18 
Introduction 
the separate Tlascaltecan pueblo of San Estéban. Saltillo remained under 
the jurisdiction of Nueva Vizcaya for more than a century. 19 
During the advance of the frontier of settlement by way of the western 
and central lines of approach to the north, Pánuco remained in the third 
quarter of the century the northern outpost in the east coast region. But 
in 1579 Luís de Carabajal, on the basis of prior exploration, was com¬ 
missioned to found a new jurisdiction north of Pánuco to which was given 
the name Nuevo León. This new province extended two hundred leagues 
north of Pánuco and hence comprised old Vitoria Garayana and part 
of Rio de las Palmas, as granted to Narváez. About 1583 Carabajal 
founded his provincial capital at León, now the city of Cerralvo. Turn¬ 
ing south from there he established the villa of San Luis, which in 1596 
became or was succeeded by the villa of Monterey. Subsequently the 
occupation of the intermediate region was effected. In 1590 Carabajal 
proceeded north from Saltillo and founded the temporary villa of 
Almadén^ on the site of present Monclova. 20 Before its abandonment 
Almadén figured in connection with the approaches to New Mexico. 
At the same time that the frontier was being pushed northward in New 
Spain, interest was revived in the Florida region. The ambitious designs 
of Fray Luis Cancer in the 1549 and the spectacular attempts of the 
viceroy’s agents, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano and Angel de Villafañe, 
between the years 1559 and 1561 to subdue and settle Florida, were alike 
unsuccessful. As a result Philip II. of Spain in 1561 forbade further 
attempts to settle Florida. But the establishment of a short-lived French 
colony in the Carolina country shortly afterward, the founding of the 
more pretentious Fort Caroline, on the St. John’s River, by French 
Huguenots in 1564, and the activity of English and French pirates on 
the seas caused these orders to be rescinded and in 1565 Menéndez 
de Avilés as adelantado of Florida was commissioned to settle 
the country and expel the foreigners, both settlers and corsairs. St. 
Augustine was founded by Menéndez in 1565, and shortly afterward the 
French were slain at Fort Caroline and the garrison of San Mateo 
established on the site, only to be destroyed by the French two years later. 
The aggressive policy of the Spaniards however resulted in the founding 
of new outposts, the occupation of San Mateo, and the establishment of 
presidios and colonies in what is now Florida, Georgia, and South Caro¬ 
lina. In 1568 three Jesuit missions were established in occupied territory, 
and in 1570 Father Segura founded a short-lived mission in the region of 
19 The above summary of the Spanish advance to and beyond Saltillo is based prin¬ 
cipally upon a documentary history of Coahuila, by Dr. R. Regino Ramón, excerpts of 
which are printed for the first time in chapter I. of Tomás Berlanga, Monografía 
Histórica de la Ciudad de Saltillo (Monterey, Nuevo León, 1922). This presents an 
entirely new version, based upon official documents, of the establishment of Spanish 
dominion in Coahuila. For the activities of Urdiñola in 1591, see Berlanga, op. cit., 
ch. II. Also attention is directed to the old and untrustworthy account of the Spanish 
advance into Coahuila as given by Bancroft, History of Mexico, II. 760-764; Bancroft, 
North Mexican States and Texas, I. 125; and as summarized by Bolton and Marshall, 
op. cit., pp. 59-60. 
20 H. E. Bolton, “The Spanish Occupation of Texas”, in the Southwestern Histori¬ 
cal Quarterly, XVI. (July, 1912) 12-13; id., Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 
1542-1706, p. 283. 
