,
and apparently they were becoming friendly."

The Chols and the Mopanes. "On account of the many Indians who came
every day to see us, and of the many farms and farm-buildings which we
saw in those highlands, we knew that that tribe of Mopanes was very
numerous. They all go naked like the Chols, and differ from them only
in their hair, in that they do not wear it of the same length like the
Chols, but cut the hair on the front part of the head and only wear it
long behind. It is a race more robust and barbarous than the Chols;
they have idols of diabolical forms, some of which we found, and they
have many other superstitions, about which it would take long to tell.
We found very little frankness in their nature and we found that they
have relations with the Ahizaes Indians of the Lake; and we even
learned that they all were of one Ytza nation, calling themselves Mopan
Ytza; Peten Ytza and these Mopanes were subject to the petty King of
the Lake, about which and about its Island of Peten and about its
caciques they gave us much information, although they always refused to
show us the way thither. Nevertheless, we prevailed upon the Cacique
Zac to show us the way from Mopan as far as the first plain, and from
there forward our guide was the Cacique Yahcab, who knew the Chol
language, by means of which he served as an interpreter, though a very
unskilled one.

"In this way we had some means of prosecuting our journey to the Lake,
and having written to the President by way of Vera Paz what had been
done, and leaving in Mopan two priests to take care of those Indians,
with twenty men for their protection, we priests, five in number,
passed onward with Captain Juan Diaz de Velasco and fifty men."

From Mopan to the Lake. "We traveled from Mopan toward the Lake a
matter of thirty-two leagues, in which the confusion of our guide and
interpreter, the Cacique Yahcab, delayed us much more than our
ignorance of the way; for he, whether from his want of knowledge, or
from malice, said at each stream or small river that there was no more
water till we reached the Lake. Having then come to a small river
called Chacal, we made a halt while some of our men crossed with the
guide and proceeded to reconnoiter the path, and they went forward in
such a way that they reached the Lake and discovered the great _Peten_
or island which stands in the middle of it, and which, according to the
story of those who went there, must be distant