History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas: Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Hard University. Vol. VII.Means, Philip Ainsworth
History
History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas: Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Hard University. Vol. VII.
Means, Philip Ainsworth
Itza Indians; Yucatán (Mexico : State) -- History
"After passing through the Province of Chol, which stretches from
Cahabon forty-five or fifty leagues, we came upon another tribe which
is called the Mopanes, among whom Spaniards or ministers of the holy
gospel had never entered, and, although the difference in language was
of some embarrassment, God willed that we should find some Mopan
Indians who understood the Chol language and by means of these we
declared to them the purpose of our journey. This had good results at
that time in the case of some adults, who, being dangerously ill, asked
for holy baptism, and in the case of some sick children whom their
fathers brought and who went to Heaven as the first-fruits among this
tribe. Their principal cacique, Taximchan, fled from us, and although
we made various endeavors to draw him to us, he always deceived us with
false promises. But we made friends with four other caciques of this
tribe of the Mopanes Indians, called, in their paganism, the Cacique
Zac, the Cacique Tuzben, the Cacique Yahcab, and the Cacique Tezecum.
They came to see us with a part of their families, and every day there
came many Mopanes Indians to buy knives and many other little trifles
which the soldiers sold in exchange for blankets. We presented them
with salt, and for this they came to see us and to sell us their fruit,
and apparently they were becoming friendly."
The Chols and the Mopanes. "On account of the many Indians who came
every day to see us, and of the many farms and farm-buildings which we
saw in those highlands, we knew that that tribe of Mopanes was very
numerous. They all go naked like the Chols, and differ from them only
in their hair, in that they do not wear it of the same length like the
Chols, but cut the hair on the front part of the head and only wear it
long behind. It is a race more robust and barbarous than the Chols;
they have idols of diabolical forms, some of which we found, and they
have many other superstitions, about which it would take long to tell.
We found very little frankness in their nature and we found that they
have relations with the Ahizaes Indians of the Lake; and we even
learned that they all were of one Ytza nation, calling themselves Mopan
Ytza; Peten Ytza and these Mopanes were subject to the petty King of
the Lake, about which and about its Island of Peten and about its
caciques they gave us much information, although they always refused to
show us the way thither. Nevertheless, we prevailed upon the Cacique
Zac to show us the way from Mopan as far as the first plain, and from
there forward our guide was the Cacique Yahcab, who knew the Chol
language, by means of which he served as an interpreter, though a very
unskilled one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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