While the central and southern regions of the hemisphere produced wealth and glory, the northern regions held only disappointment and failure. The first Spanish contact with Texas probably came in 1518, when Juan de Grijalva explored the Gulf coast for the Spanish government. Two years later Texas was visited by Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda, also exploring by ship along the coast. Whether anyone from either of these expeditions actually came ashore is unknown. In 1528, however, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and several other survivors of the shipwrecked expedition of Panfilo de Navarez landed their crudely constructed rafts somewhere on the upper Texas coast. Most scholars believe that the place de Vaca called La Isla de Malhado, or Misfortune Island, in his journal was what we call Galveston Island.
The term "misfortune island" is understandable. While de Vaca and other crewmen, including a Moorish black named Esteban, survived, they were quickly enslaved by native Indians. These were probably the fierce Karankawas. De Vaca slowly gained acceptance as a shaman or medicine man, practicing what scant medical knowledge he possessed as a European commoner. After several years, the small group of Spaniards finally managed to escape, wandering across the interior of the land in search of other Spaniards. Their long journey carried them through Central Texas, the Big Bend, Chihuahua, and Sonora. They eventually stumbled into a Spanish outpost on the Gulf of California fascinating their countrymen with rumors of Seven Cities of Cibola, cities of Indians laden with gold and silver. These unsubstantiated rumors, which de Vaca repeated in reports to the Viceroy and King, convinced the Spanish to mount a full-fledged search.
In 1540 a large, privately-financed expedition led by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado set out for the northern hinterlands. For the next two years Coronado searched across much of the continent of North American for Cibola. The Spaniards found the Grand Canyon, Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle, and the Great Plains. The expedition was totally unprepared for the flatness, the monotony, the aridity, and the vast emptiness of the Plains. While the expedition would explore much of the continent, it never found what it was looking for - gold and silver. Coronado made the following observation in his report to the King following the expedition.
because it explains the story of the challenge of the mission
Explanation:
