The Hispanic Role in America

A CHRONOLOGY  

COMPILED BY DR. JUAN M. PEREZ
HISPANIC DIVISION
Library of Congress    

1372 Basques arrived in Newfoundland.  

1492 Cristóbal Colón discovered America for Spain.  

1493 Colón introduced sugar cane in the New World.  

1494 January 6. Fray Bernardo Boil celebrated mass in Hispaniola, perhaps the first mass celebrated in America.  
June 7. Treaty of Tordesillas was signed between Spain and Portugal, which divided the newly discovered lands between the two countries. Under this treaty, Portugal claimed Brazil.  

1499 Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, Alonso de Ojeda, Americo Vespucci, Juan de la Cosa, Alonso Niño and Cristóbal Guerra were sent by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to explore new territories. They went along the coast of Brazil to the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida coast. They also reached the Chesapeake Bay.  

1500 Juan de la Cosa drew the first map of America's coastline.  

1501 Gaspar Corterreal explored the North American Atlantic coast.  

1502 Alberto Cantino drew a map showing Florida's coastline.  

1503 European-style architecture was introduced with the construction of the church of San Nicolás de Bari in Hispaniola, present-day Dominican Republic.  

1505 The first elementary school was founded in Hispaniola.  

1507 German writer Martin Waldseemüller, thinking that it was Americo Vespucci who discovered the new lands in 1492, said that the new regions should be called America.  

1508 Juan Ponce de León arrived in the southern part of Puerto Rico and explored it.  
• Spaniards built the first sugar mill in the New World in the island of Hispaniola.  

1509 August 14. Ponce de León was appointed governor of Puerto Rico.  
• Pope Julius II authorized the Catholic Kings of Spain (Ferdinand and Isabella) to administer the church in the New World in exchange for the expenses Spain would incur in the evangelization process.  

1510 Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo wrote Las sergas de Esplandián, a continuation of the adventure novel Amadís de Gaula. The novel talked about an island called California, where amazons lived. The Spanish gave this name to what is now the state of California.  
• Franciscan missionaries arrived in Puerto Rico.  

1511 King Ferdinand granted the Puerto Rican settlement the status of a city and gave it a coat of arms.  
• Pope Julius II issued a Papal Bull establishing various dioceses in America.  
• The first catholic diocese in the United States was established in Puerto Rico by Pope Julius II. He appointed Alonso Manso as the first bishop.  

1512 Ponce de León was granted permission by the king to explore an island called "Bimini", supposedly north of the Bahamas and search for a fabled fountain of youth.  
• Dominicans founded the first hospital in the New World in Hispaniola.  

1513 April 2. Juan Ponce de León, landed on the Florida coast, just north of Cape Canaveral, on Eastern Sunday (Pascua Florida). He then went south around the Florida peninsula around the Florida Keys and up the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and discovered the Pacific Ocean.  
• Bishop Alonso, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, founded the first school in the United States.  
• The king of Spain issued a royal order by which the natives were to be taught latin to improve their education.  
• Antonio de Alaminos, Ponce de León's pilot, discovered the Gulf Stream.  

1518 Juan de Grijalva reached the area around Galveston Island, Texas.  
Diego Velázquez explored a region of South Carolina.  

1519 Alonso Alvarez de Pineda explored the Golf Coast, as far as Texas. A map of his expedition shows Cuba, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico coast. He was the first one to realize that Florida was not an island. He discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River. He entered Mobile Bay (Alabama), which he named "Bahía del Espíritu Santo." He also probably sighted the bay of Corpus Christi, Texas.  

1520 Spaniards from Cuba reached the South Carolina coast.  
• Francisco de Garay, the governor of Jamaica, sent Diego de Camargo to attempt to establish a settlement near de mouth of the Rio Grande.  
• Francisco Gordillo explored the North Atlantic Coast.  

1521 Francisco Gordillo and Pedro Quexós reached the North Carolina coast. During their explorations, they took Indians as slaves. Once Spanish authorities found about this, they were reprimanded and ordered the Indians to be set free and returned to their homelands.  
• Ponce de León arrived in Charlotte Harbor, in yet another effort to colonize Florida. He had brought with him colonists, missionaries and livestock and many different kinds of seeds. The effort failed.  
• Fernando de Magallanes, on a voyage to circumnavigate the world, reached Hawaii and Guam. He died after arriving in the Philippines.  

