Early Exploration of tlze Coast of Texas
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was a pilot named Anton Alaminos who was destined to play an important role in tracing the outline of the Gulf of Mexico. While on his way back in 1513, Ponce de Leon met a certain Diego Miruelo with a boat from Hispaniola, in the vicinity of Cuba, bound on what appeared to be an unlicensed expedition. 6 It seems that Miruelo was a pilot who engaged in such trips for the purpose of trading with the Indians. How often he visited the surrounding islands and the main- land along the coast of Florida is not known. While on such a cruise in 1516, he is said to have coasted along the western shores of Florida as far as Pensacola Bay. Here he seems to have found the Indians friendly, in spite of their later reputed hostility against Europeans and he exchanged his supply of trinkets and beads for silver and gold. Well satisfied with the results of his venture, he returned to Cuba without making any apparent effort to explore the coast line. But his voyage must have been known to Spanish map makers, as Pensacola Bay bore his name for many years.7 Cordovds expedition and the conquest of Mexico. It was the unfor- tunate expedition of Francisco Hernandez de Cordova, undertaken from Cuba, on February 8, 1517, however, that was to lead ultimately to the conquest of Mexico and the first exploration of the entire coast of Texas. Cordova, a wealthy planter of Cuba, was induced by a group of friends who had been to Darien, to undertake an expedition to discover unknown lands to the north, according to Bernal Diaz del Castillo. 8 There are some who believe, nevertheless, that the real purpose was to hunt Indian slaves in the neighboring islands or on the mainland. 9 Fitting out two ships and a brigantine, he enlisted one hundred and ten men, most of them soldiers of fortune, and set out from the northern coast of Cuba in quest of new lands and slaves. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who was to attain distinction in the conquest of Mexico and to whom we are indebted for the garrulous and entertaining account of many of the incidents of the early exploration of the Gulf coast and the conquest of the empire of Moctezuma, was a member of the crew. No less significant for the subse- 6 Lowery, op. cit., r 43. 7 Shea, Ancient Florida, in Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, II, 236; Cardenas y Cano, Ensayo Cro110/ogico para la Florida, 2; Oviedo, Historia General y Natural de las lndias, II, 143. 8 Bemal Diaz del Castillo, Historia Verdadera de la Co11q11ista de la N11eva Es-pana, I, 8-10 (Genaro Garcia Edition). 9 0viedo, Historia General y Natural de las lndias, l, 497-498; II, I 39,
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