In the long list of instructions that Hernán Cortés had been given by Velázquez, the governor of Fernandina (Cuba) under whose orders he had sailed to Yucatan, was a mandate to find several Christians believed to be stranded on the coast.

That document is descriptive of the times and is worthy of study. It instructed Cortés to treat the locals with “much kindness”, find out more information about Amazons and dog-faced people living in the forests and, above all, to serve God.

Six lost Christians were mentioned several times, indicating just how important it was to find them.

There was no trace of them on Cozumel, however, although the local Mayas did say that two Spaniards were living in the nearby mainland town of Chaktemal.

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In the local Maya language, Cozumel is pronounced as Kú-utz-mil. It was home to the Red Goddess of childbirth, Ix Chel, whose temple was the destination for pilgrims from the mainland Yucatan. A priestess would speak to the pilgrims from inside a large, hollow statue of Ix Chel that stood in the main shrine.

This goddess was popular with young women who wanted their marriages to bear fruit. There was in fact a smaller pilgrimage site just north of Cozumel—an island now called “Isla Mujeres”—where the Spaniards found plenty of images of Ix Chel, as well as images of female travelers.

Cortés put an end to that ancient worship.

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Hernán Cortés arrived on the island of Cozumel on February 21, 1519. The island was then called Kúutzmil (Island of the Swallows) by the Yucatec Maya.

He needed that island because it had the closest known harbor to Fernandina, or Cuba, which was on the way to Yucatán. Earlier Spanish expeditions had talked of some Christians stranded on the island, so saving those Christians was one of the orders Cortés had received from the Cuban governor Diego Velázquez.

A storm scattered the expedition almost immediately after it left Cuba. When Cortés arrived to Cozumel, five out of ten ships were already there. One of his most influential business partners, the red-haired Pedro de Alvarado, had been loose on the island for at least a full day.

Alvarado, used to treating the “primitives” as slaves during his boisterous career in the Caribbean, had already managed to ransack the main village (situated where San Miguel de Cozumel now stands). He had seized food from the farms, some gold from the temples, and even a few villagers. The people of Cozumel, unable to repel the sudden invasion of hundreds of armed Europeans, had fled into the forest.

Upon his landing, Cortés brushed aside the disdainful habits of the Spanish explorers and didn’t join in the looting. Instead, he scolded Alvarado, imprisoned his pilot, and demanded that all the detained people and stolen property be returned.

While waiting for the remaining ships, Cortés explored the island. For the first time, he saw its stone buildings, so superior to everything he had seen in the Caribbean, its sophisticated food, and, to his utter astonishment, its pictorial books.

The Spaniards found a noble woman who had stayed behind in the village. Cortés placated her with gifts, and she agreed to invite the others to return from their hiding.

And so began in earnest the conquest of Mexico, with Cortés attempting to make friends with its inhabitants.

At that time, around 10,000 people lived on the island. About a year later, an expedition of Spaniards led by the unfortunate Narvaez ravaged the island. They brought with them a killer strand of small pox, and when the dust had settled a mere generation later, there were only 300 people left of the original inhabitants of Cozumel.