Encounter 1: The Shipwrecked Sailors
Nine years after Yumbe's encounter with Columbus (see Topic 3 blog), the Itza Mayas had another encounter with the foreigners. In
1511, a small fleet carrying 20,000
ducats of the king’s gold from Darién (Panama) set sail for Santo Domingo. The fleet ran into a storm and grounded on the shoals
off Jamaica; only a few survivors made it to a lifeboat. With no oars or sails, the currents carried
the small craft toward Yucatan. Several
survivors died from dehydration but ultimately thirteen of the shipwrecked
reached the east coast of Yucatan two weeks later. A Maya lord sacrificed five of the castaways immediately while imprisoning eight others. The latter escaped and found protection with
another ruler, Ah Kinich, rival of the first.
This possibly was the ruler of Tancah. Two men (and possibly a Spanish woman) ultimately survived and found new royal patrons. According to Spanish
accounts, Geronimo de Aguilar served as a slave and warrior of Ah Naum Pat, ruler of
Cozumel. He later proclaimed that had
remained faithful to Christianity during his captivity. However, Maya accounts state that he married
Pat’s daughter.
Gonzalo Guerrero found his way to Chetumal and entered the
service of its ruler, Nachan Kan. He
eventually rose to the position of nacom, or war chief, married Nachan Kan’s daughter and fathered
several children. He adopted Maya ways,
including body tattoos and the wearing of ear spools, and converted to
traditional Maya religion. From
these men, the Mayas of the east coast, especially the powerful and influential
rulers Ah Naum Pat and Nachan Kan, would receive full, first-hand knowledge of
Spanish aims, intents, and tactics adding to the information received from the
experience of Yumbe.
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| Source: https://yoatomo.wordpress.com/gonzalo-guerrero-padre-de-los-primeros-mestizos/ |
Encounter 2: Hernández de Córdoba
The next encounter between Mayas and Spaniards occurred with
a slave raiding expedition. In 1516, three vecinos of the island,
Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, Lope Ochoa de Cayzedo, and Cristóbal Morante
backed an expedition of three ships and about one hundred men to raid the
islands for Indian slaves. They hired the experienced pilot Antón de Alaminos
to guide them, with Hernández de Córdoba acting as commander. At the suggestion of Alaminos, the fleet
sailed westward. The pilot had sailed
with Columbus on his fourth voyage and remembered the large Maya trading
vessel. He suggested to the organizers
of the expedition that there lay a land to the west much richer than had previously
been discovered. Alaminos’ hunch paid
off, after sailing four days past the westernmost tip of Cuba, they came across
Yucatan peninsula. Once they sighted
land, the Spaniards followed the typical pattern of probing methodically along
the coast, raiding, making inquiries, and reprovisioning as needed. They coasted northward along the eastern
shore of the peninsula and, after rounding Cabo Catoche, they came upon the
Maya city of Ecab. According to Bernal
Díaz, they had never seen one as large in Hispaniola or Cuba so they named it
“El Gran Cairo.” The lord of Ecab
convinced the Spaniards to come ashore to visit his town, leading them into an
ambush. Díaz described the scene:
A little beyond this
place where they attacked us was a small square with three houses built of
masonry, which served as cues, or prayer houses. These contained many idols of baked clay . .
. . Inside the houses were some small wooden chests containing other idols and
some disks made partly of gold but mainly of copper, also some pendants, three
diadems, and other small objects . . . all made of poor quality gold. When we saw the gold and the masonry houses
we were very pleased to have found such a country. . . . Whilst we were fighting the Indians, the
priest Gonzalez took possession of the chests, the idols, and the gold and
carried them to the ship. In this
skirmish we captured two Indians, who when they were afterwards baptized
received the names of Julian and Melchor.
Both were cross-eyed. Once this
surprise attack was over we returned to our ships and after attending to the
wounded set sail along the coast in a westerly direction.
It is unlikely that the reactions of the inhabitants of Ecab
in luring the Spaniards into a trap was the result of inherent xenophobia. The town was a port of call along the main
seaborne trading route. It is more
likely that the rulers of Ecab acted on the available intelligence about the
Spaniards gleaned from Aguilar and Guerrero and from reports about Yumbe’s
incident with Columbus. The actions of
the Spaniards at Ecab – the desecration of Maya temples, theft of religious
icons and the kidnapping of two citizens – would only serve to reinforce the
prevailing opinion of the strangers as likely enemies.
