their possession.

Neither Kimpech nor Champoton were under Mexican rule, but there was
frequent traffic between the Mayas and the subjects of the empire of
Anahuac. Diego Velasquez de Leon was at that time governor of Cuba, and
he planned another expedition into the rich country just discovered.
Four ships, equipped and placed under the command of Juan de Grijalva,
sailed, in 1518, and first stopped at the Island of Cozumel, which was
then famous with the Yucatan Indians, by reason of an annual pilgrimage
of which its temples were the object. In their progress along the coast,
the navigators saw many small edifices, which they took for towers, but
which were nothing less than altars or teocallis, erected to the gods of
the sea, protectors of the pilgrims. On the fifth day a pyramid came in
view, on the summit of which there was what appeared to be a tower. It
was one of the temples, whose elegant and symmetrical shape made a
profound impression upon all. Near by they saw a great number of Indians
making much noise with drums. Grijalva waited for the morrow before
disembarking, and then setting his forces in battle array, marched
towards the temple, where on arriving he planted the standard of
Castile. Within the sanctuary he found several idols, and the traces of
sacrifice. The chaplain of the fleet celebrated mass before the
astonished natives. It was the first time that this rite had been
performed on the new continent, and the Indians assisted in respectful
silence, although they comprehended nothing of the ceremonies. When the
priest had descended from the altar, the Indians allowed the strangers
peaceably to visit their houses, and brought them an abundance of food
of all kinds. Grijalva then sailed along the coast of Yucatan. The
astonishment of the Spaniards at the aspect of the elegant buildings,
whose construction gave them a high idea of the civilization of the
country, increased as they advanced. The architecture appeared to them
much superior to anything they had hitherto met with in the new world,
and they cried out with their commander that they had found a New Spain,
which name has remained, and from Yucatan has been applied to the
neighboring regions in that part of the American continent. Grijalva
found the cities and villages of the South-western coast like those he
had already seen, and the natives resembled those of the north and east
in dress and manners. But at Champoton the Indians were, as before