The Annals of the Cakchiquels | Page 5

one where
the possession of the leadership was merely an act of grasping by the
strongest arm.
Of the four nations, the Quiches were the most numerous and powerful.
At times they exercised a sovereignty over the others, and levied tribute
from them. But at the period of Alvarado's conquest, all four were
independent States, engaged in constant hostilities against each other.
There is no means of forming an accurate estimate of their number. All
early accounts agree that their territory was thickly populated, with
numerous towns and cities.[21-1] The contingent sent to Alvarado by
the Cakchiquel king, to aid in the destruction of Quiche, was four
thousand warriors in one body, according to Alvarado's own statement,
though Xahila puts it at four hundred. There are various reasons for

believing that the native population was denser at the Conquest than at
present; and now the total aboriginal population of the State of
Guatemala, of pure or nearly pure blood, is about half a million souls.
The Capital City of the Cakchiquels.
The capital city of the Cakchiquels is referred to by Xahila as "Iximche
on the Ratzamut." It was situated on the lofty plateau, almost on a line
connecting Gumarcaah, the capital of the Quiches, with the modern city
of Guatemala, about twelve leagues from the latter and eight from the
former. Its name, Iximche, is that of a kind of tree (che=tree) called by
the Spanish inhabitants ramon, apparently a species of Brosimium.
Ratzamut, literally "the beak of the wild pigeon," was the name given
to the small and almost inaccessible plain, surrounded on all sides by
deep ravines, on which Iximche was situated. Doubtless, it was derived
from some fancied resemblance of the outline of the plain to the beak
of this bird.
The capital was also called simply tinamit, the city (not Patinamit, as
writers usually give it, as pa is not an article but a preposition, in or at);
and by the Aztec allies of the conqueror Alvarado, Quauhtemallan,
"place of the wood-pile," for some reason unknown to us.[22-1] The
latter designation was afterwards extended to the province, and under
the corrupt form Guatemala is now the accepted name of the State and
its modern capital.
The famous captain, Pedro de Alvarado was the first European to visit
Iximche. He entered it on April 13th, 1524 (old style). In his letter
describing the occurrence, however, he says little or nothing about the
size or appearance of the buildings.[22-2]
Scarcely more satisfactory are the few words devoted to it by Captain
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who spent a night there the same year. He
observes that "its buildings and residences were fine and rich, as might
be expected of chiefs who ruled all the neighboring provinces."[23-1]
When the revolt of the Cakchiquels took place, soon afterwards,
Iximche was deserted, and was never again fully inhabited. The

Spaniards ordered the natives to settle in other localities, the
fortifications of their capital were demolished, and many of the stones
carried away, to construct churches and houses in other localities.
The next account we have of it dates from the year 1695, when the
historian and antiquary, Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman,
wrote a detailed description of its ruins from personal inspection. The
account of this enthusiastic author is the only one which supplies any
approximate notion of what the city must have been in its flourishing
period, and I therefore translate it, almost entire, from the recently
published edition of his voluminous work, the Recordacion
Florida.[23-2] His chapter will throw light on several otherwise
obscure passages in Xahila's narrative.
"Tecpan goathemala was a city of the ancient inhabitants, populous,
wonderful and impregnable, from the character of its position, situated
in this valley (of Chimaltenango), on an elevated and cool site. It lies
eight leagues in a straight line from New Guatemala. Around this
ancient and dismantled town, now falling into utmost decay, extends a
deep ravine, like a moat, plunging straight down to a depth of more
than a hundred fathoms. This ravine, or moat, is three squares in width
from one battlement or bank to the other, and they say that a good part
of it was a work of hands, for the security and defense of the city. There
is no other entrance than a very narrow causeway, which cuts the ravine
at a point a little north of west. The whole area of the space where are
these ancient ruins measures three miles from north to south and two
from east to west, and its complete circumference is nine miles. In the
heart and centre of this area was prominently erected that great city of
Tecpan goathemala.
"The whole surface of the soil in this ancient city seems to have been
artificially prepared, by means of a