Cozumel

“ Ten miles from the eastern coast of Yucatan lies the Island of Cozumel, one of Nature's favored spots, where there is perpetual spring, and to live in the open air is a delight. We wanted a house, nevertheless, and were by no means charmed when informed that it would be very difficult to find a lodging. ”

“ As darkness falls and the clear azure of the sea turns to a leaden grey, we run past Cancun, this time to seaward, at five or six knots. But it is dawn before we see the coast of Cozumel, which is what sailors call "raw" and is not one to be approached at night time if it can be avoided. So we stand off until the morning; for if one cannot describe the island's shore as one "whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tide," it is true enough that that "foot" is fearsomely shod with coral. ”

“ Cozumel was one of these great religious centres from which roads led in every direction, and Cogolludo says that in his time "were to be seen vestiges of calzadas which cross the whole kingdom, said to end at its eastern border on the sea-shore." The cura of Chemax, speaking of Coba, far eastward of Chichen toward the coast, says "there is a calzada, or paved road, of ten or twelve yards in width, running to the south-east to a limit that has not been discovered with certainty, but some aver that it goes in the direction of Chichen Itza." ”

“ Thus the city of Chichen-Itza was linked up with the island of Cozumel by a highway whereon thousands of pilgrims plodded to the temples of the gods of wind and moisture. From Itzamal, too, roads branched in every direction, in order that the people should have every facility for reaching the chief shrine of the country situated there. But the hand of the Cocomes was heavy upon the other Maya states which were tributary to them. As in the Yucatan of to-day, where the wretched henequen-picker leads the life of a veritable slave, a crushing system of helotage obtained. ”

“ Christians who were reported to be still lingering in captivity on the neighbouring continent. From some traders in the islands he obtained such a confirmation of the report, that he sent Diego de Cozumel Doves Ordaz with two brigantines to the opposite coast of Yucatan, with instructions to remain there eight days. Some Indians went as messengers in the vessels, who consented to bear a letter to the captives, informing them of the arrival of their countrymen in Cozumel, with a liberal ransom for their release. ”

“ There gardens and ranches are rich with oranges and limes, pineapples and sugar-cane, bananas and banana-apples, grape-fruit and the delicious soapy-fleshed guanabana, with groves of cocoanut palms, with figs, with the white starry flowers of tobacco, with the fluffy bursting pods of cotton, and vari-coloured spicebushes. If Cozumel could be cleared in all her fifty miles length and fifteen breadth, what a garden of the gods she would become!
To bargain well one must be a good actor. ”

“ On the east of Yucatan is the Island of Cozumel, or Cosumel forty miles long, and from three to ten in breadth, in 19° 40ʹ north-latitude, 85° 51ʹ west longitude; which is very fertile, and abounds in cattle and fowls. ”

“ The Island of Cozumel on the east coast of Yucatan—which was the first land discovered by the Spaniards in their voyage to Mexico,—is now almost uninhabited, and contains some ancient remains, which are probably the ruins of the splendid structures that attracted the attention of the adventurers, and satisfied them they had reached a land which was sufficiently civilized to be worthy their exploration and plunder. ”

“ These are the accounts given by eyewitnesses of what they saw on the first visits of the Spaniards. The later historians are more explicit, and speak of Cozumel as a place containing many adoratorios and temples, as a principal sanctuary and place of pilgrimage, standing to Yucatan in the same relation as Rome to the Catholic world. Gomarra describes one temple as being "like a square tower, broad at the base, having steps on the sides, and at the top a chamber covered with straw, with four doors or windows, with their breastworks or corridors. ”

“ North of the great island of Cozumel is Isla Mujeres, about six miles from the coast, five or six miles in length by half a mile wide. Here some of the sailors with Cortes went on shore, and found in the town, near by, four temples, the idols in which represented human female figures of large size, for which reason they named this place Punta de las Mujeres, or Women's Cape. TERRA-COTTA FIGURE. What Stephens, in 1842, did for Isla Mujeres and Cozumel, in a superficial manner, the archaeologist Dr. ”

