GULF OF MEXICO 



15 



Its unliappy completion marked the end of the 

 period of the earliest explorations in the Gulf. 



Sbcteen years after the return of Moscozo a 

 Spanish conquistador, Don Tristan de Luna, 

 organized a new expedition to the Gulf. This 

 expedition contributed little to the science of 

 geography. By this time Spain's interest in the 

 new land across the ocean and the enthusiasm of 

 her rulers for new explorations and colonization 

 of the New World somewhat slackened. 



Although the great advantages derived from 

 the possession and colonization of the newly dis- 

 covered territories were fully appreciated by the 

 Spanish Government and by the educated class 

 of the Spanish nation, the country lacked ability 

 and resources to develop them. At the same time, 

 the Spanish Government jealously watched the 

 efforts of other nations to establish themselves in 

 the New World. It tried by every means to 

 prevent French colonization of the country sur- 

 rounding the Gulf of Mexico and did not hesitate 

 to send military expeditions to destroy French 

 colonies. 



The results of many expeditions in the Gulf 

 conducted during the first half of the sixteenth 

 century provided the cartographers with new, 

 reliable material for the construction of new maps, 

 and consequently, the outlines of the Gulf shown 

 by them in their drawings began to assume more 

 or less correct configuration. This can be noticed, 

 for instance, by examining figure 5, representing 

 Mercator's map of 1538, in which for the first 

 time the name America was applied to the entire 

 western continent. 



It may be of interest at this point to make a 

 brief survey of the geographical names which were 

 given to the Gulf of Mexico. No special name for 

 the Gulf is found on the map of Juan de la Cosa 

 of 1500 or the Waldseemiiller map of 1507, al- 

 though in both of them the location of the Gulf is 

 clearly shown. Cortes, in his despatches, referred 

 to the Gulf as Mar del Norte, while the names 

 Golfo de Florida and Golfo de Cortes are found in 

 the writings of other explorers. The name Sinus 

 Magnus Antilliarum appears on an old Portuguese 

 map made in 1558 by Diego Homen (original in 

 British Museum). Probably the most remarkable 

 name is that of Mare CathajTium (Chinese Sea) 

 which is foimd on one chart of the middle of the 

 sixteenth century (copy reproduced in the Memoirs 

 de la Societe de Nancy, 1832). In 1550 the name 



Golfo de Mexico appears for the first time on the 

 world map the original of which, according to 

 Kohl, is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. 

 Earlier Spanish geographers used, also, the name 

 of Golfo de Nueva Espana. Herrera (1728) called 

 it Ensenada Mexicana and Seno Mexicano, the 

 names which persisted in Spanish admiralty charts 

 until the eighteenth century. The present name, 

 the Gulf of Mexico, and the corresponding names, 

 Golphe du Mexique in French and Golfo Mexicano 

 in Spanish, appear to have been in use since the 

 middle of the seventeenth century. 



During the latter half of the sixteenth century 

 the French Huguenots, trying to escape religious 

 persecution in Europe, made many attempts to 

 establish colonies in Florida. Their efTorts were 

 primarily directed to the east coast of Florida 

 where the French penetration lead to many bloody 

 encounters with the Spaniards. Probably the 

 most significant French contribution to geo- 

 graphical knowledge of this time was Le Moyne's 

 map of Florida. Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues 

 was an artist who accompanied a French expedi- 

 tion to Florida under Laudonniere in 1564. His 

 map shows only a part of the Gulf of Mexico east 

 of the Mississippi River. Since it is known that 

 French observations were limited to the east 

 coast of America between the point south of 

 St. Augustine and Rio Jordedan (Charleston 

 Harbor) in the north, the rest of the map was 

 obviously borrowed from Spanish sources. The 

 names of many places are corrupted as, for in- 

 stance, Apalache Bay is indicated as Sinus 

 Morquel, corrupted from the Bay of Miruelo, and 

 the Bay of Ponce de Leon (Tampa Bay) is called 

 Sinus Joannis Ponce. This map, published by 

 De Bry in 1591 after the death of the artist, was 

 for 50 years copied by Dutch and French cartog- 

 raphers but was completely ignored by the 

 Spaniards. 



Le Moyne produced, also, a series of extraor- 

 dinarily interesting drawings depicting the 

 home life, habits, methods of hunting, and cere- 

 monies of the Timucua Indians. Excellent repro- 

 ductions of these illustrations together with a 

 translation of the Latin text of De Bry were 

 published in English (Le Moyne, 1564, ed. 1875) 

 and some of the drawings are reproduced by 

 Swanton (1946, tables 51, 53-57, 81, 82, 85, 87, 

 and 106). Examination of these illustrations 

 gives an insight into the tribal life of Florida 



