HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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reached the shore of the lake, Canek and several of his chiefs were
waiting for them. The rest of the account of Cogolludo is the same as
that of Villagutierre.

In his Fifth Letter, Cortes furnishes some interesting details with
which we will complete our account of the first entrada into the Itza
territory. He tells us (The Letters of Cortes to Charles V, MacNutt's
translation, vol. ii, p. 259) that Apospolon. Lord of Izancanac, first
pretended to be dead, being in fear of Cortes, but that later he took
the Spaniards to Izancanac, which was "quite large, and has many
mosques." This Apospolon was a sort of merchant prince and had
widespread trading connections. At Nito, where Cortes met Gil Gonzalez
de Avila, a whole quarter "was peopled with his agents under command of
one of his brothers." The articles of trade were, of course, only such
things as cocoa, mantles, red shells, and dyes. As the people of
Izancanac were near neighbors of the Itzas, and as the latter lay
between them and Nito, it seems as if it must have been almost