Cortés and the Tabasco Indians
At this time there was no knowledge in the Indies of the fate of
the Valdivia party, but on the Córdoba expedition Indians of
Campeche had saluted the Spaniards with the word " Castilan," and
this was deemed significant. At any rate after much inquiry on the
Yucatán coast and much dispatching of messengers inland, Aguilar
appeared, though Guerrero did not. Provided thus with a reliable
interpreter — for Melchor and Julian had proved wanting and Aguilar
was willing — Cortés early in March
set sail with his fleet for the country of the cacique Tabasco.
The halting point of the Spaniards was an island in the Tabasco or
Grijalva River, but when they sought to establish themselves on the
mainland, christened by Cortés "New Spain, " they were vigorously
withstood. A fight took place on the 25th of March, and fortune was
turned in favor of the Spaniards and against overwhelming bodies of
Indians by the artillery and the horses.
In Darien, where the natives were lower in the scale of barbarism
than in Yucatán and Mexico, Balboa had already won triumphs by the
aid of powerful dogs. But to the east of the Gulf of Urabá, that
region of the poisoned arrow, dogs had not been found effective; and
in Yucatánand Mexico — where the missiles most in use were darts,
javelins, slingstones, and the obsidian-edged sword-club or
macuahuitl — dogs, save for hunting purposes, were eschewed. What in
Darien was accomplished by the dog was accomplished in the region
farther west by the horse.
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macuahuitl macuahuitl (or maquahuitl) was an Aztec
obsidian-edged sword-club. It served both as an edged weapon
(due to its obsidian blades) and an impact weapon (due to its
stout hardwood body). The macuahuitl was also self sharpening.
It was capable of easily cleaving to bone. According to
Spanish conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, it was also
capable of decapitating a horse. Though sharper than a steel
weapon, it was less durable as the obsidian blades cracked
more easily. Macuahuitl - Wikipedia |
At Tabasco; or rather on the plain of Ceutla near by, the horses,
supported by the cannon, therefore won the day. The Indians, who
"covered the whole plain," who "wore great feather crests" and
"quilted cotton armor," who carried "drums and trumpets" and rained
upon their foe arrows, javelins, and stones, were finally hemmed in
between the Spanish guns, which ploughed through their masses, and
the Spanish horse, who under Cortés himself speared them down, and
so were brought to a stand. In the eyes of the terrorized barbarians
the guns with their thunder and lightning were a marvel; but the
horsemen were a greater marvel still for they were each a living
monster, horse and rider, in the words of Bernal Diaz, "being all
one animal."
It was at the close of this battle that the Tabascans, suing for
peace, brought to Cortés twenty young women, among them Dona Marina,
as she came to be known — "a truly great chiefteness, a daughter of
caciques and a mistress of vassals." Marina was Aztec, but as a
little girl had been given by her mother to the Indians of Tabasco
in order to make way for the succession of a half-brother to the
headship of her tribe. Cortés at first did not bestow upon her
especial notice, merely assigning her to "a distinguished
gentleman." What made her fortune was her knowledge of both Nahua
and Maya speech, combined with her intelligence. The rescued
Aguilar, who spoke the Maya of Yucatán and Tabasco, readily
understood the Maya of Tabasco as spoken by Marina. So, as it
proved, the chain of tongues indispensable to Cortés was complete —
Marina translating Aztec Nahua into Tabascan Maya, which Aguilar in
turn put into Castilian Spanish.
Cortés, who no less than Columbus was devout, spent Palm Sunday of
the year 1519 at Tabasco, where a religious procession was held and
mass was sung, and where the Indians were stoutly exhorted to give
up their bloody sacrifices and idols. The fleet then set sail and by
Holy Thursday was at the island of San Juan de Ulna. Here the
Spaniards first came to a definite knowledge of the existence and
importance of Montezuma. It is true that at Tabasco Grijalva had
heard of a Culúa, or Ulúa, "where there was plenty of gold"; but, in
the words of the chronicler, "we did not know what this Culúa could
be."
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