MISSION OF TWO MONKS. 193 



Itza, which province, for one hundred and fifty years 

 after the subjugation of Yucatan, maintained its fierce 

 and native independence. In the year 1608, sixty- 

 six years after the conquest, two Franciscan monks, 

 alone, without arms, and in the spirit of peace, set 

 out to conquer this province by converting the na- 

 tives to Christianity. The hmits of these pages 

 will not permit me to accompany them in their 

 toilsome and dangerous journey, but, according to 

 the account of one of them as given by Cogolludo, 

 at ten o'clock at night they landed on the island, 

 were provided with a house by the king, and the 

 next day preached to the Indians ; but the latter 

 told them that the time had not yet come for them 

 to become Christians, and advised the monks to go 

 away and return at some other day. Neverthe- 

 less, they carried them round to see the town, and 

 in the middle of one of the temples they saw a great 

 idol of the figure of a horse, made of lime and stone, 

 seated on the ground on his haunches, with his hind % 

 legs bent, and raised on his fore feet, being intended 

 as an image of the horse which Cortez left at that 

 place on his great journey from Mexico to Honduras. 

 On that occasion the Indians had seen the Spaniards 

 fire their muskets from the backs of the horses, and 

 supposing that the fire and noise were caused by 

 the animals, they called this image Tzimin Chac, 

 and adored it as the god of thunder and hghtning. 

 As the monks saw it, one of them, says the author 

 of the account, seemed as if the Spirit of the Lord 

 Vol. IL— B b 17 



