Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/37

Rh seems to have been Tabzcoob, received the name of Grijalba. On arriving at the river which they named Banderas, because of the numerous Indians carrying white flags whom they saw along the coast, they first heard of the existence of Montezuma, of whom these people were vassals, and by whom they had been ordered to keep a look out for the possible return of the white men, whose former visit to Cozumel had been reported to the Emperor. On the 17th of June, a landing was made on a small island, where the Spaniards first discovered proofs that human sacrifices and cannibalism were practised by the natives, for they found there a bloodstained idol, human heads, members, and whole bodies, with the breasts cut open and the hearts gone. They named the island Isla de los Sacrificios (Oviedo, lib. xvii., cap. xiv.).

From the island which they named San Juan de Ulua (from the word Culua which they imperfectly caught from the natives), Grijalba sent Pedro de Alvarado on June 24th, with the San Sebastian to carry the results of his trading operations, and an account of his discoveries to Diego Velasquez, and to ask for an authorisation to colonise which had not been given in his original instructions, but which the members of the expedition exacted should now be granted (Las Casas, Hist, de las Indias, lib. iii., cap. cxii.).

Diego Velasquez had meanwhile felt some impatience, which gradually became alarm at hearing nothing from his expedition, so he sent Cristobal de Olid with a ship to look for it. Olid landed also at Cozumel, and took formal possession by right, as he supposed, of discovery. After coasting about for some time, and finding no traces of Grijalba, and having been obliged to cut his cables in a storm which had lost him his anchors, he returned to Cuba to augment the uneasiness of the Governor. At this juncture, however, Alvarado arrived with the treasure