Were the Sephardic Jews as smart as the Ashkenazis?

One person reading my comments on Cochran and Harpending’s arguments about the Ashkenazi Jews being among other things smarter than other Jews sent me this reference:

http://sephardichorizons.org/Volume1/Issue3/SecondGoldenAge.html

He argued that this reference proved that the Sephardic Jews were money lenders in the Ottoman Empire.

I commented as follows:

I looked at your reference. This is from its footnote #10: “Prior to the arrival of the Iberian Jews, the Jewish population in the Ottoman territories was comprised of Romaniot or Griegos, Greek-speaking Jews who had survived Byzantine persecution; Arabized Jews, Arabic speakers and inheritors of Islamic traditions who came from territories ruled by Islamic caliphates; Ashkenazi Jews, Yiddish speakers originally from North, Central and Eastern Europe, and Karaite Jews, Karaim speakers who originated in Baghdad during the 7th century. The Sephardim from Spain and Portugal, who arrived after 1492, became the largest group during the following century, absorbing the rest of the Jewish communities. See Stanford J. Shaw, The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic, 44-47. See also Walter F. Weiker, Ottomans, Turks and the Jewish Polity: A History of the Jews of Turkey (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc., 1992), 53-57.”

Note that the author of your reference is concerned about Spanish Jews which Cochran and Harpending do mention, saying they didn’t develop intelligence levels matching the Ashkenazis because they were treated better under the Muslims and didn’t have to perform at the high level the Ashkenazis did under the threats and stress of the Europeans. Note also in your footnote ten that your author writes, that present in the Ottoman Empire before the arrival of the Sephardic Jews were the “Ashkenazi Jews, Yiddish speakers originally from North, Central and Eastern Europe.”

There is no conflict between your reference and the writings of Cochran and Harpending that I can see. Their focus was on the Ashkenazis and not on all of Jewry. The Ashkenazis were isolated, and “money lenders” as well as engaging in other “white collar” tasks prior to the time the Reconquest was being completed and Jews as well as Muslims had to flee Spain and Portugal. But some of the Ashkenazis had to flee Europe prior to the influx of the Sephardic Jews and may have already been established as money lenders in the Ottoman Empire. Perhaps some of the Sephardic Jews managed to perform at that high level as well but the Ashkenazis distinguished themselves in that task in Europe and probably did in the Ottoman Empire as well. Of those who later fled Islamic nations to live in Israel, none perhaps, or at the most very few, measured up to Ashkenazi intellectual levels.

Did the idea for the Crusades originate in Spain?

It is new to me that the idea for the crusades may have originated in the efforts the Spanish were making to reconquer their land from the Muslims.

“Pope Urban’s letters reveal that he was fully cognizant of the efforts of Christian Spain to conquer lands held by the Muslims. Indeed, he seems to have had a broad view of the relationship between the Islamic world and Christendom. If he could offer remission of sins and indulgence to the Catalans striving to repopulate and defend Tarragona, he could extend the same benefit some years later to those going on crusade to the Holy Land. Just ten years after the fall of Toledo and four to six years after urging the restoration of Tarragona, he launched the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095. The same remission of sins offered by Alexander II in 1063 and Urban II in 1089– 91 was now offered to those who would deliver the holy places from the “infidels.” In seeking the genesis of the First Crusade one must look to these Spanish antecedents.”  [from O'Callaghan, Joseph F. (2011-01-01). Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain (Kindle Locations 741-747)]

While the religious motive may have been paramount in Pope Urban’s thinking, O’Callaghan suggests otherwise:

He writes, “The second invasion of Spain by the Almoravids in 1089 brought home to Urban II, as Guibert de Nogent noted, the threat not only to Christian Spain but also to southern France. In order to counteract Islam the pope encouraged Archbishop Bernard of Toledo to restore the other metropolitan sees still under Muslim rule (namely, Tarragona, Braga, Mérida, and Seville) and to bring about the (namely, Tarragona , Braga , Mérida, and Seville) and to bring about the conversion of the “infidels.” The latter admonition— almost an afterthought— is the first indication of papal interest in a mission to Spanish Islam. In practical terms the restoration of the archbishopric of Tarragona in the northeast, though deserted, seemed most feasible.  With that intention, Urban II in 1089 exhorted the Catalan bishops and nobles, in remission of their sins, to rebuild Tarragona: We encourage those who will set out for Jerusalem or other places in a spirit of penitence or devotion to expend all the labor of that journey on the restoration of the church of Tarragona, so that that city . . . may be celebrated as a barrier and a bulwark against the Saracens for the Christian people, to whom, out of the mercy of God, we offer that indulgence which they would gain if they had fulfilled the journey [to Jerusalem]. [O'Callaghan, (Kindle Locations 717-728).]

