and they would see, what they could not well imagine, how he would leave the Lacandones well punished and these Indians in peace and security in their houses."

"With these affectionate speeches, and seeing that no harm was done to them, those Indians were greatly contented. They gave thanks, after their fashion, to Cortes and his men, and at the same time, they gave him guides so that he might proceed with his army, which he did. Other large pueblos were encountered which, like this one from which they started out, they called the Mazotecas. This is the same as Villages of Deer, and the name was given because of the large numbers there are in that level country whence they set out."

The Deer Hunt. "The deer ran away so little and were so free from fright at the men that our soldiers on horseback were able to come up with them and kill them as they wished. In this way the men killed many of them and ate them for some days after. The Indian guides, who were showing the Spaniards everything and all those villages of their people which had been burned and razed, on being asked why it was that having so many deer at hand, they permitted them to be so tame. The Indians replied that in their villages they held the deer to be gods, for their greatest idol had appeared to them in that form and commanded them not to kill the deer, nor frighten them. They had executed this command, and as a result the deer were not easily scared, nor did they flee from the soldiers, and they were very numerous...."

"Cortes and his men set forth from these villages of the Mazotecas and from the province of Acalan (which in after years, during the conquest of the Kingdom of Yucatan, was subjected by Captain Francisco de Tamayo Pacheco, who had come out in quest of it from the City of Merida)...."

The Army of Cortes Proceeds on its Way. "Once more the army of Cortes went forward through rough and broken country. As always, he sent camp-scouts ahead on horseback and single soldiers afoot; these encountered two Indians from another village further on, who were out hunting and were carrying a large lion [puma, jaguar?] as well as a great quantity of iguanas, which are a kind of small serpent and very good to eat. These Indians led them [the army] to their village, and from there the army took its road towards the mountains, asking all whom they met whether they had seen bearded men like them, for they were seeking them. Some of the Indians who were questioned replied, saying: That those of whom they spoke were ahead, and were journeying in the same direction...."

The Lake. "When the army left the place where it had spent the night, and while it was mounting the slope of the mountains, but a short time had elapsed when those in the vanguard began to catch glimpses of great Laguna, in the middle of which was an island with a large town, which, as was afterwards learned, was the chief place of that whole Province of Itza. [These were the people who had withdrawn one hundred years before from Yucatan, as has been said.] And it was possible to enter this town only by means of boats."

They Capture an Indian. "The camp-scouts had by now reached the shore of the Lake itself, and they brought to Cortes an Indian whom one Pedro de Ayuda, one of the explorers, had taken from a canoe. Then Cortes asked this captured Indian (as he did to all the rest) whether or not the Spaniards or Bearded Men, like him and his men, had been through that region or were still in it, as he had been given to understand was the case.

"The Indian replied that in that town nothing was known of such men as they. He added, that if they wished to go to the town, there were some cultivated fields near the largest arm of the Lake where they could take many boats from the laborers who were tilling their fields, and he offered to lead them thither if it pleased them that he should do so.

"Don Fernando Cortes, with twelve crossbowmen, followed this Indian on foot by a very bad path which, after passing for a long distance through swamps with mud up to the knee, at length led to the water. And because the party had delayed a long time in reaching the farms, on account of the badness of the path, it was discovered by the laborers, who, judging that harm was intended, fled into their canoes and made for the island in the Lake, rowing as hard as possible.