Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/152

132 inhabitants of said Island, amongst whom some of us came as Captains for the purpose of serving Your Majesties, and not only did we and those of the said armada come risking our own persons, but we and they also provided almost all the outfit of the said armada from our own resources, in which we and they spent a very great part of our fortunes. And there went again as pilot of this armada the same Anton de Alaminos, who first discovered the said country when he went with Francisco Fernandez de Cordoba.

In making this voyage, they followed in his former track, and, before they reached the said land, they discovered a small island, called Cozumel, which may measure Jamapa), which they called Banderas, because Indians carrying white flags were seen along the coast. They received them with great civility and interest, and traded to the amount of 15,000 dollars worth of gold (Bernal Diaz, cap. xiii.). Here the name of Montezuma was first heard by the Spaniards. The next stopping place was named Isla de los Sacrifios, because they found in a temple there six or seven bodies of men with their breasts cut open, and their hearts gone. The Island of Ulua was so named from the Indian word Culua, which the Spaniards imperfectly caught, and, to distinguish it from San Juan de Puerto Rico, they called the place San Juan de Ulua (Bernal Diaz, cap. xiv.; Orozco y Berra, vol. iv., cap. ii.).

On the Island of Ulua the Spanish government afterwards built a fortress said to have cost forty millions of dollars, and which was the last stronghold of Spain in Mexico. On November 23, 1825, the President of the new republic announced its fall by a proclamation: "The standard of the republic floats over the castle of Ulua! I announce to you, fellow citizens, with inexpressible pleasure that, after a lapse of three hundred and four years, the flag of Castile has now disappeared from our coasts."

From here, Pedro de Alvarado with one of the four ships, the San Sebastian, was sent to report to Diego Velasquez what had been discovered. He took also the gold and treasures, and was to ask for further instructions concerning settlements, which Grijalba had no power to make. The others next went on to Panuco. Velasquez was vexed with Grijalba for not colonising, though the latter justified himself by the instructions given him, which expressly forbade this (Bernal Diaz, cap. xv.; Oviedo, lib. xvii., cap. xviii.; Gomara, Cronica, cap. v., vi.; Cogolludo, lib. i., cap. iii., iv.; Orozco y Berra, vol. iv., cap. ii.-iii.).