Bernal Díaz del Castillo had sailed to Tierra Firme (now Nombre de Dios in modern Panama) with the expedition led by Pedrarias Dávila in 1514 to make his fortune, but after two years had found few opportunities there.

Many of the settlers had been sickened or killed by an epidemic, and there was political unrest.

He had later sailed to Cuba, where he has been promised a grant of native laborers as a part of the encomienda system.

Native “laborers “ have become scarce, though, and those colonists lacking manpower to work their holdings will need to find new peoples to enslave for work in the mines and plantations.

Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, together with some one hundred and ten discontented Spanish settlers in Cuba, including Bernal Díaz, petitions the governor, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, for permission to launch an expedition in search of new lands and exploitable resources.

Little is known of Córdoba's life before his exploration of the Yucatán.

A native of Spain, his residence in Cuba indicates that he had participated in the conquest of the island.

He is also quite wealthy, as he both owns a landed estate, including a native town, and self-finances his expedition to Mexico.

Official permission is granted after some haggling over terms, and the expedition, consisting of two warships and a brigantine under Hernández de Córdoba's command, leaves the harbor of Santiago de Cuba on February 8, 1517, to explore the shores of southern Mexico.

The main pilot is Antón de Alaminos, from Palos, the premiere navigator of the region, who had accompanied Christopher Columbus on his initial voyages.

The pilots of the other two ships are Juan Álvarez de Huelva (nicknamed "el manquillo", which indicates that he was missing a limb), and Camacho de Triana (the name suggests he was from Seville).

Santiago de Cuba, the fifth village founded by Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar on July 25, 1515, had been destroyed in 1516 by fire and immediately rebuilt.

This is the starting point of the expeditions led by Juan de Grijalva and Hernán Cortés to the coasts of Mexico in 1517 and 1518, respectively.

The Hernández expedition follows the coast of "Isla Fernandina" (Cuba) until February 20, when, at the point of Cape San Antonio, Cuba, they take to the open sea.

There follow two days and nights of furious storm, according to Bernal Díaz so strong as to endanger the boats, and in any case sufficient to consolidate the doubt about the objective of the expedition, because after the storm one may suspect that they did not know their location.

Two decades of Spanish conquest and slavery have depleted the indigenous population of the West Indies.

Cuban Governor Diego de Velázquez, hoping to establish a colony that might supply mineral riches and a replacement slave labor force, has sent a slave-hunting military expedition to the mainland under Francisco Hernandez de Córdoba.

Escaping a two-day storm of Cuba’s western tip, the expedition had sailed through twenty-one days of fair weather and calm seas after, which they spot the Maya-occupied Yucatán coast and, some six miles from the the coast and visible from the ships, the first large populated center seen by Europeans in the Americas, with the first solidly built buildings: this is possibly near the site of present Chetumal.

The Spaniards, who evoke the Muslims in all that is developed but not Christian, speak of this first city they discover in America as El gran Cairo, as they later are to refer to pyramids or other religious buildings as mezquitas, "mosques".

It is reasonable to designate this moment as the discovery of Yucatán—even "of Mexico", if one uses "Mexico" in the sense of the borders of the modern nation state—but it should be noted that Hernández's expeditionaries are not the first Spaniards to tread on Yucatán.

In 1511 a boat of the fleet of Diego de Nicuesa, which was returning to Hispaniola, was wrecked near the coast of Yucatán, and some of its occupants had managed to save themselves.

At the moment in which the soldiers of Hernández see and name El gran Cairo, two of those shipwrecked sailors, Gerónimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero, are living in the area of Campeche, speaking the Mayan dialect of the area, and Gonzalo Guerrero even seems to have been governing an indigenous community.

Nicuesa's shipwrecked sailors who had not been not sacrificed or worked to death by their Maya captors had ended up enslaved.

The two boats of shallower draft go on ahead to investigate whether they could anchor securely near land.

Expedition member Bernal Diaz dates March 4, 1517 as the first encounter with the Indians of Yucatán, who approach these boats in ten large canoes (called pirogues), using both sails and oars.

Making themselves understood by signs—the first interpreters, Julián and Melchior, sare obtained by precisely this expedition — the Indians, always with "smiling face and every appearance of friendliness", communicate to the Spaniards that the next day more pirogues will come to bring the recent arrivals to land.

This moment in which the Indians come up to the Spanish boats and accept strings of green beads and other trifles fashioned for this purpose is one of the few peaceful contacts that Hernández's group will have with the Indians, and even these gestures of peace are feigned on the part of the Indians.

