Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/46

20 the shallows and rocks, we saw one morning the very broad mouth of a river, and we went near shore with the ships, thinking we should find good harborage. As we came closer in we saw the waves breaking, and found that our larger vessels could not enter because of a bar. It was therefore determined that the two smaller ships, which did not draw so much water, with all our boats well manned, should go on up the river. To this time the river had been called Tabasco, because the chief of the town called himself Tabasco. But since we discovered it during this expedition, we gave it the name of Grijalva, in honor of our captain, and under that name it stands on the sea charts.

Along the shore we could see troops of Indians with bows and arrows and other weapons, after the fashion of the people of Chanpoton, and we reasoned that a town could not be far off. We might have been say two miles from the town, when we heard the sound of the felling of trees. The Indians were making barricades and getting ready for war against us. As soon as we learned this, we disembarked on a point of land where some palm trees were growing. When they saw us land, Indians armed after their manner made towards us in fifty canoes, while many other canoes, manned in the same way, lay off in the creeks as if the warriors dared not approach us.

Seeing how ready they were for action, we were