1522 Juan Sebastián de Elcano finished Magallanes' expedition, arriving in Spain on September 6, being the first one to circumnavigate the globe.  

1523 Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón was named adelantado, in a region north of Florida.  
• The first sugar mill in the United States was established in Puerto Rico.
• Gonzalo de Ocampo explored the area near present-day Brownsville, Texas.  

1524 Diego Miruelo explored Florida's western coast.  
• Gonzalo de Sandoval told in Mexico City a tale of an island called California that was full of riches and inhabited by women only.  

1525 Esteban Gómez left the port city of La Coruña, Galicia (Spain) to explore the Atlantic Coast from Florida to Labrador, passing by the mouths of the rivers Connecticut, Hudson and Delaware. On his trek, he reached Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Cod, Long Island, New York Bay and entered the Chesapeake Bay at White Haven, Maryland.  
• García Jofre de Loaysa led a seven-ship expedition from La Coruña (Galicia, Spain) to the Hawaiian Islands. They reached the Pacific the following year. Disease and weather took a heavy toll on the expedition. By the time it reached the Moluccas, only one ship was afloat.  
• Nuño de Guzmán became the governor of the Panuco-Rio Grande area.  

1526 Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, accompanied by Pedro de Quexós as pilot and Dominican Fathers Pedro Estrada, Antonio Montesinos an Antonio de Cervantes sailed with an expedition to colonize the Carolinas. The expedition reached the Chesapeake Bay and Fray Montesinos, celebrated the first mass in Virginia, near Jamestown. One of the ships ran aground near Cape Fear and another had to be built, perhaps the first one built in the United States. The expedition founded a settlement at San Miguel Gualdape, opposite present-day Georgetown, South Carolina. The Spanish called the area Chícora.  
• Pánfilo Narváez was granted royal privileges to explore, conquer and settle the territory from Florida to the Rio Grande.  
• José de Basconales is believed to have explored Arizona on his trip from Mexico to the Zuni territory.  

1527 Alvaro de Saavedra led an expedition to Hawaii and the Philippines, from Zacatula, Mexico.  

1528 Pánfilo de Nárvaez led an expedition to Florida. The expedition was destroyed by the weather and hostile natives. He reached Mobile, Alabama.   Sancho de Caniedo was sent by governor Nuño de Guzmán to take possession of the Rio Grande region. The attempt failed.  
• 1528-1536 The survivors of the Nárvaez expedition to Florida, Hernán Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes, Alonso Castillo and their black slave Estebanico, wandered for 8 years throughout southern U.S. (Texas and New Mexico). They reached Mexico City on July 24, 1536. During their ordeal they had to endure all kinds of things to survive. In one instance, in 1528, Cabeza de Vaca performed a succesful surgical operation on an Indian. This was, perhaps, the first surgery performed in the United States.  

1529 Map maker Diego Ribeiro published a map showing very clearly the U.S. Atlantic coast.  

1530 Pedro Martyr de Angleria wrote his book, The Decades, on the Spanish explorations of America.  

1533 Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada discovered Baja California.  

1535 Hernán Cortés founded a settlement in Santa Cruz, Baja California.  

1536 Cortés crossed the Gulf of California and explored the lower regions of Baja California.  
• Cabeza de Vaca and his companions wrote in Mexico City a report of their experiences.  

1538 The printing press arrived in Mexico.  
• Dominicans in Santo Domingo founded the first university in the New World. 

