The Mayan Codex

80

‘So Friar Diego de Landa, scourge and nemesis of the Maya, was born. But the Friar was careful not to take on too much responsibility for the outrages he was about to perpetrate, as he did not wish to alienate his masters in Rome. Instead he sent the army on ahead of him. Then he followed along, some days behind, to sweep up the army’s leavings. He took me along as aide, secretary, and translator, so I am able to bear witness to what happened next.

‘In the town of Cupul, the army decided to burn the headman and his advisors alive. To achieve this, they crucified them, and placed braziers beneath their feet. Then they lit the braziers and forced the townspeople to watch the scene. Those they did not burn, they hanged.

‘Later, the Spaniards moved against the Yobain, in the town of Chels. In this town they took all the leading men and placed them in the stocks, and beat them. Then they placed the men, still in the stocks, inside a house, which they then burned down. This was a different system to that which they had used in Cupul.

‘Next, they moved the women and children out of the village. Feeling that they had not sufficiently made their point to the outlying villages, the Captain of the Spaniards then took the women and ordered them strung up to the branches of a great tree, with their children hanging beneath them like fruit. This, I believe, was done to undermine Maya belief in the Great World Tree, which to us supports all life. This particular Maya tree, we were to observe, supported only death.

‘In the next town, Verey, and feeling that some of the women were too beautiful and that they might therefore inflame the soldiers to unholy acts, the Captain of the Spaniards ordered that their breasts be cut off, and that they should then be hung in full view of the whole village to prove to our people that the Spaniards were indifferent to our women. These women, too, died.

‘The Friar and his retinue, of which I formed a part, arrived in these towns two to three days after the soldiers had passed. The people, fearing reprisals, had not dared to cut down the bodies, which stank and putrefied in the midsummer heat. The Friar, wishing to be seen to act in a kindly fashion after the outrages of the soldiers, allowed the townspeople to cut down the victims of his purge – their bodies, however, could not be buried, but must be burnt, and, like Nachi Cocom’s, be scattered over the fields. This the Friar ordered.

‘Next, our retinue moved to the provinces of Cochuah and Chetumal. Here our people, hearing of what the Spanish had done to their brothers and sisters, rose up against them. But without proper weapons, fighting dogs, and horses, they were powerless. Those who were captured had their noses, and their hands, and their arms, and their legs, and in the case of the women, their breasts, and in the case of the men, their genitals, carved off. Then all were taken, alive or dead, to the cenote from out of which the people drew their water, and, with gourds tied to their feet or what remained of their trunks, they were thrown into the deep waters. Children who could not walk as fast as their mothers were speared. This we heard from the survivors, of whom there were few, as most had been taken into the Spaniards’ service as slaves.

‘The Friar declared himself outraged at what had occurred. He conducted formal ceremonies over the dead, and blessed the survivors. I joined in with these ceremonies, and made much of the wisdom of the Friar’s doings, as my duty was to remain always at his side and to represent our people – for such was the quality of the oath that I had undertaken before the assembled Chilans. An oath that forced me into seeming what I was not. An oath which forced me into observing and annotating the horrors which I saw perpetrated against those of the same blood as myself – those who worshipped the same gods – those who stemmed from the very same clay.

‘This I tell you, in advance, so that you may better understand why I am desecrating the last of our holy books with my writing. For now I am going to recount what happened today, at Mani, under the Friar’s direct supervision, and which makes all that we had previously seen appear as the dalliance of un-parented children.’