The Battle and the Ruins of Cintla Part 1

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 leadership 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 I propose to submit these questions to a re-examination, and also to describe from unpublished material the ruins which,--as I believe--, mark the spot of this first important encounter of the two races on American soil.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 ships 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.

Their ident.i.ty with the modern Tzentals of Chiapas has been established by the researches of Dr. Berendt.

The Tzental is a dialect closely akin to pure Maya, though it was believed by Dr. Berendt to present nearer relations than the Maya proper to the dialect of the Huastecas, a segregated idiom of the Mayan family, spoken near Tampico.

_The Locality._--Until M. Desire Charnay brought out the results of the Lorillard expedition in his handsome work, "The Ancient Cities of the New World,"[6-4] no one, so far as I know, had expressed any doubt that Cintla was situated near the mouth of the great river, the Rio de Tabasco, formed by the confluence of the Usumacinta and the Rio de Grijalva, and emptying into the bay of Campeche, 18 35', north lat.i.tude.

M. Charnay did not visit the ruins of Cintla nor the site of Potonchan, which I am about to describe; but he did make an examination of the ruins of Comalcalco, about thirty miles west of Cintla; and as they are of notable magnitude, he proceeds to argue that they represent the ancient Cintla, of the victory of Cortes.

The arguments on which he founds this contention may be briefly stated.

They are that the accounts refer to two entrances to the river (_dos bocas_) while the Tabasco has but one; that the bar of Tabasco now admits vessels of 300 tons, whereas Cortes speaks of it as too shallow for his caravels; that Herrera says Cortes retired to a small island, whereas there is none in the Rio de Tabasco; that Herrera further speaks of a ford by which the soldiers of Cortes "crossed the river," which would have been impossible in the Tabasco; and finally that the same writer mentions cacao plantations, though at present none exist near Frontera. For these reasons he thinks both Grijalva and Cortes entered the embouchure now known as the Barra de Dos Bocas, some twenty-five miles west of the mouth of the Rio de Tabasco.

A slight examination dissipates these objections. Both Grijalva and Cortes note the powerful current of the Rio de Tabasco, carrying fresh water six miles out to sea, as is observed to-day,[7-1] and this is not in the least applicable to the insignificant stream flowing out of the Dos Bocas. M. Charnay was misinformed when he stated there is no island at the mouth of the Rio de Tabasco. There are in fact two, one, long and narrow, known as the Isla de Grijalva, the other quite small, close to the plantation of Dolores (see the map). The latter was probably that to which Cortes retired. None of the accounts say that the soldiers "forded the river," but only the short distance between the island and the mainland. These islands give to the entrance of the river the appearance of two embouchures or mouths. The depth of the bar varies of course with the seasons and with the tides.

But what is conclusive is that in 1525 the Spaniards founded the city Nuestra Senora de la Victoria, on the site of Potonchan. In 1646, it had a cura and a vicar, and counted 2000 parishioners, and the abundance of its cacao harvest is especially noted.[7-2] At some later day it was attacked and destroyed by filibusters; but the remains of the church and the cemetery are still visible at Dolores, and pilgrimages are yet made to them on certain holy days by the faithful of the parish of Frontera, on the opposite sh.o.r.e. This record places the scene of the conflict beyond all doubt.

_Condition of the Natives._--The various accounts agree in describing the province as highly cultivated and thickly settled. Maize and cacao were the princ.i.p.al crops. Temples and edifices are repeatedly referred to. A few years afterwards (1524) Cortes traversed Tabasco some miles inland, and has left a description of its industries. The people were active merchants, and the list of their commodities which he gives includes cacao, maize, cotton, dye-stuffs, feathers, salt, wax, resins, paints, gum copal, pottery, beads, sh.e.l.ls, precious stones, woven stuffs and gold of low alloy. The richer citizens had numerous wives and female slaves, which accounted for the rapid increase in population.[8-1] The chronicler Gomara furnished a long list of the native articles which Grijalva brought back in 1519 from Potonchan and the neighboring coast.

They reveal a high degree of artistic culture, and leave no doubt but that the tribes of the vicinity were as developed in the arts as any in America.

