The Captains Urge Ursua to Fight; the Battle. Ursua called a council of war in which Paredes, Estenoz, Zuviaur, and all the other captains urged him to use force and thereby to conquer the Itzas finally. Ursua was still determined, however, to maintain peace as long as possible, being mindful of the King's wish. On the following day, March 13, 1697, Ursua determined to go to the Peten Grande, which lay two leagues from his camp. Leaving a good garrison in the camp, he took two hundred men and Don Martin Can in the boats and sailed for Peten. Before long the Spaniards, who were under the strictest orders not to fire, were surrounded by a large fleet of canoes filled with Itzas, who shot arrows at the invaders. As one would naturally expect, all attempts to reason with the outraged Itzas proved futile. Finally one Bartolome Duran, maddened by an arrow wound, fired off his gun. This precipitated a hot skirmish in which everyone took part. At the end of it the Spaniards got upon the shore, and by means of the artillery at length put the Itzas to flight. The latter fled away as fast as they could by swimming, and when in due time Ursua and his men got to Peten Grande, they found nothing but old women and little children there. All who could had fled into and across the lake rather than face the vengeance of the Spaniards. Tayasal Becomes a Spanish Possession. The battle was over by eight in the morning. The standard of Jesus Christ was set up; the royal arms were engraved over the door of what had been the principal temple; and thanks were given to God for the victory. A church was founded and the houses of the idols were cleaned out. Oddly enough the temple where Canek and his idolatrous priests had once torn out human hearts was chosen as the Christians' place of worship. Thus ends the history of the long, brave but fruitless struggle of the Itzas against the Spanish conquerors. After so many romantic interests it is but natural that any account of subsequent events should be an anti-climax. The later history of the Itza country can be dismissed in a word. 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