Encounter 3: Hernández de Córdoba
It was not long until the Spaniards in Cuba launched a new
expedition. As Bernal Díaz recounted:
As the report had spread that these lands were very rich,
and the Indian Julian said there was gold, those settlers and soldiers in the
island who possessed no Indians were eager and greedy to go. So we quickly collected two hundred and forty
companions. . . . It appears that the Governor’s [Velazquez] instructions to
the expeditions were that they should obtain all the gold and silver they could
by barter, and settle if they dared if the land was suitable for settlement,
but otherwise return to Cuba.
Governor Velásquez placed the mission in the hands of four
prominent local encomenderos; Juan de Grijalva, Alonso Dávila, Francisco de
Montejo, and Pedro de Alvarado with Grijalva in command. In April 1518 four ships, three of which had
pilots from the Hernández expedition, sailed for Yucatan. Twenty days later they made landfall at
large international trading city of Cozumel, the first Spaniards to sail into port.
The Spaniards landed with an armed force of one hundred men
and attempted to make contact with inhabitants of the town. Through their interpreters, the kidnapped
Indians, Julian and Melchor, Grijalva made clear that his party was “only
seeking gold and had come there without intending harm to exchange for gold
articles of merchandise.” But it is
likely that the interpreters also passed along other, less favorable
information about the Spaniards which they had gleaned from their time in
Cuba. The ruler, Ah Naum Pat, chose not
to trade and withdrew his people into the surrounding jungle. The Spaniards roamed through the empty
capital, marveling at the stone construction of the buildings and the paved
streets. Had there not been new
construction, Father Juan Díaz reported, the Spaniards would have thought them
constructed by the ancient Romans.
After determining that the citizenry would not return,
Grijalva made the decision to move on and he ordered the men back aboard the
ships. They sailed along the coast of
the peninsula, seeing numerous towns along the way. “Near sunset we saw far off
a town or village so large that the city of Seville could not look larger or
better. In it a very tall tower was
visible.” As they proceeded, Mayas occasionally appeared along the coastline, signaling
to the ships to come ashore, but Grijalva, fearing ambush, ignored them. The Spaniards continued along the route
Hernández de Córdoba had taken to Champoton.
Needing water, they landed and western Mayas met them with arms and in the ensuing skirmish, more
than sixty of the Spaniards were wounded, including Grijalva. The ships then sailed out of Yucatan and
along the coast of Tabasco, where they began to see signs of great material
wealth and hear stories of a great inland empire. The expedition returned to Cuba to report
this news to Velasquez.
Encounter 4: Hernán Cortes
The next expedition from Cuba would be under the command of
Hernan Cortés. All of Grijalva’s
captains, including Montejo, Alvarado, and Dávila, signed on for the new entrada. With Alaminos again as chief pilot, a fleet
of ten ships and four hundred men set sail in early 1519 headed first for
Cozumel. Once again, the Mayas withdrew
at the sight of the armada and Cortés found it difficult to coax anyone from
the bush. He sent out two scouting
parties which found other settlements deserted.
Finally, through his interpreter Melchor, Cortés convinced the batabs
to take a message of friendship to Ah Naum Pat.
The lord accepted the message and soon his capital and the surrounding
villages were once again bustling with people.
It was at this time that Pat informed Cortés of the presence of other
Spaniards, the shipwrecked sailors.
Runners carried messages to the men on the peninsula, but only Aguilar
answered the call.
Feasting played a very important role in Ah Naum Pat’s
relations with the Spaniards. In Cozumel’s first encounter with the Spaniards,
during Grijalva’s explorations, “[one of the] canoes of Indians returned with
the lord of the place [Pat]...who coming aboard the flagship and speaking
through an interpreter said he would be pleased to have the captain come to his
town where he would be very well entertained....” When Grijalva and his men came ashore they
were met by the Maya priest who performed a ritual:
And when we drew near to [the] tower or building, we found a
temple. There was an approach to it by
means of eighteen steps....After we entered it, we discovered various statues...which
were worshiped by the inhabitants as gods.
