1898-99.] DECIPHERING HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 181 
seems to place in Vera Paz. It is, therefore, not unlikely that Buluc 
denotes some place on the Belize river north of Copan. Brasseur, as it 
has appeared, makes Belehe-Gih or Belehe-Tzy, prince of Caokeb, one 
of the opponents of Oxlahuh-Tzy, and gives the name of his fortress as 
Paraxtunya, which, however, he seems to place in the west towards the 
Pacific coast.2 Another region mentioned is Tunxic or Tunxicob, of 
which one Cacul was the gzaw ; and Nakhun appears to denote a place 
as well as a person belonging to the Uactoks. Old maps set down Naco 
and Tencoa as towns on the south bank of the Guanacos river, south of 
Vera Paz.’ Tansuche and Nauhtlan were to the north and south 
respectively of the Huastec settlement on the Panuco, and, near the 
latter place, at Tuzpan, the Huastecs destroyed a Mexican colony in 
the time of Montezuma I. A more southern colony of Huastecs along 
the Guanacos may easily have existed in the time of Oxlahun-Pek. 
It is known that Cocyoéza of Oaxaca added Chiapas to his dominions, 
and, as Palenque is situated in that province, it is natural to read of its 
four monarchs deserting Oaxaca ; but, on the other hand, Oxlahun-Pek 
states that Palenque rebelled when he was appointed sole king of kings. 
His prominence also in the scene of the Tablet, his use of the first 
person, his executing judgment, all seem to denote that, so far as the 
city was concerned, he was ruler. Again, he says that Uxmal asked 
tribute from Palenque, and Uxmal he plainly claims for the House of 
Cawek. In the Copan inscription, Oxlahun-Pek is recognized as 
supreme over Copan, Holhun and Buluc, while, in that of Palenque, 
Buluc is regarded in the light of a rebel against Oaxaca. The truth 
seems to be that these two powerful monarchs to the south of Mexico, 
Cocyoéza and Oxlahun-Pek, had made an alliance to unitedly conquer 
and hold in possession the lands lying between their original kingdoms, 
thus extinguishing the independence of several small States. In certain 
cases there seems to have been a joint military occupation, for an 
Oaxacan Hunich dwelt in Palenque, and there were Oaxacan troops in 
Copan ; but it is more than probable that Palenque was the point where 
the two kingdoms marched, the rest of Chiapas belonging to Oaxaca, 
while Yucatan, Vera-Paz, Guatemela, and part of Honduras were under 
the sway of the Cachiquel usurper of the Quiche throne. Oxlahun-Pek’s 
representation of the anti-tribute revolt as undertaken against Oaxaca 
may have been an aboriginal way of complimenting a great ruler. 
In Cachiquel history, the origin of hostilities is made the ambition of 
the Atzih Winak Hunahpu. On the Tablet, it is set forth as the 
refusal of Palenque to recognize Oxlahun-Pek by paying to the 
governor of Uxmal the tribute which he asked in the king’s name. 
