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discovered in 1517 the province of
Yucatan and the
Bay of Campeachy.
He then turned his prow to the north; but, at a place where he had landed for supplies of water, his company was suddenly assailed, and he himself mortally wounded.
In 1518, the pilot whom
Fernandez had employed
conducted another squadron to the same shores; and
Grijalva, the commander of the fleet, explored the coast from
Yucatan towards Panuco.
The masses of gold which he brought back, the rumors of the empire of
Montezuma, its magnificence and its extent, heedlessly confirmed by the costly presents of the unsuspecting natives, were sufficient to inflame the coldest imagination, and excited the enterprise of
Cortes.
The voyage did not reach beyond the bounds of
Mexico.
At that time
Francisco de Garay, a companion of
Columbus on his second voyage, and now famed for his opulence, was the governor of
Jamaica.
In the year 1519, after having heard of the richness and
beauty of
Yucatan, he at his own charge sent four ships well equipped, and with good pilots, under the command of
Alvarez Alonso de Pineda.
His professed object was the search for some strait, west of
Florida, which was not yet certainly known to form a part of the continent.
The strait having been sought for in vain, his ships turned towards the west, attentively examining the ports, rivers, inhabitants, and every thing else that seemed worthy of remark; and especially noticing the vast volume of wafer brought down by one very large river, till at last they came upon the track of
Cortes near
Vera Cruz.
Between that harbor and
Tampico they set up a pillar as the landmark of the discoveries of
Garay.
More than eight months were employed in thus exploring three