Potonchán

...There exists a great city extending along the Tabasco river; so great and celebrated, as one cannot measure, however, says the pilot Alaminos and others with him, that is extends flanking the coast, about five hundred thousand steps and has twenty-five thousand houses, dispersed among gardens, that are made splendidly with stones and lime in whose construction projects the admirable industry and are of the architects...

Potonchán, was a Chontal Maya city, capital of the minor kingdom known as Tavasco or Tabasco. It occupied the left bank of the Tabasco River, which the Spanish renamed the Grijalva River, in the current Mexican state of Tabasco.

Juan de Grijalva arrived to this town on June 8, 1518, and christened the river with his name and met with the Maya chief Tabscoob to whom, it is said, he gave his green velvet doublet.

Later, on March 12, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived. Cortés, unlike Grijalva, was received by the natives in a warlike fashion, leading to the Battle of Centla. After the native defeat, Cortés founded the first Spanish settlement in New Spain, the town of Santa María de la Victoria, on top of Potonchán.

The word Potonchán comes from the Nahuatl: "pononi" means "smell" and "chan" is a toponymic termination; therefore, it translates as "place that smells."

The city of Potonchán was located on the left bank of the Tabasco River, which was christened the Grijalva River by the Spaniards, and according to the chronicles of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, it was a league from the coast.

The city was located on a small hill of sandstone, practically surrounded by water on three sides. On one side was, the river, and on the other two sides, swamps. It was in a region of extensive floodplains.

Potonchán was the capital of the cacicazgo of Tabasco, and was one of two principal cities of the Chontal Maya, along with Itzamkanac, capital of the cacicazgo of Acalán. However, unlike Itzamkanac which was located in the midst of the jungle, Potonchán was a maritime port and fluvial, which allowed it to have an intense commercial exchange both with the towns of the Yucatán Peninsula and with those of the central High Plains.

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Wikipedia