Chapter III Cortes is Regarded as an Enemy by the Natives of Tabasco, and is Forced into a Battle with them—He is Victorious and they Submit
Cortes decided to take the same course which Grijalva had followed before him, and so made the island of Cozumel his next destination. There he had an opportunity to rescue a Spaniard who had been left upon the coast by a shipwreck, and since that time had been a servant among the Indians. This poor fellow, named Aguilar, during the eight years of his abode there, had lost every European vestige and taken on the appearance, color, speech, and habits of the natives so completely that it was difficult to recognize he had ever been a Spaniard. Like the natives, he went naked, the color of his skin was dark brown, and his hair, after the custom of the country, was wound about his head in coils. He carried an oar on his shoulder, a bow in his hand, and a quiver on his back. His entire possessions were contained in a knit bag and consisted of his provisions and an old prayer-book in which he read industriously. He had so far forgotten his mother-tongue that it was difficult to understand him.
According to his statement he was wrecked in the vicinity with nineteen others. Seven of his comrades were overcome by hunger and exhaustion. The rest fell into the hands of the cacique of that country, a monster who sacrificed five of them to his deities and placed the others in a kind of cage, intending to fatten and then eat them. They had the good fortune, however, to escape. Helpless and despairing, they wandered about the forests, subsisting upon roots and herbs, until at last they met some Indians who took them to a kindly cacique, an enemy of the other. He received them humanely but each day imposed hard tasks upon them. The most of them died in a short time, only two of them, Aguilar and Guerro, surviving. They soon had an opportunity to render the cacique important service in his wars, for which he was very grateful. Guerro married an Indian woman of distinction, was made commander, and gradually became so Americanized that when the Spaniards arrived he did not care to change his conditions. He would not see them, perhaps for shame, for Aguilar said he had pierced his nose and painted various parts of his body as the natives did.