Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/471

Rh while there pleading his cause was summoned to receive his sentence before the great tribunal where all must one day render an account.

In the agreement which Montejo made with the crown before proceeding to Yucatan, it was expressly stipulated that missionaries should accompany all his expeditions, and to his failure to fulfil this part of his agreement may be attributed many of his disasters. In 1530 a cédula was forwarded to the audiencia of Mexico, ordering that special efforts be made to supply this omission, and soon afterward Father Jacobo de Testera, with four others, arrived at the Spanish encampment on the Champoton. They met with a friendly reception from the natives, says Cogolludo, "who brought to them their idols to be cast to the flames, and their children to be instructed in the faith." Many of the caciques tendered their allegiance; and but for the misconduct of a band of fugitive criminals, who, passing through the territory laden with idolatrous spoils, attempted to barter them for slaves, thus rousing the anger of the natives, the conquest of Yucatan might have been peaceably effected. Seeing that their lives were in danger, the friars made their escape by night, setting their faces toward Mexico; but after proceeding some fifty leagues