The following day, as promised, the natives return with more canoes, to transfer the Spaniards to land.

They are alarmed that the shore is full of natives, and that consequently the landing might prove to be dangerous.

Nonetheless, they land as they are asked to by their until-now friendly host, the cacique (chief) of El Gran Cairo, deciding however to land en masse using also their own launches as a precaution.

It also appears they armed themselves with crossbows and muskets (escopetas); "fifteen crossbows and ten muskets", if we credit the remarkably precise memory of Bernal Díaz del Castillo.

The Spaniards' fears are almost immediately confirmed.

The chief had prepared an ambush for the Spaniards as they approached the town.

They are attacked by a multitude of Indians, armed with pikes, bucklers, slings (Bernal says slings; Diego de Landa denies that the Indians of Yucatán were familiar with slings; he says they threw stones with their right hand, using the left to aim; but the sling was known in other parts of Mesoamerica, and the testimony of those at whom the stones were aimed seems worth crediting), arrows launched from a bow, and cotton armor.

Only the surprise resulting from the effectiveness of the Spaniards' weapons—swords, crossbows, and firearms—puts the more numerous Indians to flight, and allows the Spaniards to re-embark, having suffered the first injuries of the expedition.

as a result of which at least two soldiers will die.

During this battle of Catoche two things occur that are to greatly influence future events.

The first is the capture of two Indians, taken back on board the Spanish ships.

These individuals, who once baptized into the Roman Catholic faith, will receive the names Julianillo and Melchorejo (anglicized to Julián and Melchior), will later become the first Maya language interpreters for the Spanish, on Juan de Grijalva's subsequent expedition.

The second originates from the curiosity and valor of the cleric González, chaplain of the group, who having landed with the soldiers, undertakes to explore—and plunder—a pyramid and some adoratorios while his companions are trying to save their lives.

González has the first view of Maya idols and he brings away with him pieces "half of gold, and the rest copper", which in all ways will suffice to excite the covetousness of the Spaniards of Cuba upon the expedition's return.

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.

Hernández and his would-be conquistadors sail some six days in good weather and another four in a tempest that almost wrecks their ships.

Their supply of good drinking water is now yet again exhausted, owing to the poor condition of the containers.

Being now in an extreme situation, they stop to gather water in a place that Bernal sometimes calls Potonchán and sometimes by its present-day name of Champotón, where the river of the same name meets the sea.

When they have filled the jugs, they find themselves surrounded by great assemblies of Indians.

They pass the night on land, with great precautions and wakeful vigilance.

This time the Spaniards decide not to take flight as in Lázaro-Campeche: they need water, and any retreat, hindered by the Indians, seems more dangerous than attack.

They decide to stay and fight, but the outcome is bad for them: when dawn broke, they are evidently vastly outnumbered ("by two hundred to one", claims Bernal), and only shortly into the ensuing battle Bernal speaks of eighty injured Spaniards.

Keeping in mind that the original number of the expedition was about a hundred, not all soldiers, this suggests that at this moment the expedition is close to destruction.

They soon discover that the legions of Indians are being continually replenished by fresh reinforcements, and if good swords, crossbows, and muskets had astonished them at first, they have now overcome the surprise and maintain a certain distance from the Spaniards.

At the cry of "Calachuni", which the conquistadors soon learn is a word for "chief" or "captain", the Indians are particularly merciless in attacking Hernández de Córdoba, who is hit by ten arrows.

The Spanish also learn the dedication of their opponents to capturing people alive: two are taken prisoner and certainly sacrificed afterwards; of one we know that his name was Alonso Boto, and of the other Bernal is only able to say of him that he was "an old Portuguese".

Eventually, with only one Spanish soldier remaining unhurt, the captain practically unconscious, and the aggression of the Indians only increasing, they decide that their only recourse is to form a close phalanx and break out of their encirclement in the direction of the launches, and to return to board them—leaving behind the water jugs—and get back to the ships.

Fortunately for them, the Indians hadn't concerned themselves to take away the boats or to render them useless, as they might easily have done.

When attacking the retreating boats with arrows, stones, and pikes they make a particular effort to interfere with their balance by weight and impact, and end up dumping some of the Spaniards into the water.

The survivors among Hernández's men have to get quickly out to their ships, half swimming and hanging onto the edges of the launches, but in the end they are recovered by the boat with the shallowest draft, and reach safety.

The Spaniards have lost fifty companions, including the two taken alive.

The survivors are badly injured, with the sole exception of a soldier named Berrio, who is surprisingly unscathed.