In another place O’Callaghan tells us French knights were promised land in Spain if they would drive the Muslims from it – not land the Spanish were engaged in fighting for but other land, land the Muslims had held for many years and was not being immediately contested by the Spanish.  I read a couple of books 10 or 15 years ago on the Crusades and recall the comment that one of the Popes encouraged the Franks to go off and free Jerusalem in order to get them out of Europe where they kept stirring things up.  O’Callaghan doesn’t give us quite that picture of them during Urban’s time.

O’Callaghan’s book covers the “reconquest” and “crusade.”  Apparently his argument that the idea of the crusade originated out of the Spanish struggle against the Moors in Spain isn’t widely accepted.  He quotes a great number of occurrences where a Pope provides indulgences to leaders who agree to fight the Muslims and drive them from previously held Spanish land.  I’m sure all those references are accurate, but I often wonder if my Kindle isn’t inadvertently repeating something I’ve already read.

On the validity of Cochran and Harpending’s effort

In a debate some of the things I was writing about Cochran and Harpending’s book were challenged.  It was asserted that genetics ought not to be allowed to have precedence over “established historical fact.”  I responded as follows:

Wow. Genetic “facts” are falsifiable in the laboratory. “Historical facts” whether “established” or not – are not, making genetic “facts” factier than historical ones, if what you mean by “fact” has anything to do with provable “truth.” In “fact” historians don’t usually say things like “historical facts” because history is based upon records written by humans, testimony in other words, and testimony is not considered reliable enough to refer to it as a established fact. If more than one person says the same thing then it is deemed a bit more reliable than if one person says it, but still . . . groups of people have testified to seeing flying saucers and not everyone considers their testimony to be an “established fact.”

What Cochran and Harpending have done in their book is a work of consilience, applying the latest conclusions from geology, archeology, and genetics to history – or rather, applying those disciplines to each other. “History” that hasn’t agreed with archeology and geology has been modified until it does. And now the same thing must occur in regard to genetics.

Cochran and Harpending are not breaking much new ground. Cavilli Sforza (father and son) wrote The Great Human Diasporas, the History of Diversity and Evolution” back in 1993. Bryan Sykes has done something very like that in his Saxons, Vikings, and Celts. Cochran and Harpending have gone beyond Sykes in some respects but not hugely so.

And while you haven’t offered any “established historical” facts or even references in regard to what went on during Cortes conquering of the Aztecs, try reconciling the testimony of the people who were there or quoted people who were there. Bernal Diaz was there. He was one of Cortes’ conquistadors and awarded for his heroic acts by being made governor of Guatemala. What he wrote supports what Cochran and Harpending wrote about Cortes as I understand it. When Cortes first faced huge numbers in his first battle, numbers as much as 300 to 1 at certain points according to one witness, Cortes had 400 soldiers on the ground.

Being raised in Southern California I was exposed to a lot of Spanish History as I grew. I had more interest in it in college than later on, primarily because historians writing in English weren’t all that interested in Spanish history . . . apparently Spanish historians weren’t all that interested in it either from what I read. But now we have many more of the early texts available in English as well as a few more historians taking up various aspects. O’Callaghan’s Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain published in 2003 interests me.

