Briuton.] ^* [Jan. 5, 



the neicjhboring tribes, who had been ordered to await the result 

 of the effort in Chiapas. 



Her authority was absolute, and she was merciless in requir- 

 ing obedience to it. The disobedient were flayed alive or 

 roasted over a slow fire. She and all her followers took particu- 

 lar pleasure in manifesting their hatred and contempt for the 

 religion of their oppressors. They defiled the sacred vessels of 

 the churches, imitated with buffoonery the ceremonies of the 

 mass, which she herself performed, and stoned to death the 

 priests whom they caught. 



Of course, her attempt against the power of Spain was hope- 

 less. It failed after a bitter and protracted conquest, character- 

 ized by the utmost inhumanity on both sides. But when her 

 followers were scattered and killed, when the victorious whites 

 had again in their hands all the power and resources of the 

 country, not their most diligent search, nor the temptation of 

 any reward, enabled them to capture Maria Candelaria, the 

 heroine of the bloody drama. With a few trusty followers she 

 escaped to the forest, and was never again heard of.* 



More unfortunate were her friends and lieutenants, the priest- 

 esses of Guistiupan and Yajalon, who had valiantly seconded 

 Maria in her patriotic endeavors. Seized by the Spaniards, they 

 met the fate which we can easily imagine, though the historian 

 has mercifully' thrown a veil on its details. f 



23. Of just such a youthful prophetess did Mr. E. G. Squier 

 hear during his travels in Central America, a "sw^ia woman," 

 as she was called by the coast Indians, one who lived alone mid 

 the ruins of an old Maya temple, a sorceress of twenty years, 

 loved and feared, holding death and life in her hands. | Per- 



* The long account given by Mr. H. H. Bancroft of this insurrection is a travesty of the 

 situation drawn from bitterly prejudiced Spanish sources, of course, utterly out of sym- 

 pathy with the motives which prompted the native actors. See hi.s History of the Pariiic 

 States, Vol. ii, p. 696, sqq. Ordofiez y Aguiar, who lived on the spot within a generation 

 of the occurreiice.s, recognizes in Maria Candelaria (whose true name Bancroft does not 

 give) the real head of the rebellion, " quien ordenabalos ardides del niotin ; . . . . de lo 

 que principalmente tratabau las leyes fundamentales de su secta, era de que no quedase 

 ra^tro alguno de que los Enropeos havian pisado este suelo." His account is in his lui- 

 published worli, Historia del Cielo y de la Tierra, written at Guatemala about 1780. Juarros, 

 speaking of their riles, says of them : "Apostando de la ft?, profanando los vasos sagni- 

 dos, y ofreeiendo sacrilegos cultos &, una indizuela." Historia de la Ciuftad de Guatemala, 

 Tom. i, p. 17. 



t Bancroft, ubi supra, p. 705, note. One was hanged, whom Garcia Pelaez calls " uua 

 India brnja." Memorias para la Historia de Guatemala, Tom. ii, p. 153. 



I Squier, ubi supril, passim. 



