i. So hold Torquemada, Solis, and all careful writers on

the subject.

[17] Or as he calls himself, ‘capellano maggior’ of the armada. Long before the soldier, Bernal Diaz, published his ‘True History,’ Juan Diaz had given to the world an account of the voyage, _Itinerario de la isola de Iuchatan_, following the _Itinerario de Ludovico de Varthema Bolognese nella Egitto_, etc., in a volume printed at Venice in 1520. Juan Diaz disputes the honor with Bartolomé de Olmedo of having first said mass in the city of Mexico.

[18] Here again Prescott falls into error in attempting to follow a manuscript copy of Juan Diaz, without due heed to the standard chroniclers. Mr Prescott writes, _Mex._, i. 224, ‘The fleet left the port of St Jago de Cuba, May 1, 1518,’ and refers to the _Itinerario_ of Juan Diaz in proof of his statement. But Juan Diaz makes no such statement. ‘Sabbato il primo giorno del mese de Marzo,’ he says, _Itinerario_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, i. 281, ‘de questo sopradito anno parti il dicto capitaneo de larmata de lisola Fernandina.’ Saturday, the 1st day of May, the armada left the island of Fernandina, or Cuba. The writer does not intimate that they left the port of Santiago on that day, which, as a matter of fact, they did not, but the extreme western point of the island, Cape San Antonio. This Prescott might further have learned from Herrera, dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. i., ‘Despachado pues Iuan de Grijalua de todo punto, salio del puerto de Sãtiago de Cuba, a ocho de Abril deste año de 1518;’ from Bernal Diaz, _Hist. Verdad._, 6, who states that all met and attended mass at Matanzas, the 5th of April, just prior to sailing; ‘Y despues de auer oîdo Missa con gran deuocion, en cinco dias del mes de Abril de mil y quinientos y diez y ocho años dimos vela;’ from Solis, _Conq. Mex._, 25, ‘tardaron finalmente en hacerse á la mar hasta los ocho de Abril;’ from Robertson, _Hist. Am._, i. 241, ‘He sailed from St Jago de Cuba on the 8th of April,’ etc. Ternaux-Compans perpetrates two gross blunders in the first four lines of his translation of this _Itinerario_ of Juan Diaz. First he writes March for May, ‘equivocando,’ as Icazbalceta says, ‘la palabra _mazo_ del original con _marzo_.’ and, secondly, he brings the fleet to Cozumel Island on the 4th, when his author writes the 3d, which is enough, without the palpable absurdity of making Monday the 4th day of a month wherein the previous Saturday was the 1st. Oviedo states, i. 503, that ‘salieron del puerto de la cibdad de Sanctiago á los veynte é çinco dias del mes de enero;’ that they were at Matanzas the 12th of February, at Habana the 7th of April; that they left Matanzas finally the 20th of April, and San Antonio the 1st of May, in all which, except the last statement, he is somewhat confused.

[19] Like a good soldier, Bernal Diaz makes the time fit the occasion. ‘A este pueblo,’ he says, _Hist. Verdad._, 7, ‘pusimos por nombre Santa Cruz; porq̄ quatro, ò cinco diaz antes de Santa Cruz le vimos.’ The native name of the island was _Acusamil_—Landa, _Rel. de Yuc._, 20, writes it _Cuzmil_; Cogolludo, _Hist. Yucathan_, 10, _Cuzamil_—Swallow’s Island, which was finally corrupted into the Cozumel of the Spaniards. Mercator, indeed, writes _Acusamil_, in 1569, although Colon, Ribero, and Hood had previously given _coçumel_, _cozumel_, and _Cosumel_, respectively. Vaz Dourado comes out, in 1571, with _quoqumell_, since which time the name has been generally written as at present.

[20] Some of the authorities apply the name Santa Cruz to a port; others to a town found there; but it was unquestionably the island to which they gave this name. ‘A questa isola de Coçumel che ahora se adimanda Santa Croce.’ _Diaz_, _Itinerario_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, i. 287. ‘Se le puso nombre á esta ĩsla _Sancta Cruz_, á la qual los indios llaman _Coçumel_.’ _Oviedo_, i. 504.

