CHAPTER VIII
THE FIRST AND UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT MADE BY
FRAY ANDRÉS DE AVENDAÑO Y LOYOLA TO REACH
THE ITZAS OF TAYASAL, 1695-1696
IT has been pointed out in the Introduction that Avendaño's Relación is of very great value as a first-hand account of the conquest of the Itzas. But we must not lose sight of the fact that that same Relación is also a wonderful, though unconscious, testimony to the piety, unselfishness, and bravery of him who wrote it. Undoubtedly the priests of the Roman Catholic Church did many unjust things during the period of Spanish domination in the New World, but the number of good and noble deeds done by them (deeds the bulk of which is unrecorded) completely dwarfs the evil. Avendaño was a type of the best sort of priest in the New World. Impelled by no other motive than sheer faith and an ardent desire to do the duty of his office, he went through the events which we will leave him to relate.
Preamble. “I, Fray Andrés de Avendaño y Loyola,...accompanied by my Padres and Preachers Fray Antonio Perez de San Roman, Apostolic notary of the first trip; Fray Joseph de Jesus Maria, Apostolic notary of the second trip, and Fray Diego de Echebarria,...made this first trip [beginning] on the 3rd of June of the past year of 1695, and the second, on which we entered the nation of the Ytzaex, began on the 13th of December of the said year, and we returned to this city of Merida on the 6th of April of this year of 1696....
Preparations for the Journey. “...Here begins the historical account, which, with the divine aid, I am attempting to tell of the casualties and events which happened in this journey for the conversion of souls, while opening a road from this Province to that of Guatemala, taking as my sure loadstar the honor and glory of God and the well-being of souls, which,
