e Indians of
this Province, which the Governor gave me, and other things which I was
carrying for the chiefs of Peten Ytza, in order the better to gain
their good will, besides other things necessary for our ministry and
support. And they made a request of me to let them see these things,
carried away by their gross inquisitiveness as much as by their
excessive covetousness. And scarcely did I yield and show them what I
had in the said hampers, when, with an insatiable desire they began to
covet all, the act of touching and the desire to take everything
becoming uppermost with them, rather than the modest civility of asking
for it...."

The Padres Renew their March. "With great demonstrations of love they
loaded themselves with all our goods and supplies (except the sacred
robes, since we did not bring them till we knew that the outcome was
safe) without giving an opportunity to any of the singers whom we had
brought with us to carry anything. With this accompanying we set out on
the road which leads in the direction of the East, for Peten Ytza,
which is about five leagues off, all the Indians who lived round Cha
Kan Ytza accompanying us with their wives and children, giving shouts
of joy in order to excite the rest to accompany us."

Nich. "We went on in this manner to the landing place of the lake where
one enters the said Peten Ytza, on the shore of which is found a little
town called Nich, which consists of about ten houses. In one of them I
saw an Indian, the oldest one I had seen up to that time in the nation
of the Cehaches, nor up to the present time in that of the Ytzaes,
since they have the custom of beheading them when they pass fifty
years, so that they shall not learn to be wizards and to kill; except
the priests of their idols, for whom they have great respect. And this
man must have been one without doubt.

"In the region of the said road, there are many hills and great density
of woods on the hills, many cedar and mahogany trees, which in this
tongue are called _punabes_, besides many others which I do not mention
so as to avoid annoyance. There are many overflowed places called
_Akalchees_; there are also three rivers, one of moderate size, which
from its falling from a high rock, makes noise enough; the other two,
although they too fall from a rather high place, are not so full of
water, though they wet us all because their streams are wide and
because there is no bridge to cross them. We came t