Note XIV‑7 — Chapter XIV · THREATENED DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIES. 1526-1543.

It will be remembered, however, that Alvarado procured relays of Indians from Guatemala to pack his material and supplies from Trujillo to Iztapa. Enough were left, remarks Remesal, upon whom to wreak his vengeance, and the Cakchiquel and Quiché princes, who appeared before him to do him homage, became the first victims. They were reproached with the reforms brought about in their favor, during his absence, as of crimes worthy of capital punishment; for daring to complain to the governor they were accused of rebellion. Nameless adventurers, who had been unable to extort enough gold from them, or take from them their vassals to work in their fields and houses, pretended that the ill-will of these chiefs had caused their ruin, and loudly demanded that the adelantado should grant new repartimientos according to their services. Alvarado, who was wounded to the quick by the appointment of Maldonado, listened to all these complaints, and now displayed his usual brutality. Prince Cook, Ahtzib of the Cakchiquel crown, he ran through with a sword. Tepepul, king of Gumarcaah, or Utatlan, and the Ahpozotzil Cahi Imox, together with a large number of lords, were cast into a prison on some frivolous pretext. When on the point of sailing from Iztapa, Alvarado being requested by the municipal council to determine their fate, settled the matter by hanging the latter and putting the former together with a number of the leading caciques on board his fleet. All of them perished miserably on the coast of Jalisco. Among his other victims was a lord called Chuwi-Tziquinu and 17 other Cakchiquel princes, whom he took with him from Santiago under pretence of conducting them to Mexico. When a short distance from the city he caused them all to be strangled. Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, lib. iv. cap. iv. v. xx.; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 797-801; Pelaez, Mem. Guat., i. 77.