Gomara’s account of Cortes’s first battle

Even Bernal Diaz’s literary criticism is entertaining:

Francisco Lopez de Gomara, in his account of this battle, says, that previous to the arrival of Cortes with the cavalry, the holy apostle St. Jacob or St. Peter in person had galloped up on a gray-coloured horse to our assistance. I can only say, that for the exertion of our arms and this victory, we stand indebted to our Lord Jesus Christ; and that in this battle every individual man among us was set upon by such numbers of the enemy, that if each of them had merely thrown a handful of earth upon us we should have been buried beneath it. Certain it is, therefore, that God showed his mercy to us here, and it may, indeed, have been one of the two glorious apostles St. Jacob or St. Peter who thus came to our assistance. Perhaps on account of my sins I was not considered worthy of the good fortune to behold them; for I could only see Francisco de Morla on his brown horse galloping up with Cortes, and even at this very moment, while I am writing this, I can fancy I see all passing before my eyes just as I have related it; although I, an unworthy sinner, was not considered worthy of beholding one of the glorious apostles face to face: yet again I never heard any of the four hundred soldiers, nor ever Cortes himself, nor any of the many cavaliers, mention this wonder, or confirm its truth. We should certainly have built a church, and have called the town Santiago, or San Pedro de la Vitoria, and not Santa Maria de la Vitoria. If, therefore, what Gomara relates is true, then we must indeed have been bad Christians not to have paid greater respect to the assistance which God sent us in the person of his holy apostles, and for having omitted to thank him daily for it in his own church. Nevertheless, I should feel delighted if this historian has spoken the truth, although I must confess that I never heard this wonder mentioned before reading his book, nor have I ever heard any of the conquistadores speak of it who were present at the battle.  [Del Castillo, Bernal Diaz (2013-11-03). The Conquest of New Spain (Kindle Locations 1840-1854). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.]

As to the history of Bernal Diaz’s book, Wikipedia tells us, “As a reward for his service, Díaz was awarded an encomienda by Cortés in 1522. This was confirmed and supplemented by similar awards in 1527 and 1528, according to documents cited by Carmelo Saenz de Santa María (pp. 89–90). In 1541 he settled in Guatemala and, during the course of a trip to Spain, was appointed regidor (governor) of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, present-day Antigua Guatemala in 1551. His Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España, finished in 1568, almost fifty years after the events it described, was begun around the same time as his appointment as regidor and was well in progress by the mid-1550s when he wrote to the emperor, describing his services and seeking benefits; it was then expanded in response to what he later found in an alternative history published in 1552 by Francisco López de Gómara. The title Historia verdadera (True History) is in part a response to the claims made by Gómara, Bartolomé de las Casas, Gonzalo de Illescas and others who had not participated in the campaign. Despite Bernal Díaz's lack of formal education and the self-interest that gave birth to his volume, the Historia verdadera evokes, like no other source, the often tragic and painful yet fascinating process through which one empire ended and another began to take shape.”

“Bernal Díaz died in January 1584, without seeing his book published. An expanded and corrected copy of the manuscript kept in Guatemala was sent to Spain and published, with revisions, in 1632.”

Lopez de Gomara died in 1566; so he didn’t see its publication either.

First Battle fought by Cortez in New Spain

In Chapter XXXIV, Bernal Diaz describes the first battle Cortez and his forces fought in “New Spain.” The chapter is entitled “How we are attacked by all the caziques of Tabasco, and the whole armed force of this province, and what took place.” I cannot tell how numerous the forces involved were. Whatever force Cortez had come to Tabasco on his ships. Diaz at one point said that an attack he advocated was rejected at first because it would involve each of Cortez soldiers going up against 300 Indians. No doubt that shouldn’t be taken literally, but the Spaniards were facing overwhelming numbers. They had the advantage of better weapons, better tactics, and horses; which the Indians had apparently never seen before.

Since Diaz describes the first battle Cortez and his forces fought in “New Spain” we see something of what Cochran and Harpending had in mind when they wrote that Cortez achieved something very like that in a modern adventure movie where a single man defeats an army of enemies. I’ll quote this chapter up to the point where Diaz states that the battle is over:

