“[Of the warriors]…Many carried standards and gold shields, and other insignia which they wore strapped to their backs, giving them an appearance of great ferocity, since they also stained their faces and grimaced menacingly, giving great leaps and shouts and cries. These struck such fear into us that many Spaniards asked for confession…”

-Francis de Aguilar, 1560

“Astonished at this sight, the General and captains decided to lower two boats, ordering all crossbowmen and musketeers, also twenty of us soldiers, the youngest and most nimble [1], to jump in. They sent Francisco de Montejo with us with orders to report immediately if the men with flags proved to be warriors, or if he noticed anything else of importance.

“At the time, thanks be to God, the weather was fair, which is a rarity on this coast, and when we got ashore we met three Caciques, one of which was Montezuma’s Governor and had many of his followers attending him. They had brought some of their local poultry [2], and the maize cakes that they eat, and pineapples and sapota fruit, which in other parts of the country are called mameyes [3]. They had spread mats on the ground and were seated under some shade trees, and they invited us to sit also, all by signs, because Julian, who came from Cape Catoche [4], did not comprehend their language, which was Mexican. Then they brought clay braziers with burning coals and incensed us with a sort of resin.

“Captain Montejo reported these facts to the general, so Grijalva decided to drop anchor, and go ashore with his captains and soldiers [5]. When the Caciques and Governor saw him land and realized that he was our overall Commander, they treated him with ceremony, according to their custom, and he behaved very ingratiatingly to them. He commanded that they be given ‘blue diamonds’ and green beads, and conveyed to them by signs that they should bring gold to trade with us [6]. Then the Indian Governor sent messages to all the nearby towns that gold and jewels must be brought to be bartered; and during the six days that we stayed there they brought more than sixteen-thousand pesos’-worth of jewels made of low-grade gold, worked into a variety of shapes.

“This must be the gold which the chroniclers Gomara, Ilescas, and Jovio say was given to us at Tabasco. They state this as the truth although it is well known that there is no gold in the Rio de Grijalva province or nearby, and very few jewels.

“We took formal possession of this country in His Majesty’s name [7]; and when we had done so, the General addressed the Indians, informing them that we would return to our ships, and giving them some shirts from Spain. We took one of them aboard with us [8], who when he understood our language became a Christian, took the name of Francisco, and whom I afterward visited with his Indian wife.

“Having been there for six days, the General saw that the Indians would bring no more gold for trading. So, the ships being in danger of gales out of the south and southwest, he judged it was time to embark [9]."

1. This marks Bernal as one of the most youthful junior officers and explains why he was sent on so many nasty details. These boats held about 30 men a piece, so we have a company that probably consisted of three squads of 20 each, crossbowmen, musketeer and soldier, with the captain and translator and perhaps six sailors.

2. Turkeys

3. A soft edible fruit grown in a number of varieties:

4. Julian was no doubt terrified. It is likely that only Captain Montejo, Bernal, Julian and a select few sat.

5. Soldiers were shield-bearing swordsmen, not to be confused with crossbowmen and musketeers, indicating that the crossbowmen and musketeers stayed on the beach to provide security for the landing, with the soldiers providing security for them, which was always touchy in open boats. Magellan and Cook both died at this juncture in their final meetings with native peoples. Up until the mid 1800s it was assumed that any opposed landing would meet with defeat.

6. This singular obsession with this one substance was a point of endless amazement among Native Americans.

7. This arrogant action was not apparently understood by their hosts for what it was. Imagine inviting visitors into your community hand having them declare it theirs, as if your hospitality was an act of submission. This odd European ethic worked in the Spanish favor many times, as primitive people tend to abide by reciprocal hospitality customs and would not imagine being so rude and brazen. This is one way in which Christianity, particularly in its Catholic form, served as a superior agent of empire, by enabling men pious in the belief that they were righteous, to utterly discount the humanity of those they encountered.

8. Wrangling translators seems to have been part of Bernal’s responsibility as a junior officer.

9. The great danger to ships of sail was to be driven into a coast by a perpendicular wind. Various superior naval ships of European nations were taken on shore by the Barbary pirates of North Africa in this fashion a hundred years later.