“We arrived within a mile and a half of the town and heard a great noise of woodcutting, as the Indians were erecting barriers, establishing strong-points, and building stockades, preparing with great urgency to fight us. Seeing this, we landed over a mile from the town on a headland where there grew palms. When they saw us land, a fleet of some fifty canoes approached, packed with warriors armored in cotton and armed with bows and arrows, lances and shields, drums and feather plumes. Myriad other canoes packed with warriors remained in the creeks, keeping their distance, being less courageous—or so it seemed—than the others.

“We were at the point of firing on them with guns, muskets and crossbows when, thank God, we decided to call out to them, through Julian and Melchior, who knew well their language. We told them they had nothing to fear, that we wished to speak with them, and that when they heard what we had to say that they would be glad we had come to their country. Furthermore, we intended to give them gifts from among our stores. After they had been made to understand this, four canoes with about thirty Indians on board approached our position. We showed them strings of green beads, some small mirrors and blue glass “diamonds,” after seeing which they became increasingly friendly as they took them for Jadeites, which they value highly.

“Our Captain then informed them through our interpreters that we came from a far land, and were vassals of a great emperor, called Charles, who ruled over many great lords and chiefs, and that they must accept him as their lord, which would be very much to their advantage, and that in exchange for these beads they must give us poultry and provisions.*

“Two of the Indians replied: a chief and a papa—who, as I have said, in New Spain is a kind of priest who serves their idols—saying that they would give us provisions as we had asked, and would barter with us, but that they already had a lord, and that it was strange that we who knew them not would offer them another. They warned us not to attack them as we had done at Champoton, for they had three xiquipiles of warriors from all the neighboring regions, and that they were ready. Their xiquiplies consist of eight thousand men. **

“They said they were quite aware that we had killed and wounded more than two hundred men only a few days before at Champoton, but they were not so weak as those others, and had therefore come to speak with us and determine our wants. Whatever we said would therefore be passed on to the caciques of many towns who had assembled to decide on peace or war.”

“Our Captain then embraced the Indians as a sign of peace, gave them some strings of beads, and bade them go and bring an answer as soon as possible. He warned them, however, that though we did not wish to provoke them we would have to break into their towns if they did not comply.”

*The Council of Castile first penned a legal document to be read aloud to natives about to be brought to Christ by the sword in 1510. The following account is the version from 1514. Something like this was repeated to the Tabasco Indians, paraphrased by Captain Grijalva. It was usually recited by a priest or friar, although it was not written in Latin, but Spanish, which did not make understanding it much better for the natives. God only knows how Julian and Melchior translated Grijalva’s abridged version from under those palm trees.

“On the part of the King, Don Fernando, and of Doña Juana, his daughter, Queen of Castile and León, subduers of the barbarous nations, we their servants notify and make known to you, as best we may, that the Lord our God, living and eternal, created the heaven and the earth, and one man and one woman, of whom you and us, and all the men of the world, were and are all descendants, as will all those who come after us.

Of all these nations God our Lord gave charge to one man, called Saint Peter, that he should be lord and superior of all the men in the world, that all should obey him, and that he should be the head of the whole human race, wherever men should live, and under whatever law, sect, or belief they should be; and he gave him the world for his kingdom and domain.

One of these pontiffs, who succeeded Saint Peter as lord of the world in the dignity and seat which I have before mentioned, assigned these isles and Mainland to the aforementioned King and Queen and to their successors, our masters, with all there are in these lands,

Therefore, as best we can, we ask and require that you consider what we have said to you, and that you take the time that shall be necessary to understand and deliberate upon it, and that you acknowledge the Church as the ruler and superior of the whole world,

But if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I swear to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the bondage and obedience of the Church and of their highnesses; we shall take you, and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the harm and destruction that we can, as to underlings who do not obey, and refuse to obey their master, and resist and defy him: and we claim that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their highnesses, or ours, nor of these honored soldiers who come with us."

**It must have been chilling to discover that they were dealing with standardized army divisions, of greater size than the pike and musket formations current in Europe. They were essentially facing an ancient Sumerian-style army.