1539 Francisco de Ulloa, a lieutenant of Cortés, explored the Gulf of California and proving that California was not an island.  
• The diary of the Franciscan Francisco Preciado, a companion of Ulloa, provides the first printed record of California as applied to that region.  
• Fray Marcos de Niza led an expedition to find the fabled seven cities of Cíbola, reaching a region of New Mexico inhabited by the Zuñi Indians. The adobe buildings of the Pueblo Indians glittered in the sun like gold and Fray Niza, seeing this from far away thought that he had found such place.  
• Hernando de Soto reached Bahía Honda (Tampa Bay) on June 1, at the head of the largest attempt yet, to conquer and settle Florida. He was a man of great experience having been Francisco Pizarro's military advisor in Peru.  
• Juan de Añasco, one of De Soto's lieutenants, founded the settlement of Espíritu Santo, Florida. This was the beginning of Tampa.  
• Hernando de Soto and his companions celebrated Christmas in the area of Tallahassee, Florida. This was the first Christmas celebration in the continental U.S.  
• 1539-1541 Hernando de Soto explored the regions of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and then crossed the Appalachian mountains into Tennessee. Other regions explored by him were Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The source of the Mississippi river was discovered.  

1540 Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led an expedition of 336 Spaniards, 100 Indians, 552 horses, 600 mules, 5,000 sheep and 500 head of cattle, through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Kansas, some of the territories described by Fray Niza. Coronado sent García López de Cárdenas to explore the northwest, reaching the Grand Canyon, all the while another expedition explored the northeast and another one led by Hernando de Alarcón reached the Colorado river and Yuma, Arizona. Hernando de Alarcón is also possibly to be the first European to have set foot on California soil entering the Gulf of California and ascending the Colorado River. Coronado also reached Río Grande.  
• Pedro de Tovar, a lieutenant of Coronado, discovered Hopi country, Arizona.  
• García López de Cárdenas, another of Coronado's lieutenant's, was the first European to have sighted the Grand Canyon.
• Hernando de Soto and his men entered Mississipi territory and spent the winter in the area. While there, some Indians were caught stealing from them. Two were killed in the attempt, while the other, De Soto ordered his hands cut off. Some time later, four Spaniards were caught stealing from the Indian village nearby and, De Soto, in a masterful display of equal justice, sentenced two of them to death and confiscated the properties of the others.  

1541 Hernando de Soto crossed the Mississippi River. He reached Arkansas. There, a number of pigs left behind by the expedition, became wild. They are the ancestors of the famous razor-back pigs of Nebraska.  
• Vázquez de Coronado reached Palo Duro Canyon, Texas. There, on May 29, Fray Juan Padilla celebrated a thanksgiving mass. This was the first Thanksgiving celebration in the United States.  
• Domingo de Alarcón, one of the pilots in the Alarcón expedition, re-explored the Gulf of California and chartered its shores on a map. He described California as a peninsula.  

1542 Ruy López Villalobos, Juan Gaetano and Gaspar Rico reached the Hawaiian Islands.  
• Luis de Moscoso de Alvarado, after the Soto's death in the Mississippi, organised an expedition west hoping to catch up with Coronado. The expedition reached as far as the Brazos River (Texas).  
• Fray Juan de Padilla was killed in Kansas by the natives. He is considered to be the first martyr in the United States.   A group of Spaniards reached present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico.  
• Cabeza de Vaca published in Spain, Naufragios, an account of his adventures. This is the first history of the United States. Cabeza de Vaca can also be considered the first anthropologist and ethnologist.  
• 1542-1543 Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese in the service of Spain, and Bartolomé Ferrelo explored the West coast, from San Diego to Oregon.  

1543 Luis Moscoso was the first European to discover oil in Texas when he used oil seepage near Nacogdoches.  

1549 Dominican friars Friars Luis Cáncer, Gregorio de Beteta, Diego de Tolosa, Juan García and Brother Fuentes, arrived in Tampa Bay. Fray Cáncer, Fray Tolosa and Brother Fuentes suffered martyrdom at the hands of the natives, soon after their arrival.  

1550-1600 Spanish explorers introduced crops and livestocks from Europe in the United States.

1551 The first university in North America was founded in Mexico City.  

1553 A hurricane destroyed a convoy from Mexico to Cuba, near Corpus Christi, Texas, with one thousand people. Few survived.  

1554 Captain Angel de Villafana explored the Texas coast in an effort to find the shipwreck of 1553.  

1555 Spanish officials in Cuba and Mexico urged the king of Spain to start the colonization of Florida.  

1557 Dr. Pedro de Santander, a crown official, urged king Philip II to establish settlements, missions and forts from Pensacola, Florida, to Port Royal, South Carolina.  