“The Indians were already moving forward in search of us, when we came up with them: every one had a large bunch of feathers on his head, a cotton cuirass on, and their faces were daubed with white, black, and red colours. Besides having drums and trumpets, they were armed with huge bows and arrows, shields, lances, and large broadswords; they had also bodies of slingers, and others armed with poles hardened in the fire. The Indians were in such vast numbers that they completely filled the bean fields, and immediately fell upon us on all sides at once, like furious dogs. Their attack was so impetuous, so numerous were the arrows, stones, and lances with which they greeted us, that above seventy of our men were wounded in no time, and one named Saldaña, was struck by an arrow in the ear, and instantly dropt down dead. With like fury they rushed at us with their pikes, at the same time pouring forth showers of arrows, and continually wounding our men. However, we fully repaid them with our crossbows, muskets, and heavy cannon, cutting right and left among them with our swords. By this means we forced them to give ground a little, but only that they might shower forth their arrows at a greater distance, where they thought themselves more secure from our arms. Even then our artilleryman Mesa made terrible havoc among them, standing as they did crowded together and within reach of the cannon, so that he could fire among them to his heart's content. Notwithstanding the destruction we made among their ranks, we could not put them to flight. I now remarked to our commander Diego de Ordas that we should rush forward upon the Indians and close with them. My motive for advising this was, because I saw that they merely retreated from fear of our swords, but still continued to annoy us at a distance with arrows, lances, and large stones. De Ordas, however, considered this not expedient, as the enemy's numbers were so vast that every single man of us would have had to encounter 300 of the enemy at once.

“My advice, however, was at length followed up, and we fell so heavily upon them that they retreated as far as the wells. All this time Cortes still remained behind with the cavalry, though we so greatly longed for reinforcement: we began to fear that some misfortune might also have befallen him. I shall never forget the piping and yelling which the Indians set up at every shot we fired, and how they sought to hide their loss from us by tossing up earth and straw into the air, making a terrible noise with their drums and trumpets, and their war-whoop Ala lala. In one of these moments Cortes came galloping up with the horse. Our enemies being still busily engaged with us, did not immediately observe this, so that our cavalry easily dashed in among them from behind. The nature of the ground was quite favorable for its manœuvres; and as it consisted of strong active fellows, most of the horses being, moreover, powerful and fiery animals, our small body of cavalry in every way made the best use of their weapons. When we, who were already hotly engaged with the enemy, espied our cavalry, we fought with renewed energy, while the latter, by attacking them in the rear at the same time, now obliged them to face about. The Indians, who had never seen any horses before, could not think otherwise than that horse and rider were one body. Quite astounded at this to them so novel a sight, they quitted the plain and retreated to a rising ground.

“Cortes now related why he had not come sooner. First, he had been delayed by the morass; then again he was obliged to fight his way through other bodies of the enemy whom he had met, in which five men and eight horses were wounded. Having somewhat rested from our fatigue under the trees which stood on the field of battle, we praised God and the holy Virgin, and thanked them with uplifted hands for the complete victory they had granted us: and, as it was the feast of the annunciation to the holy Virgin, the town which was subsequently built here in memory of this great victory, was named Santa Maria de la Vitoria. This was the first battle we fought under Cortes in New Spain.

[Del Castillo, Bernal Diaz (2013-11-03). The Conquest of New Spain (Kindle Locations 1802-1832). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.]

Comment: Should we trust the account of Bernal Diaz or is there some other? Diaz throughout is critical of the history written by Francisco López de Gómara. Apparently Gomara’s history was well received in Spain. But note that Gomara was born in 1511 and the battle Diaz describes occurred in 1519. Wikipedia says of Gomara, “Francisco López de Gómara (c. 1511 - c. 1566) was a Spanish historian who worked in Seville, particularly noted for his works in which he described the early 16th century expedition undertaken by Hernán Cortés in the Spanish conquest of the New World. Although Gómara himself did not accompany Cortés, and had in fact never been to the Americas, he had firsthand access to Cortés and others of the returning conquistadores as the sources of his account. However other contemporaries, among them most notably Bernal Díaz del Castillo, criticised his work as being full of inaccuracies, and one which unjustifiably sanitised the events and aggrandised Cortés' role. As such, the reliability of his works may be called into question; yet they remain a valuable and oft-cited record of these events.”

