174 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL* 



splendidly ornamented with gold, emeralds, and other 

 precious stones, upon the shoulders of the nobles of his 

 court, he marched against Zutugilebpop, who met him 

 with sixty thousand men, commanded by Iloacab, his 

 chief general and accomplice. The most bloody bat- 

 tle ever fought in the country took place ; the field was 

 so deeply inundated with blood that not a blade of 

 grass could be seen. Victory long remained unde- 

 cided, and at length Iloacab was killed, and Balam 

 Acan remained master of the field. But the campaign 

 did not terminate here. Balam Acan, with thirty thou- 

 sand veterans under his personal command and two 

 other bodies of thirty thousand each, again met Zutugi- 

 lebpop with forty thousand of his own warriors and forty 

 thousand auxiliaries. The latter was defeated, and es- 

 caped at night. Balam Acan pursued and overtook 

 him ; but while his bearers were hastening with him to 

 the thickest of the fight, they lost their footing, and 

 precipitated him to the earth. At this moment Zutugi- 

 lebpop was advancing with a chosen body of ten thou- 

 sand lancers. Balam Acan was slain, and fourteen 

 thousand Indians were left dead on the field. 



The war was prosecuted by the successor of Balam, 

 and Zutugilebpop sustained such severe reverses that 

 he fell into a despondency and died. The war was con- 

 tinued down to the time of Kicah Tanub, who, after a 

 sanguinary struggle, reduced the Zutugiles and Kachi- 

 quels to subjection to the kings of Quiche. At this time 

 the kingdom of the Quiches had attained its greatest 

 splendour, and this was contemporaneous with that 

 eventful era in American history, the reign of Montezuma 

 and the invasion of the Spaniards. The kings of Mex- 

 ico and Quiche acknowledged the ties of relationship, 

 and in a manuscript of sixteen quarto leaves, preserved 



