“On the eighth of February 1517 we sailed for Axaruco, and twelve days later doubled Cape San Antonio. Then, once in the open sea, we steered at a venture toward the west, without knowledge of the depths or currents, or of the winds that prevail in those latitudes. So we were in great hazard of our lives when a storm struck us which lasted two days and two nights and had such a force that we were nearly wrecked. When the weather moderated we resumed our course, and twenty-one days after leaving port to our great joy we sighted land, for which we gave thanks to God. This land was as yet undiscovered, and we had received no report of it.* From the ships we could see a large town, which appeared to lie six miles back from the coast, and as we had never seen one as large in Cuba or Hispaniola we named it the Great Cairo.**

“We decided that the two vessels of shallowest draught should go in as near as possible to see if there was any anchorage close to the shore; and on the morning of 4 March we saw ten large canoes called pirogues, full of the inhabitants of that town, approaching us with oars and sail. These pirogues are shaped like troughs. They are large and hollowed out of huge single logs, and many will hold forty Indians.

“These canoes came close to our ships, and we made signs of peace, waving our hands and our cloaks as an invitation to them to come and speak to us. For at the time we had no interpreters who knew the languages of Yucatan and Mexico. They approached quite fearlessly, and more than thirty men came aboard our flagship. We gave each of them a string of green beads, and they spent some time examining the ships. [obviously sailors] Then the principal man among them who was the Cacique, [indigenous word for chief, of either Taino or Carib origin] told us by signs that they wanted to board their canoes and go back to the town. He indicated that he would return another day with more canoes, in which we could go ashore.

“These Indians wore cotton shirts made in the shape of jackets, and covered their private parts with narrow cloths which they called masteles. We considered them a more civilized people than the Cubans. For they went about naked, except for their women, who wore cotton cloths that came down to their thighs.

“Next morning the same Cacique came back bringing twelve large canoes with Indian oarsmen. With a smiling face and every appearance of friendliness, he made signs that we should go to his town, where they would give us food and everything else we needed, and to which they would take us in their canoes. As he invited us aboard he repeated in his language: ‘Cones catoche, cones catoche,’ which means: ‘Come to our houses.’ For this reason we called the place Cape Catoche, and so it is still named on the charts.

“When our captain and the soldiers saw these friendly demonstrations, it was agreed that we should lower our ships’ boats, and all go ashore together in the smallest of them and the twelve canoes. We saw the whole coast crowded with Indians who had come from the town, and therefore decided that we would all land at the same moment. When the Cacique saw us land but make no move towards the town, he again made signs to our captain that we should go with him to the houses. He gave so much evidence of peaceful intentions that after some discussion most of us soldiers agreed that we should go forward, taking all the arms that we could carry. We took fifteen crossbows and ten muskets, and started to follow the road along which the Cacique was going with his great company of Indians.

“We advanced in this way until we came to some brush-covered hillocks. Then the Cacique started shouting to some bands of warriors whom he had placed in ambush to kill us. In response to the Cacique’s call these bands quickly fell on us with a great fury, and began to shoot with such accuracy that the first flight of arrows wounded 13 soldiers. The Indians wore armor made of cotton which reached down to their knees. They carried lances and shields, bows and arrows, slings, and many stones; and after their arrow-flights, with their feathered crests waving, they attacked us hand to hand. Wielding their lances in both hands, they did us great damage. But, thanks to God, when they felt the sharp edge of our swords and the effect of our crossbows and muskets, they quickly took to their heels, leaving fifteen dead on the field.”***

*They had sailed out into the Gulf of Mexico, and were now off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula.

**At this point in history, before New World gold and silver flooded Europe and the Turks were defeated at Lepento, Malta and Vienna, Europeans, when they spoke of great cities, spoke of the east, of the lands of their enemies. In the minds of the conquistadors they were circumventing the globe to reach China and India and hopefully take the Moslems in the back.

***Bernal is certainly a line officer, who would be tasked with reporting numbers of dead and wounded to the captain.

Note: the cooperative fellowship expressed by the frequent reference to the soldiers agreeing to a course of action. These were men of a feudal society that, contrary to our own prejudices, permitted a much higher level of free will then people of our own present society, constrained as we are by laws Bernal would have thought astonishing in their depth and breadth. Note the difference in the text between the ‘captain’ of the soldiers and the ‘Cacique’ of the Indians, indicating that the indigenous population had a more centralized authoritarian form [which it did] which made it highly susceptible to conquest by decapitation, which is the course that the conquistadors eventually took, a habit that has found expression in Latin America down through the ages through dictator-run ‘banana’ republics and military puppet governments beholding to foreign interests