[21] This, according to Diaz; Oviedo says they landed on Wednesday, the 5th, and again on the 6th; and Bernal Diaz affirms that the landing took place on the south side of the island.

[22] It was the crosses, which the Spaniards here regarded of miraculous origin, more than any physical feature which after all gave the name to these shores. Cortés established it for all the region under Aztec sway, and under the viceroys it was applied to all the Spanish possessions north of Guatemala, including the undefined territories of California and New Mexico. _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, i. 6-7, and others, have even shown an inclination to embrace thereunder Central America, but for this there is not sufficient authority. See _Medina_, _Chron. de San Diego de Mex._, 227; _Lopez Vaz_, in _Purchas, His Pilgrimes_, iv. 1432, and _Gottfriedt_, _Newe Welt_, 74; also Torquemada, from Herrera, and several standard authors. New Spain was for a long time divided into the three kingdoms of New Spain, New Galicia, and New Leon, each composed of several provinces. Under the administration of Galvez, this division gave way to intendencias, among them Mexico and a few provinces, and New Spain came to be limited in the north by the Provincias Internas, though including for a time at least the Californias. With the independence the name New Spain was replaced by Mexico, less because this term applied to the leading province and to the capital, than because the name was hallowed by association with the traditions of the people, whose blood as well as sympathies contained far more of the aboriginal element than of the imported. On Colon’s map the name is given in capital letters, _Nova Spaña_. Under _Nveva España_ Ribero writes _dixose asì por que ay aquy muchas cosas que ay en españa ay ya mucho trigo q̄ an lleuado de aca entanta cantidad q̄ lo pueden encargar para otras partes ay aquy mucho oro de nacimiento_. Robert Thorne, in _Hakluyt’s Voy._, carries _Hispania Noua_ east and west through Central America, while Ramusio, _Viaggi_, iii. 455, places _La Nova Spagna_ in large letters across the continent.

[23] It is remarkable, as I have often observed, how two eye-witnesses can sometimes tell such diametrically opposite stories; not only in regard to time and minor incidents, but to place and prominent events. In this instance Diaz the priest is no less positive and minute in placing the affair at Campeche, than is Diaz the soldier, at Champoton. The second-rate authorities, following these two writers who were present, are divided, by far the greater number, Herrera among the rest, accepting the statement of Bernal Diaz. Oviedo, who was a resident of the Indies at the time, describes the battle as occurring at Campeche. Perhaps one reason why the soldier-scribe has more adherents than the priest, is because the existence of the narrative of the latter was not so well known. Las Casas affirms, _Hist. Ind._, iv. 425, that the pilot unintentionally passed Lázaro’s port, or Campeche, and landed and fought at Champoton. ‘Llegaron, pues, al dicho pueblo (que, como dije, creo que fué Champoton, y no el de Lázaro).’

[24] Puerto Escondido. On the maps of Colon and Hood it is placed as one of the eastern entrances of the Laguna de Términos, the former writing _p. deseado_, and the latter _P. desiado_; Gomara places the _Laguna de Términos_ between Puerto Deseado and Rio Grijalva. On Ribero’s map, north of Escondido, _isla ger_, Vaz Dourado marking in the same locality _p:. seqº amgratriste_, Dampier gives _Boca Eschondido_, and Jefferys, _Boca Escondida_.

[25] Velazquez had instructed his captain to sail round the island of Yucatan. Cortés, in 1519, ordered Escobar to survey this sheet, which was found to be a bay and shallow. Still the pilots and chart-makers wrote it down an island. It is worthy of remark that in the earliest drawings, like Colon’s, in 1527, the maker appears undecided, but Ribero, two years later, boldly severs the peninsula from the continent with a strait. See _Goldschmidt’s Cartog. Pac. Coast_, MS., i. 412-14. The earliest cartographers all write _terminos_, Ribero marking a small stream flowing into the lagoon, _R:. de x p̅ianos_. Here also is the town and point of Jicalango. Ogilby calls the lagoon _Lago de Xicalango_, east of which is the name _N^{ra} S^{ra} de la Vitoria_; Dampier places south of _Laguna Termina_ the town _Chukabul_; Jefferys writes in large letters, a little south of _Laguna de Xicalango_ or _Terminos_, the words _Quehaches Indios Bravos_. Kohl thinks Puerto Escondido may be the Puerto Deseado of Grijalva mentioned by Gomara.

