had
taken, and they themselves should receive the most honorable treatment;
but if they still obstinately refused to submit, he would punish them as
he had the inhabitants of Quetzaltenanco and Utatlan, by cutting down
all their cacao trees, and otherwise damaging their property in every
possible manner. These threats had the desired effect, they sent
messengers with a present in gold, and submitted as vassals to our
emperor; when Alvarado again returned to Guatimala.

Father Olmedo, in the meantime, was doing all in his power to convert
the Indians to Christianity; he ordered an altar with a cross to be
erected, in front of which he regularly performed mass, and the
inhabitants, on these occasions, imitated the Spaniards in all their
religious ceremonies. Father Olmedo also placed on the altar an image of
the Virgin Mary, which had been presented to him by Garay in his dying
moments. This image was of such extreme beauty that the Indians became
quite enamoured of it, and father Olmedo explained what was meant by
such an image, and how Christians prayed before it.

Nothing now happened for several days worthy of mention, excepting that
by degrees every township of the surrounding neighbourhood sent
ambassadors to Alvarado, and declared themselves vassals of our emperor;
even the Pipiles, a tribe inhabiting the sea-coast along the southern
ocean. As most of the ambassadors complained that the inhabitants of a
township, named Izcuintepec, who were a very ill-disposed people, would
not allow them to pass through their territory; besides that they
committed all manner of depredations on their neighbours; Alvarado
determined that they also should sue for peace and submit to his power.
But as they showed no inclination to do either, and sent an insolent
answer to his message, he marched out one morning with the greatest part
of his troops, accompanied by a strong body of auxiliaries, and fell
suddenly upon this township before the inhabitants in the least
suspected his approach. But it would have been better if Alvarado had
never visited this ill-fated town, for he treated the inhabitants in a
manner that was neither conformable with justice nor with the wishes of
our emperor.

What I have related of this campaign in the province of Guatimala is
more minutely described in a memorial written by Gonzalo de Alvarado, a
brother of Pedro, and an inhabitant of Guatimala; by perusing which the
reader may gain further particulars