1558 Guido de los Bazares was sent from Mexico to find a good place in Florida to establish a settlement. He arrived at the Bay of Mobile (Alabama), which he named Filipina Bay in honor of his king, Philip II. On the opposite shore, the expedition reached the Tensaw River and Montrose, in Baldwin County, Alabama

1559 Tristán de Luna arrived at Santa Rosa Island, Pensacola Bay, Florida, and founded a settlement, which ended up in failure soon thereafter. He also reached Nanipacana de la Santa Cruz, near Clairborne, and Mobile Bay, Alabama.  

1560 Mateo del Saúz, Fray Domingo de la Anunciación and Fray Domingo Salazar, members of Luna's expedition, navigated the Choosa River up the area of Talladega.
• Fray Pedro Feria, with another group of Luna's expedition, went up the Escambia River. Luna later established a mission in Santa Cruz de Nanicapan (Clairborne).  

1561 Angel Villafañe, Antonio Velázquez, Alonso González de Arroche and Juan Torres, reached the Virginia coast. They continued south to North Carolina and to Santa Elena (Parris Island), South Carolina.  

1562 Diego Gutiérrez published a map where California appeared for the first time.

1563 Tomás Terrenot, Spanish ambassador in France, informed Philip II that both the English and the French had lent their support to an expedition of French Huguenots to Florida. He warned of the possible threat this could pose to Spanish shipping in the area.  

1564 Miguel López de Legazpi and Fray Andrés de Urdaneta led an expedition to find a commercial route from Mexico to the Philippines. Legazpi founded the city of Manila.  
• Diego de Mazariegos, governor of Cuba, sent captain Hernán Manrique to find the place where the French had established a settlement and fort. Manrique searched the bays and inlets north of Cape Canaveral. He found Charlesfort at Port Royal, which had already been abandoned by the French.  
• Spaniards introduced grapes in California.  
• Between 1559 and 1564, Spain spent over two hundred thousand gold pesos on her various attempts to colonize Florida.  

1565 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine, the first permanent European settlement in the United States.
• Fray Martín Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, founded the first Catholic parish in the United States. With the founding of the city, the Spanish system of local government (Cabildo) was introduced in the continental U.S. The cabildo was an elected town council, with an elected mayor (Alcalde). Thus, when St, Augustine conducted the first elections for the cabildo, they were the first democratic elections held in the continental U.S. The principle of local rights goes back to the Middle Ages in Spain.  
• Menéndez de Avilés started construction of a road linking St. Augustine with the San Mateo Fort, near Jacksonville. This was the first road built in the United States.  
• Menéndez de Avilés established forts at Santa Elena, South Carolina, Cape Canaveral, Tequesta (Miami), Calus (Charlotte Harbor) and Tocobaga (Tampa).  

1566 Jesuits founded a mission in Florida. Their first in the country.  
Menéndez de Avilés established San Felipe Fort on Parris Island, South Carolina.
Juan Pardo and Hernando Boyano, companions of Menéndez de Avilés, led another group through what is now Polk County, North Carolina. A fort was built near the mouth of the Wateree River. Pardo continued eastward to Guatari, where Fray Sebastián Moreno founded a mission. Meanwhile, Boyano headed westward to the Little Tennessee River, in present-day Jackson County.  
Pardo and Boyano led another group to Guimae in present-day Orangeburg County, South Carolina. During their explorations during 1566 and 1567, they travelled through what are now North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.  
Martín de Argüelles was born in St. Augustine. He was the first "American" of whom documented proof exists.  
• Fray Pedro Martínez arrived at Cumberland Island (Georgia). He was killed by the natives as soon as he got ashore. Later the Spanish built a fort.  
• Spaniards from St. Augustine established a settlement on St. Catherine's Island, Georgia.  

1567 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés became governor of Cuba and Florida  
Jesuits founded a mission to minister to the Tequesta Indians, near present-day Miami.  
• Jesuits founded the San Carlos Mission on Estero Island, on the Florida Keys. The missionaries assigned to it were Fray Juan Rangel and Fray Francisco de Villareal. A fort had been built the previous year and was under the command of Francisco de Reinosa.  

