west, the General's houses at the north, and the storehouses and market to the south (Reed 1964). The regional capitals in Bak Halal, Chun Pom, (Vigia Chico) and Tulum, were probably laid out on the same plan as the capital. At its greatest extent, from the 1860s through the 1890s, the Chan Santa Cruz state encompassed all of the southern and central parts of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. With associated, buffer and splinter groups, this state was the core of a broader indigenist independence movement that controlled virtually all of the old Iz'a territories. These territories include the eastern, central and southern portions of the Yucatán peninsula, extending from Cape Catoche south to include what is now northwestern Belize and northeastern Guatemala. The fall of the Maya free state From the late 1850s through 1893, the United Kingdom recognized the Maya free state as a de facto independent nation, even sponsoring treaty negotiations between the Mexican hispanic Yucateco state and the Maya Cruzoob state. These negotiations resulted in a signed international treaty, which was never ratified by either party. The Maya state had extensive trade relations with the British colony of British Honduras, and its military was substantially larger than the garrison and militia in the British colony. In contrast to the Yucatecans and the Mexicans, the British found it both practical and profitable to maintain good relations with the Maya free state for some years. All this changed after the Maya laid siege to and conquered Bacalar, originally the Mayan holy city of Bak Halal ('Decanting Water'). They summarily killed British citizens, along with the entire Yucatec 'Creoles' garrison (Reed 1964). It is unclear why the commanding general ordered a wholesale slaughter of the garrison. Possibly he was tired of retaking the city from the more aggressive Yucateco state. Regardless, this action frightened the tiny British colonial establishment in neighboring British Honduras. The British Government assigned Sir Spenser St. John to disentangle Her Majesty's Government from indigenous free states and the Maya free state in particular. In 1893, the British Government signed the Spenser Mariscal Treaty, which ceded all of the Maya free state's lands to Mexico. Meanwhile, the Creoles on the west side of the Yucatán peninsula had come to realize that their minority-ruled mini-state could not outlast its indigenous neighbor. After the Creoles offered their country to anyone who might consider the defense of their