The Spanish caravel Santa María de la Barca had set sail along the Central American coast under the command of Pedro de Valdivia in 1511.

The ship was sailing to Santo Domingo from Darién to inform the colonial authorities there of ongoing conflict between conquistadors Diego de Nicuesa and Vasco Nuñez de Balboa in Darién.

The ship had foundered upon a reef known as Las Víboras ("The Vipers") or, alternatively, Los Alacranes ("The Scorpions"), somewhere off Jamaica.

There were just twenty survivors from the wreck, including Captain Valdivia, Gerónimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero.

They set themselves adrift in one of the ship's boats, with bad oars and no sail; after thirteen days during which half of the survivors died, they made landfall upon the coast of Yucatán, where they were seized by Halach Uinik, a Maya lord.

Captain Valdivia had been sacrificed with four of his companions, their flesh served at a feast.

Aguilar and Guerrero had been held prisoner and fattened for killing, together with five or six of their shipmates.

Aguilar and Guerrero had managed to escape their captors and fled to a neighboring lord who was an enemy of Halach Uinik; he took them prisoner and kept them as slaves.

After a time, Gonzalo Guerrero had been passed as a slave to the lord Nachan Can of Chetumal.

Guerrero has become completely Mayanized and serves his new lord with such loyalty that he is married to one of Nachan Chan's daughters, Zazil Ha, by whom he will have three children.

By 1514, Guerrero has achieved the rank of nacom, a war leader who serves against Nachan Chan's enemies.