[26] Of ‘la isola riccha chiamata Ualor,’ as the chaplain calls it, _Diaz_, _Itinerario_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, i. 295, ‘descoprir una altra terra che se dice Mulua.’ Alaminos believed New Spain to be another island distinct from Yucatan. The natives called it Coluá, says Las Casas, _Hist. Ind._, iv. 428.

[27] On the chart of Cortés, 1520, it is called _R:. de Guzalua_, and placed west instead of east of Rio Santa Ana. Ribero writes, _R:. de grisalua_; Vaz Dourado, _Rº. de grigalua_; Hood, _R. de Grisalua_; _Mercator’s Atlas_, 1574, has a town, _Tausco_; Ogilby, Dampier, and Jefferys employ the name _Tabasco_. Kohl ascribes the name of the river _San Pedro y San Pablo_ to Grijalva. Colon has _R:. de s. pablo_; Ribero, _R. de s:. Pabº_; _Munich Atlas_, No. iv., _rio de s. p._; Baptista Agnese, _rio de S. paulo_; Hood, _R. de S. Pablo_; Ogilby, _S. Paulo_: Dampier, _St. Peter_, _St. Paul_, etc. As there are plenty of streams in that vicinity Herrera gives one to Grijalva and still leaves the chieftain, Tabasco, his own.

[28] It is Las Casas who testifies to 6,000; Bernal Diaz enumerates 50 canoes; Herrera speaks of three _Xiquipiles_ of 8,000 men each, standing ready in that vicinity to oppose the Spaniards, waiting only for the word to be given.

[29] Not ‘Culba, Culba, Mexico, Mexico,’ as Bernal Diaz has it. The natives pronounced the word Culhua only; but this author, finding that Culhua referred to Mexico, puts the word Mexico into the mouth of Tabasco and his followers. Long before the Aztecs, a Toltec tribe called the Acolhuas, or Culhuas, had settled in the valley of Mexico. The name is more ancient than that of Toltec, and the Mexican civilization might perhaps as appropriately be called Culhua as Nahua. The name is interpreted ‘crooked’ from coloa, bend; also ‘grandfather’ from _colli_. Colhuacan might therefore signify Land of our Ancestors. Under Toltec dominion a tripartite confederacy had existed in the valley of Anáhuac, and when the Aztecs became the ruling nation, this alliance was reëstablished. It was composed of the Acolhua, Aztec, and Tepanec kingdoms, the Aztec king assuming the title Culhua Tecuhtli, chief of the Culhuas. It is evident that the Culhuas had become known throughout this region by their conquests, and by their culture, superior as it was to that of neighboring tribes. The upstart Aztecs were only too proud to identify themselves with so renowned a people. The name Culhua was retained among the surrounding tribes, and applied before Grijalva to the Mexican country, where gold was indeed abundant.

[30] ‘Das grosse Fest des heiligen Antonius von Padua fällt auf den 13 Juni, und dies giebt uns also eine Gelegenheit eines der Daten der Reise des Grijalva, deren uns die Berichterstatter, wie immer, nur wenige geben, genau festzusetzen.’ _Kohl_, _Beiden ältesten Karten_, 105. Cortés, in his chart of the Gulf of Mexico, 1520, calls it _Santo Anton_; Fernando Colon, 1527, _R. de la Balsa_, with the name _G. de s. anton_ to the gulf; Ribero, 1529, _r: de Sãton_; Globe of Orontius, 1531, _C. S. ãto_; Vaz Dourado, 1571, _rio de S. ana_; Hood, 1592, _R. de S. Antonio_, etc. For _Santa Ana_ Dampier in 1699 lays down _St. Anns_, and Jefferys in 1776, _B. St. Ann_.

