Guzman,[1] with power of attorney, and the same account, saying that he had discovered the country at his own cost, thus rendering service to Your Majesties, and that he wished to conquer it at his own cost, and he prayed Your Royal Highnesses to make him adelantado[2] and governor of it, with certain privileges for which he asked further on, as Your Majesties will have seen by his account, and for which reason we do not express them here.
In the meantime, as the permission was given by the Reverend Fathers of St. Jerome, the Governors in the nameof Your Majesties, he hastened to fit out
Expedition
of
Grijalba
three ships and a brigantine, so that, if Your Majesties were not pleased to grant Gonzalo de Guzman what he had asked, the ships would have already been sent, with the permission given by the said Reverend Jeronymite Fathers, the Governors. He sent as Captain one of his relatives, called Juan de Grijalba,[3] and with him 160 men of the
- ↑ Gonzalo de Guzman was a royal treasurer in the islands.
- ↑ Spanish title for the governor of a province.
- ↑ A native of Cuellar, who came to Cuba when a mere lad. Las Casas describes him as a youth of great promise, and Gomara says he was a nephew of Velasquez's. He was of gentle birth, and, as a fellow-townsman, he was treated by Velasquez with much consideration, whether he was a relative or not. The armada furnished him consisted of four caravels, the Santiago, San Sebastian, La Trinidad, and Santa Maria de los Remedios; the pilots were the same who went with the first expedition, with the addition of a fourth one, unnamed. There was a treasurer, Anton de Villasaña, an inspector, Francisco de Peñalosa, and a chaplain, Fray Juan Diaz; in all told above two hundred persons composed the company. After several false starts, they finally set sail on May ist. This date, in spite of divers contradictions, is established by the Itinerario de l'armata del Re Cattolico verso la Isola de Yucatan, MDXVII., which is given in the Documentos Ineditos of Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, Mexico, 1858.
Three other captains were Pedro de Alvarado, Francisco de Montejo, and Alonso Davila; the men including pilots and sailors numbered 250. They discovered the Tabasco River, which was henceforth named Grijalba, though the name Tabasco (Tabzcoob was the Indian name) remained to the province between Yucatan and Cuazocoalco.
After Rio Tabasco, they discovered a river (Xamapan, now called
