Setting Out for New Spain and the Serendipitous Gift of Language
Hernán Cortés strode to the bow of his flagship Santa María de
la Concepción, a one-hundred-ton vessel and the largest of his
armada, and scanned the horizon for land. He had much to ponder.
His navigator and chief pilot, Antonio de Alaminos, an
experienced veteran who had been pilot for Columbus on his final
voyage, had been in these waters before—on the Ponce de León
expedition in search of the fabled Fountain of Youth—and he
suggested that if they encountered foul weather, the entire
fleet should make land and convene on the island of Cozumel,
just east of the Yucatán Peninsula’s northernmost tip. Since
their hurried departure from Cuba, the fleet had been buffeted
by foul weather, scattering the boats. Cortés brought up the
rear, simultaneously scouring for land and for brigantines and
caravels blown astray. A few, perhaps as many as five, had been
lost during the night, an inauspicious beginning to such an
ambitious voyage. Cortés had stake