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for a slaving raid on the coastal islands of
Honduras. “We answered that it was neither in
accordance with the law of god nor of the
king, that we should make free men slaves,”
Castillo wrote of Velásquez’s offer. “When he
saw that we had made up our minds, he said
that our plan to go and discover new countries
was better than his, and he helped us in pro-
viding food for our voyage.”
Three weeks after Córdoba’s group sailed
westward from Cuba in February 1517, they
sighted the northeastern Yucatán Peninsula at
Cape Catoche. The great Maya civilization
that had once dominated Yucatán had
declined 500 years before Córdoba arrived,
but the spectacular architecture of remaining
Mayan temples and a handful of gold orna-
ments convinced him that he had stumbled
upon a region full of riches.
“NEW SPAIN”
The Spaniards continued to sail along the
west coast of Yucatán, which they mistook for
an island. Desperately in need of drinking
water and suffering heavy casualties at the
hands of Maya soldiers each time they
attempted to land, Córdoba’s party accepted
pilot Antón de Alaminos’s suggestion that he
take them to Florida, wherehe had served
under Ponce de León. Alaminos underesti-
mated the distance, but successfully piloted
the expedition to Florida. Unfortunately, they
landed the same spot where Ponce de León
had clashed with the Calusa, who attacked as
soon as the Spaniards landed. The expedition
limped to Cuba, where—like Ponce de León—
Córdoba died of wounds he sustained in
Florida.
Even the slight evidence of gold was
enough to convince Governor Velásquez to
commission a stronger expedition in 1518,
under the command of Juan de Grijalva, with
Alaminos piloting once again. The evidence of
Mayan civilization that Grijalva found when
he reached Yucatán reminded him so much of
his homeland that he dubbed the land “New
Spain,” a term later applied to all of Mexico.
When Grijalva returned to the site of Cór-
doba’s landing at Champotón, he too was
attacked. Grijalva, however, convinced the
Maya that he wanted to trade peacefully. The
Spaniards were delighted to trade colored
glass beads for food, textiles—and gold.
“They presented some golden jewels,
some were diadems, and others were in the
shape of ducks, like those in Castille, and
other jewels like lizards, and three necklaces
of hollowbeads, and other articles of gold but
not of much value,” Bernal Díaz del Castillo
remembered. When the Spaniards asked for
moregold, the Indians replied that “further
on, in the direction of the sunset, there was
plenty of gold.” The land, said the Maya, was
called Mexico. This would become the next
goal of the Spanish.(^52) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
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