section_path: History/Spanish exploration
section_name: Spanish exploration
paragraph_text: Spanish exploration
  
  Although Europeans credited the Spanish voyage of Christopher Columbus with the discovery of the Americas, the ships in his four voyages did not reach the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, the Spanish sailed into the Caribbean around Cuba and Hispaniola. The first alleged European exploration of the Gulf of Mexico was by Amerigo Vespucci in 1497. Vespucci is purported to have followed the coastal land mass of Central America before returning to the Atlantic Ocean via the Straits of Florida between Florida and Cuba. However, this first voyage of 1497 is widely disputed. Many historians doubt that it took place as described. In his letters, Vespucci described this trip, and once Juan de la Cosa returned to Spain, a famous world map was produced.
  
  In 1506, Hernán Cortés participated in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba, receiving a large estate of land and enslaving Indigenous people for his efforts. In 1510, he accompanied Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, an aide to the governor of Hispaniola, on his expedition to conquer Cuba. In 1518, Velázquez put him in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization.
  
  In 1517, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba discovered the Yucatán Peninsula. This was the first European encounter with an advanced civilization in the Americas, with solidly built buildings and complex social structures which they found comparable to those of the Old World. They also had reason to expect that this new land would have gold. All of this encouraged two further expeditions, the first in 1518 under the command of Juan de Grijalva, and the second in 1519 under the command of Hernán Cortés, which led to the Spanish exploration, military invasion, and ultimately settlement and colonization known as the Conquest of Mexico. Hernández did not live to see the continuation of his work: he died in 1517, the year of his expedition, as the result of the injuries and the extreme thirst suffered during the voyage, and disappointed in the knowledge that Velázquez had given precedence to Grijalva as the captain of the next expedition to Yucatán.
  
  In 1523, a treasure ship was wrecked en route at Padre Island, Texas. When word of the disaster reached Mexico City, the viceroy requested a rescue fleet and sent Ángel de Villafañe from Mexico City, marching overland to find the treasure-laden vessels. Villafañe traveled to Pánuco and hired a ship to transport him to the site, which that community had already visited. He arrived in time to greet García de Escalante Alvarado (a nephew of Pedro de Alvarado), commander of the salvage operation, when Alvarado arrived by sea on July 22, 1554. The team laboured until September 12 to salvage the Padre Island treasure. This loss, combined with other ship disasters around the Gulf of Mexico, led to a plan for establishing a settlement on the northern Gulf Coast to protect shipping and rescue castaways more quickly. As a result, the expedition of Tristán de Luna y Arellano was sent and landed at Pensacola Bay on August 15, 1559.
  
  On December 11, 1526, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire granted Pánfilo de Narváez a licence to establish colonial settlements along the present-day Gulf Coast of the United States, known as the Narváez expedition. The contract gave him one year to gather an army, leave Spain, be large enough to found at least two towns of 100 people each, and garrison two more fortresses anywhere along the coast. On April 7, 1528, they spotted land north of what is now Tampa Bay. They turned south and traveled for two days, looking for a great harbour the master pilot Miruelo knew of. Sometime during these two days, one of the five remaining ships was lost on the rugged coast, but nothing else is known.
  
  In 1697, French sailor Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville was chosen by the Minister of Marine to lead an expedition to rediscover the mouth of the Mississippi River and to settle Louisiana, which French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle had named. The English coveted this region, however in 1682 it was named to honour King Louis XIV of France. D'Iberville's fleet sailed from Brest on October 24, 1698, reaching Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola; he sailed from there to Mobile Bay and explored Massacre Island. He anchored between Cat Island and Ship Island. On February 13, 1689, he went to ashore at what is now Biloxi, with his teenage brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, and completed Fort Maurepas on the northeast side of the Bay of Biloxi on May 1. Three days later, d'Iberville sailed for France leaving his brother Jean-Baptiste as second in command.
  
  The first permanent settlement, Fort Maurepas (now Ocean Springs, Mississippi), was founded in 1699 by d'Iberville. By then the French had also built a small fort at the mouth of the Mississippi at a settlement they named La Balise (or La Balize), " seamark " in French.
  
