[5] Though remarkably fair and judicious in the main, Mr Prescott’s partiality for a certain class of his material is evident. To the copies from the Spanish archives, most of which have been since published with hundreds of others equally or more valuable, he seemed to attach an importance proportionate to their cost. Thus, throughout his entire work, these papers are paraded to the exclusion of the more reliable, but more accessible, standard authorities. In the attempt, at this point, to follow at once his document and the plainly current facts, he falls into an error of which he appears unconscious. He states, Conq. Mex., i. 222, that Córdoba ‘sailed with three vessels on an expedition to one of the neighboring Bahama Islands, in quest of Indian slaves. He encountered a succession of heavy gales which drove him far out of his course.’ The Bahama Islands are eastward from Habana, while Cape San Antonio is toward the west. All the authorities agree that the expedition sailed directly westward, and that the storm did not occur until after Cape San Antonio had been passed, which leaves Mr Prescott among other errors in that of driving a fleet to the westward, in a storm, when it has already sailed thither by the will of its commander, in fair weather.
[6] Following Gomara and Torquemada, Galvano mentions the name of no other place in this voyage than that of Punta de las Dueñas, which he places in latitude 20°. He further remarks, Descobrimentos, 131, ‘He gẽte milhor atauiada que ha em neuhũa outra terra, & cruzes em q’ os Indios adorauam, & os punham sobre seus defuntos quando faleciam, donde parecia que em algum tẽpo se sentio aly a fe de Christo.’ The anonymous author of De Rebus Gestis and all the best authorities recognize this as the first discovery. ‘Sicque non ad Guanaxos, quos petebant, appulerunt, sed ad Mulierum promontorium.’ Fernando Colon places on his map, 1527, y: de mujeres; Diego de Ribero, 1529, d’ mugeres, the next name north being amazonas. Vaz Dourado, 1571, lays down three islands which he calls p:. de magreles; Hood, 1592, Y. de mueres; Laet, 1633, Yas de mucheres; Ogilby, 1671, yas desconocidas; Dampier, 1699, I. mugeras; Jefferys, 1776, Ia de Mujeres, or Woman’s I. It was this name that led certain of the chroniclers to speak of islands off the coast of Yucatan inhabited by Amazons. ‘Sirvió de asilo en nuestros dias al célebre pirata Lafitte.’ Boletin de la Sociedad Mex. de Geog., iii. 224.
[7] For a description of these people see Bancroft’s Native Races, i. 645-747.
[8] See Landa, Rel. de Yuc., 6. ‘Domum Cotoche sonat: indicabant enim domus et oppidum haud longè abesse.’ De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 339. ‘Conez cotoche, q̄ quiere dezir, Andad aca a mis casas.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ii. cap. xvii. ‘Cotohe, cotohe,’ that is to say, ‘a house.’ Fancourt’s Hist. Yuc., 6. ‘Cotoche, q̄ quiere dezir casa.’ Gomara, Hist. Ind., 61. ‘Con escotoch, con escotoch, y quiere dezir, andad acá á mis casas.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 2. This, the north-eastern point of Yucatan, is on Fernando Colon’s map, 1527, gotoche; on the map of Diego de Ribero, 1529, p: d’cotoche; Vaz Dourado, 1571, C:. de quoteche; Pilestrina, c:. de sampalq. Hood places a little west of the cape a bay, B. de conil; the next name west is Atalaia. Goldschmidt’s Cartog. Pac. Coast, MS., i. 358. Kohl, Beiden ältesten Karten, 103, brings the expedition here the 1st of March. Las Casas, Hist. Ind., iv. 350, confounds Córdoba’s and Grijalva’s voyages in this respect, that brings the former at once to Cozumel, when, as a matter of fact, Córdoba never saw that island.
[9] So called by the natives, but by the Spaniards named San Lázaro, because ‘it was a Domingo de Lazaro’ when they landed. Yet Ribero writes chãpa, while Vaz Dourado employs llazaro, and Hood, Campechy; Laet gives the name correctly; Ogilby and Jefferys call the place S. Frco de Campeche. ‘Los Indios le deziã Quimpech.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ii. cap. xvii.
