Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/109

86 three small villages called San Lucas, Nuestra Señora del Rosario, and Santiago. They later made these villages one and placed in it the thirty or so Indians whom they had baptized. As the other Indians had withdrawn further to the north, the Provincial and Delgado determined to go after them. The Indian converts objected to this, but the missionaries overcame their fears. In due time they came to a certain hill which the natives worshiped as God of the Mountains. Some Indian lads they had with them as servants urged the Padres to place an offering of copal before this god in order to propitiate him and prevent him from destroying them all. Of course the two priests refused to give in to the superstitious fears of their servants. They said Mass instead. As a result all their followers, save two bearers, left them.

The Indians are Friendly to them. Once the mountains had been safely crossed, the Padres found that the Indians on the other side came to see them readily enough. When the natives found that their white visitors meant them no harm, they welcomed them and made a comfortable pathway, over which they conducted the Padres.

The Route Taken by the Two Padres. After some time they reached the shore of a large, fine river called Yaxha. There they encamped for a while, going on afterward to the house of a cacique named Matzin, who was later christened Martin. He treated them very well and they founded the village of San Jacinto Matzin and preached the Christian faith there. Four leagues away lived another cacique, called Ilixil, to whom, in spite of the risk of hunger, they went. First founding a village called San Pedro y San Pablo Ilixil, the Padres baptized many children. In that same village of Ilixil they met some Indians who had come thither from Cahabon and who offered to act as guides. With them the Padres went to a place called May. After several interesting adventures, told by Villagutierre (p. 157), they renamed the village San Joseph May.

The rainy season shortly afterward began, and the missionaries retired toward Cahabon, setting up crosses as landmarks at suitable places along the way. When they regained their first village, San Lucas Tzalac, they found matters much as