Though Ponce de Leon was occupied after his discovery with pressing tasks of conquest elsewhere in the Caribbean, La Florida was not neglected by other adventurers.

Diego Miruelo carried out a profitable trading cruise in 1516 to a bay far north on the Florida west coast that for several decades was identified with his name. The location on early maps appears to be Apalache Bay. He had a peaceful experience and returned with some silver, gold and pearls.

Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba set out from Cuba in 1517 to explore westward. His pilot was Alaminos who recounted how Admiral Columbus had always regretted that a shortage of supplies had forced him to turn back from that direction.

Like so many of the other early Spanish explorations, the Cordoba expedition met disaster. It touched the Yucutan Peninsula and made several landings there. However, the ships were fiercely at-tacked on each occasion. Finally a storm drove them north and east, forcing Alaminos to take the fleet to Florida "to make repairs."

The Spanish historian Barcia in his "Chronological History of the Continent of Florida" wrote in 1723 that the Cordoba expedition "came to the same spot where the pilot had previously landed with Juan Ponce de Leon, close by an estuary of the sea." While they were repairing the ships and taking on fresh water they were again attacked by Indians. This time Cordoba was fatally wounded by 12 arrows.

As yet, no one had sailed far enough westward to discover if the Caribbean was a channel to Cathay or simply a closed sea. Alaminos -- pilot to Columbus, Ponce and Cordoba -- was eager to find a passage to the East; or, failing that, a couple of gold mines. He persuaded Francisco de Garay, governor of Jamaica, to finance a search for riches "beyond the Mexique Bay."

An expedition for this purpose embarked in the fall of 1518 with three or four ships under

command of Alonso Alvarez de Pineda. Alaminos took them first to the west coast of Florida where he and his last two commanders had been so badly treated. The natives were no more friendly than before so the fleet proceeded to coast the Gulf westward.

Enroute they were surprised to note a mighty outflow of fresh water and turned to sail 20 miles up a stream they named River of Holy Spirit. Some historians feel Pineda and Alaminos sailed into Mobile Bay, but maps for many years thereafter clearly attached the name Espritu Santo to the Mississippi. They rested 40 days in one of the delta passes, careening the ships and trading with friendly Indians.

Upon resuming their exploration they found the Indians increasingly hostile. At every stop for wood and water, the fleet was attacked. A big battle took place at Chila, in eastern Mexico. All but one of the ships were burned. Many Spaniards were killed, flayed, and eaten. Pineda was one of the victims. Their skins were hung as trophies in the Aztec temples of Tampico.

Only the ship captained by Diego de Camargo and piloted by Alaminos managed to escape. They reached central Mexico where Hernando Cortes gave them messages before setting out on his famous conquest of Chief Moctezuma and the Aztecs.

Alaminos made it back to Jamica with proof Florida was a peninsula and that there was no passage to Cathay from the Caribbean. Strangely, Pineda's discovery of the Mississippi River has been lightly noted in history -- most of the recognition for that feat going to Hernando de Soto more than two decades later.

SECOND VOYAGE

By early 1521, Ponce had completed his military chores and obtained a new "asciento" for colonization from King Carlos V who had succeeded King Ferdinand. Ponce now prepared to embark with a small colony to pacify and settle Florida, as