“Our vessels,” Diaz further relates, “were taken to Santiago of Cuba, where the governor [Diego Velasquez] resided. Here the two Indians were brought on shore whom we had taken with us from Punta de Cotoche, as already related, called Melchorejo and Juanillo. When, however, we brought forth the box with the crowns, the golden ducks, the fish, the idols, more noise was made about them than they really merited, so that they became the common topics of conversation throughout the islands of St. Domingo and Cuba; indeed, the report concerning them reached Spain. There it was said that none of the discovered countries were as rich as this one, and in none had there been found houses built of stone. The earthen gods, it was said, were the heathen relics of ancient times; others ventured to affirm that they [the people of Yucatan] were the descendants of the Jews who had been shipwrecked off this coast, whom Titus and Vespasian had driven from Jerusalem.... Diego Velasquez closely questioned the two Indians whether there were any gold-mines in their country. They answered in the affirmative; and when they were shown some of the gold-dust found in the island of Cuba, they said there was an abundance of it in their country. This was not true, for it is well known that there are no gold-mines on the Punta de Cotoche, or anywhere in the whole of Yucatan. They were likewise shown the beds in which the seeds of that plant are sown from whose root the cassava-bread is made, which in Cuba is called _yuca_. They assured us that the same plant grew in their country, and was called by them _tale_. As the cassava-root in Cuba is called _yuca_, and the ground in which it is planted by the Indians _tale_, so from these two words originated the name of the country, Yucatan; for the Spaniards, who were standing around the governor at the time that he was speaking to the two Indians, said: ‘You see, sir, they call their country Yucatan.’ And from this circumstance the country retained the name of Yucatan, although the natives call it by a different name.”[312] “It was in the year of our Lord 1518,” says Diaz, “after Diego Velasquez had heard the good account we gave of the newly-discovered country called Yucatan, that he determined to send another expedition to it. For this purpose he selected four vessels, among which were the two in which we soldiers had accompanied Cordoba on our late voyage to Yucatan, purchased at our expense.... Our account that the houses in the newly-discovered country were built of stone and lime had originated an extraordinary conception of its riches, besides the Indian Melchorejo had indicated by signs that it contained gold-mines. All these things created a great desire among the inhabitants and soldiers on the island [Cuba] who possessed no official authority over the Indians to go in search of a rich country like this one; consequently, in a very short time, we mustered two hundred and twenty men.”