Cortés' exploring vessels, begun in 1522—the first having been burned on the stocks, others were built in their place—were now, after long delay, nearly ready to sail; and Guevara's vessel was brought up from Tehuantepec to join them. Cortés, Cartas, Letter of September, 1526.
Aillon, in 1523, was made adelantado of Chicora, the country discovered by him in 1520, and immediately prepared a new expedition with a view to colonize the country, explore the coasts, and to find, if possible, a passage to India. The preparations were not completed until July, 1526, when he sailed from Española with six vessels, 500 men, and ninety horses. He reached the Rio Jordan—perhaps St Helena Sound, South Carolina—and thence made a careful exploration northward, at least to Cape Fear, and probably much farther. Aillon died on the 18th of October, and after much internal dissension 150 men, all that remained alive, returned to Santo Domingo. Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. iii. pp. 71-4, 153-60; Kunstmann, Entdeckung Am., p. 71.
Oviedo, De la Natural hystoria de las Indias, Toledo, 1526, describes the New World, but this book is not the great historical work, lately printed, by the same author. It may be found also in Barcia, Historiadores Primitivos, and in Ramusio.
Sebastian Cabot attempted a voyage to India in 1526, sailing with four vessels in April, with the intention of bearing succor to Loaisa. Owing to insubordination among his officers, and other misfortunes, he reached only the Rio de la Plata, and after extensive explorations in that region, returned to Spain, having been absent four years. Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. ii. p. 169; Diccionario Universal, Mexico, apend., 'Viages,' tom. x. p. 807; Roux de Rochelle, in Bulletin de la Soc. Geog., April, 1832, p. 212.
[1527.] June 10, 1527, an English expedition—the last officially sent by that nation within the limits of my sketch—sailed from Plymouth, still in search of a north-west passage. The two vessels sailed in company to latitude 53°, and reached the coast, where, on the 1st of July, they were separated by a storm, and one of them was probably lost. The other, under John Rut, turned southward, followed the coast of New England, often landing, probably reached Chicora, and returned to England via the West India Islands, arriving early in October. Hakluyt's Divers Voy., pp. 27, 33; Biddle's Mem. Cabot, pp. 114, 275; Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. i. p. 611; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. ii. lib. v. cap. iii.
Francisco Montejo, who had accompanied the expeditions of Grijalva and Cortés, and had since been sent by the latter as ambassador to Spain, obtained from the king in 1526 a commission as adelantado to conquer the "islands of Yucatan and Cozumel." He sailed from Seville in 1527, landed at Cozumel, penetrated the northern part of the peninsula, and during the following years fought desperately to accomplish its conquest, but failed. A small colony struggled for existence at Campeche for several years, but in 1535 not a single Spaniard remained in Yucatan. Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, pp. 59-94; Gomara, Hist. Ind., fol. 62-3; Stephens' Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, New York, 1858, vol. i. pp. 56-62.
La Salle, La Salade, Paris, 1527, contains references to Greenland and other northern parts of America.
PACIFIC COAST EXPLORATIONS.
In July, 1527, three of the vessels built by Cortés made a preliminary trip up the Pacific coast from Zacatula to Santiago in Colima and back—the first voyage along that coast. Relacion ó Derrotero, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., tom. xiv. pp. 65-9; Relacion de la Derrota, in Florida, Col. Doc., pp. 88-91. But an order from Spain required the fleet to be sent to India direct—instead of by the roundabout route proposed by Cortés—for the relief of Loaisa; and the three vessels sailed from Zacatula in October under Saavedra, arriving safely in India. Guevara's ship was too worm-eaten to accompany them; but several vessels were already on the stocks at Tehuantepec to replace those sent across the ocean. Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, introd. pp. vi.-xi.; Navarrete, Col. Viages, tom. v. pp. 95-114, 181, 440-86; Gil, Memoria, in Boletin de la Soc. Mex. Geog., tom. viii. p. 477 et seq.
In 1527 Robert Thorne, English ambassador to Charles V., wrote a book or memorial to Henry VIII. on cosmography, on the Spanish and Portuguese discoveries, and on the importance of exploring northward for a passage to Cathay. It was afterward printed as The booke made by the right worshipful M. Robert Thorne, in Hakluyt's Voy., vol. i. pp. 214-20.