 The first encounter with the Yucatec Maya may have occurred in 1502, when the fourth voyage of Christopher Columbus came across a large trading canoe off Honduras.In 1511, Spanish survivors of the shipwrecked caravel called "Santa María de la Barca" sought refuge among native groups along the eastern coast of the peninsula.Hernán Cortés made contact with two survivors, Gerónimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero, six years later.