Bernal Díaz del Castillo had sailed to…

Bernal Díaz del Castillo had sailed to Tierra Firme (now Nombre de Dios in modern Panama) with the expedition led by Pedrarias Dávila in 1514 to make his fortune, but after two years had found few opportunities there.

Many of the settlers had been sickened or killed by an epidemic, and there was political unrest.

He had later sailed to Cuba, where he has been promised a grant of native laborers as a part of the encomienda system.

Native “laborers “ have become scarce, though, and those colonists lacking manpower to work their holdings will need to find new peoples to enslave for work in the mines and plantations.

Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, together with some one hundred and ten discontented Spanish settlers in Cuba, including Bernal Díaz, petitions the governor, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, for permission to launch an expedition in search of new lands and exploitable resources.

Little is known of Córdoba's life before his exploration of the Yucatán.

A native of Spain, his residence in Cuba indicates that he had participated in the conquest of the island.

He is also quite wealthy, as he both owns a landed estate, including a native town, and self-finances his expedition to Mexico.

Official permission is granted after some haggling over terms, and the expedition, consisting of two warships and a brigantine under Hernández de Córdoba's command, leaves the harbor of Santiago de Cuba on February 8, 1517, to explore the shores of southern Mexico.

The main pilot is Antón de Alaminos, from Palos, the premiere navigator of the region, who had accompanied Christopher Columbus on his initial voyages.

The pilots of the other two ships are Juan Álvarez de Huelva (nicknamed "el manquillo", which indicates that he was missing a limb), and Camacho de Triana (the name suggests he was from Seville).

Santiago de Cuba, the fifth village founded by Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar on July 25, 1515, had been destroyed in 1516 by fire and immediately rebuilt.

This is the starting point of the expeditions led by Juan de Grijalva and Hernán Cortés to the coasts of Mexico in 1517 and 1518, respectively.