in which they have lived; on this account I beg your Graces to act with much prudence (if by chance you should come to this nation of the Ytzaes, whose patron is Saint Paul) so as not to lose in a short time what is so much desired and has been attained, thanks be to God! They are inclined to receive you in peace when your Graces appear and to give you what supplies, etc., that may be needed by you, in barter for hatchets, machetes and other merchandise of Castile, which they wish for exceedingly, but I do not know whether you will be well paid. This is as much as occurs to me now. After expressing my joy for the good health of your Graces, to whose service I offer humbly my own health, asking our Lord to keep you many years, as I wish. In the Town of Great Saint Paul of Peten Ytza, on the sixteenth of January, 1696. I kiss the hand of your Graces. Your most humble servant and chaplain,- Fray Andrés de Avendaño, Apostolic Missionary Commissioner...." There follows the certification of this letter by the Apostolic Notary.
"...With this I delivered the letter to the King in the presence of many chiefs and the greater part of the common people, so that all were satisfied with such an agreement, and agreeing moreover, they with me and I with them, that within the said four months, I should come back to see them.
Before Leaving Tayasal, Avendaño Shames Covoh. "Finding ourselves now very near our departure, I notice how, after the last disturbance above referred to, although it is true that the sermon that I preached to them calmed their spirits, nevertheless the devil did not fail to sow tares in the hearts of the Cacique Covoh, whom I have spoken of many times, and in another cacique named Ahcan, a relation of the King of Peten, and in the Captain Covoh, with all his followers, all of whom are Cha Kan Ytzaes, noting here that the first settlement which I met with on my entering the land of the said Cha Kan Ytzaes, was that of the said Cacique Ahcan and his Captain Covoh, to whom I showed (as I said at the beginning of my said entrance) what I was bringing for the King of Peten Itza; and these were the men who took away from us all that we carried at the time of our embarking on the lake. These
