Years 60.
In section 10 the 6th Ahau follows the 8th correctly, and the 4th, 2d, 13th and 11th Ahaues were passed in internal wars between Chichen-Itza and Mayalpan. In the 11th Ahau a highland people, called Uitze (probably Quiché), unite with the rulers of Chichen-Itza, and they then succeed in destroying Mayalpan. In section 11 another destruction of Mayalpan is reported. As this section begins with the 8th Ahau, and the foregoing ended with the 11th, a gap was left which represents the (9th), (7th), (5th), (3d), (1st), (12th) and (10th) Ahau. This gap undoubtedly means a period of great exhaustion to both contending parties, and as a second destruction of Mayalpan is reported in the 8th Ahau, we may fairly assume that this city had recovered, and in making a last effort to regain supremacy, was finally conquered. We understand the two reported destructions of this city as the heroic and victorious effort of the Maya race to exterminate the foreign Nahuatl invader, who, for a long period succeeded in taking a strong foothold in the country. In the succeeding epochs of the 6th, 4th and 2d Ahau, exhaustion from the war and disintegration must have ensued, for such was the condition in which the Spaniards found the Maya people in the following 13th and 11th Ahaues, which were the last they were allowed to count.
Commentary of Señor Perez to Sections 10 and 11.—In the 6th, 4th, 2d and 11th Ahaues the fortified land of Mayapan is attacked by the men of Itza and their king Ulmil, for it had walls, and the people were governed in a community. The place was destroyed by foreigners from the Highlands in the 11th Ahau, and Tancaj of Mayapan was also conquered. The correction of the reckoning gives us the 5th, 3d, 1st, 12th and 10th Ahau. We have stated that the 5th Ahau began in the year 1272, and the others were consequently 1296, 1320, 1344, and 1368, and the 8th Ahau ended in the year 1392 A. D.
In the 8th Ahau Mayapan was destroyed, then followed the Katunes of the 6th, 4th and 2d Ahau, in which latter the Spaniards passed by and gave to the province the name of Yucatan. Hence, the Ahaues begin again their regular course, though it is a contradiction to say in the foregoing section that Mayapan had been destroyed in the 11th Ahau (corrected to the 10th Ahau). It would perhaps have been better to say it had been destroyed for the second time, possibly for the purpose of rebuilding it. The 8th Ahau began in the year 1392, the 6th, 4th and 2d Ahaues fell in the years 1416, 1440 and 1464, which last ended in the year 1488 A. D.
§12. The 13th Ahau, 11th Ahau pestilence and small-pox were in the castles. In the 13th Ahau chief Ajpulà died. Six years were wanting to complete the 13th Ahau. This year was counted towards the east of the wheel, and began on the 4th Kan. Ajpulà died on the 18th day of the month Zip, on the 9th Imix; and that it may be known in numbers it was the year 1536, sixty years after the demolition of the fortress.
§13. Before the termination of the 11th Ahau the Spaniards arrived, holy men from the East came with them when they reached the land. The 9th Ahau was the commencement of baptism and Christianity; and in this year was the arrival of Toroba (Toral), the first bishop, 1544.
After the 11th section had closed with the 2d Ahau, the 12th section correctly begins with the 13th Ahau, and the 13th and last section closed the manuscript with the 11th Ahau, when the government of the Mayas was brought to an end by the arrival of the Spaniards. The particular details contained in these two sections will be discussed hereafter.
Commentary of Señor Perez to Sections 12 and 13.—In the 13th and the 11th Ahaues pestilence and small-pox reigned. In the sixth year, before the expiration of the 13th Ahau, Ajpulà died at the time when four Katunes were counted on the east of the wheel. His death happened on the 18th day of the month Zip, on the 9th day Imix. This date is wrong according to my reckoning; for the year 4 Cavac expired at the beginning and not at the end of the epoch, otherwise it would have been the year 4 Muluc. In the first case, the year 4 Cavac was that of 1496, in the other case it would be the year 1506, and never that of 1536, for in that year the 9th Ahau began.[[45]]
We give, besides, a recapitulation which Señor Perez himself added to his commentary, and for which we are indebted to the kindness of the late Dr. C. Hermann Berendt:—
“From what we have stated it will be seen that by only taking into account the number of epochs which are mentioned in the manuscript, and which elapsed between events, and by restoring this nomenclature according to the progressive series of the Ahaues, it appears that all indicated facts occur within the space of 58 epochs of 24 years each, which makes in all 1392 years to the expiration of the 11th Ahau. If we subtract these years from the year 1536, in which the 11th Ahau expired, 1444 A. D. remains as the year when the Toltecs seem to have arrived to colonize the country.