1568 Alvaro de Mendaña and Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa discovered the Solomon Islands.  

1569 Jesuit Brother Agustín Báez wrote a grammar of the Güale language spoken by the natives in the area of Georgia and South Carolina. This may very well be the first book published in the United States.

1570 Jesuits founded a mission in the Chesapeake Bay. Jesuits settled at Axacan, near Jamestown. Five Jesuits were killed by the natives in Virginia.

1573 Pedro Menéndez Márquez explored the Chesapeake Bay. By royal orders, nine Franciscans arrived in Florida. Their missionary work would be extended to Georgia and the Carolinas.

1576 Natives destroyed the Fort of Santa Elena, South Carolina. Menéndez Márquez rebuilt it the following year and renamed it San Marcos. It was abandoned in 1587. Natives revolted at Fort San Felipe, South Carolina.

1577 The natives of St. Augustine revolted.

1578 Another Indian rebellion in the vicinity of Santa Elena, South Carolina. The Spanish caught the French instigators and executed them.

1579 The infamous pirate Francis Drake raided Spanish shipping in the Pacific. French pirate Nicholas Estrozi was captured in Georgia by the Spanish. Luis the Carbajal founded the kingdom of Nuevo León, which comprised much of what is present-day Texas. Spaniards introduced oranges in Florida.

1580 Spanish defeated French forces in Florida.

1581 Captain Francisco Chamuscado led an expedition from Mexico to Cíbola, New Mexico, composed of 10 soldiers, 19 Christian Indians and 3 Franciscans, along with 90 horses, 600 cows, pigs and sheep.
• The Franciscan missionary Fray Agustín Rodríguez accompanied an expedition to Texas, hoping to preach the gospel there. The expedition reached the area of the Big Bend and Fray Agustín is believed to have given the actual name of the region, calling it "New Mexico of Santa Fe of San Francisco."
• Friars Agustín Rodríguez, Francisco López and Juan de Santamaria, accompanied by Chamuscado, founded the Mission of San Bartolomé, near Bernalillo, New Mexico. They led a missionary effort as far as Taos, Acoma and Zuñí. Soon afterwards the three friars were martyred.

1582 Antonio de Espejo led an expedition to New Mexico. He crossed the Río Grande near Presidio, Texas, and called the river El Río del Norte. He continued to Arizona, to Zuñi territory and up the Río Grande Valley. In one year he is believed to have covered four thousand miles.

1583 On his way back to Mexico, Espejo followed the Pecos River, Texas, and through present-day Fort Davis and Marfa.

1585 Francisco de Galí arrived in San Francisco Bay, from his voyage to the Philippines. He explored the California coast down to Acapulco.

1586 England attempted to establish a settlement in the Chesapeake Bay. Sir Walter Raleigh established a colony on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, which soon dissappeared. The English pirate Francis Drake attacked St. Augustine burning it to the ground.

1587 The map of Richard Hakluyt showed the regions of Kansas and New Mexico. Pedro de Unamunu was sent by the viceroy of New Spain, Pedro Moya de Contreras, on an expedition to find a good harbor for the Philippine galleons. He discovered a bay which he called Puerto de San Lucas, with all probability present-day Bay of Monterey, California.

1588 Fray Alonso Escobedo, in Florida, wrote the poem "La Florida", perhaps the first poem written in the United States. Florida governor Pedro Menéndez Marqués accompanied by Juan Menéndez Marqués, Juan Lara and Vicente González led an expedition to the Chesapeake Bay looking for suspected English settlements there (Roanoke Island). Juan Menéndez wrote a detailed description of the area.

1590 The lieutenant governor of Nuevo León, Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, led an expedition north, reaching the Río Grande and Texas. Sosa is believed to be the first one to discover a wagon trail between the Pecos River and New Mexico.

