Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/175

152 Paredes' Stupidity; the Plot of the Chakan Itzas. "Cursed be the ignorance which causes so great losses in this way! Of how great importance is knowledge and experience for the proper despatch of things! This General has no more knowledge or experience, except for cutting wild trees in the forest where he has always been placed, cutting timber for building the ships which sail from the port of Campeche. And so he missed at the present time the greatest victory which could be gained in this kingdom of Yucatan.... Is it possible that reason did not tell him, even if he was ignorant of the said points and of the military laws, that a priest and minister of God was not going to send sixty Indians for the sacred vessels and the Padre who guarded them, without sending him a message in writing (as I promised to do when I took my leave) or without writing to the said Padre my companion to come with them? Is it possible that, on seeing that neither had I sent even one of the four Indians who accompanied me, even if I was not able to write, so that they could deliver the sacred things to him, he was not surprised enough to infer from that, either that what the sixty Indians said was false, or that they had killed us,- especially as he saw them come painted red and in warlike array and had entered impudently into the camp? Spare me from such an act, for in this case (although I do not understand military laws) reason dictates that he ought to have imprisoned them and disarmed them until he had satisfied himself whether what they said was true, taking two of them as guides, and sending an officer with the necessary people behind them, to investigate the truth of what had happened, and according to the result, to act in the following way,- if it was true that I sent them without a letter or sure token, he should have laid the blame on me and should have honored the prisoners by accompanying them with all his people to take possession of their lands in the name of the King our Lord, since then he would know that this was the sign which I gave him when I took my leave of him, that the said Ytzaes wished to become Christians and accepted the friendship of the Spaniards; and if it was not true, he should then have made use of severity and the military laws. For, if the story that I sent them was