HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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of natural break in our history. Beginning with a review of the
pre-conquest history of the Mayas and of the Itzas, we have studied the
entradas of Cortes, of Montejo, and of Davila into the regions formerly
occupied by them. We have seen the manner in which the northern
portions of Yucatan and of the Maya-Itza stock were made subject to the
crown of Castile; we have just examined the best two accounts of the
events leading up to the conquest of the southern tribes, and
especially of the Itzas of Tayasal. From the year 1614, which we have
now reached, the main interest centers about the small nation whose
chief town was at Tayasal on Lake Peten. They and their subject tribes
resisted the Spanish onslaughts from 1614 to 1697. It took eighty-three
years for the Spaniards to subject this nation, which cannot have
numbered more than one hundred and fifty thousand souls. The Itzas
resisted successfully for a much longer time a power more their
superior than was that of Caesar to that of the Gauls.

Having noticed the beginning of a new period, we will continue the