e in having no interpreter. By various
makeshifts, however, they made themselves understood, and poor Montejo,
misled by the seeming docility of the natives, flattered himself that
he had an easy task before him.

Montejo and his Men Go along the Shore of Yucatan. Skirting the eastern
shore of Yucatan, the fleet arrived at a point near the first site of
Valladolid, where all the soldiers landed, leaving the seamen to guard
the ships and supplies. What seemed a sufficient number of horses,
munitions, and provisions was taken. As usual on such occasions, the
first thing to be done was to take formal possession of the land for
the King of Castile. Accordingly appropriate ceremonies were carried
through, and the standard bearer, Gonzalo Nieto, unfurled the royal
banner. Cogolludo is very definite as to the region in which the
conquest of Yucatan had its beginning. Valladolid,[4.2] not Bakhalal or
Campeche, is, he says, the site of the first operations. He quotes as
his authority on this point the Bachiller Valencia, a native of
Valladolid, whose Relacion was made in 1639. Coni, a village in the
province of Choaca,[4.3] was reached. Some of the chiefs of the region
came to see the Adelantado and were well received; they, however, were
treacherously minded, but their attempt to kill or injure Montejo was
foiled. From Coni the Spaniards went to the village of Choaca, where
their real trials began.

Description of the Campaign. In their early wanderings the Spaniards
suffered greatly from lack of proper water and from bad roads. Often
they found the villages deserted by their inhabitants or, still worse,
bristling with armed warriors. Led by an Indian whom they had picked up
at Coni, Montejo and his followers traveled through the province of
Choaca to a place called Ake. On the way they ran into an ambush of
armed Indians. The weapons of these latter consisted of arrows hardened
by fire, lances with sharp flint points, two-handed swords of very hard
wood, and shields made of very large tortoise shells adorned with snail
shells and antlers; their bodies were naked save for breech clouts of
flimsy material, and they were all painted. Since the Indians were as
stubborn as they were brave, and as the Spaniards found themselves at a
disadvantage, being unable to use their horses properly on account of
the rough country, the fight was a fierce one; the Adelantado himself
acted well, showing the less experienced of his followers