BEARING OF THESE DOCUMENTS. 269 



the entering wedge, which, since driven to its mark, 

 has overturned all the institutions and destroyed for- 

 ever the national character of the aboriginal inhab- 

 itants. The Indians are still rulers over their vil- 

 lages, and meet to settle their boundary lines, but 

 they meet under the direction of Don Felipe Man- 

 riques, a Spanish officer, specially commissioned for 

 that purpose ; they establish their boundaries by 

 planting crosses, symbols introduced by the Span- 

 iards ; they have lost their proud and independent 

 national title of cacique, and are styled Dons and 

 Gohernadores ; under the gentle patting of the hand 

 destined soon to crush their race, they have aban- 

 doned even the names received from their fathers, 

 and have adopted, either voluntarily or by coercion, 

 the Christian names of the Spaniards ; and the 

 Lord of Mani himself, the lineal descendant of the 

 royal house of Maya, either that same Tutul Xiu 

 who first submitted himself and his vassals to the 

 dominion of Don Francisco Montejo, or his imme- 

 diate descendant, in compliment to the conqueror 

 and destroyer of his race, appears meekly and in- 

 gloriously under the name of Don Francisco Xiu. 



But it is not for the sake of this melancholy tale 

 that I have introduced these documents ; they have 

 another and a more important bearing. By this 

 act of partition it appears that, in 1557, "the 

 'udge arrived at TJxmal, accompanied by his inter- 

 reter Don Antonio Gaspar." And by the agree- 

 ent it appears that in 1556, one year previous, the 



