Note 103 — Chapter V

The Manuscrit Cakchiquel, or Mémorial de Tecpan-Atitlan, as he calls it, was given to Brasseur de Bourbourg by Juan Gavarrete, of the Convent of Franciscans of Guatemala. Its author, says the Abbé ([a], i. p. lxxxiii) was Don Francisco Ernandez Arana Xahila, of the Princes Ahpotzotziles of Guatemala, grandson of King Hunyg, who died of the plague, five years before the Spaniards set foot in this country, in 1519. The manuscript was brought down to 1582 by this author, and thence carried forward to 1597 by Don Francisco Diaz Gebuta Queh, of the same family. Brinton published his translation under the title, The Annals of the Cakchiquels, in Philadelphia, 1885, and the work now commonly is referred to under this name. It is Brinton's version which is here followed, with some inconsequential alterations of phraseology. In his introduction Brinton gives (pp. 39-48) interesting comments on the "Religious Notions."