  Although Europeans credited the Spanish voyage of Christopher Columbus with the discovery of the Americas, the ships in his four voyages did not reach the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, the Spanish sailed into the Caribbean around Cuba and Hispaniola. The first alleged European exploration of the Gulf of Mexico was by Amerigo Vespucci in 1497. Vespucci is purported to have followed the coastal land mass of Central America before returning to the Atlantic Ocean via the Straits of Florida between Florida and Cuba. However, this first voyage of 1497 is widely disputed. Many historians doubt that it took place as described. In his letters, Vespucci described this trip, and once Juan de la Cosa returned to Spain, a famous world map was produced.
  
  In 1506, Hernán Cortés participated in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba, receiving a large estate of land and enslaving Indigenous people for his efforts. In 1510, he accompanied Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, an aide to the governor of Hispaniola, on his expedition to conquer Cuba. In 1518, Velázquez put him in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization.
  
  In 1517, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba discovered the Yucatán Peninsula. This was the first European encounter with an advanced civilization in the Americas, with solidly built buildings and complex social structures which they found comparable to those of the Old World. They also had reason to expect that this new land would have gold. All of this encouraged two further expeditions, the first in 1518 under the command of Juan de Grijalva, and the second in 1519 under the command of Hernán Cortés, which led to the Spanish exploration, military invasion, and ultimately settlement and colonization known as the Conquest of Mexico. Hernández did not live to see the continuation of his work: he died in 1517, the year of his expedition, as the result of the injuries and the extreme thirst suffered during the voyage, and disappointed in the knowledge that Velázquez had given precedence to Grijalva as the captain of the next expedition to Yucatán.
  
  In 1523, a treasure ship was wrecked en route at Padre Island, Texas. When word of the disaster reached Mexico City, the viceroy requested a rescue fleet and sent Ángel de Villafañe from Mexico City, marching overland to find the treasure-laden vessels. Villafañe traveled to Pánuco and hired a ship to transport him to the site, which that community had already visited. He arrived in time to greet García de Escalante Alvarado (a nephew of Pedro de Alvarado), commander of the salvage operation, when Alvarado arrived by sea on July 22, 1554. The team laboured until September 12 to salvage the Padre Island treasure. This loss, combined with other ship disasters around the Gulf of Mexico, led to a plan for establishing a settlement on the northern Gulf Coast to protect shipping and rescue castaways more quickly. As a result, the expedition of Tristán de Luna y Arellano was sent and landed at Pensacola Bay on August 15, 1559.
  
  On December 11, 1526, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire granted Pánfilo de Narváez a licence to establish colonial settlements along the present-day Gulf Coast of the United States, known as the Narváez expedition. The contract gave him one year to gather an army, leave Spain, be large enough to found at least two towns of 100 people each, and garrison two more fortresses anywhere along the coast. On April 7, 1528, they spotted land north of what is now Tampa Bay. They turned south and traveled for two days, looking for a great harbour the master pilot Miruelo knew of. Sometime during these two days, one of the five remaining ships was lost on the rugged coast, but nothing else is known.
  
  In 1697, French sailor Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville was chosen by the Minister of Marine to lead an expedition to rediscover the mouth of the Mississippi River and to settle Louisiana, which French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle had named. The English coveted this region, however in 1682 it was named to honour King Louis XIV of France. D'Iberville's fleet sailed from Brest on October 24, 1698, reaching Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola; he sailed from there to Mobile Bay and explored Massacre Island. He anchored between Cat Island and Ship Island. On February 13, 1689, he went to ashore at what is now Biloxi, with his teenage brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, and completed Fort Maurepas on the northeast side of the Bay of Biloxi on May 1. Three days later, d'Iberville sailed for France leaving his brother Jean-Baptiste as second in command.
  
  The first permanent settlement, Fort Maurepas (now Ocean Springs, Mississippi), was founded in 1699 by d'Iberville. By then the French had also built a small fort at the mouth of the Mississippi at a settlement they named La Balise (or La Balize), " seamark " in French.