After this defeat the Quiché kings appear in history only as names,—of which seven, including two appointed by the Conquistadores, complete the list. Dull as was their decline, their ending was brilliant; and none of the people of Central America made such a brave struggle for independence as this grand old tribe.
Other nations occupied portions of Guatemala; and before we follow the course of the Cakchiquels we may consider some of these. In Soconusco were several bands of Tultecs who had left the Aztec plateau, and in course of time were attacked by Olmecs and reduced to the most abject slavery. At last this became unbearable, and by the advice of their priests they decided to emigrate; and under sacerdotal guidance they journeyed twenty days along the Pacific coast, until they came to the Rio Michatoya, where the priest who had led them sickened and died. The delay and uncertainty this event caused resulted in the foundation of Itzcuintlan (Escuintla) by some who were weary of the journey. The greater part went on twenty leagues farther; and here came another halt, half remaining there at Cuscatlan (San Salvador) and Xilopanco (Ilopango), while the others went on to the Gulf of Conchagua, on the bounds of Honduras and Nicaragua. These people were called Cholutecas, or Exiles, and their descendants Pipiles.
The Cakchiquels soon got into trouble with a branch of their own people,—the Akahales, who occupied the country between the Volcan de Pacaya and the Lago de Izabal. The king of the Akahales was Ychal-amoyac,—a brave and wealthy man, whose capital, Holum, rivalled Tecpan Quauhtemalan. His wealth was coveted by the victorious Cakchiquels, and he was summoned to their court. Warned of the impending fate, he obeyed the summons, accompanied only by five of his friends. As they entered the audience chamber, in the very presence of the two kings the unfortunate Akahales were assassinated. Their riches were seized, and their towns quietly incorporated into the Cakchiquel kingdom.
Although the Akahales seem to have submitted without fighting, some of the neighboring tribes saw with concern this lawless act of the powerful kings of Tecpan, and felt that their turn might come next. Wookaok, king of the Atziquinihayi, whose country bordered on the Lago de Atitlan, and Belehe-Gih, a mountain cacique on the borders of Quiché, became leaders; and the former intrenched himself in a strong fortress which the Cakchiquels besieged for fifteen days, and on its fall they put to the sword the entire garrison.
Now the Cakchiquels were by far the most important of the ruling tribes of Central America, and it was near the close of the fifteenth century. The white men had already landed on the coast of America, and the history of the tribes was hastening to a close. Insurrections here, treasons and plots there, make the substance of what there is to tell. The attempt of Cay-Hunahpù to incite rebellion shook the kingdom, but failed in the end. Revolutions gradually loosed the feudal chains that bound the subject tribes, and several of them proclaimed their independence. Chief among these were the Sacatepequez, who chose a king from their own tribe with the title Achi-Calel, and the capital of their kingdom was Yampuk; only three kings reigned, until the Conquest. The Pokomans from Cuscatlan came to Sacatepequez seeking land, and they were well provided with lands and settlements by the Sacatepequez, that they might not ally themselves with the hated Cakchiquels.
In 1510 the king of the Cakchiquels, Oxlahuhtzi, died, and the next year his colleague, Cablahu-Tihax, died also; and Hunig and Lahuh Noh succeeded their fathers. Their reign was remarkable for an embassy sent by Montezuma to the kings of Central America. What the object of the Mexicans may have been, the Chronicles do not explain. Fuentes supposes that not Montezuma, but the eighth Mexican king Ahuitzotl was the one who tried to communicate with his southern neighbors. Certainly this king carried his arms as far as Nicaragua along the shores of the Pacific Ocean; but there is no proof that he ever penetrated the interior of Guatemala. Whatever the ambassadors wanted, whether conquest or an alliance against the coming invaders, they met with poor success. At Utatlan the Quiché king refused to listen to them, on the excuse that he could not understand what they said. They went thence to Tecpan, where they found a better reception; but we do not hear that they made any treaty. When they came to the chiefs of Atitlan they were driven away by arrow-shots; and they retreated to Utatlan, when the king warned them to leave his capital that very day, and the country within twenty suns. This is the only record we have of any communication between Mexico and Guatemala before the famous march of Cortez.
