Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/146



HE first entrada being spoiled on account of trouble with the soldiers, Avendaño remained in the province until October 4, 1695. On that day news reached him from a Spanish resident of Bacalar, called Francisco de Ariza, that the nation of the Itzas, who numbered eighty thousand fighting men, had expressed their willingness to receive Christianity. This news pleased the Governor (Ursua) because the Itzas were now the only obstacle that lay between him and the completion of the Guatemala-Yucatan highway. Accordingly arrangements were concluded according to the terms of which Avendaño was once more to attempt to bring the Itzas to the Church. At his own wish he and his priests were to do this alone without the retarding influences arising from the presence of soldiers. Avendaño asked for and received various letters and documents in which the policies he was to follow and the authority with which he was invested were very fully set forth.

The Orders of the Governor. One thing is particularly striking in connection with all the conquests of the Spaniards in America, and that is the very divergent attitudes toward the natives assumed by the Church and State on the one hand and by the soldiery and colonists on the other. Nowhere does this difference come out more clearly than in the matter of the entradas of Avendaño. As that writer's report of the papers given to him by Governor Ursua just before he set out on his second trip is rather long, I will give an extract of it in order that the reader may see just what was desired by the Padres and by the Governor.

In the first place the Governor ordered that Avendaño and his companions be given all necessary horses, Indians, and other equipment. He also ordered Paredes, who had caused so much trouble before, to observe carefully the wishes of His