Early Exploration of the Coast of Texas
II
with the nature of the lands they had visited. 22 On two occasions they were driven back to their ships by the natives before entering the Panuco River, which they named after the chief of this region. 23 From the account of Diaz del Castillo, who as already stated was an eyewitness of the incident, it seems the prisoners taken by Cortes explicitly stated they had stopped to explore a part of Panuco River before pro- ceeding to Veracruz, but in his letter to the king, it is interesting to note that Cortes carefully avoided mentioning the name of the river. At this time he had not yet explored or occupied the Panuco region, but he was not willing to admit to the king that a rival had visited it before him, as this would have given Garay a good claim to a province which was a part of the Aztec empire.2' 1 But if Cortes failed to tell the whole truth of this affair to the king, Garay did as much. In his report which accompanied his request for authority to colonize the lands explored by Pineda, he declared that he had set markers on the ground to determine the extent of his jurisdiction. 25 From all the evidence available, it is obvious that not a man of the expedition set foot on shore long enough to put up a boundary marker in the vicinity of Veracruz, which was perhaps, the farthest point reached by Pineda. 'P'emporary settlement at Rio de las Palmas ( Rfo Grande}. As soon as the boat returned from the surprise encounter with Cortes, Pineda seems to have spread all sails and set his course to the north. Not until he reached "a very large river" did he stop on his homeward journey. Unfortunately we do not have any record of the distance traveled to help us determine the approximate location of this stream. The little fleet put in at the mouth of the river and proceeded to careen the vessels, a task which took forty days. During this time the country around was explored and the river was penetrated for a distance of six leagues, or about eighteen miles. At the mouth, Garay declared in his report, there was a large town, while along the distance explored, the men counted 22 Herrera, Descripcion de las l11dias, Dec. ii, Lib. vi, 135. 23Cardenas y Cano, Ensayo Cro11ologico, 3-4. It is interesting to note that when Pineda made his report to Garay he made no mention of these hostilities with the natives. Garay reported, consequently, that the natives were all friendly, when he requested his grant to establish a settlement in the lands explored. Cf. Navarrete, Coleccion, III, 147-148. 24Cf. Cortes, Carta de Relacion, October 30, 1520, with Cervantes de Salazar, Cronica, 1 84 ; Diaz del Castillo, H istoria, 1 70. ZSReal cedula, Navarrete, Co/cccio11 dtJ Viages, III, 147.
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