The history of Mayaguez began when the founding of the city was requested on July 19, 1760 by a group led by Faustino Martínez de Matos, Juan de Silva and Juan de Aponte, at a hill located about one kilometer inland from Mayagüez Bay and the outlet of the Yagüez River. It was officially founded on September 18, 1760. ""Maygüez"" was the indigenous name for this river (the word means "clear water" in the language of its original inhabitants, the Taíno). "Mayagüez" is a variation on this name, which means "Land of Clear Waters" and eventually gave the city its nickname. The Taínos had settled the area for hundreds of years before the town's founding, at the nearby settlement of Yagüeca (also spelled "Yagüexa" or "Yaweka"), which sits near a larger river, the "Río Grande de Añasco" (originally named ""Guaorabo""). A theory likening the name to a nahuatl term which translates into "Land of the Setting Sun" is unsubstantiated.