ibbean. In 1512 he sent another messenger (named as Witz'itz'il) warning of the arrival of the Spanish in Yucatán and Veracruz.
In 1513 the Kaqchikel suffered from a plague of locusts. The following year, in 1514, Iximche was severely damaged by a fire. A plague, described as terrible in the Annals of the Kaqchikel, struck the city in 1519 and lasted two years, resulting in a large number of deaths. This was likely to have been smallpox brought to the Americas with the Spanish. After the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish onslaught in 1521, the Kaqchikel sent messengers to Hernán Cortés offering an alliance with the Spanish.
On 11 August 1521, Belehe Qat and Cahi Imox were chosen as lords of the city after the deaths of Hun-Iq' and Lahuh-Noh, the previous kings. Cahi Imox was the Ahpo Sotz'il and Belehe Qat was the Ahpo Xahil. On the eve of the Spanish Conquest, the Kaqchikel kingdom based at Iximche was still expanding into areas formerly controlled by the K'iche' and it was rapidly becoming the most powerful new kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. It was second in importance only to the K'iche' capital at Q'umarkaj.
Spanish Conquest
When Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado arrived in what is now Guatemala in 1524, 3 years after the conquest of the Aztecs, he found the highland Maya kingdoms weakened by twenty years of warfare and swept by the first European plagues. In the period of February to March 1524 he fought and completely defeated the K'iche', razed Q'umarkaj and executed the K'iche' kings. The Spanish were invited into Iximche on 14 April 1524 and were well received by the lords Belehe Qat and Cahi Imox. The Kaqchikel kings provided native soldiers to assist the conquistadors against continuing K'iche' resistance and to help with the defeat of the neighbouring Tz'utuhil kingdom. The Spanish only stayed briefly in Iximche before continuing