Five die in the following days, the bodies being buried at sea.

The Spanish call the place the "La Costa de Mala Pelea" "coast of the evil battle", a name it will have on maps for many years.

The Grijalva expedition’s crew had returned to the ships without the fresh water that had been the original reason to land.

Furthermore, they had seen their crew reduced by more than fifty men, many of them sailors, which combined with the great number of the seriously injured makes it an impossibility to operate three ships.

They break up the ship of least draft and burn it on the high sea, after having distributed to the others two its sails, anchors, and cables.

The thirst begins to become intolerable.

Bernal writes that their "mouths and tongues were cracked", and of soldiers who were driven by desperation to drink brackish water at a place which they called El Estero de los Lagartos, because of the large alligators.

The pilots Alaminos, Camacho, and Álvarez decide, on the initiative of Alaminos, to navigate to Florida rather than head directly for Cuba.

Alaminos remembers his exploration of Florida with Juan Ponce de León, and believes this to be the safest route, although promptly upon arriving in Florida he advises his companions of the bellicosity of the local natives.

In the event, the twenty people—among them, Bernal and the pilot Alaminos—who debark in search of water are attacked by natives, although this time they come out victorious, with Bernal nonetheless receiving his third injury of the voyage, and Alaminos taking an arrow in the neck.

One of the sentries who had been placed on guard around the troop disappears: Berrio, precisely the only soldier who had escaped unscathed in Champotón.

The others are able to return to the boat, and finally bring fresh water to alleviate the suffering of those who had remained with the boat, although one of them (according to Bernal) drinks so much that he swells up and dies within a few days.

Now with fresh water, they head to Havana in the two remaining ships, and not without difficulties—the boats are deteriorated and taking on water, and some mutinous sailors refuse to work the pumps—they are able to complete their voyage and disembark in the port of Carenas (Havana).

Francisco Hernández de Córdoba barely reaches Cuba; suffering from his mortal wounds, he expires within days of reaching the port, along with three other sailors.

The importance given to the news, objects, and people that Hernández had brought to Cuba can be gleaned from the speed with which the following expedition has been prepared.

The governor Diego Velázquez places his nephew Juan de Grijalva, who has his complete confidence, in charge of this second expedition.

The news that this "island" of Yucatán has gold, doubted by Bernal but enthusiastically maintained by Julianillo, the Maya prisoner taken at the battle of Catoche, feeds the subsequent series of events that is to end with the Conquest of Mexico by the third flotilla sent, that of Hernán Cortés.

Governor Velázquez provides all four ships, in an attempt to protect his claim over the peninsula.

The small fleet is stocked with crossbows, muskets, barter goods, salted pork and cassava bread.

According to Hernán Cortés, one hundred and seventy people traveled with Grijalva, but according to the court historian Peter Martyr there were three hundred people.

The principal pilot is Antón de Alaminos; the other pilots are Juan Álvarez, Pedro Camacho de Triana, and Grijalva.

Other members include Francisco de Montejo, who will eventually conquer much of the peninsula, Pedro de Alvarado, Juan Díaz, Francisco Peñalosa, Alonso de Ávila, Alonso Hernández, Julianillo, Melchorejo, and Antonio Villafaña.

Bernal Díaz del Castillo serves on the crew; he is able to secure a place on the expedition as a favor from the governor, who is his kinsman.

They embark from the port of Matanzas, Cuba, with four ships in April 1518.

Juan de Grijalva, after rounding the Guaniguanico in Cuba, sails along the Mexican coast and discovers Cozumel.

The Maya inhabitants flee the Spanish and will not respond to Grijalva's friendly overtures.

The Maya are believed to have first settled Cozumel by the early part of the first millennium CE, and older Preclassic Olmec artifacts have been found on the island as well.

The island is sacred to Ix Chel, the Maya Moon Goddess, and the temples here are a place of pilgrimage, especially by women desiring fertility.

There are today a number of ruins on the island, most from the Post-Classic period.

The largest Maya ruins on the island are near the downtown area and have now been destroyed.

Today, the largest remaining ruins are at San Gervasio, located approximately at the center of the island.

The fleet sails south from Cozumel, along the east coast of the peninsula.

The Spanish spot three large Maya cities along the coast, one of which is probably Tulum, a busy Maya commercial center with dazzling white buildings.

On Ascension Thursday the fleet discovers a large bay, which the Spanish name Bahía de la Ascensión.

Grijalva does not land at any of these cities and turns back north from Ascensión Bay.