Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/63

40 was heavy. To furnish the necessary arms, horses, and munitions the Adelantado found himself obliged to sell a Mayorazgo (entailed estate) yielding one thousand ducats a year ($2500, equal to about $10,000 of modern money). The seamen received pay, but the rest of the expedition received no money, depending on their fortune in the New World for remuneration. Only one cleric, Francisco Hernandez, accompanied the expedition; he was its chaplain. He later attributed the failure of the expedition to the lack of priests.

He Sets out. Setting out in 1527, the expedition arrived at Cozumel, where a landing was effected. There, as elsewhere, the Spaniards found themselves at a great disadvantage in having no interpreter. By various makeshifts, however, they made themselves understood, and poor Montejo, misled by the seeming docility of the natives, flattered himself that he had an easy task before him.

Montejo and his Men Go along the Shore of Yucatan. Skirting the eastern shore of Yucatan, the fleet arrived at a point near the first site of Valladolid, where all the soldiers landed, leaving the seamen to guard the ships and supplies. What seemed a sufficient number of horses, munitions, and provisions was taken. As usual on such occasions, the first thing to be done was to take formal possession of the land for the King of Castile. Accordingly appropriate ceremonies were carried through, and the standard bearer, Gonzalo Nieto, unfurled the royal banner. Cogolludo is very definite as to the region in which the conquest of Yucatan had its beginning. Valladolid, not Bakhalal or Campeche, is, he says, the site