[10] Now Champoton, applied to river and town. Ribero writes camrõ; Hood, Champoto; Mercator, Chapãton, and town next north, Maranga. Potonchan, in the aboriginal tongue, signifies, ‘Stinking Place.’ Mercator has also the town of Potõchan, west of Tabasco River. West-Indische Spieghel, Patõcham. Laet, Ogilby, and Jefferys follow with Champoton in the usual variations. ‘Y llegaron á otra provincia,’ says Oviedo, i. 498, ‘que los indios llaman Aguanil, y el principal pueblo della se dice Moscoba, y el rey ó caçique de aquel señorio se llama Chiapoton;’ and thus the author of De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, ‘Nec diu navigaverant, cùm Mochocobocum perveniunt.’ Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., 340.
[11] Pinzon and Solis must have found alligators in their northward cruise, otherwise Peter Martyr could not honestly lay down on his map of India beyond the Ganges, in 1510, the baya d’ lagartos north of guanase. Mariners must have given the coast a bad name, for directly north of the R. de la of Colon, the R:. de laḡ r̄ tos of Ribero, the R:. de lagarts of Vaz Dourado, and the R. de Lagartos of Hood, are placed some reefs by all these chart-makers, and to which they give the name Alacranes, Scorpions. The next name west of Lagartos on Map No. x., Munich Atlas, is costanisa, and on No. xiii. Ostanca. Again next west, on both, is Medanos. On No. x., next to costa nisa, and on No. xiii., west of Punta de las Arenas, is the name Ancones. Ogilby gives here B. de Conil, and in the interior south, a town Conil; east of R. de Lagartos is also the town Quyo, and in large letters the name Chuaca.
[12] ‘Dezian los Españoles q’ estavan hablãdo con el Diego Velazquez, y con los Indios: Señor estos Indios dizen, que su tierra se llama Yucatã, y assi se, quedò cõ este nõbre, que en propria lengua no se dize assi.’ Hist. Verdad., 5. Gomara, Hist. Ind., 60, states that after naming Catoche, a little farther on the Spaniards met some natives, of whom they asked the name of the town near by. Tecteta, was the reply, which means, ‘I do not understand.’ The Spaniards, accepting this as the answer to their question, called the country Yectetan, and soon Yucatan. Waldeck, Voy. Pittoresque, 25, derives the name from the native word ouyouckutan, ‘listen to what they say.’ The native name was Maya. See Bancroft’s Native Races, v. 614-34. There are various other theories and renderings, among them the following: In answer to Córdoba’s inquiry as to the name of their country, the natives exclaimed, ‘uy u tan, esto es: oyes como habla?’ Zamacois, Hist. Mej., ii. 228. ‘Que preguntando a estos Indios, si auia en su tierra aquellas rayzes que se llama Yuca.... Respondian Ilatli, por la tierra en que se plantan, y que de Yuca juntado con Ilatli, se dixo Yucatta, y de alli Yucatan.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ii. cap. xviii. Whencesoever the origin, it was clearly a mistake, as there never was an aboriginal designation for the whole country, nor, like the Japanese, have they names for their straits or bays. For some time Yucatan was supposed to be an island. Grijalva called the country Isla de Santa María de Remedios, though that term was employed by few. In early documents the two names are united; instance the instructions of Velazquez to Cortés, where the country is called la Ysla de Yucatan Sta María de Remedios. On Cortés’ chart of the Gulf of Mexico, 1520, it is called Yucatan, and represented as an island. Colon, 1527, and Ribero, 1529, who write Ivcatan; Ptolemy, in Munster, 1530, Iucatana; Orontius, on his globe, 1531, Iucatans; Munich Atlas, no. iv., 1532-40, cucatan; Baptista Agnese, 1540-50, Iucatan; Mercator, 1569, Ivcatan; Michael Lok, 1582, Incoton; Hondius, 1595, Laet, Ogilby, etc., Yucatan, which now assumes peninsular proportions.