While Amazon does provide Diaz’s account in Kindle format, they do not provide Gomara’s. Gomara’s “history” has had an interesting history: “Whether through the desire to aggrandize his patron, [Lord Don Martin Cortés, Marques del Valle"—the son and heir of the conqueror] or through relying on the firsthand information which the latter gave him (Gómara was never in America) or from malice, or for some other reason Gómara fell into serious errors and in many instances sinned gravely against historical truth. It was perhaps for this reason that Prince Philip (afterwards Philip II of Spain), in a decree issued at Valladolid on November 17, 1553, ordered all the copies of his work that could be found to be gathered in and imposed a penalty of 200,000 maravedis on anyone who should reprint it. This prohibition was removed in 1727 through the efforts of Don Andreas Gonzalez Martial who included Gómara's work in his collection of early historians of the New World (Coleccion de historiadores primitivos de las Indias Occidentales). The Verdadera historia de la Conquesta de Nueva Espana ("True History of the Conquest of New Spain") of Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a companion of Hernán Cortés, was written to refute Gómara. The latter's style is concise and agreeable, the narrative running on rapidly and gracefully, all of which has had the effect of attracting readers to the work. Among other works of his which have remained unpublished are Batallas de mar de nuestros tiempos ("Contemporary Naval Battles") and Historia de Harrue y Harradin Barbarroja.

The Spanish Y-Chromosome in Latin America

Cochran and Harpending write that Central and South American women have Amerindian MTDNA (Mitochondrial DNA) but the men have the Spanish Y Chromosome. Bernal Diaz in his New Conquest of Spain describes a case of that happening. Cortez in 1519 learns that the Amerindians have two Spanish slaves. He negotiates with the locals and they say Cortez can have them if he pays a ransom. He agrees to that and sends the locals off with the ransom and a letter of introduction to the Spaniards. Here is his letter:

"Dear Sirs and Brothers,—Here, on the island of Cozumel, I received information that you are detained prisoners by a cazique. I beg of you to come here to me on the island of Cozumel. To this end I have sent out an armed ship, and ransom-money, should it be required by the Indians. I have ordered the vessel to remain stationary off the promontory of Cotoche for eight days, to wait for you. Come as speedily as possible; you may depend upon being honorably treated by me. I am here with eleven vessels armed with 500 soldiers, and intend, with the aid of the Almighty and your assistance, to proceed to a place called Tabasco, or Potonchon; etc."

Diaz continues: With this letter the two Indian merchants embarked on board our vessel, which passed this narrow gulf in three hours, when the messengers with the ransom-money were put on shore. After the lapse of a couple of days they actually handed over the letter to one of the Spaniards in question, who, as we afterwards learnt, was called Geronimo de Aguilar, and I shall therefore in future distinguish him by that name. When he had read the letter and received the ransom-money we had forwarded, he was exceedingly rejoiced, and took the latter to the cazique his master to beg for his liberation. The moment he had obtained this he went in quest of his comrade, Gonzalo Guerrero, and made him acquainted with all the circumstances; when Guerrero made the following reply:

"Brother Aguilar,—I have united myself here to one of the females of this country, by whom I have three children; and am, during wartime, as good as cazique or chief. Go! and may God be with you: for myself, I could not appear again among my countrymen. My face has already been disfigured, according to the Indian custom, and my ears have been pierced: what would my countrymen say if they saw me in this attire? Only look at my three children, what lovely little creatures they are; pray give me some of your glass beads for them, which I shall say my brethren sent them from my country."

Gonzalo's Indian wife followed in the same strain, and was quite displeased with Aguilar's errand. "Only look at that slave there, (said she,) he is come here to take away my husband from me! Mind your own affairs, and do not trouble yourself about us." Aguilar, however, afterwards made another attempt to induce Gonzalo to leave, telling him to consider that he was a Christian, and that he ought not to risk the salvation of his soul for the sake of an Indian woman. Moreover, he might take her and the children with him if he could not make up his mind to separate himself from them. Aguilar, however, might say what he liked, it was all to no purpose; he could not persuade Gonzalo to accompany his heretofore companion in good and ill fortune. This Guerrero was most probably a sailor, and a native of Palos. He remained among the Indians, while Geronimo de Aguilar alone took his departure with the Indian messengers, and marched towards the coast where our ship was to have waited for them: but she had left; for De Ordas, after staying there the eight days, and another in addition, finding that no one appeared, again set sail for Cozumel. Aguilar was quite downcast when he found the ship was gone, and he again returned to his Indian master.

