HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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called Chacal, we made a halt while some of our men crossed with the
guide and proceeded to reconnoiter the path, and they went forward in
such a way that they reached the Lake and discovered the great _Peten_
or island which stands in the middle of it, and which, according to the
story of those who went there, must be distant from Chacal a matter of
fourteen or sixteen leagues. Our people met many Ahizaes Indians, who
came from the Lake to the shore armed with bows and arrows, and they,
at the first sight of our people, got their bows ready; but the Indian
Yahcab, who had been told what to do, calmed them by telling them that
we were traders, which the Ahizaes heard with much pleasure. But when
the said interpreter of ours went on to tell them that with these
merchants were some Padres to teach them the law of God, the Ahizaes
raised a great whispering among themselves; and as our people were
unable to give the Ahizaes more reasons than those which that rude
interpreter had studied and offered, there was no way to pacify them,
and it was not known what they said, but all was confusion and
disturbance, which resulted in fighting and general encounters, in