ACCOUNT OF THE SPANIARDS. 405 



remarked a very considerable village ; the country 

 w^as watered by many rivers. We discovered a bay 

 where ajleet would have been able to enterT This 

 account is certainly not so accurate as a coast sur- 

 vey would be at this day, but it is more minute than 

 most accounts of the early voyages of the Span- 

 iards, and, in my opinion, it is all sufficient to iden- 

 tify this now desolate city. After crossing over from 

 Cozumel, twenty-four hours' sailing would bring 

 them to this part of the coast ; and the next circum- 

 stance mentioned, viz., the discovery of a bay where 

 a fleet would have been able to enter, is still stronger, 

 for at the distance of about eight leagues below 

 Tuloom is the Bay of Ascension, always spoken of 

 by the Spanish writers as a harbour in which the 

 whole Spanish navy might lie at anchor. It is the 

 only bay along the coast from Cape Catoche into 

 which large vessels can enter, and constrains me to 

 the belief that the desolate place now known as Tu- 

 loom was that "bourg, or village, so large that Se- 

 ville would not appear larger or better," and that the 

 Castillo, from which we were driven by the mosche- 

 toes, was that " highest tower which the Spaniards 

 had seen." 



Farther, it is my firm belief that this city con- 

 tinued to be occupied by its aboriginal inhabitants 

 long after the conquest, for Grijalva turned back 

 from the Bay of Ascension, again passed with- 

 out landing, and after the disastrous expedition of 

 Don Francisco Montejo, the Spaniards made no at- 



