1517
Water at Champotón
From Campeche the fleet sails on for six days in good weather and four in a storm. The casks leak, and the water runs out again. The ships stop at Champotón, where the Champotón River meets the sea. Its Maya name is Chakán Putum, and its lord is Moch Couoh, of the Couoh lineage. Shallow water keeps the ships well out, so the Spaniards go ashore in the boats.
The mouth of the Champotón River at Champotón, Campeche, 2014Wikimedia Commons, Comisión Mexicana de Filmaciones, CC BY-SA 2.0 (Campeche, Champotón (11967887144).jpg)
A landing party finds fresh water at wells near the shore and fills the casks. Armed warriors come out of the town, and both sides try to talk by signs until night falls. In the dark the Spaniards hear large numbers of warriors gathering around them. They judge a retreat to the boats at night too risky, post guards and wait for the dawn.
The expedition has about 110 men, not all of them soldiers, armed with swords, crossbows and muskets. The warriors of Champotón fight with bows and arrows, darts, stones, spears and clubs, and wear padded cotton armour.
A Maya warrior in a quilted armour tunic with a flexible shield, figurine from Jaina Island, Campeche, 550 – 850, Walters Art Museum, BaltimoreWikimedia Commons, Walters Art Museum, Public domain (Mayan - Warrior Figurine - Walters 20092038 - Three Quarter.jpg)
Sources
- Inga Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517 to 1570 (2nd ed. 2003), pp. 10 to 13.
- Robert J. Sharer and Loa P. Traxler, The Ancient Maya (6th ed. 2006), p. 759.
- Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain, tr. J. M. Cohen (1963), pp. 22 to 26.
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