In Utatlan Vahxaki-Caam and Quicab were kings when a Cakchiquel wizard, who some say was the king’s son, came by night to the palaces of Utatlan and yelled and shouted so that the poor kings could not sleep; and as bootjacks were not yet invented, they had to listen to this ancient tomcat, who, when they put their heads out of the window, called them mama-caixon and other dreadfully opprobrious epithets. Next day the king called together all his wizards and offered large rewards for the capture of the nocturnal enemy. A Quiché wizard undertook the task, and chased the foreigner a long time, both jumping from mountain to mountain. At last he captured the Cakchiquel and brought him before the royalty he had insulted. When asked if he had made the horrid noises at night, he replied that he had. “Then,” said the king, “you shall see what a festival we will make with you.” Then the nobles began a war-dance to celebrate the capture of that wizard, and transforming themselves into eagles, lions, and tigers, they danced around and clawed the poor Indio. All things being ready for his execution, he turned to the king and all the others, crying, “Wait a bit, until you hear what I wish to say to you. Know that the time is at hand when you will despair at the calamities which are to come upon you, and that mama-caixon must die; and know that some men clothed—not naked like you—from head to foot, and armed, men terrible and cruel, sons of Teja, will come, perhaps to-morrow, perhaps the next day, and will destroy all these palaces, and will make them dwellings for the owls and wildcats, and all the grandeur of this court shall pass away.” When he had spoken they sacrificed him, and paid little attention to his prophecy. Warring here and there, suffering defeat seldom, but troubled with diseases and epidemics, a plague came at last which nearly depopulated the city of Tecpan, and was especially fatal among the nobility, both kings dying. So great was the mortality that there was not time to bury the dead, and they were often left to the vultures.
When this scourge had passed, Achi-Balam and Belehé-Qat were called to the throne, and during their reign came the news of the terrible work of the Spaniards in Mexico. These young kings decided to send an embassy to the mighty chief of the invaders, begging his protection and aid against their enemies. We have to-day the letter of Cortez to Charles V., dated in Mexico, Oct. 15, 1524, describing this embassy of Guatemalans to surrender their country and countrymen to the foreign devils who had destroyed their neighbors beyond the forests of the North. One almost feels that these wretched Cakchiquels deserved the miseries they brought upon themselves. Whether by any combination the tribes of Central America could have resisted the invaders, as did the Lacandones, no man can say. Probably their time had come, and no human or divine influence could change the event; but it is sad to see these many tribes, while the storm was gathering over their devoted heads, fighting among themselves in the most headstrong way: and so they fought until the coming of Pedro Alvarado. Guatemala held three hostile camps,—the Quichés at Utatlan; the Cakchiquels at Iximché or Tecpan Quauhtemalan; and the Tzutohiles at Atitlan.
December 6, 1523, the greatest general and most trusted friend of Cortez, Pedro de Alvarado, departed from the City of Mexico at the head of three hundred infantry (of whom one hundred and thirty were archers and gunners), and one hundred and twenty cavalry. He took four small cannon, in which were used stone balls, forty reserve horses, and his native allies were two hundred Tlaxcaltecas and one hundred Mexicans, besides a large number of tlamenes to carry the baggage. With this warlike array went two ministers of the Prince of Peace, Juan Godinez and Juan Diaz. The conquest of Guatemala was the end to be attained.
Alvarado marched south to Soconusco, and here met his first opponents. Unlike the contemptible Cakchiquels, the brave Quichés would make no terms with the invaders of their country, and as the Spaniards approached they hastened to join the men of Soconusco, and near Tonalá fought their first battle with the white men. The Indios were utterly routed; but they fell back and made preparations for a greater struggle. Oxib-Queh was then Ahau-Ahpop of the Quichés, and his fellow-king or Ahpop-Camhá was Beleheb-Tzi; Tecum-Umam and Tepepul were the other principal chiefs. Tecum, as commander-in-chief of the army, designated Chuvi-Megena (Totonicapan) as the rendezvous of the Quiché forces. His army was immense (the annalists make it equal to the enrolled army of Germany!); but no one knows the exact number of naked soldiers he brought together.