..
Padres Fray Bartolome de Fuensalida and Fray Juan de Orbita offered to
go and preach the Holy Evangel to the Itzaex; both of these were
Learned Men and of consummate Virtue, they were Priests well versed in
that Maya Tongue which was natural to those Itzaex as to the Yucatecs,
where they had been before.

"... It was determined that they should set forth on that Holy Errand;
and they, well pleased, and trusting in God, determined to depart
without delay and without other arms than the loving force of the
Divine Word, thus fulfilling the will of the King that only Religious
should go, and without the clangor of Soldiery. The Provincial gave
them their patents which were presented before the Bishop, Don Gonzalo
de Salazar, who was so overjoyed at their holy resolution that had his
presence not been needed for the Government of his Bishopric, he would
have gone with the Padres.

"Since this could not be, the Bishop despatched to them with great
pleasure very ample Authority, in which he gave them as much Power over
the Spaniards as they would have had if he had been present with them;
and especially in regard to the People of the Town of Salamanca de
Bacalar and its territory, commanding the Beneficiado of that Town and
District, which includes Tipu, under penalty of the greater
Excommunication, in no manner direct or indirect to embarrass or to
expel the Religious while they were in Tipu, from which point they were
to make ready for their Entrada to the Itzaex."

Briceno's Opposition. "And the Bishop perceived that the Religious were
going without attention to temporal matters, for the Governor Francisco
Ramirez Briceno, in spite of His Majesty's command that in such Cases
the Necessary Funds for the Divine Worship and the Viaticum for the
Religious should be given from the Royal Chest, did not wish to give
anything to these men; nor did he wish to give them even the Despatch
for which they asked in order that the Villages through which they
passed might give them assistance, his excuse being that he did not
have orders from the King, and that if they were killed by the
Barbarians or by some Native Indians they had with them, or if any
other misfortune should come to pass, the Blame would be upon him. The
Bishop gave them, beside the Appointment, orders and aids which I have
spoken of, many Crosses, Knives, Shears and other trifles and Charms
from Spain so that they might treat the Indians well; and he comforted