Note IV‑34 — Chapter IV · THE CAKCHIQUELS AGAIN IN REVOLT. 1525-1526.

The Recordacion Florida de la Historia de Guatemala by Don Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman is a manuscript work in three volumes, two of which exist in the archives of the municipality of Guatemala city. They comprise seventeen books, the first of which relates to the history of the indigenous races, the substance of which is taken almost entirely from Torquemada. The six following books treat consecutively of the conquest down to the time of the Spaniards entering Guatemala; of its independence with respect to Mexico; of the destruction of old Santiago and Alvarado's life and career; of the founding of the second city of Santiago; of miraculous images existing in Guatemala; and of the privileges and ordinances of its capital city. The next nine contain descriptions of as many principal valleys of the province, among which may be mentioned those of Las Vacas, Mixco, Zacatepec, and Xilotepec. In these descriptions the author deals with all matters of interest connected with the valleys, including Indian games. The seventeenth book is devoted to the historiography of the spiritual administration of these valleys in the writer's time. According to Beristain the first volume was sent to Spain to be printed, but nothing more is known of it. Fuentes y Guzman was born in Antigua Guatemala, his family being descended from Bernal Diaz. Juarros states that he wrote in 1695. Guat. (ed. London, 1823), 309. He had at his command a large number of rare documents, but did not make such use of them as an unbiassed chronicler would have done. His admiration of the conquerors was too great to admit of his making mention of the cruelties which such documents must have exposed. The same feeling urged him to indulge in invective against Las Casas. Such were his prejudices in this respect, that as regards the conquest, he could not be considered a reliable historian were there no other evidence of his inaccuracies; but when I find that in many instances his narrative is at variance with that given in Alvarado's own letters, the necessity of receiving his statements with additional caution is apparent. Brasseur de Bourbourg is, perhaps, extreme in saying: 'Le mensonge qui règne continuellement dans les récits de Fuentes,' Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 690; but this latter author was as ready to accept Indian versions of events, as the other was disposed to ignore them. The style of Fuentes, though not wanting in elegance and descriptive power, often becomes flowery and sometimes inflated.