Thus, the historian of Guatemala, Don Domingo Juarros, quotes from the
MSS. of Don Francisco Gomez, _Ahzib Kiche_, or Chief Scribe of the
Kiches, of Don Francisco Garcia Calel Tzumpan, of Don Juan Macario,
nephew, and Don Juan Torres, son, of the Chief Chignavincelut, and "the
histories written by the Quiches, Cakchiquels, Pipils, Pocomans, and
others, who learned to write their tongues from their Spanish teachers."
These MSS. gave the genealogies of their families and the migrations of
their ancestors "from the time when the Toltecs, from whom they trace
descent, first entered the territory of Mexico, and found it inhabited
by the Chichimecs."[34]
One of the motives prompting to the composition of these works was to
vindicate the claims of families to the sovereignty, or to the
possession of land. They were, in fact, a sort of briefs of titles to
real estate. One such is preserved, in the original, in the Brasseur
collection, and is catalogued as "The Royal Title of Don Francisco
Izquin, the last Ahpop Galel, or King, of Nehaib, granted by the lords
who invested him with his royal dignity, and confirmed by the last King
of Quiche, with other sovereigns, November 22, 1558."[35] A Spanish
translation of the title of a female branch of this same family was
printed at Guatemala in 1876, but the original text has never been put
to press, although it is said to be still preserved in one of the
ancient families of the Province of Totonicapam.
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