Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/176

Rh false, as it was, and if he had used military severity with their three principal chiefs, who were the Cacique Covoh and the Cacique Can and the Captain Covoh, all of whom the King of Peten, in his answer to the message, told me were his enemies, and said that if the Governor executed them, he (the King) would deliver over all the Petens, then all the nations of the Ytzaes would have been conquered and delivered to the King our Lord, and at this moment they would all have been Christians without the said victory costing a shot of powder.... And he ought not to have allowed them to go behind the said Padre, my companion, some leagues away, with the risk that the said heathen might kill the priest without the merit of being in the service of God; and with the risk of their stealing and misusing the sacred vessels.

The Chakan Itzas are Foiled by God. "But God, who looks after his affairs, arranged that on the said Chakanytzaes coming near the ornaments, they, pretending a need, told the Padre to await them there, and they went into the woods and went to their town without having accomplished any of the many purposes for which they came; the first, to see if they had got ahead of me and my companions (understanding that we had passed through their territories by night) so as to carry out their intention of killing us; the second, to see if they could catch the three Cehaches Indians, our guides, who returned to their homes by that road, so as to kill them; the third to see how many Spanish people were in the camp for working on the road which they were opening, so as to flee if they were many and to resist them if they were few; the fourth to satisfy their greed by stealing the sacred vessels with the rest of the wares of Castile which they thought I brought with me. But they found it all in vain, thanks be given to God, who thus looked after his priests and the materials for celebrating mass; and not to the inconsiderate action of the said principal head, by which he showed so little regard for looking after the things of God and his ministers; but thus God has brought out all things well, according to the purposes for which he has worked....

The Departure of the Padres from Tayasal. "Let us turn from this digression to the departure from Peten. In order to