216 THE OCEAN RIVER 



it was the habit of historians to behttle the part that Vespucius 

 the Florentine took in western affairs. Today we know that 

 his intelhgent and persistent following of the courses opened 

 by Columbus, and his insistence that these western lands were 

 indeed a new world, gave him as good a claim as anyone to 

 have his name perpetuated in history — especially since Co- 

 lumbus did not wish the New World recognized as such. 



To show how spotty the mapping of the day was, it is inter- 

 esting to note that for many years the coasts of Yucatan, when 

 approached from the south, were considered an extension of 

 Cuba. It is true that Ocampo in 1508 first sailed around Cuba 

 and proved it to be an island, but the coasts of Yucatan were 

 not accurately explored and mapped until 1517 by Cordova. 

 A year later Grijalva explored the Gulf of Mexico, and the 

 year following, Cortez, taking authority into his own hands, 

 began the conquest of Mexico. This was the first step in a 

 series of such conquests, opened in 1513 by Balboa's finding 

 the Pacific, that caused a shift in emphasis from the West 

 Indies to the main of the Americas and affected the economic 

 and social development of the whole Caribbean area. 



The decade of the twenties finally determined that the 

 future of New Spain was the mainland of Central and South 

 America. In 1526 Solis was killed at the mouth of the La Plata, 

 but it was rumored, by those of his party who returned, that 

 inland up the great rivers of the south was a mountain king- 

 dom of vast wealth. Already between 1520 and 1526 Alejo 

 Garcia had penetrated the cordillera from the eastern coast 

 and visited the Inca governor in the neighborhood of the 

 Potosi silver mines. Those of Garcia's men who escaped re- 

 ported a civilized land of peace and untold wealth. In 1526 

 Sebastian Cabot and Roger Barlow, sailing for a combine of 

 merchants of England, Spain, and Genoa, headed ostensibly 

 for the Strait of Magellan and the west coast of Peru. Instead, 

 they cut inland up the La Plata as far as Asuncion, and one 

 of the party, Francisco Cesar, before returning to the Cabot 



