Bodegas on the south shore of the lake and in San Pedro de Amatique. By the latter half of the 18th century, the indigenous population of these towns had disappeared; the local inhabitants now consisted entirely of Spaniards, mulattos and others of mixed race, all associated with the Castillo de San Felipe de Lara fort guarding the entrance to Lake Izabal. The main cause of the drastic depopulation of Lake Izabal and the Motagua Delta was the constant slave raids by the Miskito Sambu of the Caribbean coast that effectively ended the Maya population of the region; the captured Maya were sold into slavery, a practise which was widespread among the Miskito. Conquest of Petén From 1527 onwards the Spanish were increasingly active in the Yucatán Peninsula, establishing a number of colonies and towns by 1544, Xocolo Campeche and Valladolid in what is now Mexico. The Spanish impact on the northern Maya, encompassing invasion, epidemic diseases and the export of up to 50,000 Maya slaves, caused many Maya to flee southwards to join the Itza around Lake Petén Itzá, within the modern borders of Guatemala. The Spanish were aware that the Itza Maya had become the centre of anti-Spanish resistance and engaged in a policy of encircling their kingdom and cutting their trade routes over the course of almost two hundred years. The Itza resisted this steady encroachment by recruiting their neighbours as allies against the slow Spanish advance. Dominican missionaries were active in Verapaz and the southern Petén from the late 16th century through the 17th century, attempting non-violent conversion with limited success. In the 17th century the Franciscans came to the conclusion that the pacification and Christian conversion of the Maya would not be possible as long as the Itza held out at Lake Petén Itzá. The constant flow of escapees fleeing the Spanish-held territories to find refuge with the Itza was a drain on the encomiendas. Fray Bartolomé de Fuensalida visited Nojpetén in 1618 and 1619. The Franciscan missionaries attempted to use their own reinterpretation of the kʼatun prophecies when they visited Nojpetén at this time, to convince the current Aj Kan Ekʼ and his Maya priesthood that the time for conversion had come. But the Itza priesthood interpreted the prophecies differently, and the missionaries were fortunate to escape with their lives. In 1695 the colonial authorities decided to connect the province of Guatemala with Yucatán, and