(Edmonson 1984). Upon the fall of Peten Iz'a, only the Iz'a province of Uaan maintained an independent existence, and this only through strict secrecy. Pacification The Spanish were thoroughly occupied in 'pacifying' the Maya of the western half of the Iz'a state through the 18th century. The most famous of these campaigns was against the indigenous Kanek and his followers. This campaign finally ended with the death of the Kanek and his closest followers on December 14, 1761 ('10 Kaban, 15 Yax'). Uprising When the Criollo class declared Yucatecan independence in the mid-19th century and began fighting over control of the resources of their infant state, the Maya leadership saw their best chance to gain independence. They had been planning this action for some time, as revealed by letters discovered in the 21st century. (These constitute written orders, through an established military chain of command, to step up the plan.) They were written in the wake of the death of the Batab of Chichimilla, Antonio Manuel Ay, on August 26, 1847 (6 Kaban, 5 Xul), in a sanctuary plaza at Saki', the sacred 'White' city of the north near present-day Vallodolid. Exactly three days after Ay's death, the eastern Maya, now identified as Uiz'oob ('Loincloths'), rose in a general uprising which nearly drove the Yucatecos entirely from Chan Santa Cruz (Huchim 1997:97–107). This uprising, reaching its high tide in 1848, called La Guerra de las Castas Caste War of Yucatan by the Mexicans, resulted in the independence of the old Iz'a Maya state. The former Xiu Maya state remained in the hands of the Yucateco Creoles. The descendants of this short-lived Maya free state and those who live like them are commonly known as Cruzoob (Reed 1964). The independent Maya state The State of The Cross was proclaimed in 1849, in Xocén, a south-eastern satellite of modern Valladolid where the Proclamation of Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross) was first read to the people. The capital, Noh Kah Balam Nah Chan Santa Cruz, was founded in about 1850 near a sacred cenote, a natural well providing a year-round source of holy water. The talking cross continues to speak at this shrine (Reed 1964, Villa Rojas 1945). The city was laid out in the pre-Columbian Maya manner, surrounding a square with the Balam Nah, the 'Patron Saint's House', and the school at the east, the Pontiff's house at the