While we were within, a certain old Indian with his toes cut off, came
bringing a jar filled with fire and spices, which gave forth a very pleasant
odor, and as if offering the aromatic smoke to them he made a pledge. Then singing with a deep and tuneful voice in
their presence, he withdrew. He had
previously given to us some jointed reeds smelling of the same aromatic
smoke. Then the captain ordered the
priest who made ready an altar and had celebrated the mass....
The high priest, greeted the visitors with a ceremonial
welcome and then departed to organize a ritual feast. Feasting was a vital part of Maya life. Religious ceremonies celebrating the ritual calendar,
the professions, or special ceremonies such as appealing to the chacs for rain ended in large feasts with freely
flowing balche and dancing. Rites of
passage ceremonies, such as marriage, also required feasting. The feast
organized by the Mayas of Cozumel for the Spaniards not only expressed hospitality but would
begin the process of creating ties of reciprocity and obligations between the
newcomers and the ruling elite of the island.
After the Maya priest left the temple, Grijalva ordered his
men to make an altar and celebrate mass.
As Oviedo later noted, “Some Indians were present and marveled no little
until the mass was over.” While the sources do not reveal Grijalva’s
motivations, the Catholic mass could simply have been a service of thanksgiving
for their safe arrival and friendly greeting or it could have been held to
compete with the previous Maya ritual, to assert the superiority of the
Christian god and his followers.
Conversely, the Maya priest’s ceremonial welcome could either be seen as
a blessing or an assertion of the power of the native gods and their
worshipers.
Not long after the [priest] returned, accompanied by eight
other Indians, and brought food to us such as hens, honey and lentils similar
to peas (called by them maize). After
thanking him, the captain advised him ... that we were only seeking gold... and
had come without intending harm to exchange for gold articles of merchandise.
Then after a dinner had been prepared, being courteously invited by them, we
were led into a stone building but suddenly changing their mind, they departed,
leaving their huts, so that we saw not one of them after the third hour.”
The Mayas of Cozumel were long used to the arrival of
international pilgrims, but it is unlikely that ever before they had met such
audacious visitors, desecrating the sacredness of their temple with their mass
and in search only of gold. It seems
possible, from this one-sided account that Grijalva and his men did not respond
appropriately to Maya hospitality, either with their saying of mass in the
temple or with the expected response to the feast. It is also likely that the interpreters,
Melchor and Julian, had, by the end of the feast, informed Pat of what they had
learned about the Spaniards in Cuba.
This breach of decorum, coupled with knowledge of the Spaniards’
activities at Ecab during the Hernández de Córdoba expedition, intelligence
gleaned from Aguilar and Guerrero and the new information about Cuba convinced
Ah Naum Pat that he wanted nothing to do with these foreigners. From the Spanish accounts, it seemed to have
been a spur of the moment decision and the halach uinic ordered his people to
withdraw from the town and he refused to deal with the Spaniards.
Cortés, on the other hand, did not desecrate the temple nor
hold a competing religious ritual. He
also made it clear to Ah Naum Pat that he would trade for all of the necessary
foodstuffs and water, and even reprimanded men who had taken items without
trade. The halach uinic decided to deal
with him. Perhaps, in consultation with
his son-in-law Aguilar, Pat had determined a new course of action in dealing
with the Spaniards. There is no record
of an initial feast, but Bernal Díaz reported that upon the arrival of Aguilar,
the “chiefs of Cozumel. . . gave him very good food.” If Maya accounts are correct and Aguilar was
an affine of the Pat lineage then this feast could be interpreted as having
kinship symbology. After this feast Aguilar
suggested that Ah Naum Pat formalize his “trade agreement” by asking Cortés for
“a letter of recommendation so that if any other Spaniards came to port they
would treat them well and do them no injury.”
Aguilar was acting as a go-between, perhaps advising his father-in-law
on Spanish ways and possibly trying to provide him with the legal means to
prevent Spanish incursions. So on one
level, this could be seen as the creation of a new relationship based on the
marriage between Pat’s lineage (through his daughter) and the Spaniards
(Aguilar’s “lineage”) and formalized through an appropriate feast.
Thinking Historically:
In reading through my analysis of these encounters, what threads do you see? Why did Cortes have success when others failed? What role does diplomacy play here, in the Yucatan? What lessons will Cortes take from the Yucatan to Mexico and the ultimate conquest of the Aztec Empire?
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