II The Dialect of Peten. (From an unpublished manuscript by Dr. Berendt in the Brinton Collection in the University Museum, Philadelphia) III The Maps of Yucatan, 1501-1800 IV Itinerary of Avendano, together with geographical information BIBLIOGRAPHY LIST OF PLATES Ia Avendano's Map of Lake Peten, circa 1697. Ib Avendano's Map with English translation. II Peten Itza in the Middle of the Eighteenth Century. III Lake Peten and Flores. n IV Sketch (with English translation) of a Map of Yucatan, circa 1566, found with the Landa MS. V Sketch (with English translation) of another Map of Yucatan, circa 1566, found with the Landa MS. VI Map showing Entradas to Lake Peten. HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS CHAPTER I THE PRECOLUMBIAN HISTORY OF THE MAYAS AND OF THE ITZAS, 1445 In general it may be said that the Maya culture occupied the peninsula of Yucatan, portions of the states of Tabasco and Chiapas in Mexico, Guatemala, and the northern part of Honduras. That branch of the Mayas who called themselves the Itzas and who form the chief subject of this work occupied the southern portion of Yucatan and the greater part of what is now the Department of Peten in Guatemala. A few decades ago it was the fashion to credit the aboriginal peoples of America with a civilization of enormous antiquity. But the whole trend of modern scientific investigation tends to prove that the American continent was one of the last parts of the world to be settled and that, at the time of the Spanish conquest, the aboriginal cultures were certainly not more than three thousand or so years old. Even this estimate should be understood to include centuries of migratory shiftings and centuries of development along lines which eventually led to the erection of the earlier types of high culture in Middle and South America. Roughly speaking, the time of Christ coincides with the period at which the earliest high cultures in this hemisphere began to flourish. For the sake of convenience we shall follow the chronology suggested by Mr. Morley (1915) and divide the pre-Columbian history of the Maya race into eight periods. The first seven of these periods we shall discuss briefly in this opening chapter; the eighth will furnish the subject matter for the remainder of the book. The dates given should be regarded as merely approximate. APPROXIMATE DATES PERIODS PERIODS A.D.