The Spanish captain Juan de Grijalva, along with Bernal D�az del Castillo, first arrived in 1518 at the island later known as San Juan de Ul�a The Spanish gave it that name because they landed on the Christian feast of John the Baptist, and in honor of the captain. de Ul�a is derived from the local name for the Aztecs, coluha or acolhua. According to tradition, when the Spanish arrived, they found two young men who had been sacrificed. When they asked the locals what had happened, they said the Aztecs had ordered the sacrifice. The word for Aztec evolved into Ul�a.
Because the first expedition detected the presence of gold in the region, a second expedition under the command of Hern�n Cort�s arrived in 1519. Cort�s and his men landed at the shore opposite the island where Grijalva had moored, which has the pre-Hispanic name of Chalchihuecan. Cort�s, Francisco de Montejo and Alonso Hern�ndez Portocarrero founded the settlement, naming it Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. The name Villa Rica (rich village) referred to the gold that was found here and Vera cruz (True Cross) was added because the Cort�s expedition landed on Good Friday, a Christian holy day. When Cort�s and his soldiers elected a �Justicia Mayor� and a �Capit�n General,� they created the first city council on the American continent. The city was the first on mainland America to receive a European coat of arms, which was authorized by Carlos V in Valladolid, Spain on 4 July 1523.
The original settlement was moved to what is now known as Antigua, at the mouth of the Huitzilpan or Antigua River shortly thereafter. This separated the city from the port, as ships could not enter the shallow river. Ships continued to dock at San Juan de Ul�a, with small boats being used to ferry goods on and off the ships. When large-scale smuggling of goods took place to avoid customs officials, the Spanish Crown ordered the settlement returned to its original site to cut down on that traffic. Docks and an
