Isla de Sacrificios ("Island of Sacrifices") is an island in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an 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 the United St ...

, situated off the Gulf coastline near the port of

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

, in

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Gua ...

. The waters surrounding the island are part of the Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano National Marine Park. It is currently closed to the public and is under the protection of the Secretariat of the Navy.

Spanish discovery

The island received its name when it was charted by the expedition in 1518 under Juan de Grijalva, the first Spanish expedition to reconnoitre this section of the Gulf Coast. According to the account of Bernal Díaz, a member of the expedition whose ''

Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España ''Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España'' (''The True History of the Conquest of New Spain'') is a first-person narrative written in 1568 by military adventurer, ''conquistador'', and colonist settler Bernal Díaz del Castillo ...

'' famously recalls the exploits of the ''

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...

es'' on this and the succeeding venture led by

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 ...

, after landing on the island:

Use by pirates

In 1683, Laurens de Graaf and Nicholas van Hoorn retreated to the island after their attack on Veracruz. Once on the island, Van Hoorn became impatient at delays in receiving ransom payments. He ordered a dozen Spanish prisoners executed and had their heads delivered to Veracruz as a sign of his displeasure. De Graaf was furious and the two quarrelled and then fought a duel during which Van Hoorn received a minor injury to his wrist. The wound turned gangrenous and Van Hoorn died shortly thereafter.

Later visits

In 1823, when the island was visited by the antiquities collector, William Bullock, he found it to be a "mere heap of sand" and uninhabited, save for "only one wretched Indian family living on it". Some ruins of

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

buildings were still visible. Bullock also noted the island to be: Many finds from the island can now be seen in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docu ...

.British Museum Collection
/ref> File:Isla de Sacrificios-Veracruz-Mexico.jpeg File:Isla del Sacrificia - panoramio.jpg File:Sacrificios12.jpg, Monument text "REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE. 1893. A LA MÉMOIRE DES OFFICIERS, MARINS ET SOLDATS FRANÇAIS INHUMÉS DANS L'ILE DE SACRIFICIOS. 1838.-1867." File:British Museum Mesoamerica 083.jpg, Alabaster vessel found on the island (British Museum)

Notes

References

* * * * * {{Authority control Islands of Veracruz Veracruz (city) Beaches of Veracruz