Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/141

Rh charged and driven back with the loss of three Spaniards slain and sixty wounded, the commander-in-chief, ever foremost in the fight, being three times struck and losing two teeth. Two hundred were killed and wounded among the natives. The town was found deserted. Presently three ancient Americans appeared, who were kindly entreated, and despatched, with presents to the fugitives, but they never returned. Two nights were spent ashore, the tower and sacred edifices adjacent being used as barracks.

Embarking, soon a large opening in the coast was discovered, and entered by Grijalva, the chaplain says, the last day of May. Puerto Deseado the commander called his anchorage, being the desired spot in which might be repaired the leaky ships. The Spaniards thought themselves at first at the mouth of a river, but on further examination, it appeared to them more like a sea. Whereupon the pilot Alaminos, who, notwithstanding evidence to the contrary, notwithstanding three days' explorings, left this salt-sheet still landlocked, never ceased insisting that Yucatan was an island, and he now gravely assured his commander that the great opening opposite Amatique Bay and Golfo Dulce, or if that were too far, then opposite Chetumal or Ascension, confirmed his suppositions, and settled the matter in his mind that this was the termination of the islands; hence the names Boca de Términos, and Laguna de Términos, which followed. The temples