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124 Majesty as expressed in the famous cedula of 1526. In that cedula it was urged that the Indians be turned from their evil ways; that any necessary houses, fortresses, and other buildings be erected; that Christianity be introduced among the Indians; that colonization from Spain should be encouraged in a number of ways; and a number of other wise provisions were recommended.

Departure of Avendaño. We will allow Avendaño (pp. 22v-29v, 49v-66r) to tell of the trip in his own words. “With all these papers and the benediction of my Prelate, I took my departure in the name of God from this City of Merida on the 13th day of December of this year 1695, in the company of my companion priests, who were the Padre Preacher, Fray Antonio Peres de San Roman, who also accompanied me in the first trip; the Padre Preacher Fray Joseph de Jesus Maria, who from the other mission of the Reverend Padre Commissioner Fray Juan de Chaves (being his Apostolic Notary) passed to my mission with the blessing and consent of the Prelate Superior; and the Padre Preacher, Fray Diego de Echavarria, with a lay brother of the holy convent, all of whom united in the love of God and in charity burning to rescue the souls of those infidel and heathen Ytzaes from the power of Satan in which, through their idolatry, they were plunged for so many centuries.

The Same Route Followed as Before; Batcab is Reached. “We went through the same ways and places as the first time, till we came to a town of the nation of the Cehaches, called Batcab, in which we met General Alonso Garcia de Paredes, with a captain called Don Pedro Zuviaur, an engineer or guide who was going in the direction in which they were opening the road from this province to that of Guatemala.

Chuntucí. “The next day, which was that of the Holy Kings, on January 6th of this year of '96, I said mass, which the army listened to; after which we started from the town for Chuntucí of the said nation of the Cehaches, which is four leagues of very bad roads during the rainy season, on account of the many overflowed and dangerous places that there are in