1592 Juan de Fuca led an expedition to the Pacific North coast and explored the strait that now bears his name.

1593 Fray Miguel de Auñón and lay-brother Antonio de Badajoz were martyred in St. Catherine's Island (Santa Catalina), Georgia. A punitive expedition, led by Alonso Díaz de Badajoz, was sent to the region. As punishment, Florida governor Gonzalo Méndez Canzo, issued and order to enslave the natives, however, a royal decree in 1600 nullified that order and set the Indians free. Fray Pedro Corpa arrived at Tolomato Mission, in McIntosh Co., Georgia, from where he directed missionary work to nearby native settlements. Franciscans Pedro Fernández de Chozas, Baltasar López and Francisco Pareja arrived on Cumberland Island (Georgia). Friars Pedro Ruiz and and Pedro de Vermejo were sent to what is now Camden Co., Georgia.

1594 Francisco Leyba de Bonilla and Antonio Gutiérrez de Humaña reached Kansas territory. They were later killed by Indians. María Viscente married Vicente Solana in St. Augustine. They founded the first "American family" of whom documented proof exists.

1595 Captains Francisco Leyva Bonilla and Antonio Gutiérrez Omaña, led an expedition north to subdue rebellious tribes. They went up to New Mexico and Kansas. The expedition was a complete failure, with only few survivors. Sebastián Rodríguez Cermellón left the Philippines to find a good port in America's northern coast. He arrived at San Francisco, in Drake's Bay.

1596-1597 Sebastián Vizcaíno explored the California coast and the Sea of Cortes. Gaspar Salas and two Franciscans, Pedro Chozas and Francisco Berascola, led an expedition to explore the area of Tama, Georgia. Indian revolt in the area of the Tolomato Mission (McIntosh, Co., Georgia) led by the Indian chief Juanillo. Fray Corpa was killed along with many others. The only survivor was Fray Francisco Dávila, who had been enslaved at Tufina, near Altamaha River.

1598 Juan de Oñate explored the area north of the Rio Grande, reaching Missouri and Nebraska. He founded San Gabriel de los Españoles, today Chamita, New Mexico. He became New Mexico's first governor, ruling until 1608. Oñate was at the head of a great expedition composed of 200 soldiers and colonists and 7,000 head of livestock (cows, horses, sheep, pigs, etc) and 83 three wagons with provisions, ammunition and many different kinds of seeds. On April 30, near El Paso, a mass of Thanksgiving was celebrated followed by a great banquet. This was perhaps the first Thanksgiving dinner in the United States. In the banks of the Río Grande (near El Paso) Oñate's expedition rested in the area while watching a play written by captain Marcos Farfán de los Godos. This was the first play performed in the United States. Oñate founded the town of San Juan de los Caballeros, New Mexico. Captain Juan de Zaldívar was killed at Acoma, New Mexico.
• Fray Alonso de Lugo founded the mission of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, near Sia Pueblo, New Mexico.
• Fray Cristóbal de Salazar founded the Nambé Mission, New Mexico.
• Fray Francisco de Zamora founded the mission of San Lorenzo de los Picuries in the Taos region of New Mexico.

1599 Vicente de Zaldívar, brother of Juan de Zaldívar, led a punitive expedition against the natives of Acoma, New Mexico. Oñate dealt severily with them, cutting the right foot of 24 Indian captives. Franciscan missionaries established several missions in New Mexico. Oñate led an expedition east to west through Arizona searching for the "South Sea."

1600 Franciscan missionaries founded missions in Arizona. Pedro de Vergara returned to San Gabriel, New Mexico, with more colonists, missionaries and supplies. Vicente de Zaldívar reached Denver, Colorado. Spanish colonists in the Río Grande Valley introduced the plow and beasts of burden to the Pueblo Indians.

1601 Juan de Oñate left San Gabriel at the head of an expedition to explore more of New Mexico. He also reached Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri. He had with him seventy soldiers, two missionaries, supplies and seven hundred horses and mules.

1602 Philip II ordered the exploration of the Northern Pacific Coast.  
Sebastián Vizcaíno arrived at San Diego Bay, California, and, later, Monterey Bay, which he named that way in honor of the Viceroy of Mexico Gaspar de Zúñiga y Acevedo, count of Monterey. Fray Antonio de la Ascensión, one of the two cosmographers of the expedition, wrote an account of the experience.   Royal envoy, Fernando Valdés, conducted hearings in St. Augustine as the whether or not move the settlement to another location. Eighteen men were chosen from the population to serve on the jury. These proceedings were the first court hearings held in the continental U.S.  

