[CHAPTER VI]
THE ENTRADA OF PADRE FRAY DIEGO DELGADO AND
THE EVENTS THAT FOLLOWED, 1621-1624
Padre Fray Diego Delgado's Offer to Christianize the Itzas. In spite of the unfortunate turn that events had taken while Fuensalida and Orbita were at Tayasal, another Franciscan, Fray Diego Delgado, was filled with a desire to Christianize the Itzas. He set out from Merida; Villagutierre (lib. ii, cap. 8) relates the story thus:
"... A year and a half, with a slight difference, after the return of the Padres Orbita and Fuensalida, repulsed by the Itzaex, at a time when already the year 1621 was running its course and the Provincial Chapter of the Order of Saint Francis had already been held in the City of Merida, a proposal was made by the Padre Fray Diego Delgado, of the same Order and a Son of the Province of Los Angeles, to the new Provincial of Yucatan, the proposal being dictated by the desires of his Spiritual Love."
There follows a setting forth of Delgado's belief that the fugitive Indians were likely to relapse into idolatry. Delgado asked leave to go and reconvert them; this was given by Arias Conde, Governor ad interim of Yucatan.
Delgado Travels to the Convent of Xecchacan. "Everything having been made ready for his journey, the Monk journeyed to that Convent of his Order which is in the Village of Xecchacan. And when his intention was known there, several Indians of the Village offered to go with him, for those of that place are well-versed in the Woodlands. And also certain other Indians who were Singers and Sacristans of the Convent, as is customary ..., also promised to go with him."
He is well Provided with Guides and Other Indians. "So that now Fray Diego Delgado found himself not only with Guides, but with those who would aid him in celebrating the Divine Services and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And also some of the Indians of the Sierra came to him with a great inclination and desire to accompany him on that Voyage. And together with These and Those, he entered into the Woodlands to the Southward of that Land of Yucatan.
"And as soon as he began to penetrate the Woods, he kept encountering many of the Indians who were fugitives from the Villages of the Province, and who were living without Decency, Towns or Sacraments, but merely in Huts in several places of that Wilderness."
Zaclun. "He went about, bringing them with flattering caresses and the great suavity of his holy and loving words, and bearing them to the Mountains which are called the Mountains of Pimienta (which are very near the Sierra of Alabaster).... He formed with them a great Village on the same site as where had been before the village called Zaclun, which had been depopulated when the Guardians of the Province of San Francisco, who had gone, in former times, toward those inland Mountain Places, had been lost.
"He gave the Village the Name of San Felipe or Santiago de Zaclun. And in virtue of the Power given him by the Governor of Yucatan, to appoint Justices and Rulers in whatever Villages might be founded, he did this in the new Village of Zaclun in the Name of his Majesty and of his Governor of the Provinces of Yucatan, giving the posts to the most fit of those very Indians he had recently assembled.