1532.] UNCERTAINTY OF ACCOUNTS OF OLD VOYAGES. 53 



immediate vicinity, was known. The northernmost points occupied 

 by the Spaniards were, — on the Atlantic side, Panuco, within a few 

 miles of the Mexican Gulf, — and, on the Pacific side, Culiacan, which 

 was founded by Nufio de Guzman, in 1530, at the entrance of the 

 Gulf of California. Beyond Culiacan, towards the north and the 

 west, the lands and the seas were entirely unexplored ; and between 

 that place and the civilized portion of Mexico, extended a wide 

 space of uncultivated country, including Xalisco, which was called, 

 by the Spaniards, New Galicia. The ports occupied by the Span- 

 iards on the Pacific side of Mexico, were Tehuantepec, the most 

 eastern, at which Cortes had his arsenals and ship-yards ; Acapulco, 

 the principal place of trade, and tl.e nearest to the capital; and 

 Zacatula, and Aguatlan, on the confines of Xalisco, beyond which 

 the coasts were little known. 



Before entering upon the history of the Spanish discoveries on 

 the North Pacific side of America, it should be observed, that the 

 accounts of these and other expeditions by sea, made at that period, 

 which have descended to us, are very obscure and inexact, especially 

 as regards geographical positions ; so that it is generally difficult, 

 and often impossible, to identify places by means of the descriptions 

 given in them. This arises partly from the circumstance, that the 

 accounts were nearly all written by priests, clerks, or other persons 

 unacquainted with naval matters, who paid little attention to lati- 

 tudes, longitudes, courses, and bearings, and were unable to record 

 them properly ; and partly from the imperfection of the instruments 

 then employed to determine the altitudes and relative distances of 

 the heavenly bodies, which, even on land, and under the most favor- 

 able conditions of the atmosphere, gave results far from accurate, 

 and were entirely useless in a vessel on a rough sea, or in cloudy 

 weather. This uncertainty as to the positions of places necessarily 

 leads to confusion respecting their names ; and we accordingly find, 

 in the account of each of these voyages along the same portion of the 

 coast, a nomenclature of capes, bays, and islands, almost entirely dif- 

 ferent from that contained in the narratives of all the other voyages. 



The expedition of discovery, made, by order of Cortes, to the 

 coasts north-west of Mexico, in 1532, was conducted by his kins- 

 man, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, who sailed from Tehuantepec in 

 July of that year, with two vessels, one commanded by himself, the 

 other by Juan de Mazuela. In the instructions drawn up by Cortes, 

 of which a copy has been preserved, Mendoza was directed to sail 

 within sight of the coast, and; at all convenient places, to land, and 



