[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 Nra Sra 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.