Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/171

148 of command and rule.... All this being so, why do you raise this disturbance? Go, Ytzalanos, be ashamed of yourselves, since the agreement which you and your King have made with me is a very good one.'

"With this I sat down again and they stood still without knowing what had happened to them; and changing at once the conversation they indulged in much noisy mirth and laughter, playing jokes on each other, without thinking of the passed disturbance, as if it had not happened....

Avendaño Takes Steps to Protect the Itzas from Further Molestation. "Suspecting that in my absence some Spaniards might come either from this Province or that of Guatemala to make war on them, from their being around there in opening the road, they therefore asked me, in order to calm their hearts and as a token of peace, to give them some sure signs or well understood token, so that (in case any Spaniards should come to their lands from this Province of Yucathan or from the other one of Guatemala) they should do them no harm nor make war on them, when they showed them the said sign and well known token, which I should leave them.

The Letter of Counsel. "Then I left them the following letter: "Captains of whichever of the two Poles, North or South. My dear Lords. Our Lord was pleased to communicate to us his divine favor, in order to succeed in obtaining that which for many ages no one has been able to obtain. (But nothing is impossible to the divine power, to whom may the glory be ascribed.) Because for his glory he has given opportunity to humble the neck of this unconquerable Ytzalana nation, humbling itself at the first suggestion of the ministers of the gospel, and sons of my holy Padre, San Francisco, by promptly offering their children to the most pure washing of baptism, I having baptized up to this time many of them, with the sure hope of baptizing them all in a short time; though the fathers and mothers, although gentle and peaceable with us, are nevertheless slow in giving up their idolatry; and for this reason especially it is necessary to show moderation with great patience, so as to bear many such vexing acts as are due to the darkness