HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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that time on their troubles increased.

From all this it is easy to deduce that the peoples to the south of the
Lacandones and Maya (such people as the Choles) were of a comparatively
docile temperament and were easily won over, temporarily, to the
Christian faith. As soon, however, as the fiercer and more stubborn
Lacandones brought their influence to bear upon the converts, the
latter found that their attachment to the new religion was but
superficial. (Remesal, lib. x, cap. 10.) Moreover, the lack of
authority to use armed force wherever necessary was another
disadvantage under which the missionaries labored. There can be but
little doubt that they also were too hasty in their attempts to
exchange the somewhat abstruse spiritual worship of the Catholic Church
for the veneration of tangible gods of stone or wood. They were quick
to destroy the old and long-venerated gods, but they were unable to
replace them with something the Indians were able to understand.