Page:The Annals of the Cakchiquels.djvu/29

Rh Scarcely more satisfactory are the few words devoted to it by Captain Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who spent a night there the same year. He observes that "its buildings and residences were fine and rich, as might be expected of chiefs who ruled all the neighboring provinces."

When the revolt of the Cakchiquels took place, soon afterwards, Iximche was deserted, and was never again fully inhabited. The Spaniards ordered the natives to settle in other localities; the fortifications of their capital were demolished, and many of the stones carried away, to construct churches and houses in other localities.

The next account we have of it dates from the year 1695, when the historian and antiquary, Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman, wrote a detailed description of its ruins from personal inspection. The account of this enthusiastic author is the only one which supplies any approximate notion of what the city must have been in its flourishing period, and I therefore translate it, almost entire, from the recently published edition of his voluminous work, the Recordacion Florida. His chapter will throw light on several otherwise obscure passages in Xahila's narrative.

"Tecpan goathemala was a city of the ancient inhabitants, populous, wonderful and impregnable, from the character of its position, situated in this valley (of Chimaltenango), on an elevated and cool site. It lies eight leagues in a straight line