Mirones Sends Ek after Delgado. Meanwhile Mirones had received no word from the men he had sent as an escort to Padre Diego Delgado. He sent two Spaniards from Zaclun with an Indian servant of his who was very cunning and who was to act as an interpreter and guide. His name was Bernardino Ek. These three were to go to Tipu and learn all that they could of the whereabouts of the Padre and the soldiers. On their arrival at that village they were told that Delgado and the rest had gone to the Itzas. The three determined to follow; they did so, and directly they had reached the lake, canoes came in response to a smoke signal and bore them to the island, where they were all shut up in a corral and kept under guard. They made an attempt to escape, Ek leading the way. He succeeded in getting out on the lake in a very bad canoe which he found on the beach, but the two Spaniards found themselves greatly hampered by their bonds and were recaptured. Ek hid in the woods from those who were pursuing him and eventually made his way to Salamanca, where he told all that had happened. A report was sent to Governor Don Diego de Cárdenas in Merida, and Ek himself was sent to Captain Mirones at Zaclun. The latter straightway entered a complaint against Fray Diego for having done anything so foolhardy as to go to the Itzas. The upshot of the report made by Mirones' agent, Juan de Eguiluz, was that the Provincial of the Order of San Francisco in Yucatan sent to Zaclun one Padre Fray Juan de Berrio, a native of Castile. Villagutierre continues (lib. ii, cap. 10): "He, having been there [at Zaclun] a matter of fifteen days, because he did not well agree with the affairs and actions of the Captain and the Soldiers, returned to Merida without saying anything to them, and he went to the presence of his Provincial, who, being informed of all that was going on, considered his retreat to that City [Merida] a deed well done.
"A second time Captain Mirones made complaint through Contador Eguiluz, and he asked, as he did the first time, for another Friar. The Provincial refused to give him one because of what had occurred with the other two whom he had sent before...." As a result of these wranglings two Creole monks were finally sent to Zaclun.
Revolt of the Indians. After they had been ordered to go to Zaclun, they proffered various excuses, and the matter was ended at last by one Padre Fray Juan Enriquez, who offered to go thither himself. He was well received by Mirones; at about that time Bernardino Ek arrived with the news of the death of Delgado and his companions. Mirones would not believe him. He soon had ample cause to do so. On the Day of Purification, 1624, when all the Spaniards of Zaclun were at Mass, the Indians rose in revolt and put most of them to death.
Some time later Padre Fray Juan Fernandez and Captain Juan Bernardo came to Zaclun by way of Mani. The latter joined him at Mani, and as both were made suspicious by some Indians leading a mule of which they could not give a satisfactory account, Fernandez and Bernardo determined to go to Zaclun. When they reached that place they found the bodies of their compatriots, who had died "by the very arms with which they had thought to go against the Itzaex, in opposition to the orders and will of the King." (Villagutierre, p. 144.) A Christian burial was given to the dead, after which Fernandez and Bernardo returned to Merida to report on what they had found. Eventually an Indian captain named Don Fernando Camal captured many of the aggressors, the chief of whom, Ahkimpol, with several others, was beheaded in Merida.
An Epidemic of Apostasy; the Third Phase of the Conquest of the Itzas Begins. A direct result of this insurrection was a general epidemic of apostasy which especially affected such villages as Tipu. There, a few years later, a general exodus of the Indians into the mountains and woods took place, and a widespread relapse into idolatry occurred.
By a cedula of March 29, 1639, the King (Philip III) reiterated his desire that henceforth all efforts to reduce provinces should be carried on by means of spiritual methods only. These were not enough. A series of misfortunes and mutinies occurred at Bolonchen, Zahcabchen, Petenecte, and elsewhere. (Villagutierre, p. 147.)[6.1]
We have now, with the year 1624, reached the close of the second phase of the Spanish conquest of the Maya-Itza stock. The first phase, an exploratory one, began with Cortes in 1524 and ended with Montejo in 1545 or thereabouts. The second phase, a proselytizing one, began with the year 1614, when the feigned submission of the Itzas took place, giving rise to the entrada of Fuensalida and Orbita. It came to a dose about 1624 as a result of the mournful events following upon the entrada of Delgado and the mercenary meddling of Mirones. The third and last phase, a commercial and military one, we shall consider in Chapter VIII. It had its inception about 1692.
[CHAPTER VII]
THE EARLY HISTORY OF GUATEMALA AND THE
ENTRADA FROM THAT COUNTRY, 1694-1695
Hitherto all our attention has been absorbed by the Maya-speaking peoples of Yucatan and northern Guatemala and with the entradas made from Yucatan into the Peten region and to Tayasal. Now, however, we are to consider, first, the early history of the Maya-speaking peoples of southern Guatemala and the entradas made from that region into the northern parts of the country in search of Lake Peten and Tayasal.