Alonso Álvarez de Pineda

Francisco de Garay was born in the Garay tower in Sopuerta, in the county of Encartaciones located in the province of Biscay.

A companion to Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World, he had arrived in Hispaniola in 1493, attracting attention when he encountered a large gold nugget worth four thousand pesos.

From 1514 Garay has served as Royal Governor of Santiago (Governor of Jamaica).

As a Governor of Santiago he stands accused of committing genocide of the Island's indigenous population.

Bartolomé de Las Casas, writing in 1516, holds him responsible for the great decline of the Indian population, whom he has enslaved and sent to work in the goldmines of Cuba.

By 1519 the original population of Jamaica has almost been eradicated.

He also raises pigs during his governorship, at one point employing five thousand Indians to herd his swine.

Ponce de León had previously mapped parts of Florida, which he believed to be an island.

Alonso Alvarez de Pineda had led several expeditions in 1517 to map the western coastlines of the Gulf of Mexico, from the Yucatán Peninsula to the Pánuco River, just north of Veracruz.

Subsequent expeditions piloted by Antón de Alaminos had eliminated the western areas as being the site of the passage, leaving the land between the Pánuco River and Florida to be mapped.

Alaminos had persuaded the governor of Jamaica, Francisco de Garay, to finance an expedition to search the remainder of the Gulf.

Garay outfits three ships with two hundred and seventy soldiers, and places them under the command of Alvarez de Pineda, who leaves Jamaica in early 1519 and sails west to follow the northern coastline of the Gulf.

Alonso Álvarez de Pineda attempts to sail east at the western tip of Southern Florida, but the winds are uncooperative.

Instead, Alvarez de Pineda sail west from the Florida Keys to hug the Gulf Coast.

On June 2, 1519, Alvarez de Pineda enters a large bay with a sizable Native American settlement on one shore.

He sails upriver for eighteen miles and observes as many as forty villages on the banks of the large, deep river he names "Espíritu Santo".

Long assumed to have been the first European report of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the description of the land and its settlement has led many historians to believe he was describing Mobile Bay and the Alabama River.

Karankawas are thought to have inhabited the shores of Corpus Christi Bay before the European discovery.

Archaeological evidence suggests that pre-Karankawa peoples used the area near Oso Bay as a burial ground between 500 BCE and CE 500.

It is believed to have first been spotted by Europeans on Corpus Christi Day 1519, when Pineda navigates its waters.

The Totonacs also help Cortés build the town of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, which is the starting point for his attempt to conquer the Aztec empire.

Hearing of the rebellion, more ambassadors from the Aztec Emperor return to see Cortes, bearing gifts of "gold and cloth", in thankfulness for Cortes freeing his tax collectors.

Montezuma also informs Cortes that he is certain the Spanish are of "his own race", and had arrived as "his ancestors had foretold".

As Cortes tells his men, the natives "think us gods, or godlike beings."

Although they attempt to dissuade Cortés from visiting Tenochtitlan, the lavish gifts and the polite, welcoming remarks only encourage him to continue his march on the capital of the empire.

Those of his men still loyal to the Governor of Cuba conspired to seize a ship and escape to Cuba, but Cortés moves swiftly to squash their plans.

Two ringleaders are condemned to be hanged; two are lashed, and one has his foot mutilated.

To make sure such a mutiny does not happen again, he decides to scuttle his ships, effectively stranding the expedition in Mexico.

However, it does not completely end the aspirations of those members of his company who remain loyal to the Governor of Cuba.

Cortés now leads his band inland towards the fabled Tenochtitlan while small contingent of the expedition remains at Veracruz.

There is no reliable evidence that Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, in his exploration of the northern and western Gulf Coast, ever disembarked on the shores of Texas, but he anchors off of Villa Rica de la Veracruz shortly after Hernán Cortés had departed.

Cortés returns on hearing of Alvarez de Pineda's arrival.

Alvarez de Pineda wishes to establish a boundary between the lands he is claiming for Garay and those that Cortés has already claimed; Cortés is unwilling to bargain, and Alvarez de Pineda leaves to retrace his route northward.

Álvarez de Pineda, shortly after departing Veracruz, sails up a river he names Las Palmas, where he spends over forty days repairing his ships.

The Las Palmas is most likely the Panuco River near present day Tampico, Mexico.

The expedition establishes the remainder of the boundaries of the Gulf of Mexico, while disproving the idea of a sea passage to Asia.

It also verifies that Florida is a peninsula instead of an island, and allows Alvarez de Pineda to be the first European to see the coastal areas of western Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, lands he calls "Amichel."

His map is the first known document of Texas history and is the first map of the Gulf Coast region of the United States.

There is some uncertainty as to whether or not Pineda returned to Jamaica since there are no records of his journey but according to Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Pineda died at Pánuco River while fighting with the Indians of the region, likely Huastecs.