12 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Cozumel. From this point the ships turned north 

 around the Yucatan Peninsula and on May 26 

 passed the point reached by the previous expedi- 

 tion and entered a large bay which was called 

 Boca de Terminos (Laguna de Terminos on mod- 

 ern charts) . Grijalva thought that he had reached 

 the end of the YucatAn island which he named La 

 Isla de Santa Maria de Remedios, the name which 

 appeared on maps of that time. The expedition 

 continued along the unknown coast for nearly a 

 thousand statute miles to a point a short distance 

 south of the present location of Tampico. 



Grijalva's expedition substantially contributed 

 to our knowledge of Gulf geography. The names 

 of many familiar places such as Grijalva River, 

 the bay and river of Tonola, Coatzacoalcos River, 

 Alvarado River, and many others were established 

 and their positions indicated on maps. Alaminos 

 made many astronomical observations between 

 Yucatan and Tampico. Some of his determina- 

 tions of latitude — for instance, that of a small 

 island where the present town of Veracruz is 

 located — were accurate within 1°. He also ob- 

 served and recorded the currents along the coast 

 and made soundings and other hydrographical 

 observations. 



When the expedition entered the mouth of the 

 Grijalva River the Spaniards were encountered 

 by many Indians having gold in their possession. 

 When asked for the name of the land the metal 

 came from, the Indians replied, "Mexico." In 

 this way the Spaniards heard for the first time 

 the name of the country which played such an 

 important role in the expansion of Spanish power 

 in America. 



Upon reaching his farthermost point at Pinuco, 

 Grijalva became convinced that he was exploring 

 the coast of a large continent and not of an island 

 as he had first believed. Realizing the importance 

 of this discovery, he dispatched Pedro de Alvarado 

 on a fast ship to inform Governor VeMsquez of 

 Cuba of his important finding and saOed back fol- 

 lowing the same route the expedition took from 

 Cuba. 



A new expedition organized by Velasquez in 

 1519 was in command of Hernando Cortes with 

 Antonio de Alaminos again serving as chief pilot. 

 In May of the same year the expedition sailed 

 around Cape Catoche, following in general the 

 route taken previously by Grijalva. This time 

 the Laguna de Terminos was explored more care- 



fully by Captain Escobar who established its 

 true nature as a shallow, landlocked body of water 

 not suitable for establishing a colony on its banks. 

 Antonio de Alaminos, who was sent northward to 

 Cabo Rojo south of Tampico, discovered a large 

 river emptying into the Gulf and named it Rio 

 Grande de Pdnuco. 



Besides the surveys of the coast from Cape 

 Catoche to Tampico, Alaminos' principal con- 

 tribution to the exploration of the Gulf was the 

 discovery of a free passage between Florida and 

 Cuba which represented the shortest route for 

 Spanish vessels carrying silver from Mexico to 

 Europe. 



In 1519 Francisco de Garay, Governor of Ja- 

 maica, sponsored an expedition of Don Alonzo 

 Alvarez de Pineda to explore the northern coast 

 of the Gulf. Four ships provided by Garay sailed 

 from Jamaica toward Florida. Believing that 

 Florida was an island, Pineda followed the west 

 coast looking for a passage and, not finding it, 

 turned west along the northern coast of the Gulf. 

 In the course of his exploration he discovered the 

 mouth of the Mississippi River which he called 

 "Rio del Espiritu Santu" and described the body 

 of water east of the delta as "Mar Pequena" 

 or a small sea, the name of the present Mississippi 

 Sound which persisted on many charts for nearly 

 two centuries. Pineda noted the physiographical 

 character of the shoreline, recorded the positions 

 of dunes, low-lying sandspits, bays, knolls, marshes, 

 and oyster banks {ostiales) which abounded in the 

 Mississippi Sound and in the delta of the Missis- 

 sippi River. He realized that the majestic fresh- 

 water stream which he ascended for several miles 

 must originate on a large land area, and other 

 observations convinced him that he was exploring 

 the coast of a great continent. 



Although the majority of writers agree with 

 Hari'isse (1900) that the river Pineda named 

 Rio del Espiritu Santu is the present Mississippi 

 River, there are others who think that the de- 

 scription of the country given in his reports 

 does not agree with that of the mouth of the Mis- 

 sissippi and that Pineda's expedition actually was 

 in Mobile Bay (Scaife 1892). This question 

 probably never will be answered with complete 

 certainty. As a result of his explorations Pineda 

 produced several new maps showing, with ap- 

 proximate accuracy, the outlines of the Gulf 

 coast. Only one of them, bearing the title "Traza 



