Spanish Discovery 7.
of the coast of North, Central, and South America in this pe-
riod than has been divulged. The rivalry of Spain and Por-
tugal led to a careful secrecy regarding all that was discov-
ered, and there is no doubt that many Spanish contacts were
made with the eastern coast of Central America that were
never revealed to the general public, and this information
perished in the Spanish archives or disappeared on the death
of the navigators and the friends with whom they spoke about
their wanderings.
 Cordoba was repeatedly asked whether he came from the
east. He received more than a dozen wounds in one of his
many skirmishes with the Mayas, and after enduring many
hardships and sufferings as he courageously coasted about
the peninsula returned to Cuba with a loss of one half of the
original 110 men he had taken with him. The news of this
contact with the mainland opposite Cuba contained exag-
gerated statements about the wealth of the country which
were mainly based on the few, small, and often curiously
wrought gold trinkets they had obtained from the Indians.
Yet it strengthened those vague rumours which from time
to time were heard in the islands about a great empire lying
to the west. Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, quickly de-
cided to follow up this discovery and he dispatched a little
squadron of four vessels which was commanded by his neph-
ew, Juan de Grijalva. Stopping first at the Island of Cozumel,
he coasted down the Caribbean side of the peninsula as far
as the Bays of Ascension and Espirto Santo, passing Tulum,
and like Cordoba he was struck with the architecture and
other evidences of a higher cultural level.
 He also came across large stone crosses that were objects
of worship in various places, and heard reports about six
Spaniards who were being held by the natives. But the peo-
ple were unfriendly, and turning back he doubled Cape
Catoche and went down the Campeche coast, where he bar-
tered copper axes which were supposed to contain gold, and
called at what is now the Grijalva river iu Tabasco. He was