More early Texas History

Columbus sailed on the Santa Maria, with the Nina and the Pinta nearby.

        In 1492, when Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was just two years old, Columbus left Portugal, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and sailed, more or less aimlessly, around the Caribbean Sea trying to figure out where he was.    He realized the world was round, but it was about twice as big as he imagined.   He was convinced that   everything would be fine if he could just find India.  Or maybe China.  Instead, he kept finding islands.

      The islands he found were inhabited by friendly indigenous people called Tainos.  After his first encounter with the Tainos, in the Bahamas, Columbus wrote King Ferdinand and described them as tall, well formed, handsome people.  He went on to say:

     “They traded with us and gave us everything they had, with good will….They took great delight in pleasing us.  They are very gentle and without knowledge of what is evil; nor do they murder or steal….Your Highness may believe that in all the world there can be no better people….They love their neighbors as themselves, and they have the sweetest talk in the world, and are gentle and always laughing.”

The Tainos were handsome people, warm and gentle and eager to please the Spaniards.

This is, no doubt, a Hollywood version of the Tainos.

Regardless of Columbus’ feeling that there were “no better people” on earth, the Spaniards were more than ready to give these “gentle and ….laughing” people knowledge of “what is evil.”  Columbus believed the “Indians” would make great slaves, and on his second voyage, in 1493 and 1494, set about to conquer and enslave them.  He decided the subdued natives would pay a tribute which he would split with the king.  Every three months, every native over fourteen years of age was required to deliver a hawk’s bell full of gold to Columbus.  If there was no gold, Columbus would accept twenty-five pounds of spun cotton.  If the Tainos did not pay, Spanish soldiers cut off their hands and left them to bleed to death.

     The Indians rebelled against these harsh methods without much success.  Many died in battle, and many, forced into slavery and not allowed to work their fields, starved to death.  The biggest killer of all was disease—the natives had no immunity to smallpox, measles, influenza, typhoid, or other European maladies and hundreds of thousands were infected and died.   In 1492, the apex of Taino society and coincidently, the arrival of Columbus, historians estimate one and a half million natives lived on the island of Hispaniola alone, with at least that many more scattered among other islands. Some estimates put the entire Caribbean population at over eight million, and "long counters"estimate over thirty million.  In any case, only fifty years later, in 1540, the Taino population of the islands stood at forty thousand and falling.  The Spaniards imported slaves from Africa to do the work.

     It is believed that the Tainos moved into the islands from the South American continent about 400 BC, and thrived there almost 2000 years, until the Spanish came.  Taino language gave us the words canoe, hammock, barbeque, tobacco, and hurricane.  Tainos named Cuba and Haiti.  The Karankawa Indians who lived along the Texas coast are believed to have migrated from the Caribbean. They were large, handsome people and may have been distant relatives of the Tainos.

     Columbus discovered Cuba, but was not sure if it was an island or a continent.   Perhaps it was China.  In 1494, he sailed along the south side of the island and finally, in 1508, Sebastian de Ocampo proved Cuba was not a continent by sailing around it.  Columbus never saw the mainland of either continent that blocked his way to China, but he kept searching.

      Also in the year 1492, Spain drove the Moors out of their last European stronghold, Granada.  Suddenly, a number of young Spanish soldiers were left without a war to wage.  Many of them volunteered to help explore the “New World,” and hurried west to make their fortunes.  Cuba became the center of operations in the Caribbean.  Spain conquered and enslaved the native population, and built the city of Havana on the South Coast in 1514.  The city was moved to its present location on the north side of the island in 1519 because of the superb natural harbor there.   Havana soon became the center of all commerce and culture for the New World. 

     In 1519, Hernan Cortes, a cousin of Pizarro, ignored orders to return to Cuba and proceeded to conquer the Aztecs in Mexico.  He enslaved the indigenous people, put them to work in the gold and silver mines, and began systematically looting the country.    The Spanish king forgave his mutiny and appointed him ruler of Mexico in 1523.   Ruthless and universally disliked by his contemporaries, Cortes became one of the richest and most powerful men in the New World.

     Ships arriving from Spain unloaded their cargo into Havana’s warehouses.  Treasure ships returning to Spain stopped in Havana to take on fresh food and supplies for the voyage back to Europe. Conquistadores and explorers planned their trips and outfitted their ships among the wharves in Havana.  About this time, a twenty-one year old Cabaza de Vaca joined the army in Spain and began making a name for himself on the battlefield.

The Spanish conquistadores were young, ambitious and utterly ruthless.  They shared a complete disregard for the welfare of the natives in whatever area they conquered, enslaved them, killed them in battle, and wiped out whole populations with European disease.  When the native populations died off, the Spaniards imported slaves from Africa.

     Most of these conquerors knew each other, or at least knew of each other.   Ponce de Leon arrived in the New World with Columbus, on his second voyage in 1493, as one of 200 “gentlemen volunteers.”   DeSoto fought alongside Pizarro and Balboa, and became rich in the conquest of Peru.  Ponce De Leon became the first governor of Puerto Rico before he decided, in 1512, to lead an expedition to search for gold, explore, and colonize lands to the north.  He discovered and named La Florida, which he thought was another big island.  A popular legend was born fifty years after his death, when a writer wondered if De Leon had been searching for the “Fountain of Youth.”

     Financed by the governor of Jamaica, Alonso Alvarez de Pineda set out to map the coast of the gulf from the “island” of Florida to the Panuco River, just north of Veracruz.  He hoped to find an ocean route to China.  Pineda was the first to see and map the Gulf Coast of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, land which he called “Amichel.”  His explorations verified the fact that Florida was a peninsula, and he was the first European to see the Mississippi River.  His notes describe the river and the many Indian settlements on its banks.   He sailed eighteen miles upriver from the coast before he returned to the Gulf.    Historians are always ready to dispute the findings of each other.   Some suggest he missed the Mississippi River altogether and, instead, sailed eighteen miles into Mobile Bay.

A "cleaned up" version of Pineda's first map showing the Texas Coast.

     Pineda’s map, done in 1514, was the first document in Texas history.  By today’s standards, it is a rather crude rendition, with an oversized Cuba dominating the center of the Gulf, a misshapen Yucatan Peninsula to the left, and the coast curving past Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and finally terminating at a rather boxy-shaped Florida on the far right.  Pineda proved La Florida was not an island, proved there was no outlet to China from the Gulf, and proved the Gulf was much larger than previously believed.  Cortes disputed his findings, probably in an attempt to keep from sharing any of the discovered lands with one of his many rivals, Francisco de Garay, the governor of Jamaica who financed Pineda’s expedition.

     Pineda’s discoveries were taken to Seville and entered into the Patron Real, a master map of the Caribbean set up for the king to keep track of all discoveries, claims, and counter-claims in the area.   These maps were shared with any Spanish ship’s captains, explorers, or conquistadores bound for the New World.   One of the first explorers to use Pineda’s information was Panfilo de Narvez, who, in 1527, mounted an expedition to explore, colonize, and settle La Florida.  A thirty-five year old soldier with the unlikely name of “Head of a Cow,” Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, was the king’s accountant and second in military command of this expedition.

 

More to come….