Juan de Escalante (c. 1479 – 10 November 1519) was a Spanish military man. He joined as a captain on

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...

' expedition and in 1519 he was commander of the garrison of Veracruz.

Biography

In 1518, he travelled to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

under the command of

Juan de Grijalva Juan de Grijalva (; born c. 1490 in Cuéllar, Crown of Castile – 21 January 1527 in Honduras) was a Spanish conquistador, and a relative of Diego Velázquez.Diaz, B., 1963, The Conquest of New Spain, London: Penguin Books, He went to Hispa ...

before joining the Cortés expedition. At the beginning of 1519, he was in his forties and commanded a ship which, on the orders of Cortés, reached Havana via the north of the island of Cuba, while the other ten sailed south and

Pedro de Alvarado Pedro de Alvarado (; c. 1485 – 4 July 1541) was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala.Lovell, Lutz and Swezey 1984, p. 461. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of the Yucatá ...

went by land. On the island of

Cozumel Cozumel (; yua, Kùutsmil) is an island and municipality in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen. It is separated from the mainland by the Cozumel Channel and is close to the Yucatán ...

, the men explored the new land. As they continued on their way, Juan de Escalante saw that his ship was leaking into the open sea and in danger of sinking; he turned back. Cortés then ordered the entire fleet to return to Cozumel. While Escalante's ship was being repaired,

Gerónimo de Aguilar Jerónimo de Aguilar O.F.M. (1489–1531) was a Franciscan friar born in Écija, Spain. Aguilar was sent to Panama to serve as a missionary. He was later shipwrecked on the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511 and captured by the Maya. In 1519 Hernán ...

joined his fellow Spaniards. He had been held as a slave by the

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...

and later served Cortés well as an interpreter. As some of the men did not want to participate in an inland campaign, Cortés instructed Juan de Escalante and some other men to destroy the ships and bring the sails, ropes and compasses ashore. In doing so, he deprived his men of the opportunity to return to Cuba. After forming an alliance with the

Totonac The Totonac are an indigenous people of Mexico who reside in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo. They are one of the possible builders of the pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and further maintained quarters in Teotihuacán (a city wh ...

s at

Cempoala Cempoala or Zempoala (Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly ...

, Cortés founded Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz in August 1519. Cortés made Juan de Escalante his first commander. As he was also appointed '' alguazil mayor'' of the city, he was the first European to hold this position in the Americas. Cortés then moved deeper into the country from Vera Cruz and left Juan de Escalante there with a small Spanish garrison to enforce the peace and strengthen the alliance with the coastal tribes. But the

Aztecs The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...

of the coast led by a nobleman, Cuahpopoca, demanded tribute from these peoples: their leaders complained to Escalante about the Aztecs' demands and asked him for help. Escalante took 2 cannons, 3 cross-bow men, 2 musketeers and 40 men and over 2000 Totonacs and faced the thousands of Aztecs on the battlefield of

Nautla Nautla is a settlement in the Mexican state of Veracruz. ''Nautla'' comes from the Nahuatl ''naui'', 'four'; and from ''tlan'', that means 'place'; so it is known as 'Four Places'. History First it was a prehispanic town that was in Casitas, ...

. At his side were two thousand Totonacs who abandoned him at the first opportunity. During this engagement, Escalante was wounded, forced to retreat to Veracruz and died soon after.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Escalante, Juan De Conquistadors Spanish military personnel 1519 deaths Deaths in Mexico 1479 births