In their various encounters with these people the Spaniards sometimes came off losers. In one of them two Indian boys having the Christian names of Julian and Melchior fell into their hands. They proved of great advantage, for they served the Spaniards as interpreters in subsequent communications with the Mexicans. One day, when they had landed to fill their casks with fresh water, fifty Indians approached and inquired if they had come from the place where the sun rises. When the Spaniards answered in the affirmative, they were conducted to a temple, constructed of stone, in which they beheld various ugly images of deities sprinkled with fresh blood. Suddenly two men in white mantles, with long, flowing, black hair, stepped forward, holding small earthen braziers, into which they threw a kind of resin. They directed the smoke toward the Spaniards and ordered them upon pain of death to leave the country. Finding it dangerous to remain there, they obeyed and returned to their vessels. At another spot, where they had landed, they were surrounded by so large a multitude of hostile Indians that forty-seven were killed and many wounded in their efforts to get back to their vessels. Among the seventy wounded was Cordova himself. After this disaster they hurried back to Cuba as rapidly as they could, where their leader died after making a report to Velasquez of all that had happened. Velasquez was delighted at the discoveries made in his name, and decided to continue them. Four vessels were fitted out, and Grijalva,[3] a man of great ability and courage, upon whose uprightness and good judgment Velasquez believed he could depend, was given command of them. He was specially instructed to confine himself to making discoveries without establishing colonies in the new regions. Grijalva left Cuba May 1, 1518, and directed his course toward Yucatan, but the ocean currents drove him southerly, so that he first made land at Cape Catoche. Subsequently he discovered the island of Cozumel, off the Yucatan coast. From there he sailed along the coast to Potonchan, where Hernandez had been so foully dealt with. The Spaniards were eager to land and avenge the disaster, and Grijalva consented. The Indians, full of pride and defiance, and delighted with this fresh opportunity, attacked the Spaniards courageously, but they were driven back. Two hundred paid the penalty with their lives for their rashness, and the rest fled panic-stricken all over the country.