Lazaro, and gave two spindles with a piece of cloth of gold; but, as the natives of the country did not allow them to remain in the town, or on land, they left, and went about ten leagues down the coast, where they again landed at a town called Machocobon,[1] whose chief was Champoto. Here they were well received by the natives, though they were not allowed to come into the towns; and that night they slept out of their ships, and on land.
The natives, seeing this, attacked them[2] on the morning of the following day, in such a manner that 26 Spaniards perished, and all the rest were wounded, and at last the Captain Francisco Fernandez de Cordoba, seeing this, escaped with those who were left to him by taking refuge in the ships. The said Captain, seeing that more than a quarter of his people had been killed, and that he himself had received 30 odd wounds, and was almost dead, and despairing of escape, returned with the ships and people to the said Island of Fernandina.[3]
- ↑ There is much confusion amongst the early writers in the spelling of Indian names, and in assigning them correctly. In this case the place was called Poton-Chan, and the bay received the name of Mala Pelea from the Spanish sailors, on account of the disastrous rout they suffered there. The Cacique, Machocobon, according to Gomara, was a very formidable warrior.
- ↑ See Appendix I. at close of Letter.
- ↑ Alaminos, after consulting the other pilots, decided to sail for Florida, as being the best way back to Cuba, and because he knew that coast since its discovery by Ponce de Leon. They reached Florida in four days, and, upon landing to get water, they were again attacked. Both Alaminos and Bemal Diaz were wounded, while Berrio, the only soldier who had come unscathed out of the Mala--
the Spaniards to land, and saying Conex Cotoche, which means "come to our houses," but was thought by the Spaniards to be the name of the place. They called it Catoche therefore (Carrillo, Compendio de la Hist. Yucatan p. 105). Cortes here confuses Catoche with Campeche (in Maya, Kimpech), further westward on the bay of the same name, where the caravels arrived on Sunday, the feast of San Lazaro (March 22nd). Oviedo says that the Spaniards called the chief of the place Lazaro, and that the Indian name for the place was Campeche, but Orozco y Berra states that, in ancient letters, the place is called llazaro, and the river Campeche (tom, iv., cap. i., note).
