[19] 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. Vaz Dourado comes out, in 1571, with _quoqumell_, since which time the name has been generally written as at present. [20] Some of the authorities apply the name Santa Cruz to a port; others to a town found there; but it was unquestionably the island to which they gave this name. ‘A questa isola de Coçumel che ahora se adimanda Santa Croce.’ _Diaz_, _Itinerario_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, i. 287. ‘Se le puso nombre á esta ĩsla _Sancta Cruz_, á la qual los indios llaman _Coçumel_.’ _Oviedo_, i. 504. [21] This, according to Diaz; Oviedo says they landed on Wednesday, the 5th, and again on the 6th; and Bernal Diaz affirms that the landing took place on the south side of the island. [22] It was the crosses, which the Spaniards here regarded of miraculous origin, more than any physical feature which after all gave the name to these shores. Cortés established it for all the region under Aztec sway, and under the viceroys it was applied to all the Spanish possessions north of Guatemala, including the undefined territories of California and New Mexico. _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, i. 6-7, and others, have even shown an inclination to embrace thereunder Central America, but for this there is not sufficient authority. See _Medina_, _Chron. de San Diego de Mex._, 227; _Lopez Vaz_, in _Purchas, His Pilgrimes_, iv. 1432, and _Gottfriedt_, _Newe Welt_, 74; also Torquemada, from Herrera, and several standard authors. New Spain was for a long time divided into the three kingdoms of New Spain, New Galicia, and New Leon, each composed of several provinces. Under the administration of Galvez, this division gave way to intendencias, among them Mexico and a few provinces, and New Spain came to be limited in the north by the Provincias Internas, though including for a time at least the Californias. With the independence the name New Spain was replaced by Mexico, less because this term applied to the leading province and to the capital, than because the name was hallowed by association with the traditions of the people, whose blood as well as sympathies contained far more of the aboriginal element than of the imported.