In the late 17th century, the Spanish missionary Fray Alonso De León reported that about eighty families in San Mateo Ixtatán did not pay tribute to the Spanish Crown or attend the Roman Catholic mass. He described the inhabitants as quarrelsome and complained that they had built a pagan shrine in the hills among the ruins of precolumbian temples, where they burnt incense and offerings and sacrificed turkeys. He reported that every March they built bonfires around wooden crosses about two leagues from the town and set them on fire. Fray Alonso de León informed the colonial authorities that the practices of the natives were such that they were Christian in name only. Eventually, Fray Alsonso De León was chased out of San Mateo Ixtatán by the locals.