SPANISH + MAYA CLASH 1500s
A Late Postclassic Maya chronicle, known as the “Book
of Chilam Balam of Chumayel”, notes that “11 Ahau was
when the mighty men arrived from the east. They were the
ones who first brought disease here to our land, the land of
us who are Maya, in the year 1513”.
FIRST CONTACT
1502 when during his final voyage to the New World
Columbus came across a trading canoe near the Bay
Islands in the Gulf of Honduras. Columbus recorded that
the canoe was very long, about 8 feet wide and that it had
a crew of 24 men plus a number of women and children.
The cargo in the canoe included cotton clothing, cacao,
copper bells and axes, pottery and macanas (wooden
clubs inlaid with obsidian chips).
NACHAN CAN + GONZALO GUERRERO 1511
Beached along the east coast of Yucatan the exhausted
survivors were captured and Valdivia and four of his men
were sacrificed. Eventually only two Spaniards, Geronimo
de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero, remained alive. When
Cortes reached the Yucatan in 1519, Aguilar was still serving
a Maya lord while Guerrero had married the daughter of
Nachan Can, ruler of Chetumal (Santa Rita, Corozal).
MAYACIMIL – EASY DEATH - 1515-1524
Between 1515 and 1516 a great pestilence known as
the mayacimil (or “easy death”) devastated the Maya
people along the eastern coast of the Yucatan peninsula.
“Characterised by great pustules that “rotted their bodies
with great stench” (see Sharer 1994: 733), it is believed
that this epidemic may have been caused by small pox
that had been introduced by the Spanish. Not having any
immunity to these new diseases, many Maya died within
days of contracting the disease.
CORTES Crosses the SARSTOON - 1524
Having received word that one of his captains who he
had sent to control Honduras was rebelling against him,
Cortes decided to march from Mexico city to Honduras to
deal with the problem. On the way they briefly stopped at
Tah Itza (Flores, Peten) where they met with the Peten Itza
ruler Canek. From Flores they traveled to the southeast
crossing the Sarstoon River at the Gracias a Dios rapids
near the border between Belize and Guatemala.
MAYA ALWAYS INDEPENDENT
Like their brethren to the north, the Maya of Belize and
the Peten remained defiantly independent long after the
fall of other Mesoamerican people. Many years after the
conquest of the northern Yucatan, the Spanish moved into
the province of Uaymil. Franciscan priests journeyed up
the Dzuluinicob (or New) River making stops at Lamanai,
Zaczuus (near Roaring Creek), Tipu (Negroman), and
eventually reaching Tah Itza (Flores, Peten) about six
months later. We know that at Lamanai, Zaczuuz and Tipu
the Spaniards constructed churches for the christianization
of the Maya.
Chetumal
Dzuluinicob
Monche
Chol