his hand over my heart to see if it was at all agitated, and at the same time he asked me if I was so. I who was before very glad to see that my wishes and the work of my journey were being obtained, replied to him, 'Why should my heart be disturbed? Rather it is very contented, seeing that I am the fortunate man, who is fulfilling your own prophecies, by which you are to become Christians; and this benefit will come to you by means of some bearded men from the East; who by signs of their prophets,[1] were we ourselves, because we came many leagues from the direction of the east, ploughing the seas, with no other purpose than, borne by our love of their souls, to bring them, (at the cost of much work) to that favor which the true God shows them' I at this time, with some freedom on my part, also placed my hand on his breast and heart, and asking him also if his was disturbed, he said, 'No.' To which I replied, 'If you are not disturbed, at seeing me, who am the minister of the true God, different in everything from you, in dress, customs and color, so that I inspire fear in the devil, and if your heart is not troubled, why should you expect me to be afraid of you, mere men like myself, whom I come to seek purposely, with great pleasure, merely for the love which I have for their souls, and having found them, in order to announce to them the law of the true God, as you shall hear when we came to Peten.' At this, changing the conversation, the devil tried to use him as his instrument for putting me in another greater temptation.
"It is a custom among them, that, on the day before killing any one or sacrificing him, especially if he is a stranger to their town, to give them something to eat, either the hot drink of barley and beans, which they use, or another of cacao, which is what they offer them. I was not ignorant of all these rites, through what history relates that they had done on the two occasions on which priests of my holy religion had gone there; although in one case did they kill the Padre Fray Diego Delgado, through the fault of some Spaniards who followed him. When
- ↑ This refers to the myth, shared alike by the Toltecs and Mayas, of the culture hero, Quetzalcoatl-Kulkulcan, who was to return to the land from across the ocean.