“ Gentlemen and brothers,—Here in Cozumel I have been informed that you are detained prisoners by a cacique: I request as a favor that you will forthwith join me. I send a ship and soldiers, with whatever is necessary for your ransom, they have orders to wait eight days; but come with all dispatch to me, from whom you shall receive every assistance and protection. I am here with eleven ships and five hundred soldiers, with which I will, with the assistance of God, proceed to Champotan, Tabasco, and beyond. ”

“ Hernando Cortes, coming from Cuba with a squadron to discover and conquer the land ruled by the Lord of the Golden House, had stopped at Cozumel and there heard of white men held as captives somewhere inland. He had persuaded the Indians to send messengers for them, saying that if the captives were sent to the sea-coast, at the cape of Cotoche, he would leave two caravels there eight days, to wait for them. ”

“ Ecles., 175-76, fails not to recognize, in the compulsory return of the fleet to Cozumel, and in the finding of Aguilar, the hand of God; and Torquemada, i. 370, eagerly elaborates the miraculous features in the appearance of this Aaron, who is to be the mouth-piece of his Moses. ↑ Bernal Diaz says the 4th, which is rather close reckoning, according to his own account, for two days are required to reach Cozumel from Cape San Antonio, nine days are consumed by Ordaz in waiting for the captives, and four days for repairing Escalante's leaky vessel. ”

“ The aboriginal inhabitants of Yucatan were, like those dwelling in the neighbouring land of Guatemala, devoted to the worship of idols, and travelled great distances to take part in the ceremonies which were performed at the shrines of their principal gods. The Island of Cozumel was one of the sacred sites which was held in great veneration when the fleet of Grijalva arrived there in 1518. ”

“ He remained with the army through the whole expedition, and by his wise and benevolent counsels was often enabled to mitigate the cruelties of the Conquerors, and to turn aside the edge of the sword from the unfortunate natives. These two missionaries vainly laboured to persuade the people of Cozumel to renounce their abominations, and to allow the Indian idols, in which the Christians recognised the true lineaments of Satan,1 to be thrown down and demolished. ”

“ All the historians of Cortes’ expedition dwell on the effect produced on the natives of Cozumel by the religious services he held there.
The date, Feb. 28, 1519, seems correct, although it is not mentioned by any other writer I have at hand. Cortes left Havana, Feb. 19.
Lai yabil, “in this year,” evidently a date is omitted, as the first arrival of the Spaniards at Chichen Itza was either at the close of 1526 or beginning of 1527. One of the Maya MSS. gives the year as bulucil Muluc, the 11th Muluc. The Maya year, it will be remembered, began on the 16th of July. ”

“ Jago de Cuba, May 1, 1518.2 It took the course pursued by Cordova, but was driven somewhat to the south, the first land that it made being the island of Cozumel. From this quarter Grijalva soon passed over to the continent and coasted the peninsula, touching at the same places as his predecessor. Everywhere he was struck, like him, with the evidences of a higher civilisation, especially in the architecture ”

“ However, various rites in connection with agriculture were practised, such as fasting before sowing, and the offering of incense at each of the corners of the fields. In later Yucatan, pilgrimages were made from all parts of the country to important shrines, and we are told that the temple at Cozumel was one of the most celebrated at the conquest. Pilgrims were wont to stop to offer incense at deserted temples, and Cogolludo mentions the fact that he found recent offerings of copal in a temple at Uxmal. ”

“ Like a good soldier, Bernal Diaz makes the time fit the occasion. ‘A este pueblo,’ he says, Hist. Verdad., 7, ‘pusimos por nombre Santa Cruz; porq̄ quatro, ò cinco diaz antes de Santa Cruz le vimos.’ The native name of the island was Acusamil—Landa, Rel. de Yuc., 20, writes it Cuzmil; Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, 10, Cuzamil—Swallow’s Island, which was finally corrupted into the Cozumel of the Spaniards. Mercator, indeed, writes Acusamil, in 1569, although Colon, Ribero, and Hood had previously given coçumel, cozumel, and Cosumel, respectively. ”