_Ruined Cities._--Writing about 1875, Mr. H. H. Bancroft says: "On the immediate coast (of Tabasco) some large towns and temples were seen by the early voyagers; but I have no information that relics of any kind have been discovered in modern times."[8-2]

In fact, although it is doubtful if there are any ruins directly on the coast, there are many but a short distance inland. Those at Comalcacalco[TN-1] have been figured and described by M. Charnay, and his work is so well known that a reference to it is sufficient.

At the locality called Pedrito, about fifteen miles from the mouth of the Tabasco, there are many mounds, embankments, piles of pottery and other signs of an ancient town. Among the relics is a large circular stone, "like a round table," with figures in relief engraved on its sides, and with holes drilled in its surface, in which pegs or wooden nails are said to have been fitted.[8-3] About ten miles north of this spot is another group of mounds on the left bank of the Rio de San Pablo y San Pedro. Doubtless many others exist unknown in the dense forests.

_The Ruins of Cintla._--The ruins of Cintla were visited and surveyed by the late Dr. C. H. Berendt in March and April, 1869, and, so far as I know, neither before nor since have they been seen by any archaeologist.

Nor can I learn that Dr. Berendt ever published the results of his researches. The only reference I can find to them in any of his published writings is in a paper which he read, July 10th, 1876, before the American Geographical Society, and which was published in its Bulletin, No. 2, for that year. The t.i.tle of this address was, "Remarks on the Centers of Ancient Civilization in Central America and their Geographical Distribution." He certainly prepared a much more extended paper especially on Cintla, with ill.u.s.trations and maps, fragments of which I have found among the doc.u.ments left at his death; but if published, I have been unable to trace it. Nor can I discover what became of the considerable archaeological collection which he made at Cintla and brought away with him, a memorandum about which is among his papers.

The pa.s.sage in his address before the Geographical Society touching on Cintla is as follows:

"It was by mere chance that in the year 1869 I discovered the site of ancient Cintla, buried in the thick and fever-haunted forests of the marshy coast, and unknown until then to the Indians themselves. In the course of the excavations which I caused to be made, antiquities of a curious and interesting character were laid bare.

"Prominent among these ruins, and presenting a peculiar feature of workmanship, are the so-called _teocallis_, or mounds, which here are built of earth, and covered at the top and on the sides with a thick layer of mortar in imitation of stone work. On one of these mounds I found not only the sides and the platform, but even two flights of stairs, constructed of the same apparently fragile but yet enduring material. One of the latter was perfectly well preserved. I likewise saw clay figures of animals covered with a similar coating of mortar or plaster, thus imitating sculptured stone and retaining traces of having been painted in various colors.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 1.--Map of the Ruins of Cintla._]

"The reason for this singular use of cement probably is that in the alluvial soil of this coast, no stones occur within a distance of fifty miles and more from the sea sh.o.r.e; stone implements, such as axes, chisels, grinding stones, obsidian flakes, etc., which are occasionally found, can have been introduced solely by trade. The pottery and the idols made of terra cotta show a high degree of perfection.

"Regarding the period down to which such earthenware was made, a broken vase disinterred from one of the mounds in my presence may give a clue.

Its two handles represent Spaniards, with their European features, beard, Catalonian cap, and _polainas_, or gaiters."

There is also among his papers the commencement of an address or essay upon these ruins, written in Spanish, and this, when completed, may have been printed in some Mexican periodical. I translate from it the following pa.s.sage, the remainder having been lost:

"Having learned that in the forests of the coast between the _barras_ of Chiltepec and Grijalva various mounds, idols and other remains of an earlier population had been discovered, I proceeded to that part of the country called _Del Cajete_, and devoted six weeks to its exploration. I soon found numerous mounds and embankments from which the present inhabitants had gathered fragments of idols and milling stones of a form unknown now in the vicinity.

"It very soon became apparent that these mounds were not such as those isolated ones which are found in various parts of this country, but were arranged in groups surrounding open s.p.a.ces, _plazas_, and forming streets, extending over an area three leagues in length by one in breadth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 2.--The Great Temple._]