HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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escorting and accompanying the petty King, who with about five hundred
Indians came forward to receive us. They hurried us on board with great
speed and with very rude actions, without taking notice of the music of
the clarions with which we awaited him, nor of the peace, which as its
messengers I brought him in the name of the King, our Lord. Nor on our
part, could we fulfill our embassy, since, without giving us an
opportunity to do so, they began suddenly to take us across the lake
(which in that part probably is three leagues in distance across).[9.2]
In a small bay on its shore, a nephew of the King, whom I had rewarded
with some Spanish trinkets, coveting the image of a Santo Christo,
which I wore on my neck, and which I had refused to give him on two
occasions when he had asked me for it, on my giving a cutlass with its
blade to the petty King, his uncle, seized the hand of his uncle with
excessive insolence, and snatching the blade from its sheath, turned it
to my breast, and passing the blade across my throat, cut the string
with one blow and took the image of Christ from me. I reproached him
for his improper act and what he said to me was, 'Well, if you have not