Note 315 — Chapter VII · 1497-1521.

“He said, though still in broken Spanish, that his name was Geronimo de Aguilar, and was a native of Ecija. About eight years ago he had been shipwrecked with fifteen men and two women, on a voyage between Darien and the island of St. Domingo.... The ship struck against a rock, and they had not been able to get her off again. The whole of the crew then got into the boat, with the hope of reaching the island of Cuba or Jamaica, but were driven on the coast of Yucatan, where the Calachionies had taken them prisoners and distributed them among the people. The most of his unfortunate companions had been sacrificed to their gods. Some had died of grief and the women had pined away, being worn out by the hard labor of grinding which they had forced them to do. He had been doomed to be sacrificed to their idols, but had made his escape at night, and fled to the cacique, with whom he had been living.... He had tried to induce Gonzalo Guerrero to leave the Indians, but had failed.”