Note XVIII‑18 — Chapter XVIII · PROGRESS OF AFFAIRS IN GUATEMALA. 1541-1550.

The bishop, however, thought otherwise. In an address to the people for the purpose of encouraging them, he said: 'Que á los buenos habia llevado Dios á su gloria y á los que los habia dexado, nos habia avisado para que fuésemos tales.' Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., iii. 385. Remesal uncompromisingly attributes the catastrophe to blasphemous language of Doña Beatriz, and adds that so exasperated were the inhabitants that they wished to cast her body to the dogs, as that of another Jezebel. Hist. Chyapa, 179-80. Vazquez treats this charge as an absurdity and intimates that it is an invention of Remesal, who he says was the first to publish such a story. Chron. de Gvat., 91. But this last author also errs, since the belief undoubtedly prevailed, as is proved by the anonymous writer on the above quoted page of Pacheco and Cárdenas. Mendieta, while inclined to excuse the language attributed to Doña Beatriz, implies that it was a punishment from God who was displeased with Alvarado's irregular second marriage. Hist. Ecles., 390.