Ordas, however, did not meet with the best of reception when he returned without the ransom-money or any information respecting the Spaniards, and even without the Indian messengers. Cortes said to him, with great vehemence, he expected he would have fulfilled his commission better than to return without the Spaniards, and even without bringing him any information respecting them, although well.

Off Cortez goes but one of his ships develops a leak so he is forced to return to Cozumel, much to the delight of Geronimo de Aguilar: “When the Spaniard, who was in the power of the Indians got certain information that we had again returned to the island Cozumel, he rejoiced exceedingly and thanked God with all his heart. He immediately hired a canoe, with six capital rowers, for himself and the Indians who had brought him the glass beads. The former being richly remunerated with these, so valuable in their estimation: they performed their work so well, that the channel between the island and mainland, a distance of about twelve miles, was soon crossed. After they had arrived off the island and stepped on shore, some soldiers who were returning from the chase of musk swine, informed Cortes that a large canoe had just arrived from the promontory of Cotoche. Cortes immediately despatched Andreas de Tapia with a few men to learn what news they had brought. As Tapia with his men approached the shore, the Indians, who had arrived with Geronimo, evinced great fear and ran back to their canoe in order to put off to sea again. Aguilar, however, told him in their language they need have no fear; for we were their brothers. Andreas de Tapia, who took Aguilar also for an Indian, for he had every appearance of one, sent to inform Cortes that the seven Indians who had arrived were inhabitants of Cozumel. It was not until they had come up to them and heard the Spaniard pronounce the words—God, holy Virgin, Sevilla, in broken Spanish, and ran up to Tapia to embrace him, that they recognized this strange-looking fellow. One of Tapia's men immediately ran off to inform Cortes that a Spaniard had arrived in the canoe, for which news he expected a handsome reward. We all greatly rejoiced at this information, and it was not long before Tapia himself arrived with the strange-looking Spaniard. As they passed by us many of our men still kept inquiring of Tapia which among them was the Spaniard? although he was walking at his very side, so much did his countenance resemble that of an Indian. His complexion was naturally of a brownish cast, added to which his hair had been shorn like that of an Indian slave: he carried a paddle across his shoulder, had one of his legs covered with an old tattered stocking; the other, which was not much better, being tied around his waist. An old ragged cloak hung over his shoulders, his maltatas was in a much worse condition. His prayerbook, which was very much torn, he had folded in the corner of his cloak. When Cortes beheld the man in this attire, he, as all the rest of us had done, asked Tapia where the Spaniard was? When Geronimo heard this, he cowered down after the Indian fashion, and said: "I am he." Upon this Cortes gave him a shirt, a coat, a pair of trousers, a cap and shoes, from our stores. He then desired him to give us an account of the adventures of his life, and explain how he had got into [Del Castillo, Bernal Diaz (2013-11-03). The Conquest of New Spain (Kindle Locations 1445-1545). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.]

Comment: As far as I’ve read Gonzolo is still living with his Amerindian wife and three children and enjoying his status with is “as good as cazique,” and being of powerful physique admired as a powerful warrior. He would obviously be of more use to Cortes than the simple Aguilar who was employed in menial tasks and was too weak to walk 12 miles. Probably no modern-day Amerindian can trace his Y-Chromosome back to him. It is interesting though that everyone had difficulty believing that Aguilar was not an Indian. He was apparently born with a dark complexion and then living with the Indians he developed their mannerisms. How many other Spaniards could fit into that environment as well as Aguilar and Gonzolo, I wonder? But I wonder also why he spoke in “broken Spanish.” He surely hadn’t been with the Indians so long that he forgot his native language. Perhaps Spaniards employed in menial activities in Spain spoke an inferior form of Spanish and that is what Diaz intends to be inferred here, but I don’t know.

