CONQUEST OF THE EAST 

FOUNDATION OF VALLADOLID

by Luis A. Ramírez Aznar

Translated by David L. Smedley Calvert

A petition to Montejo, the Junior, from his father, commanded the conquest of the northeast and east parts of the Yucatan where the regions of  Cochuá, Sotutá, Cupul and Uaymil-Chetumal Maya maintained an open resistance against the Spanish. He gave orders to his Captains about the importance of controlling and pacifying this zone which was near the recently built town of Merida. At the same time there was a great lack of confidence concerning the Chikinchel, Ekab and Tazes Maya who with little provocation were ready to take up arms near T'Hoo (Merida).

This spirit of rebellion is what caused Montejo the Captain General to place Alonso de Reynoso in charge of occupying the lands of the Cheles and Ekab Maya, he who had proved invaluable to Montejo, the Junior during the conquest of T'Hoo. Because of a prior agreement with Montejo, who wanted to be sent to Honduras he renounced this assignment and that is what caused Montejo, the Junior to recommend his cousin, Montejo the Nephew for the assignment. History then records the three Montejo's as the Captain General who was also the Lieutenant Governor, his son called the Junior and his Nephew called Montejo, the Nephew. 

They assigned fighting troops as a form of sentinels with native Maya guides or scouts to show the Maya the force of the Spanish and to bring the Maya under control and domination. They committed to make war on the Maya is they had to reach their objective. The basic program called for: Found a city in or near Conil, select a local government and start to build farms and ranches. Conil or Koni was a port town used commercially by the Maya, located on the southern tip of Ekab the terrain formed a bay with the other towns of Yalahau, Chikilá and Holbox. The name Conil in Mayan means to sell.

The plan called for the Nephew to mobilize, at the same time, on the coasts of the north and east while Junior went into the interior  to Sotuta and in this way they would break up the Maya forces. The other reason was to subdue Nachi Cocom, the leader of the Sotuta and one who would not permit the Maya to make peace with the Spanish. Conil, it was decided was a very good strategic location to control the areas near the coast.

Remembering how much trouble the Cupul and Cochhuá had caused while trying to build the city of Merida in 1540, the Junior made a plan to maintain contact with the Nephew should he need reinforcements or arms.

THE FALL OF SOTUTA

Montejo, the Junior focused all of his power on the town of  Sotuta. He knew what a great leader Nachi Cocom was and with the help of Francisco Ronquillo and Alonso Rosado, the taking of Sotuta happened at the end of 1542. Most of the Cocomes went into the jungles and were not taken by the Spanish, but Nachi Cocom was taken prisoner. Written records have little to say about this part of history and the luck of Nachi Cocom, however, in a document written by

Scholes and Adams, in the archives of the Indies dated 1562, there is an eloquent mention about a group accused of idol worship. The text says "The experience of seeing Nachi Cocom and others in the prison, where he could raise the earth from his prison in front of those accused and imprisoned (this refers to round up of suspects by Fray Diego de Landa of Maní), and whose lives were not affected". In other words they left testimony that Nachi Cocom was imprisoned in Sotuta and from there he could move his followers and he was feared in Maní twenty years after his capture in Sotuta.

But, Montejo, The Junior, in all of his trips into the interior, choose to subdue the Maya by convincing their leaders and when he could he preferred to negotiate and make the leaders the Spanish authority in accordance with Spanish law. In this way he avoided bloodshed and could keep the peace, but overall his hardest task was to obtain a sense of security for the new city of Merida. The real test was the agreement made with Nachi Cocom and the very heroic Maya who wanted to defend their land to the death and weren't made Christians until late in 1549. Without a doubt this is what caused him to convince the Cocomes to give part of their territory to the Maya from the eastern side. It was in this way, by giving them their own territory and recognizing them as the leaders of it that they brought peace to the east as well.

They didn't forget, however that Nachi Cocom was looking to wipe out the Maya leaders who made alliances with the Spanish and he stopped the Xiues, Cheles and Peches from taking advantage of the demise of the Cocomes.

In the year 1545, Sotuta was under the control and leadership of Nachi Cocom who got his men and weapons back and chose leaders of certain loyal chiefs and converted the groups into agriculture. This was the first time in the history of the Yucatan this had been done and with the backing of Montejo. In the famous "Libros of Ebtún", which were the first and only documents written in and from the Maya territories from the 16th to the 19th centuries. In these books appear the names of the leaders chosen by Nachi Cocom. The book records the lands given to the Maya, for example: " Francisco Cocom may keep his cocoa plantation and his fields in Oxilá; Diego Yaah, Andrés Col and Diego Cach can keep their fields in Chichí" …etc., etc.

