Part 1 (1/2)

The Battle and the Ruins of Cintla.

by Daniel G. Brinton.

The first battle on the American continent in which horses were used was that of Cintla in Tabasco, March, 1519, the European troops being under the leaders.h.i.+p of Hernando Cortes.

This fact attaches something more than an ordinary historic interest to the engagement, at least enough to make it desirable to ascertain its precise locality and its proper name. Both of these are in doubt, as well as the ethnic stock to which the native tribe belonged which opposed the Spanish soldiery on the occasion. I propose to submit these questions to a re-examination, and also to describe from unpublished material the ruins which,--as I believe--, mark the spot of this first important encounter of the two races on American soil.

The engagement itself has been described by all the historians of Cortes' famous conquest of Mexico, as it was the first brilliant incident of that adventure. We have at least four accounts of it from partic.i.p.ants. One prepared under the eye of Cortes himself, one by the anonymous historian of his expedition, a third by Cortes'

companion-in-arms, the redoubtable Bernal Diaz del Castillo, and a fourth by Andres de Tapia.[3-1]

The most satisfactory narrative, however, is given by the chaplain of Cortes, Francisco de Gomara, and I shall briefly rehea.r.s.e his story, adding a few points from other contemporary writers.[3-2]

Cortes with his armada cast anchor at the mouth of the River Grijalva in March, 1519. The current being strong and the bar shallow, he with about eighty men proceeded in boats up the river for about two miles, when they descried on the bank a large Indian village. It was surrounded with a wooden palisade, having turrets and loopholes from which to hurl stones and darts. The houses within were built of tiles laid in mortar, or of sun-dried brick (adobes), and were roofed with straw or split trees. The chief temple had s.p.a.cious rooms, and its dependences surrounded a court yard.

The interpreter Aguilar, a Spaniard who had lived with the Mayas in Yucatan, could readily speak the tongue of the village, which was therefore a Mayan dialect. The natives told him that the town was named Potonchan, which Aguilar translated ”the place that smells or stinks,”

an etymology probably correct in a general way.

The natives were distrustful, and opposed the landing of the Europeans rather with words and gestures than with blows. Their warriors approached Cortes in large boats, called in their tongue _tahucup_, and refused him permission to land.

After some parleying, Cortes withdrew to an island in the river near by, and as night drew on, he sent to the s.h.i.+ps for reinforcements, and despatched some of the troops to look for a ford from the island to the mainland; which they easily found.

The next morning he landed some of his men by the boats, and attacked the village on the water side, while another detachment crossed the ford and making a circuit a.s.saulted it in the rear. The Indians were prepared, having sent their women and children away. They were in number about four hundred, and made at first a brisk resistance, but being surprised by the rear a.s.sault, soon fled in dismay. No Spaniard was killed, though many were wounded.

Cortes established himself in the village and landed most of his troops and ten out of his thirteen horses. When his men were rested and the injured had had their wounds dressed with fat taken from dead Indians[4-1] (!) he sent out three detachments on foot to reconnoitre.

After marching a distance which is not stated, but which could not have been many miles, they came to an extensive plain covered with maize fields, temples and houses. This was Cintla. There were many warriors gathered there, and after a sharp skirmish the Spaniards fell back.

Having thus learned the ground, Cortes prepared for a decisive battle, as also did the natives. The latter gathered at Cintla in five divisions of eight thousand men each, as the chroniclers aver.

Cortes had about five hundred men including some Cuban Indians. The main detachment proceeded on foot by the high road, the cavalry along a path in the woods, and another detachment by a third route. The country was swampy and cut with ca.n.a.ls, offering serious obstacles to the horses. It was not until the infantry had been for some time closely engaged with the enemy on the plain of Cintla, and rather severely handled, that the cavalry reached the spot. Their appearance, together with the noise and fatal effect of the musketry, soon struck terror to the hearts of the natives--their ranks broke and they fled. Gomara estimates that there were about three hundred of them killed, which is likely enough; while Bishop De las Casas puts the slain at thirty thousand![5-1]

Such was the battle of Cintla. It broke the spirits of the natives, and soon their chieftain, named Tabasco, from whom the river and the province were later called, came in, and offered his submission. Cortes took possession of the land in the name of the King of Spain, and erected a large cross in the chief temple of Potonchan. He remained there several days longer before proceeding on his voyage.

_The Name Cintla._--Of the contemporary authorities, only two give the name of the place at or near which the battle was fought.

One of these is Bernal Diaz, who writes it twice, spelling it both times _Cintia_.[5-2] The other is Gomara, who gives _Cintla_, the form which I believe to be correct. Through following some less reliable authorities a number of writers, among them Prescott and his editor Mr. J. F. Kirk, Orozco y Berra, etc., and their copyists, have deformed this word into _Ceutla_.

The most obvious derivation of Cintla is from the Nahuatl language, in which _Cintla_ means a dried ear of maize; _Cintlan_, a place where dried ears are, a cornfield. Most of the places in Tabas...o...b..came known to the Spaniards under their Nahuatl appellatives through interpreters in that tongue, and because most of the territory had been subjected to the powerful sway of the Montezumas.

Still, Cintla may also be a Mayan word. It may be a nominal form from the verb _tzen-tah_, and would then have the signification, ”a built-up place,” or one well stocked with provisions; or, it may be a patronymic from the Tzentals, the tribe which occupied this region at the time, as I shall proceed to show.

_The Native Tribe._--There is no question but that the native tribe which took part in this combat belonged to the Mayan stock. All the accounts agree that Aguilar, the Spaniard whom Cortes found in Yucatan as a captive, and who had learned to speak the Mayan tongue, communicated with the natives without difficulty. This is conclusive as to their ethnic position.

Further evidence, if needed, is offered by the native names and words preserved in the accounts. The term for their large canoes, _tahucup_, is from the Maya _tahal_, to swim, and _kop_, that which is hollow, or hollowed out. The name _potonchan_, Aguilar translated as, ”the place that stinks” (lugar que hiede). He evidently understood it as derived from the Maya verb _tunhal_, to stink, with the intensive prefix _pot_ (which is not unusual in the tongue, as _pot-hokan_, very evident, etc.). The historian Herrera, on some authority not known to me, further explains this term as one of contempt applied to the people there, meaning rude and barbarous;[6-1] as we should say, using the same metaphor, ”stinkards.”

_Tabasco_ is said by Bernal Diaz to have been the name of the princ.i.p.al chief of the eight provinces or tribes, who together opposed the Spaniards. For this reason I would reject the derivation from the Nahuatl, proposed by Rovirosa,--_tlalli_, earth, _paltic_, wet or swampy, _co_, in,[6-2]--however appropriate it would be geographically; and also that from the Maya, _tazcoob_, ”deceived,” referring to the deceptions practiced on the Spaniards,--which is defended by Orozco y Berra[6-3]; and I should accept that which I find suggested by Dr.

Berendt in his ma.n.u.script work on Mayan geographical names. He reads _Tabasco_ as a slightly corrupt form of the Maya _T'ah-uaxac-coh_, ”our (or the) master of the eight lions,” referring to the eight districts or gentes of the tribe. This is significant and appropriate, the jaguar, the American lion, being a very common emblem in the ruins of Cintla.

The branch of the Mayan stock which occupied the litoral of the province of Tabasco at that time were those later known as the Tzentals (otherwise spelled Zendal or Tzeltal). By some writers they have been called the Chontals of Tobasco, _chontal_, as is well known, being merely a common noun in Nahuatl to express foreigners or barbarians.