Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/116

Rh manner in Guatemala, affairs were quite unsatisfactory in Yucatan, where the quarrels between Don Roque de Soberanis and the Bishop of Yucatan retarded all preparations.

At length the Viceroy of Mexico despatched Don Francisco Sarasa as Oidor to look into the situation and to report on it. As a result of his investigations Soberanis was deprived of his office. Believing that he could best defend himself by going in person to Mexico, Soberanis left Yucatan for the viceregal court. The natural step for the Viceroy, Conde de Galve, was to appoint Martin de Ursua y Arizmendi as Governor ad interim, and this was done.

Finding himself in possession (albeit only temporarily) of the government of Yucatan, and in view of the fact that he already held the necessary orders and cedulas for the opening of the road to Guatemala and for the conversion of the Indians along the route, as well as the advices from the President of Guatemala speaking of the matter, Ursua decided it was best to put them into immediate execution.

The year 1695 was already started and it was necessary to set to work at once, not only on the actual work of the entrada, but also on the task of getting the good will of the Cabildo of the city of Merida, of the Bishop, of the province of San Francisco, and of the Count of Galve, Viceroy of New Spain.

President Barrios Decides to Join the Entrada in Person. Villagutierre (lib. iv, cap. 4) goes on to inform us that after enough arms, munitions, food supplies, and small gifts for the Indians were got together, and just as the troops and the monks were on the point of setting off on their march to the woodlands, President Barrios Leal made up his mind to go with them in person. Villagutierre (p. 228) thus graphically describes the effect of his proposal: “In spite of the fact that the Ecclesiastical and Secular Cabildos of that City of Guatemala tried to dissuade him from his plan, urging him to notice that although that undertaking was so glorious and so much to the service of God and the King, and so greatly favored by all, by the public welfare and by the good of Christendom, he ought not to risk his life so wantonly upon it; and although they also warned him of the terribleness of the attacks which