CHAPTER I. IMPORTANCE OF THE HISTORY OF GUATEMALA.-EMBASSIES TO CORTEZ AFTER THE SIEGE OF MEXICO. HIS DISCOVERY OF THE SEA OF THE SOUTH.-ORIGIN OF THE KINGDOM OF GUATEMALA.-LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THAT COUNTRY.-EXPEDITION AGAINST GUATEMALA PREPARED. CHAPTER II. CONQUEST OF GUATEMALA BY PEDRO DE ALVARADO.-FOUNDING OF THE TOWN OF GUATEMALA. CHAPTER III. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DOMINICAN AND FRANCISCAN ORDERS IN NEW SPAIN.-LIFE OF DOMINGO DE BETANZOS.-LETTERS OF THE FIRST BISHOPS. CHAPTER IV. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TOWN OF SANTIAGO IN GUATEMALA.DOMINGO DE BETANZOS COMES TO SANTIAGO AND FOUNDS A DOMINICAN CONVENT THERE.-IS OBLIGED TO RETURN TO MEX ICO. CHAPTER V. REAPPEARANCE OF LAS CASAS.-HIS MISSION TO PERU.-HIS STAY IN NICARAGUA.-DISPUTES WITH THE GOVERNOR.-COMES TO GUATEMALA, AND OCCUPIES THE CONVENT THAT HAD BEEN FOUNDED BY domingo de BETANZOS.-ALVARADO'S EXPEDITION TO PERU.LAS CASAS AND HIS BRETHREN STUDY THE UTLATECAN LANGUAGE. VOL. III.-K CHAPTER VI. 66 LAS CASAS AND HIS MONKS OFFER TO CONQUER THE LAND OF WAR." THEY MAKE THEIR PREPARATIONS FOR THE ENTERPRISE. 66 CHAPTER VII. LAS CASAS SUCCEEDS IN SUBDUING AND CONVERTING BY PEACEABLE MEANS THE LAND OF WAR."-HE IS SENT TO SPAIN AND DETAINED THERE. CHAPTER VIII. DISCOVERY TO THE NORTH OF MEXICO.-DEATH OF ALVARADO, -EARTHQUAKE AT GUATEMALA.-GUATEMALA GOVERNED BY AN AUDIENCIA. CHAPTER IX. TRIUMPH OF THE DOMINICANS IN GUATEMALA. THE LAND OF WAR" IS CALLED 66 CHAPTER I. IMPORTANCE OF THE HISTORY OF GUATEMALA.-EMBASSIES TO CORTEZ AFTER THE SIEGE OF MEXICO.-HIS DISCOVERY OF THE SEA OF THE SOUTH.-ORIGIN OF THE KINGDOM OF GUATEMALA.-LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THAT COUNTRY.-EXPEDITION AGAINST GUATEMALA PREPARED. IT T must often have been felt that the narrative of the Spanish Conquest, whether told in strict order of time, or made to conform itself to place, was inconveniently scattered, and that it is occasionally difficult to maintain a clear view of the main drift and current of the story. Now, however, as in the closing act of a well-constructed drama, the principal events make themselves felt; the principal personages reappear together on the scene; and the threads of many persons' fortunes are found to lead up to some unity in time and place. This felicitous conjunction does not often happen in real life; but, at the particular point of the narrative which we have now to consider, something of the kind undoubtedly did occur. In the decade of years that followed after the conquest of Mexico, the spot where some of the most important conquests were completed and the greatest expeditions prepared, where the strangest experiments were made for the conversion of the natives, where the discovery took place of the most remarkable monuments of American civilization, and the theatre wherein was acted that series of events which led to the greatest changes in Spanish legislation for the Indies, was the province of Guate 220 Discovery of Guatemala. mala. The wars in this province, though very considerable, were not of the first magnitude or interest; and as, in the early periods of historical writing, wars are the main staple of history, the other events in this part of the world, not being illustrated by great wars, have escaped due notice. Hence the majority even of studious men are probably not aware of the important circumstances in the history of America with which this narrow strip of territory, called Guatemala, is connected. Without further prelude, I propose to narrate in detail the events which led to the discovery, the conquest, and the pacification of Guatemala. Cortez was a man of insatiable activity. It might have been thought that, after the conquest of Mexico, the rebuilding and repeopling of the city would have sufficiently exhausted the energies even of that active man. But it was not so. He is chiefly known to the world by that conquest of Mexico which, for its audacity, stands unrivaled in the annals of mankind; but he was subsequently employed in further conquests, which cost him far more labor and suffering, but have hardly added at all to his renown, so little time and thought can men spare for a thorough investigation of the lives and deeds of even their most remarkable fellow-men. Almost in the next page of his third letter to the Emperor, after that in which he describes the siege and capture of Mexico, Cortez begins to inform his majesty what steps he has taken for the discovery of that which he calls "the other Sea of the South." After the last discharge of the cannon of Cortez had been made upon the helpless but unyielding crowd of |