"In a rage at seeing their purposes frustrated, the said Cacique Can and his Captain Covoh and the other Cacique Covoh returned to their homes with sixty Indian warriors of their followers.... The said Chakanytzaes Indians came painted red and ready for war to the camp of the General Alonso Garcia de Paredes, saying that I had sent them for the ornaments and the rest of the baggage which I had left in the deserted town of Chuntuci, a land adjoining the nation of the Cehaches, and that they came for the Padre who was taking care of these things.... On their saying to the General that they came for the ornaments, being sent by me, the said General said to them, 'Nor does his servant come with you?' 'Neither does he come,' they replied, 'so he merely sends us in this way.' Then he brought out wine to give them and sent them with the Padre Apostolic Notary to the said town of Chuntuci, which was distant some few leagues from the camp, that he might deliver to them the baggage and sacred vessels." Paredes' Stupidity; the Plot of the Chakan Itzas. "Cursed be the ignorance which causes so great losses in this way! Of how great importance is knowledge and experience for the proper despatch of things! This General has no more knowledge or experience, except for cutting wild trees in the forest where he has always been placed, cutting timber for building the ships which sail from the port of Campeche. And so he missed at the present time the greatest victory which could be gained in this kingdom of Yucatan.... Is it possible that reason did not tell him, even if he was ignorant of the said points and of the military laws, that a priest and minister of God was not going to send sixty Indians for the sacred vessels and the Padre who guarded them, without sending him a message in writing (as I promised to do when I took my leave) or without writing to the said Padre my companion to come with them? Is it possible that, on seeing that neither had I sent even one of the four Indians who accompanied me, even if I was not able to write, so that they could deliver the sacred things to him, he was not surprised enough to infer from that, either that what the sixty Indians said was false, or that they had killed us,--especially as he saw them come painted red and in warlike array and had entered impudently into the camp? Spare me from such an act, for in this case (although I do not understand military laws) reason dictates that he ought to have imprisoned them and disarmed them until he had satisfied himself whether what they said was true, taking two of them as guides, and sending an officer with the necessary people behind them, to investigate the truth of what had happened, and according to the result, to act in the following way,--if it was true that I sent them without a letter or sure token, he should have laid the blame on me and should have honored the prisoners by accompanying them with all his people to take possession of their lands in the name