Padre Island National Seashore             

The Spanish

The first European to explore this area was Captain Alonso Alvarez de Pineda, who was commissioned by the Spanish Governor of Jamaica in 1519 to explore the coast with four ships and 270 men in hopes of finding a water passage to the Orient. De Pineda mapped the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Vera Cruz (in present-day Mexico) including what was then known as "La Isla Blanca" (the White Island), which later became known as Padre Island. Legend claims he also discovered a small bay on June 24, 1519 which he named for the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi, which was celebrated on that day. After his voyage of exploration de Pineda went on to become a conquistador and eventually Mayor of Peru, where he died in 1534.  De Pineda is known only to have passed through the area, though he probably saw the island from off shore.  There is no record of De Pineda having set foot on the island.

The next European who passed through the area was Cabeza de Vaca, who was part of an unsuccessful exploratory expedition to what is now Florida in 1528 (?).  After Cabeza de Vaca and much of his company were marooned, he and several companions tried to return to Vera Cruz by sailing around the Gulf of Mexico in makeshift boats. Unfortunately, they were caught up in a storm and shipwrecked somewhere near present-day Galveston. Cabeza de Vaca and the few of his companions that survived the first winter with the local natives eventually became their slaves.  Fortunately, Cabeza de Vaca was able to establish himself as a merchant between the tribe he served and others.  As time progressed, Cabeza de Vaca lived and traveled with several native peoples along the coast and eventually made his way to the west coast, where he rejoined the Spanish who were living in what is now California.  Although the exact route of Cabeza de Vaca's journey is unknown, based on clues in his writings in later years, it is believed that he passed through the vicinity of Padre Island.   Like with de Pineda, there is no evidence that he ever actually set foot on the island, though it is possible that he did.

The first documented visit by Europeans was in 1554 when Spanish colonists on a voyage from Vera Cruz to Spain were blown off course by a storm and shipwrecked near the present-day Mansfield Channel.  Several of the colonists managed to sail back to Vera Cruz by boat, but others who had to travel by foot were not so lucky. Only two are known to have survived the trek, the rest having been killed by Indians or having died from thirst or starvation.  Immediately following them was the salvage crews who traveled from Vera Cruz to recover the gold and silver that had been lost in the wreck.  They recovered most of the treasure and what little remained has probably been collected by treasure hunters and archaeologists in the ensuing 450+ years.

Over the next two hundred years, few people are known to have passed through the Padre Island area.  Those that are recorded were Spanish ships searching for French colonists rumored to settling on the Gulf.  The colony they were seeking but never found was the ill-fated Fort St. Louis established at Matagorda Bay by the French explorer Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle in February, 1685.  At least two of these expeditions recorded descriptions of Padre Island in their logbooks as they progressed along the coast.  The first of these was led by Martin de Rivas and Pedro de Iriarte, who set sail from Vera Cruz on Christmas, 1686.  In June, 1687, when Rivas and Iriarte were overdue to return, Spain sent two more ships under Captains Don Andres del Pez and Luis Gomez Raposo to search for the settlement.  Based on the latitudes recorded in their logbooks, both expeditions were known to be describing Padre Island.  Their descriptions of the island as low-lying and marshy or subject to flooding with dunes, tall-grass, and few, if any, trees, holds true still.

The next documented visit was by Spanish troops and their Indian guides under the leadership of Diego Ortiz Parrilla in 1766.  The Spanish government had heard that the English were trying to establish a settlement somewhere within the coastal bend area and sent  Ortiz Parilla to scout the area for English settlements and to map it.  Although the Colonel found no English settlers, he did draw up a map of the area which survives today and which shows the locations of several native bands living on the island, three channels breaking up the island into four smaller islands, and the location of several English shipwrecks on or near the island.  At the time, the island was known as "Isla Corpus Christi", but afterwards it became known as "Isla de San Carlos de los Malaguitas" because of the Malaquite Indian settlements found in the southern half.

The half of Ortiz Parrilla's map showing Padre Island.  Click to enlarge.

By 1766, the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande had been already been designated as the Spanish province of Nuevo Santender.   From that point on, settlers gradually replaced explorers in the area that was later to become south Texas.