Later History of Tayasal. Since the conquest, Tayasal has been a mere Spanish provincial village with nothing to distinguish it from scores of others. In the first half of the nineteenth century serious insurrections took place in the region. At about the same period the name Tayasal was taken away and Flores was substituted, in honor of one Cyrilo Flores, a local patriot. It is a pity that the old, unusual, and euphonious name was not kept. At present Flores (Pl. III) is the capital of the Department of Peten, Guatemala.
[APPENDIX I]
THE QUESTION OF ORTHOGRAPHY
Possibly the reader has noted in these pages a tendency toward inconsistency in the matter of spelling proper names. I do not deny that I have failed to avoid such inconsistency, but at the outset, after due thought on the matter, I decided that it is most difficult to try and lay down any hard and fast rule for the spelling of the proper names used in this book. In many cases it is utterly impossible to say "This is the correct spelling of this name." To show just the nature of the sort of orthographical variations encountered in this work I give here most of the variants of the name Itza.
| Itza | usual modern form |
| Itzae | Maler, 1910, p. 168 |
| Itzaob | Brasseur de Bourbourg, 1858, vol. ii, p. 13 |
| Itzaex | Villagutierre Ytza Cogolludo and Avendaño |
| Ytzaex | Cogolludo and Avendaño |
| Ytzalana | Cogolludo and Avendaño |
| Yiza | On some church bells at Los Dolores (Morley) |
| Ahiza | Cano |
| Ahizaes | Cano |
| Taiza | Cortes, Lizana, 1893, p. 120 |
| Taitza | Brinton, 1882, p. 25 |
| Tayca | Gomara, 1826, vol. ii, p. 138 ff. |
| Ahitzaes | Jose Sanches de Leon, p. 146 |
| Ayasal | Garcia de Palacio (Gates-Bowditch photographed MS.) |
| Ayajal | Garcia de Palacio, 1860 (Squier), p. 96 |
| Yzues | Ottens Atlas, 1740; Sanson d'Abbeville, 1656 |
| Tavasal | M. Bonne M. de Mathem, 1771 |
| Tayasal | Maler; Bellin, 1764; Charnay, etc. |
| Iguastal | Abbé Mongez, 1779 |
| Laguastal | Popples' map, about 1740 |
Many of the other proper names have variations just as confusing as these.
[APPENDIX II]
THE DIALECT OF PETEN
This Appendix it a translation of a MS. written by Dr. Berendt at Sacluk in 1866-1867. The original is in Spanish, but for the sake of consistency I have translated it. In some cases Dr. Berendt's clear and beautiful script has become blurred either through exposure to dampness or from some other cause. In such a case I have hazarded a guess if it seemed safe to do so, otherwise I have left a blank.[A2.1]
The MS. is in the Brinton Collection in the Library of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and I wish to acknowledge the kindness of Dr. G. B. Gordon in giving me permission to publish it here.