“ Amongst modern authorities, Orozco y Berra combats the imputation as unfounded. Bernal Diaz records that obscene images were found in the temples at Cozumel, and the Anonymous Conqueror describes in language which I do not translate, the debauchery common amongst the Indians of Panuco, and gives some singular details of their different ways of intoxicating themselves, similar to nothing I have ever heard of amongst any people, ancient or modern (Apud Icazbalceta, Doc. Ined. II Modo di Sacrificare, etc.) ”

“ The architecture of all the buildings was rougher but more solid than that of those of the mainland. A noticeable feature, which we remarked again in Cozumel, was the prevalence of the monolithic pillar, which we found nowhere on the mainland among the richly decorated ruins such as Chichen, Labna and Sayil, where the pillar, almost always carved in relief, is square and built in sections a foot or two high. Of mural ornamentation there was no sign; and the general appearance of these Cancun ruins showed cruder workmanship than the rich façade work and carvings of Chichen and Palenque. ”

“ All things being properly regulated, and having taken a friendly leave of the natives, who promised to take great care of the altar and crucifix, and presented Cortes with some fowls and honey, we set sail from the island of Cozumel, in the beginning of March 1519. When we had only proceeded a few hours on our voyage, we learned by a signal-gun that the ship of Juan de Escalente, in which the bread of the whole fleet was embarked, was in imminent danger, having sprung a leak. ”

“ Cancun is a sixteen-mile stretch, mostly dense bush; at the northern end one of the artificial mounds, examples of which we examined higher up the coast by Cape Catoche. Our old Mayan host was called Patricio Pat, quite probably a descendant of the cacique Naum Pat with whom, it will be remembered, the Spaniards made such friends on their first visits to Cozumel. He had two huts in a clearing near the water edge, surrounded by a grove of cocoa palms for the fruit of which a dory came periodically from the other islands. ”

“ But long ago a poet said, "Fortune smiles on those who dare."
After encountering a very severe storm, the fleet touched at the island of Cozumel, where they found that the inhabitants had embraced Christianity, either from fear of the Spaniards, or from finding the inability of their gods to help them. Just as the fleet was about to leave the island, Cortès had the good fortune to meet with a Spaniard named Jeronimo d'Aguilar, who had been kept a prisoner by the Indians for eight years. ”

“ Has no Yucatan. 1523-25 TURIN-SPANISH (E. L. S.) . [3]
The general outline of Yucatan is recognizable. There is a gap on the south of Yucatan where the isthmus should be. All the names save Cozumel are wrong. 1527 MAGGIOLO (E. L. S.) .
The shape of Yucatan is all wrong, and Yucatan is shown as a rather small island far from the mainland. no names. 1527 WEIMAR-SPANISH (E. L. S.) .
Yucatan is a peninsula. Isthmus is roughly drawn and too narrow. “gotoche” (Catoche, “y. demuJeres” (Isla de Mujeres) , and “cocumel” (Cozumel) , etc. At the isthmus is a name which possibly may be Ytza ”

“ This was all the damage our men did, although they had so many opportunities of doing more, Cortes having most strictly forbidden any wanton outrage, that there might not be a repetition of what happened on the island of Cozumel.
We were overjoyed with the provisions; for when man can satisfy his appetite, he forgets half his sufferings. Gomara mentions another expedition in this place, which, he says, Cortes himself undertook, with 400 men, to explore the interior of the country: but here again he must have been misinformed ”

“ In the hollow, which seems like a chapel, they seat or paint their gods. Such was that which stood near the seacoast."
By these accounts I had been induced to visit the island of Cozumel; and an incidental notice in the Modern Traveller, speaking of existing ruins as remains of Spanish buildings, led me to suspect that their character had been mistaken, and that they were really vestiges of the original population; but on the ground we asked ourselves where to look for them. ”

“ In former times no one saw Spanish foreigners, not until Jeronimo de Aguilar was captured by the natives of Cozumel; then first the whole of the country became known, because all the country was marched over; but because the whole of the land was not made use of I spoke of it before the king, when there went before the king Ah Macan Pech, Don Pedro Pech, and his followers, and the first of his lineage, and all his chiefs after him; they went after him to honor the king, that he might see the faces of his servants ”