On surviving plagues and travelling to Yucatan

Cochran and Harpending write on page 162, “In Mexico, where Hernán Cortés and his troops had made the Aztec emperor their puppet, the Aztecs rose against them, killing Moctezuma II and two-thirds of the Spanish force in the famous “Noche Triste.” The Aztecs probably would have utterly destroyed the invaders, were it not for the smallpox epidemic under way at the same time. The leader of the Aztec defense died in the epidemic, and Cortés and his men conquered the Aztec Empire. The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution. Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

How were these Aztecs contaminated? Bernal Diaz Del Castillo in his The Conquest of New Spain wrote of how 110 of them (Cortez wasn’t with them at this point) sailed away from Cuba in 1517 and up the coast of the mainland, discovering Yucatan. They needed to go ashore for water from time to time, and those activities did not always go well. Here is the first foray to get water:

As these Indians approached us in their canoes, we made signs of peace and friendship, beckoning at the same time to them with our hands and cloaks to come up to us that we might speak with them; for at that time there was nobody amongst us who understood the language of Yucatan or Mexico. They now came along side of us without evincing the least fear, and more than thirty of them climbed on board of our principal ship. We gave them bacon and cassave bread to eat, and presented each with a necklace of green glass beads. After they had for some time minutely examined the ship, the chief, who was a cazique, gave us to understand, by signs, that he wished to get down again into his canoe and return home, but that he would come the next day with many more canoes in order to take us on shore. Del Castillo, Bernal Diaz (2013-11-03). The Conquest of New Spain (Kindle Locations 400-405). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.

The Indians ask where they came from and when they admit to coming from where the sun rises the Indians decided to kill them. “The cazique had no sooner given the signal, than out rushed with terrible fury great numbers of armed warriors, greeting us with such a shower of arrows, that fifteen of our men were immediately wounded. These Indians were clad in a kind of cuirass made of cotton, and armed with lances, shields, bows, and slings; with each a tuft of feathers stuck on his head. As soon as they had let fly their arrows, they rushed forward and attacked us man to man, setting furiously to with their lances, which they held in both hands. When, however, they began to feel the sharp edge of our swords, and saw what destruction our crossbows and matchlocks made among them, they speedily began to give way. Fifteen of their number lay dead on the field. [Del Castillo, Bernal Diaz (2013-11-03). The Conquest of New Spain (Kindle Locations 422-427). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.]

Bernal Diaz and his fellows didn’t learn their lesson and later on needing more water answered the same question in the same way, that they came from the direction in which the sun rises, and met with the same result. Eventually so many of them were injured that they couldn’t man all their boats. They burned one, and headed back toward Havanah, but they needed water and no longer had enough sound men to fight off the Indians long enough to get it. But eventually most of them got back to Havana.

But I noticed an interesting anecdote way back at the beginning of Bernal Diaz’s narrative: “In the year 1514 I departed from Castile in the suite of Pedro Arias de Avila, who had just then been appointed governor of Terra Firma. At sea we had sometimes bad and sometimes good weather, until we arrived at Nombre Dios, where the plague was raging: of this we lost many of our men, and most of us got terrible sores on our legs, and were otherwise ill.” [Del Castillo, Bernal Diaz (2013-11-03). The Conquest of New Spain (Kindle Locations 347-349). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.]

What was this plague and what caused the sores that Bernal Diaz and most of the others had on their legs? He writes initially of 1514 and it wasn’t until 1517 that they had several battles with the Amerindians on the coast of Yucatan, but that Diaz and the others were carriers of more than one disease doesn’t seem a stretch.

Cochran and Harpending write, “The European advantage in disease resistance was particularly important because those early attempts at conquest and colonization were marginal. Shipping men and equipment across the Atlantic Ocean presented huge logistical difficulties. European military expeditions to the New World were tiny and poorly supplied. The successes of the conquistadors are reminiscent of ridiculous action movies in which one man defeats a small army—and that’s a lot harder to do with an arquebus than an Uzi. Early colonization efforts often teetered on the edge of disaster, as when half the Pilgrims died in their first winter, or when most of the settlers in Jamestown starved to death in the winter of 1609. Epidemic disease didn’t just grease the skids for the initial conquests: It reduced Amerindian populations and made later revolts far weaker than they would have been otherwise. If they had not died of disease, the Amerindians would have had time to copy and use many European military innovations in the second or third round of fighting. [pp. 164-165. Basic Books. Kindle Edition.]