QUEZALtENANGO. 



203 



CHAPTER XII. 



Quezaltenango.— Account of it.— Conversion of the Inhabitants to Christianity. 

 — Appearance of the City. — The Convent. — Insurrection. — Carrera's March 

 upon Quezaltenango.— His Treatment of the Inhabitants.— Preparations for 

 Holy Week. — The Church. — A Procession. — Good Friday.— Celebration of the 

 Resurrection. — Opening Ceremony. — The Crucifixion. — A Sermon.— Descent 

 from the Cross.— Grand Procession— Church of El Calvario.— The Case of 

 the Cura.— Warm Springs of Almolonga. 



We were again on classic soil. The reader perhaps 

 requires to be reminded that the city stands on the site of 

 the ancient Xelahuh, next to Utatlan the largest city in 

 Quiche, the word Xelahuh meaning " under the govern- 

 ment of ten that is, it was governed by ten principal 

 captains, each captain presiding over eight thousand 

 dwellings, in all eighty thousand, and containing, ac- 

 cording to Fuentes, more than three hundred thousand 

 inhabitants ; that on the defeat of Tecum Umam by Al- 

 varado, the inhabitants abandoned the city, and fled to 

 their ancient fortresses, Excansel the volcano, and Cek- 

 xak, another mountain adjoining ; that the Spaniards en- 

 tered the deserted city, and, according to a manuscript 

 found in the village of San Andres Xecul, their videttes 

 captured the four celebrated caciques, whose names, the 

 reader doubtless remembers, were Calel Kalek, Ahpop- 

 gueham, Calelahan, and Calelaboy ; the Spanish rec- 

 ords say that they fell on their knees before Pedro Al- 

 varado, while a priest explained to them the nature of 

 the Christian faith, and they declared themselves ready 

 to embrace it. Two of them were retained as hostages, 

 and the others sent back to the fortresses, who returned 

 with such multitudes of Indians ready to be baptized, 

 that the priests, from sheer fatigue, could no longer lift 

 their arms to perform the ceremony. 



