Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/30

7 forming, by their alliance, the celebrated League of Mayapan. These cities were Uxmal, ruled by the Xiu family, Mayapan, possibly ruled by the Cocom This name, Cocom, will be brought to our attention later on, and it will be advisable for us to compare now the exceedingly confusing accounts of what the Cocom family was.

Brinton (1882, p. 165), in his introduction to the Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel, says: “We have no longer to do with the reckoning of the subjects of the Xiu family who ruled at Mani, but with one which emanates from the priests of the Cocomes, who were hereditary masters of Chichen Itza.”

According to the Chronicle of Chac Xulub Chac, by Nahau Pech, there was a king named Ixcuat Cocom of Aké, who led the people of Chichen Itza from that place very late in their history, about eight years before the Spaniards touched at Campeche in 1516. (Brinton, 1882, p. 218.)

The Katunes of Maya History (Valentini, 1880, pp. 54, 86) say that “In the 8th Ahau the Governor of Chichen Itza was deposed because he murmured disrespectfully of Hunac-eel.” The 8th Ahau would be about 1422-1444.

Brasseur de Bourbourg (1858, vol. ii, p. 35) says that the Cocomes were the kings of Mayapan and that as they became more and more tyrannical so did the Tutul Xiu of Uxmal become more and more the champions of the people. He suggests that Hunac-eel was a Cocom, and he also speaks of the Lord of Chichen as being quite distinct from the Cocomes. Brasseur (cf. Lizana, 1893, p. 3) continues his account by saying that Chac Xib Chac, who was then reigning in Chichen, likewise became indignant at the cruelty of Hunac-eel (or Cocom). As a result of this seven Nahua chiefs were sent by Hunac-eel against Chac Xib Chac, whom they vanquished. With his power thus seemingly assured, Hunac-eel set about oppressing his Mexican allies, who appealed for help to the Tutul Xiu of Uxmal, with the result that the dynasty of Cocom was ruined (about 1440). One child of the last King of Mayapan, however, was absent at Xicalanco, and he lived to set up a new Cocom kingdom at Tibulon or Sotuta.

Molina Solis says (1896, p. li): “After the time of Hunac-eel, the Cocomes, descendants of an ancient and rich house of the Itzaes, one of whose members had made himself known as a man of valor in the last war, began to rule as lords of Mayapan. The Cocomes continued the policy of their predecessor....” According to this writer it was the Cocomes who called in the people from Mexico, in spite of whom they were overthrown. The only survivors of the massacre of the family were a young son of the last king (as has been said) and a distant relative named Cocom Cat, who escaped to the town of Tiab. Molina's authority for this statement is the Relación of Juan Bote, which he quotes (p. liii). After these events the Mexican mercenaries seized the province of Canul or Ahcanul. (Landa. 1864, p. 55.) The Cheles founded a religious state at Izamal; the Cocomes withdrew to Sotuta and the Xius to Mani. All family, and Chichen Itza. The latter is, of course, our chief concern; but as it has been often described we will only say that it may have had, at one time, as many as one hundred thousand inhabitants and that the culture that throve there was of a high order.