In the very complicated homework of finding sufficient historical and biographical facts of Nachi Cocom, it was discovered that before Nachi Cocom could be considered a fanatic, the facts prove the opposite. He was a respected leader among the Maya as well as the Spanish of his time and was elevated to the main leader of his time. And he is found to have dedicated his life to  protecting his people from abuses by the Spanish conquerors. He was able to do this with the help of Montejo. During the rebellion of Chemax, the Cupules and the Cochuajes in 1546 he took the role of mediator or peacemaker. He didn't attest to the justification of the rebellion against the abuses of the Spanish he just wanted to stop the bloodshed. While the Maya were brought to some form of peach they were never conquered and were never peaceful. Nachi Cocom was the first to outline the territories of the Maya and actually marked property and boundaries with crosses and stakes. Nachi Cocom died between 1560 and 1561 and his tomb was converted into a sanctuary. The Spanish priest Fray Diego de Landa exhumed the remains and had them burned against the purported 'idol worship'.

Nachi Cocom had two children, his son was named Francisco, and the name of his daughter is lost in the labyrinth of time.

INCURSIONS INTO THE EAST

Without being distracted by his main mission to conquer the east Montejo, The Junior took notice of a group of defiants in the town of Calotmul, close to Peto, where lived a large group of Xiues Maya. These were the descendants of the Jerarcas of Maní, who opposed cooperation with the Spanish and built a pueblo separate from the ones  of the conquered Maya. The Junior sent the brother in law of his father, Alonso López, with instructions to perform reconnaissance of the southern areas. He was worried that small centers of independent Maya close to the new city of Merida might unite these Xiues and together they could present a real danger to the city.

Melchor Pacheco and the Junior sent Lopez to the south on the route through Tekax where an advance group of the army had been massacred. They thought that aside from the hostilities of the attack the real danger was present in the union of these dissident factions with the larger group of the Xuis. The army repelled the dissidents at Calotmul and continued their campaign.

The reports from the Nephew on his advance to the northeast were good and aided the Junior in his decision to march on Cochhuá. In a newspaper article (June of 1543) it was written that the Junior was upset about the condition of many of the suburbs of Merida. The inhabitants were upset at not finding any gold or silver and wanted to go back to the interior where the farming and ranching was better.

The aggressiveness of the Cochuajes was surprising in that they presented and solid and united front against the Spanish. The Junior couldn't count on the help of his cousin because he had not yet gained control of the northeast. The triumphs of The Junior were scarce but he managed to repel the opposition without a decisive victory and then decided to return to Merida which was his main worry.  He had planned to return in style with a full dress column signaling the domination of the East. The entrance was without a doubt triumphant, but he did a strange thing. The Junior has always fought against slavery and servitude in any form. Upon arriving in Merida he sent for an important group of hostages and among them were women and children, who related the vast problems faced by the Cohuaes Maya. The Junior released this group of hostages and used it to soften the resistance of the Maya.

In the province of Ah Kin Chel, The Nephew wanted to take advantage of the cooperation of the Cheles to move further to the east where the most important part of the conquest would take place. The Nephew chose Bernaldino de Villagómez, brother of Jorge, as Field Marshal, who was the Captain Generals Field Marshal during the conquest of the Uaymil-Chetumal. According to witnesses from Valladolid in 1579 and other founders, Bernaldino de Villagómez was a very capable captain who built a series of posts or outposts on the road to Tecoh which was the capital of the Cheles. There he built a fort and stocked provisions for the conquest to come. As documented in the writing of Juan de Montejo (1570), The Junior (1563), Juan de Urrotia and Juan Farfán in 1570, whose writings agree with that of Blas González, Villagómez obtained the help of the Caciques and Cheles who had been brought into submission. The mission was a complete success.

Montejo, The Nephew went to Mérida to organize his campaign against Tecoh in the spring of 1542. He marched with 60 soldiers who were well armed and met with Villagómez. We are told in the 1546 General Archive of the Indias that Villagómez was of the utmost importance in the conquest of the east: "This is how we populated the city of Mérida, Francisco de Montejo, the Capitán General, found people to populate the city from the province of Conil and he sent me to this place as half teachar and half captain. It was later on with the soldiers for a time, three or four months in the city of Merida and these provinces waiting for the dispatch by the Captain General with people of the land to secure the peace and bring the things necessary and we brought peace to the provinces of Conil".

FIRST OPEN THE ROADS

The Nephew planned to fill up the new territory prior to setting out on any new adventures against the Cupul. He thought that opening and protecting the roads was the key to the security of Mérida. They were known as  tIX KOCHOL, IX KOCHOL  o r  TEKOCH, those are the prehispanic names of the land known as Ah Kin Chel (and are often confused with Tecoh). Part of the road went through the land of the friendly Peches, entering Mérida by Conkal after Motul.

Montejo sent observers, Villagómez was in the land of the Tazes looking for information about the Cupules because they were a major source of worry for the Spanish. He was looking for an appropriate site to build the city of Valladolid as he was instructed. After receiving reports of his movements, the Junior, started to move against the Cupul in the territory of Tix Kochol who counted on the help of the Cacique. The Spanish stayed for several weeks finally leaving for Tixcontí a small village of the Cupul Maya where they met with scouts and men from Chikinchel, who convinced them that the most appropriate spot to build the city was well known to the Captain General from his trip to Xel-Há called Chouac-Ha. The Spanish, however, demanded some guaranty of security which was accepted. The scouting of 1570 by Juan de Montejo, Melchor Pacheco, Juan Gutierrez Picón, etc; was at the place where the Captain General had said.

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