Bernal Díaz del Castillo - The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2)

When we were near enough they let fly such a shower of arrows and lances that the half of our men were speedily wounded. As soon, however, as we got on shore, we quickly gave them an evil return with our matchlocks and sabres. Nothing daunted by this they each selected their man, whom they particularly aimed at with their arrows, but we had taken the precaution to put on cotton cuirasses. They continued to combat with us for some time, until the arrival of another of our long boats, when we drove them back to the wells near the village. In this conflict we lost Juan de Quitera and many other soldiers. Our commander, Juan de Grijalva, got three arrow wounds and lost two of his teeth, and above sixty of our men were wounded. Immediately upon our putting the enemy to flight, we entered the village, dressed our wounds, and buried the dead. Not a single person had remained behind in the village, and even those whom we had driven back to the wells had merely staid there a sufficient time to carry off their property. In this skirmish we made three prisoners, one of whom was a person of rank. Our commander set them at liberty, desiring them to go and call the cazique of the district. He also presented them with green glass beads and small bells to distribute among the inhabitants, in order to gain their friendship. We treated the three prisoners upon the whole with every kindness, and gave them glass corals to encourage them and gain their good faith. They left us indeed, but took good care not to return; we thought it possible, however, that Julianillo and Melchorejo had misrepresented our commission to them. We staid four days in this place, and I shall never forget it on account of the immense sized locusts which we saw here. It was a stony spot on which the battle took place, and these creatures, while it lasted, kept continually flying in our faces; and as at the same moment we were greeted by a shower of arrows from the enemy, we also mistook these locusts for arrows. But, as soon as we had discovered our mistake, we deceived ourselves in another more direful way, for we now mistook arrows for locusts, and discontinued to shield ourselves against them. In this way we mistook locusts and arrows to our great sorrow, were severely wounded in consequence, and otherwise found ourselves in a very awkward predicament.

We continued our course and ran into Terminos bay, as we named it.

On our further voyage we came to an opening on the coast, which to us appeared to be the mouth of some broad and large river. It was, however, not a river as we had supposed, but a good harbour, which reached so far inland, and had such a considerable breadth, that it appeared like a sea; and our pilot Anton de Alaminos confidently asserted that this was an island whose two promontories reached nigh to the continent. We, therefore, termed this opening the Boca de Terminos, under which name it may be found on the sea charts. Our commander and the other officers went on shore here with the greater part of our men, among which number I also was. We remained three whole days in this place in order thoroughly to explore the opening and sail through it in all directions. We discovered, however, that it was no island, but a deep indented bay, formed by the continent, affording us a most commodious harbour. As we also found temples here built of stone and lime, full of idols made of wood or clay, with other figures, sometimes representing women, sometimes serpents, also horns of various kinds of wild animals, we concluded that an Indian village must be near at hand: we considered, moreover, that this would be a most excellent spot to found a colony. We had, however, deceived ourselves in one thing, the district being quite uninhabited. The temples most probably belonged to merchants and hunters, who on their journies most likely ran into this harbour and there made their sacrifices. Fallow deer and rabbits abounded in this neighbourhood, and with one greyhound only we killed ten of the former and great numbers of the latter. Our dog took such a liking to this spot that it ran away while we were busy reimbarking, nor did we see it again until we visited this place subsequently with Cortes, when it appeared in excellent condition, quite plump and sleeky.

Having thoroughly explored Terminos harbour, and sounded it throughout, we pursued our course along the coast to the river Tabasco, which at present, after the name of its discoverer, is called the river Grijalva.

How we came into the Tabasco river, which we termed the Grijalva, and what happened to us there.

As we thus by day sailed along the coast of the continent, for at night we lay to on account of the shallows and rocks, we perceived on the third morning a very broad mouth of some river. We approached the shore as near as possible, thinking we should find a good harbour here. As we came closer to the mouth we saw that the waves broke over its shallows: we consequently lowered our boats to make soundings, and found that our two larger vessels could not come in here. It was therefore immediately resolved that they should anchor further out at sea, but that the two remaining vessels which did not draw so much water, with all our boats well manned, should proceed up the river. We could perceive in the canoes along the shore numbers of Indians with bows and arrows, and in other respects armed exactly like those of Champoton. We concluded from their numbers that a village could not be far off; we also found as we proceeded further up the river along the banks, basket kiddles put out, from two of which we took the fish and placed them in a boat a-stern of our principal ship.

This river was previously called after the cazique of the district, the Tabasco; as we, however, discovered it during this expedition, we gave it the name of the Grijalva river, in honour of our chief commander, under which name it stands on the sea charts.

We might still have been about two miles from the village when we distinctly heard the crackling noise of the felling of trees; for the Indians were constructing barricades and making other preparations of war against us, of the issue of which they entertained no doubts, as they had been duly advertised of the occurrence at Potonchan. As soon as we learnt this, we disembarked our men on a projecting point of land, about two miles from the village, where some palm trees were growing. As soon as they perceived this, about fifty canoes with Indians completely armed after their fashion made towards us, while many other canoes, manned in the same way, lay dispersed about the haven, at a greater distance, not daring to approach us so near as the first.

Seeing how ready they were for action, we were just upon the point of firing off our great guns, and giving them a volley of musket-shots, when it entered our minds, through a merciful Providence, that we ought first to try if we could not gain their friendship. We therefore by means of Julianillo and Melchorejo, (who were natives of the Punta de Cotoche, and certainly understood the language spoken here,) told the chiefs they had nothing to fear from us: we were desirous of discoursing with them and had things to disclose, which, as soon as they had learnt, would make our arrival pleasing to them: they should come to us and we would gladly give them of the things we had brought.

Upon this invitation four of the canoes approached us, containing thirty Indians, or thereabouts. We showed them necklaces of blue glass beads, small mirrors, and green imitation corals. At the sight of the latter they appeared quite delighted; for they thought them to be chalchihuis stones, which are highly esteemed in their country.

Our captain then told them, by means of our interpreters, that we came from a distant country, and were the subjects of a great emperor, whose name was Don Carlos, who had numerous sovereigns and caziques among his vassals: they should likewise acknowledge this emperor as their lord and master, for then it would go well with them; – he further desired them to give us fowls in exchange for our glass beads.