Early Exploration of tlze Coast of Texas
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to commit the abuses which were common among the conquistadors. Such behavior must have enraged the Indians and prompted them to revolt. One day, a large body of the natives openly defied the Spaniards. Camargo decided it was his duty to chastise them. While on the march to burn an Indian village, he was surprised by a large group of Indians, who inflicted severe losses to his little army. The men, overcome by the unexpected attack of their numerous assailants, fled to the ships in the river. Followed by hundreds of canoes filled with angry warriors, they made their way to the mouth of the river with considerable difficulty. Their seven horses and eighteen men were killed in the engagement. 41 Thus came to an end the attempted settlement on the Rio de las Palmas, the present Rio Grande. The ships naturally sailed in the direction of Veracruz. Forced to take to sea so hastily, the Spaniards had no time to secure the necessary supplies for the trip. Consequently, after a few days, the vessels decided to let the strongest members of the expedition land on the coast. The men declared they preferred to face the dangers of an overland march with the possibility of foraging to certain starvation on board. It seems they soon reached the vicinity of Panuco, where the Indians of Naothlan, near the town of Almeria, still awaiting a reply from Cortes as to the inquiry, whether these men were his friends, gave them supplies and furnished them guides to enable them to make their way to Veracruz. 42 The ships did not fare so well. One of them was abandoned at the mouth of the river, where the attempted settlement was made, that is the Rio Grande. The other two picked their way cautiously along the coast, but they were so worm-eaten, that four leagues before they reached the harbor of Veracruz, one of them sunk. All the crew had time, however, to board the remaining vessel, which finally arrived in the port. Ten days later 41 Herrera, Historia, Dec. ii, Lib. x, Cap. xviii ; Oviedo, Historia, II, 263 (1853 edition). 42 The accounts are not clear, but it is evident that they traveled from the first place where they landed to another which was from fifteen to twenty leagues from Veracruz. This brought them to the vicinity of the Panuco River. Some of the con- fusion in the various accounts arises from the fact that the chief after whom the Panuco was named, seems to have exercised jurisdiction over a large area and when some of the chroniclers state that Garay's second expedition went to Panuco, they do not mean the river, but the province which seems to have extended north of the river almost to the Rio de las Palmas or Rio Grande. Herrera, op. cit., Oviedo, Ibid. ,· Cortes, Carta de Relacion, October 30, 1 520, in op. cit .
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