The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga
Inset 6
EARLY SPANISH EXPLORATION OF THE AREA
Florida proper was first visited in 1513 by Juan Ponce de León, who landed on the Atlantic coast and claimed the region for Spain. In about 1528 Pánfilo de Narváez led a party of three hundred men to Tampa Bay. Faced with continual hardships, storms, and starvation, Narváez and most of his men were drowned in a storm while sailing along the Gulf Coast. About forty survivors of this band, including the royal treasurer, Cabeza de Vaca, continued around the Gulf and were again shipwrecked on a coastal island, usually thought to be on the coast of Texas. They lived as slaves of the local Indians until four survivors escaped and wandered nude over much of Texas and Mexico for seven years. Miraculously, they finally made their way to safety in Mexico and Spain. Cabeza de Vaca's detailed reports and erroneous rumors of cities of gold led to later expeditions, including that of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado to the Southwest and by Hernando de Soto to the Mississippi River.
In 1539 Hernando de Soto, the ambitious, newly-appointed Spanish governor of Cuba and Florida, excited by de Vaca's reports, led an extended expedition to Spanish Florida. They traveled for several years over much of today's Gulf Coast region before reaching the Mississippi River. De Soto died on the trip, and was buried in the great river to protect his body from desecration by hostile Indians.
For over a hundred years there was no further recorded exploration of the area, but Spain maintained its claim to "the land of Florida," extending from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River, with no designated northern boundary.
