Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/131

108 in the dry season. At we passed by them, all the path was rough and stony, so that from the fatigue of going over it on foot, we had great trouble from the want of water until we reached a place called Nohku, to which from the aforesaid savana is four very long leagues.

Nohku. “In this place we experienced comfort enough, since God had provided us with food and drink enough to aid us in passing the day of the glorious Apostles, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, so that in that place we said mass. And in it we found a house of idols, so that, although the Spaniards who passed first had broken many, we broke more than fifty others, putting in their place a cross, in order to give to God the reverence and worship which the idolaters of the place usurped for themselves. From this report which we heard there grew in us all a Christian curiosity to see the said place in order to exorcise the devil on account of his frauds and to glorify and praise him who is powerful everywhere. We came back from seeing the said place about the hour of vespers, which were celebrated with as much outward and inward rejoicing as was possible in that place. We arranged the altar as decently as we could, through the influence of which and our own Christian character, the Indians, without being forced to, also resolved to confess and to receive the sacraments (for the example of the chiefs is a great thing), so that, without forcing them by words, their subjects silently followed them....

Nohvecan. “We left this place well contented, although with our feet wearied and wounded by the roughness of the road and we walked a distance of four leagues to another place called Nohvecan, which place, for a league before and a league after, consists of great overflowed stretches which in this language are called Akalchees. It can be well understood what pain we endured with our sore legs and feet passing through this two leagues of water and mud, which at the least came up over our knees, leaving us almost crippled; another great hardship being added, as soon as we came to an end of this trip, which is the abundance of mosquitoes, which did not allow us rest by day or night. There is in this place an aguada which is very large and deep and which in the rainy season becomes a river