Francisco de Garay

Francisco de Garay (* in the 15th century, † 1523) was a Spanish conquistador from the Basque Country. He was a companion of Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World. In 1514 he became the second Governor of Jamaica and heir Juan de Esquivel in this office. As governor of the island, he was rich and upgraded several expeditions to Florida and from New Spain.

Expedition of Pineda

In 1519, Garay sent out an expedition with three ships and 270 men under the leadership of Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, to explore the coast between Florida and the Rio Panuco. On June 2, 1519 Pineda was the first European to reach the Mississippi River. After he had drawn the mouth of the river at his cards, he gave him the name Espiritu Santo and sailed to the Rio Panuco. Pineda failed there, but the opposition of the Indians, who killed many of the Spanish conquerors and the ships burned. Only the crew of a ship was saved. The commander Camargo sailed this ship to Veracruz and joined his men Hernán Cortés. Francisco de Garay suspected at this time does not mean that Pineda had failed on the Rio Panuco. He sent him several vessels to support. But after the men Pineda could not find most connected in turn to Cortés. For him, the failure of the expedition of Francisco de Garay was a godsend.

Cortés knocks down the uprising on the Rio Panuco

In 1522 Garay again sent a large expedition to the Rio Panuco. But again, the Indians fought against the colonization by the Spanish. The population of the whole province stood up against the invaders, so that nothing was left, Hernán Cortés than to ask for help. The reacted immediately and marched with 250 Spaniards and ten thousand allied Indians in the Province a. After two great battles Cortés believed that he had pacified the province and incorporated it into its sphere of influence. But always it came to uprisings, which only ended when Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán took over the governorship.

Last expedition of Francisco de Garay

When Francisco de Garay of them learned that Cortés had taken over the province, he took over in 1523, even the leadership of his last expedition, and went with eleven ships and two brigantines to the Rio Panuco. But bad weather verschlug the ships far in the north to the Palm River (Rio Grande). He wanted to found a city, but found no one who wanted to settle in this desolate region. So he set out with his men on foot south on, in the direction of Rio Panuco, while the ships sailed along the coast to the south. On the way his men suffered from hunger and deserted by the hundreds. They marched on their own to the southwest and joined Hernán Cortés. Along the way they plundered the villages of the Indians. As Garay for his last faithful in Santisteban on Gonzalo de Ocampo, an officer of Cortés and his men arrived, deserted almost all who remained and ran to Cortés. Even the ships of Francisco de Garay fell into the hands of Cortés. After this defeat, Garay had no choice but to communicate with Cortés. He wrote to him and was invited to Tenochtitlán. There, the conquerors made ​​peace and Garay wanted to retire at the Palm River. But in December 1523 he fell ill and died after a few days.