Note 23 — Chapter II · JUAN DE GRIJALVA EXPLORES THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE MEXICAN GULF. 1518.

It is remarkable, as I have often observed, how two eye-witnesses can sometimes tell such diametrically opposite stories; not only in regard to time and minor incidents, but to place and prominent events. In this instance Diaz the priest is no less positive and minute in placing the affair at Campeche, than is Diaz the soldier, at Champoton. The second-rate authorities, following these two writers who were present, are divided, by far the greater number, Herrera among the rest, accepting the statement of Bernal Diaz. Oviedo, who was a resident of the Indies at the time, describes the battle as occurring at Campeche. Perhaps one reason why the soldier-scribe has more adherents than the priest, is because the existence of the narrative of the latter was not so well known. Las Casas affirms, Hist. Ind., iv. 425, that the pilot unintentionally passed Lázaro’s port, or Campeche, and landed and fought at Champoton. ‘Llegaron, pues, al dicho pueblo (que, como dije, creo que fué Champoton, y no el de Lázaro).’