from Chacal a matter of
fourteen or sixteen leagues. Our people met many Ahizaes Indians, who
came from the Lake to the shore armed with bows and arrows, and they,
at the first sight of our people, got their bows ready; but the Indian
Yahcab, who had been told what to do, calmed them by telling them that
we were traders, which the Ahizaes heard with much pleasure. But when
the said interpreter of ours went on to tell them that with these
merchants were some Padres to teach them the law of God, the Ahizaes
raised a great whispering among themselves; and as our people were
unable to give the Ahizaes more reasons than those which that rude
interpreter had studied and offered, there was no way to pacify them,
and it was not known what they said, but all was confusion and
disturbance, which resulted in fighting and general encounters, in
which our men received no damage, but of the Ahizaes some were killed
and wounded and two of them were captured; one of these was called
Quixan and the other Chan. These two Indians uniformly said that the
Ahizaes had taken up arms because they had had notice that we had come
to Mopan, and that they had not perceived any other people in their
lands either in the direction of Yucatan or in any other direction;
which agreed with our not having any sign either from the people who
went with the said President Don Jacinto, nor of those whom he had sent
with the Padres de la Merced, although we made every effort to find
them. I wished that the said two Indians, or one of them, should go
with a message for his companions, but the affair was so stained with
blood, and the time was so advanced that it did not permit of these
delays, and the Captain gave sufficient reason for a contrary decision;
and the Ahiza Indian called Chan quickly removed any doubt by fleeing
by night, as a result of which we took more care of the remaining
Indian called Quixan. Seeing, then, that at that time we were not able
to get any result in that Ahiza nation, as they had taken up arms and
we, not understanding their language, were not able to persuade them
nor to come to an agreement with them; so that, if we went on, it would
only be to continue a war against the will of our Majesty, as expressed
in the Royal decree, and without any hope of good results, since we
were not able to enter into the Island for want of canoemen and of
instruments to make canoes, and for the same reason we could not go
across the Lake in search