While in Iximché, Alvarado showed his foolish Indian allies what his true character was. One of the chiefs of the Cakchiquels had just espoused the beautiful princess Xuchil; but the lustful eye of the Conquistador had fallen on her, and he sent for her on the pretext that he wished to consult her about the people to the southward whom he intended to subdue. The husband in well-grounded alarm begged the general, with tears in his eyes, to return his beloved wife, offering with his petition a rich present of gold and ornaments. “But the proud and hard-hearted Spanish knight, who thought he did honor by his passion for the bride of a Cakchiquel prince, as he had done in Mexico with the daughter of one of the lords of Tlaxcala, accepted the present, but refused with disdain the prince’s petition.” Again Alvarado called upon the kings of Iximché, Belehé-Qat and Cahí-Ymox, to bring him all the gold and silver they possessed, even to the royal insignia; and to emphasize his demand he snatched from the wretched kings their earrings, so that they shed tears at the physical pain. “If within five days all your gold is not here, woe be unto you! I know well my heart!” The kings, advised by a native priest, decided to leave the city with their wives and children, and they resolutely refused to return when Alvarado sent friendly messages and promises to them. Then the Spaniards began a war of extermination and slavery against the Cakchiquels, and the Quichés and Tzutohiles now took the side of the invaders against their hereditary enemies. All this destruction and misery had come upon Guatemala in one year, 1524. When the tribes were conquered, one by one, their sufferings only commenced; for so terrible was the slavery to which the Indian population of Guatemala was reduced that death was welcomed by the sufferers, and the Quiché nobles refused to rear children to serve their conquerors.

Transcriber’s Note: image is clickable for larger version

ETHNOGRAPHIC CHART OF GUATEMALA, AFTER OTTO STOLL.

I do not care to follow the history of Guatemala under Spanish rule; it would be no pleasure excursion through the sloughs of deceit and over mountains of tyranny. Priests and soldiers vied with each other in iniquity; and the Indios, then as now, seem to have been the most moral part of the population.

In closing this long chapter on the early people of the kingdom, I would call the attention of my readers to the present Indians of Guatemala and their relationship, according to Dr. Otto Stoll. This learned ethnologist classifies the Indios mainly by language rather than by physical data, and I am myself sceptical of the value of linguistic distinctions. I know Bengalis who speak English most perfectly, and I can well imagine their losing their mother-tongue from disuse or disassociation with their brethren; but the Bengali does not thus become an Anglo-Saxon. I believe very little stress should be put on lingual relationships; and also do I protest against any system of classification founded on the cranium alone: the whole body, outer integuments as well as osseous frame, must be called in witness; and one day perhaps the study of human proportions and physical peculiarities will result in a classification in which language plays no part, or at least a very subsidiary one. In the mean time let us take the chart of the Swiss professor as the best thing we have at present. The nineteen tribes or families Dr. Stoll names as follows, and their location is indicated by the numbers on the chart:—

Of the Aztec stem, only the Pipiles (12) are found in Guatemala. They are probably the descendants of the Tultecs, who were subdued by the Olmecs. Of the Mije stem are the small tribe of Pupulucas (14). The Caribbean stem is represented on the coast by the Caribs (19); and of these so many differing accounts have been given that I am tempted to give a fuller description.

Carib Woman.