Reading for October 3, 2026

I read another six pages of The Conquest of New Spain and finished Chapter 2, on the expedition of Juan de Grijalva.

The expedition consisted largely of sailing along the coast and bartering with tribes that were willing to trade. Many groups instead attacked the explorers, and several Spaniards were killed. The expedition’s main objective was gold, and the account made a point of noting that the Crown was entitled to the “king’s fifth” of all treasure.

On the voyage from Cuba to the mainland, the explorers stopped at an island and encountered a woman who spoke Jamaican. She had been stranded there several years earlier after a fishing trip with her husband and several other men was blown off course. The island’s inhabitants killed the men, including her husband. Díaz described her as very beautiful and said that she was the only person on the island willing to interact with the explorers.

Díaz also recalled a greyhound that helped the expedition hunt before they left the dog behind.

The Spaniards encountered several recently sacrificed young boys and were horrified, especially by how ordinary the scene seemed to the people around it. Women laughed and went about their day outside the temple. Díaz described the priests as wearing black robes and portrayed their idols as resembling literal demons. He also noted that the people practiced circumcision in addition to human sacrifice.

One final detail concerned the mosquitoes. The explorers slept on high ground to escape them. On one occasion they slept in a temple on a hill, and Díaz planted orange seeds outside it. He claimed that every orange tree later found in that region descended from the trees he planted during the expedition.

Later, I read three pages of Little Men aloud in four minutes before the little one began fussing and wanted to go outside.