CHAPTER VI. THE VOYAGE. 1519.

who had eaten Valdivia and the others with the same relish that the Cyclops ate the companions of Ulysses, the survivors threw themselves on the mercy of a neighboring cacique called Ahkin Xooc. He with his successor, Taxmar, enslaved them, and treated them so severely that all died but himself and the sailor, Guerrero. There is a law of relativity which applies to happiness and misery, no less than to mental and physical consciousness. By ways widely different these two men had saved themselves; the former by humility and chastity, the latter by boldness and sensuality. Securing services under Nachan Kan, cacique of Chetumal, the sailor adopted the dress and manners of the people, rapidly rose in favor, became the chief captain of his master, married a woman of rank, and began to rear a dusky race; so that when the messengers of Cortés arrived he declined to be ransomed.¹⁷ Then blushing beneath his tawny skin the sanctified Aguilar went on to tell of his own temptations and triumphs, in which he had been as lonely as was Ethan Brand in hugging the unpardonable sin. So sublime had been his patience and his piety under the drudgery at first put upon him, that he too rose in the estimation of his master, who was led to entrust him with more important matters. For in all things pertaining to flesh and spirit he acted with so much conscientiousness that Taxmar, a stranger to those who loved virtue for its own sake, suspected the motives that inspired his captives. To test his wonderful integrity, for he had noticed that Aguilar never raised his eyes to look upon a woman, Taxmar once sent him for fish to a distant station, giving him as sole companion a beautiful girl, who had been instructed to employ all her arts to cause the Christian to break his vow of continency. Care had been taken that there should be but one hammock between them, and at night she bantered him to occupy it with her; but stopping his ears to the voice of the siren, he threw himself upon the cold, chaste sands, and passed the night in peaceful dreams beneath the songs of heaven.¹⁸