EXPEDITION OF DON MARTIN DE URSUA. 195 



progress of that of Lacandon, and other barbarous 

 Nations of Gentile Indians in the Mediacion of Yu- 

 catan and Guatimala." It was pubhshed at Madrid 

 in the year 1701, and, what gives it great value, 

 within four years after the events referred to took 

 place. 



The work of opening the road was begun in 1695. 

 In prosecuting it, the Spaniards encountered'vestiges 

 of ancient buildings raised on terraces, deserted and 

 overgrown, and apparently very ancient. These, it 

 is true, may have been abandoned long before the 

 conquest ; but, as the Spaniards had now been in 

 the country one hundred and fifty years, it is not un- 

 reasonable to suppose that the terror of their name 

 may have made desolate many places which their 

 arms never reached. 



On the twenty-first of January, 1697, Don Mar- 

 tin de Ursua set out from Campeachy to take com- 

 mand of the expedition in person, with a vicar-gen- 

 eral and assistant, already nominated by the bishop, 

 for the province of Itza. On the last day of Febru- 

 ary he had timber cut on the borders of Peten for 

 the construction of vessels which should convey 

 them to the island. He sent before a proclamation, 

 giving notice that the time had come when they 

 should have one cup and one plate with the Span- 

 iards. " If not," says the proclamation, " I will do 

 what the king commands me, but which it is not 

 necessary now to express.*' The thirteenth of March 

 was appointed for the day of embarcation. Some 