[31] Cortés calls it _Rio de totuqualquo_; Colon, _R. de gasacalcos_; Ribero, _R. de guasacalco_; Orontius, _R. de qualqº_; Vaz Dourado, _R.º de de guaqaqa_; Hood, _R. de Guaca_; Mercator, _Quacaqualco_; De Laet, Ogilby, _R. de Guazacoalco_; Jefferys, _R. Guazacalo_; Dampier, _R. Guazacoalco_ or _Guashigwalp_.

[32] Colon gives it, _Sierras de San mrtí_; Vaz Dourado, _seras de S. martin_; Hood, _Sierras de Sᵗ. min_; Ogilby, _Sierras de S. Martin_; Dampier, _St. Martin’s High Land_, and _St. Martin’s Point_. This soldier, San Martin, was a native of Habana.

[33] Herrera makes the Indian name Papaloava; Bernal Diaz, Papalohuna, Cortés, 1520, and Orontius, 1531, give _R. d alvarado_; Colon, 1527, _R: del comendador aluarado_; Ribero, 1529, _R:. de Aluarado_; Vaz Dourado, 1571, _Rº. de Alluorado_, etc. ‘Die Karte von 1527 hat den _Rio del comendador Alvarado_ etwas weiter westlich, jenseits des Rio de banderas, welches keineswegs mit den Berichten des Bernal Diaz übereinstimmt.’ _Kohl_, _Beiden ältesten Karten_, 106.

[34] Some of the early maps place this stream incorrectly east of the Papaloapan; where Ribero writes _P. delgada_, first east from _R: de uanderas_, Vaz Dourado writes _p:. de hiqada_.

[35] The Chaplain Diaz affirms that ten days were passed on the mainland, where Indians dressed in mantles brought them food, and where they melted their gold into bars; and that on the San Juan Island they appointed one of the natives cacique, christening him Ovando. ‘El capitaneo li disse che non volevano se non oro et loro resposseno che lo portariano laltro giorno portorono oro fondido in verghe et lo capitaneo li disse che portasseno molto d quello.’ _Itinerario_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, i. 299.

[36] To distinguish it, Herrera says, from San Juan de Puerto Rico. On the chart of Cortés, 1520, the _B:. de Sant Juan_ is laid down, but no other names are given except that of _Sacrificios Island_, which is placed some distance out and called _Yˢ della creficio_. On Orontius’ globe, 1531, three islands are called _Insula Sacrifici_. Colon lays down _R: de s. Juhan_; _R. salado_; _R: de s. x pouae_ (christobal); _villa rica_, and _y^{eo}: de sacreficios_. Ribero designates _R:. de s. Jua_; _R:. de cãpual_; _uilla rica_, and _y:.ª de saćficios_. Vaz Dourado writes _R.º de Säo_ (santo) _Joáo_ (_Juan_); _llaueracrus_ (la vera cruz), and _uilla riqua_ (villa rica). Hood gives _R. de medelin_; _S. Jon delua_; _Laueracruz_; _Sen Jual_; _Villa Rica_; and marks the point south of Vera Cruz _P. de antonisardo_. Mercator gives _Villa Rica_; Ogilby, _S. Juan de Luz_, and north of it _Villarica_. On another of his maps we find _S. Juan de Lua_; _P^{ta} de Antº Sardo_, _I. y Fuerca de la vera Cruz nueva_, _La Vera Cruz_, _R. Medelin_, and _Y^{as} de Sacrificios_. See further _Cartography North Am._, MS., i. 531. Las Casas confounds the islands Sacrificios and Ulua, calling them one. The Spaniards supposed the continent thereabout, far into the interior, was known to the natives as Culhua; hence we find Velazquez, in his instructions to Cortés, _Mendoza_, _Col. Doc._, xii. 227, speaking of ‘una tierra grande, que parte della se llama Ulúa, que puso por nombre Santa María de las Nieves.’ See also _Oviedo_, i. 539.