March 14, 1519 · Tabasco, Gulf Coast Theater
March 14, 1519
Barely ashore in Mexico, Cortés fought a Chontal Maya army on the plains of Centla near Potonchán. Outnumbered many times over, he held the Maya with crossbows and cannon, then broke them with a cavalry charge from the flank — the first use of horses in battle on the American mainland. The Maya, who had never seen the animals, reportedly took horse and rider for a single monstrous creature.
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