12 March 1519
Cortés reaches Tabasco
From Cozumel the fleet sails round the north of Yucatán and down the west coast to the Tabasco River, which Cortés names the Grijalva after its discoverer. On 12 March 1519 the ships anchor off the river mouth, and Cortés takes the men upstream in the boats to look for the large town Grijalva found. They land at Punta de los Palmares, half a league from Potonchán.
The Grijalva River near its mouth at Frontera, Centla, Tabasco, 2014Wikimedia Commons, Andycyca, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Rio Grijalva desde Centla 03.jpg)
Potonchán is the capital of the Chontal Maya province of Tabasco. It is a river and sea port whose trade reaches from Xicalango and Acalan to Cozumel and the Ulúa valley in Honduras. The town stands on a low rise, with the river on one side and swamps on the other two. Its lord, Tabscoob, received Grijalva peacefully the year before, but Champotón has since warned the Chontal against the Spaniards.
River and swamps in the Pantanos de Centla reserve, Tabasco, 2008Wikimedia Commons, Alfonsobouchot, Public domain (Pantanos de Centla 2.JPG)
This time warriors fill the bushes along the banks, and men in canoes tell the Spaniards by signs to leave. Through Aguilar, Cortés tells them that he comes in peace, then arms the boats with crossbowmen and musketeers. He has about 500 soldiers and a few guns, and his horses are still aboard the ships. The Spaniards camp on the point for the night, and three soldiers go out in the dark to scout the road to the town.
The Spaniards fight the Chontal before Tabasco, painting from a series on the conquest of Mexico, second half of the 17th centuryWikimedia Commons, unknown artist, Public domain (Entrance of Cortés La Conquista de Mexico (Tabasco city) Painting.jpg)
Sources
- Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain, tr. J. M. Cohen (1963), p. 68.
- Cipriano Aurelio Cabrera Bernat, Viajeros en Tabasco: Textos (1987), pp. 41 to 42.
- Manuel Gil y Sáenz, Compendio histórico, geográfico y estadístico del Estado de Tabasco (2nd ed. 1979), pp. 75 to 80.
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