HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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The Palace of Canek, Chief of the Itzas. "Of this same workmanship is
the hall[2.4] which the King or Ah Canek has as a vestibule to his
house, in which he receives his guests as he did us, although in
addition it has the floor covered with bitumen and polished, which the
said temples do not have. At the entrance of the said hall stands a
large stone table more than two yards long and proportionally broad,
placed on stone columns, with twelve seats of the same around it for
the priests. This is the table of sacrifice, which they call in their
language _Mayactun_,--the first object which our eyes perceived in that
first reception, from which, with the preceding attempts on the lake,
we were able to conjecture that they would put us to death; and the
more so when we saw that the number of people who ran together at the
novelty of seeing us was so great, that besides filling all the hall
inside, those who could not find a place there, obstructed on the
outside all the light which the hall had, and which came in all around
it, so that they left us in such gloomy darkness, that, being seated,
as I was, in the midst of my companion Padres, we could only perceive