Hard times in the 1500's: Attacks by Conquistadors, Corsairs & Pirates

      In the mid 1500's, there were only six coastal towns, which were poor Mayan pueblos, between what is now Holbox & Chetumal, of which two were located on the island of Cozumel. During the colonial era, the Yucatan peninsula was not really part of New Spain, and was administrated separately as a "General Captaincy", which included Belize, Honduras, and parts of Chiapas and Tabasco. It was a vast, difficult to control area, lacking in means of communication or transportation by land. In 1537, the Spanish government acknowledged that the waters of the Caribbean were infested with pirates, but made little progress to contain them.
        Pirates found strategic shelter on the islands of Cozumel, Contoy, and Mujeres, and in Ascension and Espiritu Santo Bays. They were periodically expelled by the Yucatan government, who sent expeditions for this purpose every five or ten years. However, the outlaws blatantly returned after the military left.
        The few people of these settlements were mostly Mayan, who in their state of abandonment by the government, allied themselves with the pirates to save their lives. Out of fear of reprisals, they usually failed to report the abuses they suffered.

         In 1571, the French pirate Pierre Sanfroy and his 35 henchmen attacked three ships off the coast of Yucatan, and looted a ship in Cozumel. Over Easter weekend, they attacked and besieged the people of Ekab, at Boca Iglesia church, in the municipality of Isla Mujeres (by Cabo Catoche). They terrorized the villagers who didn't escape into the jungle, and desecrated the church with anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish graffiti. The Mayor of Valladolid and his men came to the rescue, killing eight of the pirates in battle, two were gravely injured then hanged, and others spent time as slaves. They were later taken to Mexico City to be charged in the Inquisition as heretics and enemies of religion as Lutherans (rather than for their crimes of murder and theft.)
      In 1579, in “Relación de Cozumel”, Diego de Contreras noted: "They (the pirates) tend to go to this French island (Cozumel), and it has been a year, more or less, since the French stole the island, taking a large amount of corn, chickens and blankets, and the church bell "
      In 1592, the governor of Yucatan sent veteran Spanish conquistador Juan de Contreras and his men to the islands of Contoy, Isla Mujeres and Cozumel, where they seized every human being they met, including the chief of Chan cenote, John Chan, Maya rebels and Negroes from Guinea, who were hiding on the islands, fleeing from slavery. The Spanish policy of concentrating populations in urban centers reflected their need to control the Maya, to impose the Catholic religion upon them, and to exploit their labor in the fields.
     Five years later, in 1597, Contreras launched a new expedition, capturing the entire populations that existed on the islands.
      In 1599, English pirates had settled in Cozumel, according to Lopez de Cogolludo. The Yucatan government sent warnings and forced them to leave the place, preferring to remove everyone, because of the presence of criminals.
This information comes from an article in Spanish by: Fidel Villanueva Madrid.Lifetime Historian of Isla Mujeres.Mail: ixcheel_48@hotmail.com December 2012, which is no longer available at the link, but most of it is available at this link.https://dondeen.wordpress.com/…/piratas-en-quintana-roo-pa…/
Map of 1500's Chapels from ColonialMexico blog.
Photo of Boca Iglesias is credited.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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