12 August, 2017 - 22:52 Clyde Winters
Forgotten Voyagers: The Ancient Mexican Merchants Who Took to the Seas
“They were all young, well built and not black but fairer than the other natives I have seen in the Indies. They were handsome with fine limbs and bodies, and long straight hair cut in the Spanish manner, and round their heads they wore a cotton cloth elaborately patterned in colours which I believe to be almarzares (Moorish headdresses)”.
- ‘The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus’, translated and edited by J.M. Cohen
The major seafaring group in Mexico were the Chontal Maya. They called themselves Putun. Much of what we know about the Putun seafarers comes from the research of Dr. Wiener, Peck, and Shatto. Shatto wrote a detailed Master Thesis on Chontal naval knowledge.
http://www.ancient-origins.net/history/forgotten-voyagers-ancient-mexican-merchants-who-took-seas-008591
