They were soon caught in a storm and severely shaken; after which they began to look about for water, which had by this time become as precious to them as the Tyrian mures tincture, of which each shell-fish gave but a single drop. They accordingly came to anchor near a village called Potonchan, but owing to a sanguinary battle in which they were driven back, Córdoba named the place Bahía de Mala Pelea.[10] In this engagement the natives did not shrink from fighting hand to hand with the foe. Fifty-seven Spaniards were killed on the spot, two were carried off alive, and five died subsequently on shipboard. Those whom the natives could not kill they followed to the shore, in their disappointed rage, wading out into the sea after them, like the bloodthirsty Cyclops who pursued the Trojan Æneas and his crew. But one man escaped unharmed, and he of all the rest was selected for slaughter by the natives of Florida. Córdoba received twelve wounds; Bernal Diaz three. The survivors underwent much suffering before reaching Cuba, for the continued hostilities of the natives prevented their obtaining the needful supply of water. There being no one else to curse except themselves, they cursed the pilot, Alaminos, for his discovery, and for still persisting in calling the country an island. Then they left Mala Pelea Bay and returned along the coast, north-eastwardly, for three days, when they entered an opening in the shore to which they gave the name of Estero de los Lagartos,[11] from the multitude of caimans found there. After burning one of the ships which had become unseaworthy, Córdoba crossed from this point to Florida, and thence proceeded to Cuba, where he died from his wounds, ten days after reaching his home at Santi Espíritu. Diego Velazquez was much interested in the details of this discovery. He closely questioned the two captives about their country, its gold, its great buildings, and the plants which grew there. When shown the yucca root they assured the governor that they were familiar with it, and that it was called by them _tale_, though in Cuba the ground in which the yucca grew bore that name. From these two words, according to Bernal Diaz, comes the name Yucatan; for while the governor was speaking to the Indians of _yucca_ and _tale_, some Spaniards standing by exclaimed, “You see, sir, they call their country Yucatan.”[12] The people of this coast seemed to have heard of the Spaniards, for at several places they shouted ‘Castilians!’ and asked the strangers by signs if they did not come from toward the rising sun. Yet, neither the glimpse caught of Yucatan by Pinzon and Solis in 1506 while in search of a strait north of Guanaja Island where Columbus had been, nor the piratical expedition of Córdoba, in 1517, can properly be called the discovery of Mexico.[13] Meanwhile Mexico can well afford to wait, being in no haste for European civilization, and the attendant boons which Europe seems so desirous of conferring. FOOTNOTES