Spanish explorations and discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. Atlantic coast

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As early as the first half of the 16th century, Spanish sailors and explorers traveled and mapped the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast of what is now the United States. Who did it and when is what we tell you below.

Juan Ponce de León, who had participated in the conquest of Puerto Rico in 1508, traveled the length of the east and southwest coasts of the Florida peninsula in 1513. From this trip came the first written reference to the Gulf Stream, which pilot Juan de Alaminos would study and would be of great importance for navigation from America to the Iberian Peninsula.

The North American coast of the Gulf of Mexico was explored by Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, who in 1519 sailed and created maps of the waters near of what are now the states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas and discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River. His map is the oldest known document of this part of the United States.

In 1521, Ponce de León attempted to establish a settlement in Florida, but was unsuccessful and it cost him his life.

Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón sailed in 1520-1521, 1525 and 1526 along the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, reaching North Carolina and Virginia. He founded San Miguel de Guadalupe (or Gualdape) in 1526. Its exact location is unknown, but some place it in Georgia and others in Virginia. It faced all kinds of difficulties and was dismantled a few months later.

Between 1524 and 1525, Esteban Gómez explored and mapped the Atlantic coast from the Labrador Peninsula to the Florida Peninsula, entering the Hudson River and what is now New York Harbour. For a long time, the northern half of the U.S. coast was designated on maps as “Tierra de Esteban Gómez” [Esteban Gómez’ Land].

Fragment of a copy the Map of the New World by Cartographer Diego Ribero (1529). Copy of the Library of Congress of the United States.
The map shows the Tierra de [Land of] Esteban Gómez, Tierra de Ayllón and the Tierra de Garay.
Francisco de Garay was responsible for organizing and sending out the expedition of Alonso Álvarez de Pineda.

A new attempt to colonize Florida was carried out by the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez that landed near Tampa Bay in 1527. Hurricanes, native attacks, disease and starvation ended the expedition, which only five people survived.

Hurricanes also put an end to another attempt to settle in northwest Florida: at Pensacola by Tristán de Luna y Arellano between 1559 and 1561. The survivors then attempted to colonize Punta de Santa Elena, on the Atlantic coast, but with similar results.

In the end, it was Pedro Menéndez de Avilés who finally succeeded. He founded St. Augustine on the east coast of Florida in 1565. It is the first United States city founded by Europeans that has been continuously inhabited ever since.

In 1566, he founded Santa Elena on present-day Parris Island (South Carolina) which would be Florida’s first capital and the Spanish base of operations to the north. From there, the Jesuits carried out their missionary work and a series of ephemeral forts were founded, reaching the Appalachian Mountains.

Between 1566 and 1568, Juan Pardo carried out a last, failed attempt to colonize North and South Carolina.

In 1571, the destruction of Ajacán Mission, on the Virginia Peninsula, marked the end of Spanish plans to continue activity in the region. Santa Elena was definitively abandoned in 1587 and the capital moved to St. Augustine.

More than a century later, the coast of the Seno Mexicano [region along the Gulf of Mexico] from the Rio Grande to Florida was thoroughly explored and mapped between 1686 and 1689. Three land expeditions led by Captain Alonso de León the Younger and several more expeditions by sea were sent to locate a colony established on the Texas coast by Frenchman La Salle. During one of these expeditions, the first Texas missions were founded for the Caddos Indians.

In 1693, sailor Andrés de Pez managed to establish a settlement in Pensacola which would be fortified in the following years.

First Spanish Explorations in the United States (1513-1542).

Text extracted from The Hispanic Roots of the United States by courtesy of Asociación Cultural Héroes de Cavite.