beards, clothes, arms, and horses, he took leave of them and they went
away. And on the following day Canek came to the camp with thirty-two
chiefs and many _Zamaguales_ or common people, who came in their
canoes, bringing with them the Spanish hostages and without showing any
signs of fear or of hostility."

Canek himself Comes and is Courteously Received. "Don Fernando Cortes
received Canek with much love and urbanity. After saluting one another,
and speaking by means of interpreters, Cortes, to honor him and to show
Canek how the Christians adored their God, had a mass sung with all
solemnity to the sound of the reed instruments, sackbuts, or flageolets
which he had with him, and he had out his best table ornaments, so as
to treat Canek with great majesty."

Canek Hears Mass and Promises to Put away his Idols. "Canek listened to
the mass with great attention and took good notice of the Ceremonies,
decorations, and the altar-service, and he derived much pleasure from
what was shown him. He praised highly the music, saying that such a
thing had never been heard before, and those who were with him were
astonished and fascinated at seeing and hearing it.

"And when the religious and clerics had finished the divine office,
they preached to Canek, urging him to put away his idols and see how
good was the Law of God.... They told Canek that his idols were but
pieces of stone or old wood harboring demons and that he was deceived
in them and that all who believed in them would lose their souls and
would be carried to the Infernal regions.

"Canek replied that he would willingly leave his Idols and that he
wished to know the manner in which they venerated the True God of whom
they told him and whom they declared unto him, and he asked for a cross
in order to place it in his village. Don Fernando Cortes told him that
soon it would be given to him, as it had been done in the other pueblos
through which they had passed. The Padres said the same and added that
as soon as possible men should be sent to him to instruct him and all
his vassals in the Faith of Christ our Lord, for at present it could
not be done, as many important things were pressing....

"Don Fernando Cortes made to Canek a very full and eloquent speech
about the Emperor Charles V and his many dominions and his great
sovereign power; Cortes begged Canek and urged him with affectionate
arguments to be the vassal of the Emperor, as were already the Lords of