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First Encounters
Pánfilo de Narváez

Narváez, a Spanish Explorer, had several plantations in Cuba and was Lt. Governor of that Island.  Diego Velázquez, Governor of Cuba, sent him and 900 men on a punitive expedition to remove Cortez from command in Mexico.  After a battle with Cortez and his followers, in which he lost an eye, he was imprisoned by Cortez.  After 3 years he was allowed to return to Spain, where he petitioned the Spanish Authorities to let him explore and develop La Florida, which extended from the Cape of Florida to the Río de las Palmas (Rio Grande).  Funding the expedition himself, his five ships and 400 soldiers landed near the mouth of Tampa Bay in 1527.  The local natives, the Timucuans, tired of the demands for gold and tricked the party into seeking riches with the inland Appalachee, with whom the Spanish faired no better.  The expedition was a disaster and the men wandered the wilderness, finally taking to the gulf in 5 canoes constructed by the survivors.  They sailed as far as the Texas Coast where they were capsized and Narváez and most other survivors drowned.  After years of wandering across Texas, Cabeza de Vaca and 3 companions were the only survivors who made it back to Spanish Civilization to tell their tale.

Sketch of Panfilo de Narvaez
By Gabriel Venegas

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