Tulum, a Maya trading town on the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, is apparently founded after 1200, despite the presence of two stelae at the site from the Late Classic period (CE 600-900).

Walled on three sides, with the sea at its back, Tulum is guarded by watchtowers set into the wall itself.

The traders of Tulum ply the Yucatan coast in seaworthy canoes staffed by around around twenty-five men.

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.

Francisco de Montejo was born in Salamanca, Spain, in 1479 to Juan de Montejo and Catalina Álvarez de Tejeda.

He left Spain in 1514, and arrived in Cuba in time to join Grijalva's expedition along the coast of Yucatán and the Gulf of Mexico, in which he had had the rank of Captain, and command of four ships.

On his return to Cuba, he had joined the Hernán Cortés expedition, and had helped found the city of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz with Alonso Hernandez Puertocarrero.

Cortés had sent Francisco and Alonso as proctors to King Charles of Spain in 1519 to report on the expedition.

While in Spain, Montejo had married Beatriz de Herrera.

In December 1526 the Spanish King, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, had issued a royal decree naming Montejo Adelantado and Capitan General of Yucatán.

He returns to Yucatán in 1528, and attempts to conquer it along the east coast (Tulum, …