5.2 The Spanish Explore Texas

Pineda Explores the Gulf Coast Alonso Alvarez de Pineda was looking for a northern waterway to the Pacific In 1519, he left Jamaica and sailed into the Gulf of Mexico He sailed along the Gulf Coast. Pineda and his crew were the first-known Europeans to see the Texas coast.

Narvaez and the “Island of Misfortune” In 1527, Panfilo de Narvaez lead another voyage from the Gulf of Mexico in search of riches. Landed on the Florida coast near Tampa Bay. They found no gold and got lost. Many Spaniards were sick and injured fighting Native Americans After not being able to locate their ships, they built several small boats.

Storm in the Gulf Narvaez drowned when his poorly anchored boat washed out to sea. The other two boats were shipwrecked on what could have been Galveston or the San Luis Pass.

Cabeza de Vaca Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca called Galveston “Malhado” meaning misfortune Only 80 of the 600 explorers survived to reach land They lost all of their supplies and some had no clothes (with winter coming, the situation was grim!)

De Vaca and the Karankawa A group of Karankawa took in the weary explorers and shared their supplies with them. For the next few years, de Vaca worked as a servant, a trader, and a healer.

Estavanico De Vaca met up with 3 other explorers from the Narvaez expedition. One was a North African named Estavanico The 4 men escaped and headed toward Mexico City Estavanico had a skill for comminicating with the Native Americans that helped the explorers 1856, nearly 8 years after their shipwreck, they came across some Spanish soldiers who took them to Mexico City.