agreeing to become Spanish subjects, while
others fought the encroaching Europeans to a
standstill in Yucatán and other remote regions
of Central America for decades.
Although there is no denying that Cortés
came to Mexico primarily to conquer and
exploit the land, he does deserve recognition
for sending out various expeditions to survey
the land and to report on Mexico’s natural
resources. One of his main goals, too, was to
find a water route across this part of the Ameri-
cas that would provide direct passage between
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In 1521–22
Cortés sponsored four such expeditions: one
under Juan de Valle, one under Cristóbal de
Olid, one under Pedro de Alvarado, and a fourth
under Pedro Alvarez Chico. None of these expe-
ditions, of course, found such a water route, but
they did discover much about the natural
resources of the regions they explored, and they
also reported finding potential ports for Span-
ish ships along the Pacific coast. As a result, in
1523–24, Pedro de Alvarado led an expedition
down the Pacific coast to Honduras while
Cortés’s nephew, Francisco Cortés, exploredExpeditions along the Pacific Coast, 1542–1603
Smallpox and measles, among other diseases, that European explorers brought to North America killed
numerous American Indians. In this detail of a drawing from Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España,
Aztec people are infected with smallpox. (Library of Congress)
Cortés the Explorer B 61