arrangements for the
troops to abandon the place, and called upon the principal personages of
the town, as if he were quite unconscious of their designs; but in the
course of the conversation he remarked, as if by chance, that his horses
were accustomed to go to grass for a certain time each day, for which
reason he would be obliged to quit the town again, where altogether the
houses were too much crowded, and the streets too narrow for him. This
came like a thunderclap upon the caziques, nor could they hide their
inward grief and vexation when they saw the Spaniards marching out
again.

As soon as Alvarado was outside the town he threw off the mask, ordered
the chief cazique to be seized, and he was tried in due form by a
court-martial, which sentenced him to be burnt at the stake. Before this
sentence was put into execution father Olmedo begged permission of
Alvarado to make an attempt to convert this Indian to Christianity, for
which purpose he requested that his execution might be postponed for one
day; but of this one day came a second day, at the end of which it
pleased the Lord Jesus to incline the cazique's heart to Christianity,
and he allowed himself to be baptized by the father, who then prevailed
upon Alvarado to commute his sentence into that of hanging. The son of
this unfortunate man was then raised to the caziquedom. But matters did
not end here, for Alvarado was now attacked by the Indians, who lay
concealed in the hollows, but he soon put them to flight.

There was another large township in this province, called Guatimala, the
inhabitants of which had been duly apprized of all the battles which
Alvarado had fought since his arrival in the country, and how he had
each time come off victorious. They also knew that he was staying at
Utatlan, and that he made frequent incursions into the surrounding
townships, and compelled them to submit to his arms. As the inhabitants
of Guatimala were at enmity with the Utatlans, they despatched
ambassadors to Alvarado with a present of gold, and declared themselves
vassals of our emperor; adding, that they were ready to assist the
Spaniards in carrying on the war in that province. Alvarado received
these ambassadors in the kindest manner possible, thanked them for their
present, and he told them, in order to prove whether they were in
earnest in soliciting his friendship and in their offers of assistance,
that he would demand of them 2000 of their troops to join his