The Name Canek. Cortes, when he visited Peten, found the governmental power in the hands of a personage bearing the name or title of Canek. Cogolludo and Villagutierre both say that this term was a name arrived at by combining the family names of the ruler's parents. This seems to me difficult to believe. Rather, I think the word Canek to be a title. My reason for so thinking is this: in 1524 the ruler was called Canek, and ninety years later the then ruler was also Canek. It could hardly have been the same individual, and it is equally unlikely that the parents of two rulers should have exactly the same name. It is possible, of course, that the first king of Peten or Tayasal had the name of Canek, derived as the two historians suggest, and that this family name later took on the attributes of a title. The same thing happened in the case of the Pharaohs, the Seleucidae, the Roman emperors (Caesar), and the Incas. While the northern part of the peninsula was being made a Spanish dominion, the southern woodland remained unconquered, causing much annoyance to the authorities. If we look upon the year 1545 as marking the completion of the conquest of northern Yucatan, we may say that a century and a half elapsed before the subjection of the Itzas was consummated. To gain an idea of the events of the time we can do nothing better than to give Villagutierre's account. (Lib. ii, cap. 1.) Increased Power of the Itzas. "It is now many years that the Barbarous Itzaex,[5.1] more than any other Nation of Infidels, have been terrifying all those Provinces. For, since the time when D. Fernando Cortes passed through their land and those events which have already been told happened to them, no further attempts had been made to bring about their Reduction or to make war upon them in order to subjugate them, and this was on account of the prohibition given by the King in Cedulas and orders. "They had increased greatly in numbers, pride, cruelty and Power, making war upon and capturing and eating others of the Gentile Nations who dwelt in those Mountains and Forests, and also infesting, by their Raids, the Reduced and quiet Villages on the Confines of their Lands, and especially those of the Province of Yucatan, destroying them, and causing the Indians and Spaniards great agitation. "They trusted in the great Fortress and the great security they had in their Lake, and especially at the City or Great Village of Tayassal which was situated on the Peten or Island in the Lake; because of which nothing molested them nor was it possible even to pass near their Confines. And although the Governors of the Province of Yucatan regretted this extremely, yet they did not venture to make war upon them because the King had prohibited it by his orders and Royal Cedulas, as has been said elsewhere."