History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/110

Exported from Wikisource on September 4, 2024

EARLY HISTORY OF GUATEMALA

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they had left them. From San Lucas they went to Cahabon, and from there to Coban, in search of some Indians called Axoyes, of whom they had heard. In response to a call issued from Coban by Gallegos, one hundred and eighty persons came to him. They had already been baptized and wanted only to confess.

Several Villages Founded. On this trip Padres Gallegos and Delgado baptized twenty-three hundred and forty-six persons and founded many villages: San Lucas Tzalac, Nuestra Señora del Rosario, San Jacinto Matzin, San Pedro and San Pablo Ilixil, Assumpcion, San Joseph May, San Miguel Manche, San Francisco Sacomo (=Secouamo on Hendges 1902?), and San Fernando Axoy. Villagutierre (p. 161) gives a long list of the places to which the Padres did not go.

The Dominicans and the Franciscans. We have already seen that most of the curacies in Yucatan were in the hands of friars of the Franciscan Order. In Guatemala, on the other hand, there was for a long time a dispute between the Dominicans and the Franciscans as to which should have the privilege of proselytizing in Guatemala. This quarrel, which Remesal (p. 587 ff.) plainly thought disgraceful, was at its height from 1551 to l560. On January 22, 1556, cedulas were dispatched from Valladolid bidding both the orders to live at peace with each other. Both orders had fine churches in Guatemala.

Struggles between the Dominicans and the Indians. We have already noticed how, as early as 1533, the King had expressed a wish to know everything possible about the dwellers in Guatemala. In 1555 the Lacandones and Puchutla put to death the good Dominican missionary, Fray Domingo de Vico. From that time there was a constantly growing wish on the part of the Spaniards to conquer those people, not only because they were not Christians and ate human flesh, but because they were a constant menace. On January 22, 1556, a cedula was dispatched ordering that the trouble-makers be reduced to obedience. (Remesal, lib. x, cap. 11.) For a long time after that bitter struggles between the Dominicans and the Indians lasted, struggles which caused the Spaniards to give the name of Tierra de Guerra to the region. One of the missionaries in

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History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/110

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