566 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



Indians wore ; obje&s never before feen in the New 

 World. The Yucatanefe, on their part, marvelled at 

 the fize, the form, and decorations of their velTels. At 

 two places where the Spaniards landed, they had fome 

 ikirmifties with the Indians, in which, and by other dif- 

 treffes that attended them, they loft the half of their 

 foldiers, and their captain himfelf received twelve wounds, 

 which in a few days occafioned his death. Having re- 

 turned precipitately to Cuba, with the accounts of their 

 expedition, and fome gold which they had robbed from 

 a temple and brought with them for mow, they awoke 

 the avaricious paffions of Diego de Velafquez, formerly 

 a conqueror, and then governor of that illand ; upon 

 which he next year fitted out his relation Juan de Gri- 

 jalva, with four veffels, and two hundred and forty 

 foldiers. This commander, after having difcovered the 

 ifland of Cozumel, a few miles diftant from the eaftern 

 fliore of Yucatan, coafted along all that country, which 

 lies from thence to the river Panuco, exchanging little 



glafs 



fpeaking of the voyage of Grijalva, he writes thus : Many villages were fatter ed 

 along the Jhore, among ivhich, they ( the Spaniards ) could difcern houfes off one, ivhich at a 

 iifance appeared zubite and magnificent. In the heat of their imagination, they reprefented 

 to themfelves that thefe ivere fo many cities adorned ivith toivers and cupolas. Among 

 all the hiftorians of Mexico, we have not found one who has faid, that the 

 Spaniards imagined there were cupolas in Yucatan. This idea belongs to Robcrt- 

 fon, not to them. They thought they faw high towers and large houfes, as, in 

 fadfc, they were. The temples of Yucatan, like thofe of Anahuac, were built for 

 the moft part in the form of towers, and were very lofty. Bernal Diaz, an 

 author of the utmoft veracity, and an eye-witnefs of all that happened to the 

 Spaniards in their firft voyages to Yucatan, when he fpeaks of the difembarkment 

 they made in their firft voyage to the coaft of Campeachy, fays thus : They, the 

 Indians, conducted us to fome houfes, ivhich ivere large and tolerably ivell built of jlone and 

 lime. From which it appears they not only faw the buildings at a diftance, but 

 approached to them and entered them. The ufe of lime having been fo common 

 among thofe nations, it is not wonderful that the practice of whitening them 

 alfo was common See our feventh book. At any rate we cannot comprehend, 

 how a houfe at a diftance mould feem white if it really was not fo. 



