Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/169

146 of their cloth are not very permanent, from their not knowing how to give it the finishing touch....

Friendliness of Canek. "Because from the time that I had convinced them by their own ancient computations,- a thing that they considered impossible for any other man except their priests to learn,-they began to love and fear me at the same time; saying that I was undoubtedly a great personage in the service of my Gods, since I had succeeded in learning the language of their ancestors and their own, for from no one else of all these neighboring natives had they heard it, nor did they have any information that the Spaniards who subjugated their lands knew it.... On which account they called me Chomachahan, which means among them, 'Great Lord, worthy of reverence,' and Citcaan, which means 'Father of Heaven.'...

Demonstrations against Canek. "Suddenly a disturbance arose without any cause, among the crowd of Indians, together with their head men and captains and some priests, in which in my presence they said to the King many discourteous things, after which they went on to say,- 'What good was the friendship of the Spaniards and their law to be to them? If it was to get hatchets and machetes for cultivating, means had never failed them to till their soil up to that time; if it was for the stuffs and cloths of Castile for clothing them, when did they need any of this, since theirs was very good; if it was that the Spaniards should defend them, when was the Ytzalana nation cowardly or when did it humiliate itself to any one, since they had so many warriors for their own defense and for the destruction of as many as ventured against them? It was a very bad thing to receive them.' The King also opposed them in my presence with wisdom enough, defending in every point what they and he had agreed on with me; and with more severity reproved the arrogant mention of arms, in that they had said it before me. They grew more disturbed with the reproof and the contestants increased, and many, who up to that time had not spoken, then declared themselves as opposed to him, all the said men bursting out against him with words of great anger and exceeding boldness; all this discord was