Early Exploration of tlLC Const of Texas
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m the great wealth of the new country just visited by Cordova and Grijalva. To these considerations, the experienced pilot also added the possibility of finding the long sought Strait of Anian somewhere between the west coast of Florida and Veracruz. It should be kept in mind that interest in a passage that would make possible a direct western route to India and Cathay had not waned. Alaminos had been with Ponce de Leon and knew the shore line of Florida as far as Pensacola Bay. He had followed the coast from Yucatan to Veracruz under Cordova and Grijalva. He knew that in the portions explored there was no strait, consequently the fleet that might be sent by Garay could easily explore from Pensacola Bay to Veracruz on the way to the rich land of the Aztec empire soon to be conquered by Cortes. The fact that Garay's lieutenant followed exactly this course lends considerable weight to this supposition in spite of the absence of documentary evidence. 12 Pi11eda's expedition, 1519. At this time the Indies were immediately under the jurisdiction of the priors of the Order of Saint Jerome to whom the king had granted full authority. Garay, fully impressed by the stories of Alaminos, who, judging from the influence he had over the men in the voyages of Cordova and Grijalva, must have had a convincing per- sonality, decided to organize an expedition of four Yessels as suggested. It was the object of Garay to attempt not only to reconnoiter the unex- plored coast but to establish a claim to a portion of the wealthy lands to which Cortes was now sailing. Having obtained the necessary per- mission for the undertaking from the priors of the Order of Saint Jerome, he dispatched his fleet of four Yessels under the command of Alonso Alvarez de Pineda early in the spring of I 519. The exact instructions given to the leader of the expedition will forever remain unknown. According to the report which Garay made to the king a year later, the purpose had been to try to discover a strait or passage across the continent which blocked the way to India and to provide a more direct route to the far East. 13 But the demand made by Pineda of Cortes, when their men met a few leagues north of Veracruz, that he acknowledge the jurisdiction of Garay to the lands explored seems to indicate that the establishment of a claim to the wealth of the empire of the Aztecs was 12 Cardenas y Cano, E11Sayo Cro11ologico, 3-4; Lowery, op. cit., 150-1 53; Diaz del Castillo, op. cit., I, I 68-169 (Garcia Edition). 13 Real cedula da11do facultad a Fr,wcisco de Garay para poblar la provincia de Amiclul ... in Navarrete, Colucion de los Viages, III, 147.
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