| On his way to Mexico, Cortés would follow the routes of two previous expeditions whose violent consequences foreshadowed things to come. In
1517, a Spanish captain, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba,
took 110 men in four ships, and, at Cape Catoche, saw Mayan urban
civilization for the first time. At another place on the coast, near
Campeche, there was a sudden ferocious attack by a local chief who had
decided that the Spaniards were not gods, but merely predatory
barbarians who should be repelled forthwith. More than 20 of Cordoba's
Spaniards were killed, and most of the force was wounded and only
evacuated with difficulty. One ship had to be abandoned and Cordoba
got back to Cuba with half his expedition dead. It was not an
auspicious first encounter, but Cordoba had brought back gold pieces,
that the Maya had traded from a land to the north, a land called
"Mexico." The Spanish governor of Cuba, Diego de
Velásquez, organized a new expedition under Juan de Grijalva,
his nephew. Grijalva was also fiercely attacked by the Mayans, but
after a sea journey of several hundred miles, reached the coast of
Veracruz. Grijalva and his men now realized that — judging by the size
of the rivers, the height of the distant snow-capped mountains, and
the variety and richness of human cultures and languages — they were on
part of a continent, not an island. The empire was called
"Mexico."
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Cortés would follow in the footsteps of earlier expeditions to the Yucatan.
Credit: © Maya Vision Int Ltd |
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