After the soldiers return to the ships, …
Years: 1517 - 1517
March
After the soldiers return to the ships, the navigator Antón de Alaminos imposes slow and vigilant navigation, moving only by day, because he is certain that Yucatán is an island.
The stores of potable water casks and jugs are not of the quality required for long voyages ("we were too poor to buy good ones", laments Bernal); the casks are constantly losing water and they also fail to keep it fresh, so de Córdoba's ships need to replenish their supplies ashore.
The Spaniards have already noted that the region seems to be devoid of freshwater rivers.
Fifteen days after the battle at Catoche, the expedition lands to fill their water vessels near a Maya village they call Lázaro (after St Lazarus' Sunday, the day of their landing; "The proper Indian name for it is Campeche", clarifies Bernal).
Once again they are approached by Indians appearing to be peaceable, and the now-suspicious Spaniards maintain a heavy guard on their disembarked forces.
During an uneasy meeting, the local Indians repeat a word (according to Bernal) that ought to have been enigmatic to the Spaniards: "Castilan".
This curious incident of the Indians apparently knowing the Spaniards' own word for themselves they will later attribute to the presence of the shipwrecked voyagers of de Nicuesa's unfortunate 1511 fleet.
Unknown to de Córdoba's men, the two remaining survivors, Jerónimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero, are living only several days' walk from the present site.
The Spaniards will not learn of these two men until the expedition of Hernán Cortés, two years later.
The Spaniards find a solidly built well used by the Indians to provide themselves with fresh water, with which they are invited fill their casks and jugs.
The Indians, again with friendly aspect and manner, bring them to their village, where once more they can see solid constructions and many idols (Bernal alludes to the painted figures of serpents on the walls, so characteristic of Mesoamerica).
They also meet their first priests, with their white tunics and their long hair impregnated with human blood.
This is the end of the Indians' friendly conduct: they convoke a great number of warriors and order them to burn some dry reeds, indicating to the Spaniards that if they aren't gone before the fire goes out, they will be attacked.
Hernández's men decide to retreat to the boats with their casks and jugs of water before the Indians can attack them, leaving safely behind them the discovery of Campeche.
Locations
People
- Bernal Díaz del Castillo
- Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar
- Francisco Hernández de Córdoba
- Gerónimo de Aguilar
- Gonzalo Guerrero
- Juan de Grijalva
Groups
- Maya peoples
- Santo Domingo, Captaincy General of
- Tierra Firme, Province of
- Cuba, Governorate of
- Spain, Habsburg Kingdom of
