Note 19 — Chapter II · JUAN DE GRIJALVA EXPLORES THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE MEXICAN GULF. 1518.

Like a good soldier, Bernal Diaz makes the time fit the occasion. ‘A este pueblo,’ he says, Hist. Verdad., 7, ‘pusimos por nombre Santa Cruz; porq̄ quatro, ò cinco diaz antes de Santa Cruz le vimos.’ The native name of the island was Acusamil—Landa, Rel. de Yuc., 20, writes it Cuzmil; Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, 10, Cuzamil—Swallow’s Island, which was finally corrupted into the Cozumel of the Spaniards. Mercator, indeed, writes Acusamil, in 1569, although Colon, Ribero, and Hood had previously given coçumel, cozumel, and Cosumel, respectively. Vaz Dourado comes out, in 1571, with quoqumell, since which time the name has been generally written as at present.