Alonso Alvarez de Pineda was a Spanish Explorer and Cartographer. He was a Spanish Nationalist. He was born in 1494 and died in 1519. Alonso is famous for his expedition to Texas and he proved that Florida was not an island.
More Facts and Timeline life of Alonso Pineda
It is believed that he was born during the Age of Exploration in Spain. Not much is known about his early life just like other native explorers.
Grew up in The age of exploration
By this time, people and explorers were moving towards the New Land in the search of new areas, land, wealth, hidden treasures, gold, silver and rich resources.
The voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492 and the discovery of the New Land opened new doors for the explorers to move towards the newly found areas in search of great wealth.
Alonso also moved in this exploration and one of the maps have been found in Seville, Spain of the Gulf Coast Exploration. The picture below is the map of Alonso.
In 1508, Spain’s Establishment the Casa de la Contratacion opened a pilot school for navigators, pilots, explorers and cosmographers in Seville.
This set clearcut and well-specified rules for the men who travelled and explored the New Lands. The pilots, maps makers, chart makers, cosmographers were indispensable for the voyages and were important members of the crew.
Commander of Fleet
In 1518, Francisco De Garay appointed Alonso Alvarez de Pineda as the Commander of the ship travelling to find if there was a link between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.
The expedition consisted of a small fleet of three ships. In 1518, Alonso first landed on the south-west coast but the ship was attacked by hostile and antagonistic natives of the place.
Alonso de Pineda then sailed through the Mississippi River and named it Rio del Espiritu Santo which meant river of the holy spirit. He spent nearly a month there and befriended the natives. Afterwards, he sailed around the Gulf and went as far as Rio Panuco in Mexico.
In 1519, Alonso Alvarez de Pineda reached Texas but was heavily attacked by the natives there.
These were the hostile Aztec natives.
In the same year, the Aztec natives killed Alonso Alvarez de Pineda at Chila and burned two of the ships. In 1519, the remaining number of ships returned to Vera Cruz and reported their entire journey and saga to Francis de Garay. Ther informed him about the killing of Alonso Alvarez de Pineda. They told him that Alonso Alvarez de Pineda was flayed and his skin was hung in an Aztec temple as a trophy.
First European who Travelled to Texas
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda was the first European in Texas. He verified Ponce de Leon’s claim that Florida was not an island by exploring and mapping the Florida coast to the Mississippi River.
So, we see Alonso De Alvarez was a brave Spanish explorer who lived in the Age of Exploration and moved fearlessly towards the newly Found New Land for exploration and conquest.
He is counted as one of the early explorers and founders of Texas.