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nydus/History of Mexico, Volume 1, 1516-1521Public
Page 433 of 1600
Table of Contents

CHAPTER II. JUAN DE GRIJALVA EXPLORES THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE MEXICAN GULF. 1518.

worshippers. To the point was given the name San Felipe y Santiago, and to a town standing near, that of San Juan ante Portam Latinam. Then they entered the town, and found there houses of stone, and paved streets, in the eyes of Juan Diaz not unlike the towns of Spanish construction. Meanwhile, a small party penetrated one or two leagues into the interior, and observed other towns and cultivated lands.

A historical map showing the coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula, Gulf of Mexico, and surrounding islands and river mouths.

While crossing to the Yucatan coast the following day, they descried in the distance three towns, and, as they descended toward the south, a city “so large that Seville could not show to better advantage.”

Next they came to a great opening in the shore, to which, after Alaminos had examined it in a boat, they gave the name of Bahía de la Ascension, from the day of discovery. Unable to find a pass in this direction round the supposed island of Yucatan, they turned back, passed Cozumel, and, rounding the peninsula, arrived at Campeche the 25th, rescuing on their way a woman from Jamaica.

Everywhere they beheld the same evidences of high culture seen by Córdoba, the tower-temples and crosses of the Mayas rising from

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