HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

Back Forward Menu

fact that these Indians call the East _Cenial_, and the West,
_Nohnial_, the first of which signifies Small Descent and the second
Large Descent, he says: 'And it is a fact that they relate that from
the East descended upon this land a small race and from the West a
large one; and by that phrase do they understand little and much, East
and West, few from the one, many from the other.' The Reader will judge
which seems to him the better.

"This land of Yucathan, which the natives of it call _Maya_, was
governed for a long time by a Supreme Lord, and the last descendant of
these Lords was Tutul Xiu, he who was Lord of Mani and its neighborhood
when, voluntarily, he came to do homage, making himself a friend of the
Spaniards on the day of San Ildefonso, 1541, as has been told. Thus it
appears that there has ever been in the land a Monarchical government
which, according to the most weighty opinion among Writers, is the best
for the conservation of Realms. This King had for the capital of his
Monarchy a very populous City called Mayapan (from which must have been