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

Parades Seizes Some Farms. "Seeing then such a clear and extreme need. Captain Alonso Garcia de Paredes, the head and leader of the other captains, determined to send Captain Pedro de Zubiaur, with some Spanish armed soldiers, following some confused rumors which an Indian named Juan Ake, who had guided them, had spoken of. He it is who mentioned these three ranchos in my presence in the town of Cauich. And although it is true, that there he mentioned these ranchos, here he appeared in doubt in speaking with the captains, showing himself to be totally ignorant of such towns, he being the cause that these Spaniards lost themselves in those forests. But the soldiers, availing themselves of their agility, climbed the trees and the hill-tops, from which they discovered a great smoke, and they went on in that direction; and having come up to it, they saw that there were the soldiers of the town of Zahcabchen, who, by order of Captain Alonso Garcia de Paredes, came out from another direction to the abandoned town of Tzucthok, which the said Captain with these soldiers had destroyed fifteen years since. Therefore he knowing beforehand of the said farms, gave orders that they should proceed to take possession of them before the Spaniards whom he had brought with him should come up. The Indians obeyed the orders of their Captain, and entered upon the farms with great imprudence, shooting without any cause, and killing till they had killed five Indians, without more reason than that of the avarice which led them to inspire the owners with fear, so that they should flee, as many did, in order to rob them safely of as much as they possessed; as they did. And to me it is evident that they made a very imprudent entry on to these farms."

Fifty-one Indians of Buete Surrender. "Notwithstanding this imprudence, fifty-one Indians delivered themselves up, with their wives and children. These were from the said town of Buete, besides those who had fled from Kantemo, and from the town of Yames, now today called the town of the dead, from the five aforesaid having died there. Of these Indians who gave themselves up, two were left as guides and the rest, with their wives and children, they took as prisoners to the said abandoned town of Tzucthok. The two guides who remained I treated kindly and with special attention, as the first fruit of our love, I mean, of our labors, and this they surely recognized, for from the love they felt for me, they embraced me and asked me that I should be a petitioner for them to the Captain Alonso Garcia, so that he should tell his soldiers that they should return all the clothing and wax which they had collected; since they themselves had neither resisted nor defended themselves, but had on the other hand surrendered voluntarily, when they might have run away and did not do so; but calling out to the soldiers, they not only surrendered themselves, but acted as guides to the other towns, at the convenient hour of dawn, so that they gathered them all in without any noise;--they call all these Indians who voluntarily surrendered, the Mayas."

Avendaño Argues with Paredes about his Plundering. "In compliance with the request which the two pagan Indians made me, and having placed It before the Captain, I gained my point by giving him advice; telling him in my remarks that he should consider that in that first public act lay the success of the rest, so that it was of great importance for him to carry into effect the justice which the two pagan Indians asked for; and I asked this for many reasons, the first;--because it was the service of God, law and reason and in conformity with the charity which we ought to show towards our neighbors and with the good example which in the present case we ought to set.... The next reason is, if we show them justice, it would follow, that, even if some of them fled, they would proclaim the good deeds of the Spaniards, and the rest of the people of the towns which we should come to in the future, would not run away; and if they did not flee, they would serve with me as messengers, so that through spreading the report of the good treatment which had been shown them, the other townspeoples would not refuse to surrender."

The Royal Decrees are Mentioned by Avendaño. "The last thing which I placed before him was the large number of decrees which His Majesty (may God guard him) had despatched, and those which his predecessors of eternal memory had despatched, which affirm the same thing which I asked him, as in the case of the first instructions, which were given (by the mandate of our Catholic King) to the Admiral Christopher Colon....

"The same thing was urged afterwards by the same Catholic Kings, in the year 1501, upon the Commander, Nicolas de Ovando, when he went to govern the island of Santo Domingo, and this decree reads as follows:--that he should arrange with great vigilance and care that all the Indians of Española should be free from slavery, and that they should not be molested by any one, but that they should live as free vassals, governed and guarded in justice and that they should arrange so that they be instructed in the holy Catholic faith; since his intention was that they should be treated with love and kindness, without permitting that any one should do them harm; so that they should not be hindered in receiving our holy faith and so that they should not hate the Christians for their deeds, etc.'

"And many other decrees were issued thereafter for the same purpose, the same thing being repeated and urged by an infinite number of decrees and ordinances of the Emperors, Charles V, Philip II and III and up to Philip IV...."

Paredes Promises to Return the Plunder. "All these reasons which I gave to the said Captain, Alonso Garcia de Paredes, struck him favorably and he gave me his word to coöperate in my request, causing their clothes and the rest of the things which had been taken from them to be returned to the Indian prisoners, promising at the same time to punish the transgressors, as soon as he reached the said abandoned Tzucthok."

Paredes Fails to Keep his Word. "And when he reached there, I reminded him of the said promise, but as avarice drew him more than charity, he answered me with scorn, saying, 'God be with you. Padre, how can you expect me to know now who was the man who robbed the prisoners?' At this time there came one of the offending soldiers to speak to him. He was wearing loose breeches made of the clothing which they had stolen from the aforesaid Indians; and I, answering his rough suggestion, said to him:--'See, Señor Captain, that there is standing near you one who knows of or is the doer of the theft, since the breeches of this soldier of yours show it.' He replied:--Padre, those are his perquisites, which I cannot take away.' And at the same time, turning his back to me, he said to him:--'Take notice, man, that I hold you responsible for paying for all the wax which you and the rest of you hold.' So that the special result of this trip can well be understood to be quite contrary to the service of God and of the King, and very useful only to the special ends of the avarice of the soldiers.

"I, seeing this coldness, in the beginning, never supposed that the results would be happy, so that I felt sad enough; since it would have been better not to have started out on such an enterprise, if I was to see such inhumanities...."

Tzucthok, once before Reduced, had Rebelled. "By our lengthened stay in this aforesaid abandoned town of Tzucthok, we had an opportunity of gaining a better understanding of its ruins. This is a town,--one of those which our Padre, Fray Christoval Sanchez, brought into obedience, though afterwards the people became rebellious. Today the forked poles which his holiness placed in the church he built are still standing. It is a very pleasant place, although unhealthful on account of the lightness of the winds. The water is pure, but also of a hardness which makes it excessively harmful. There are many cocoa-nut palm trees, many fruit trees, particularly lemons. Before reaching this place there is a large spring or river beneath the ground, so that for the distance of a league, the path goes following its banks and the bed of the said river. It is to be understood that in the rainy season it is full of water. There is good hunting in the woods, especially peacocks and pheasants. The most common animal in these woods is a leopard or false lion, with a red skin and with spots of various colors. The natives call it Chacekel. Among the birds are some which are very different from those of the Province. I heard a little bird warble, which I knew at once was a linnet like those of Spain; it imitated it much in its song as in its size, though not in its plumage. There is another bird with a body of a hen of Castile, called Pan. Its beak is very long and thick; up to the middle it is yellow and the other half green; its feathers correspond, being very yellow from below the beak to its belly. The rest of the body is black, except under the tail, which has a red plumage; the legs are green and in spite of so much beauty, it utters only shrieks...."