1603 Juan Martín de Aguilar explored the coast of Alaska.  
• Sebastián Vizcaíno published charts which showed the Port of Monterey and San Francisco Bay.  
• The Mission of Santo Domingo de Talaxe was built in present-day Glynn Co., Georgia.  
• Florida governor, Gonzalo Méndez Canzo, built a mission on Cumberland Island, Georgia, called San Pedro de Mocamo.  

1604 Oñate led an expedition from San Gabriel to find a passage to the Pacific Ocean. He went through Arizona, the Colorado River, Yuma and, finally, he reached the Gulf of California.  
• Oñate was the first European to follow the Colorado River to its mouth.  

1605 Fray Cristóbal Quiñones founded the missions of San Francisco, Santa Ana, San Felipe and Santo Domingo, New Mexico.  
• Oñate founded Santa Fe, New Mexico, as "La Ciudad Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco".  
• Franciscans restored the Mission of the Island of Amelia, Florida.  
• Percival de Quinanes, a music teacher, arrived in New Mexico. He was the first European music teacher in the Southwest.  

1606 Bishop Juan Cabezas Altamirano of Santiago, Cuba, went to Florida where he spent one year baptizing, confirming over two thousand natives and almost four hundred Spaniards. He also ordained twenty one new priests, some of whom had already been born in Florida and educated at the Franciscan seminary in St. Augustine.  
• Enrico Martínez published in thirty-two charts the observations made by Vizcaíno during his exploration of the California coast.  

1607 Friars Francisco Pareja and Alonso Peñaranda, converted thousands of Apalache Indians in Tallahassee, Florida.  
• Jamestown was founded by English colonists in Virginia.  

1608 Fray Lázaro Jiménez arrived in Spain and told crown officials of the many converts in New Mexico. The king, then, made it a royal province.  

1609 Pedro de Peralta was appointed governor of New Mexico.  
• By this year there were eight thousand native Christians in the area of New Mexico.  
• Fray Cristóbal Quiñones taught the Indians of the mission of San Felipe to sing and to play musical instruments.  
• Francisco Fernández Ecija led an expedition to the Chesapeake Bay to report on the English settlement of Jamestown.  

1610 A member of Oñate's expedition, Captain Gaspar Pérez de Villagra, wrote an epic poem about the exploration of what is now New Mexico, La conquista de la Nueva Méjico.  
• Governor Pedro de Peralta started construction of the city of Santa Fe. Santa Fe became the new capital of New Mexico, replacing San Gabriel. The Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was built. This is the oldest government building in the United States.  
• Colonists built the first irrigation canals and irrigation systems in Santa Fe.  
The Mission of San Miguel, New Mexico, was built. Its church is the oldest religious building still in use today. One of its bells was cast in 1356 and it also holds two Italian paintings from 1287.  

1612 More Franciscan missionaries arrived in Florida and the province was enlarged to also include Georgia and the Carolinas.  
• Fray Francisco Pareja wrote two books in the Timucuana language.  
• Two Dutch ships arrived in the island of Manhattan.  

1613 The tobacco plant was brought to Florida.  

1615 By this year there were twenty missions in Florida.  

1616 Four missions were established in Georgia.  
• The Mission of Santa Clara de Tupiqui (Florida) was built.  

1617 More missions were established in New Mexico: Pecos, Santa Cruz, San Buenaventura and San Ildefonso.  

1618 New Mexico had by now eleven missions and fourteen thousand Christian Indians. In Florida the number was fifty missions and sixteen thousand Christian Indians.  

1619 The first black slaves arrived to be sold in the English settlement of Jamestown, Virginia.  

1620 The first shrine in the United States was established and dedicated to Our Lady of the Milk and of Happy Delivery at the Mission of Nombre de Dios, near St. Augustine.  
• Fray Antonio de la Ascensión, the cosmographer on Vizcaíno's expedition, wrote a book about that experience.  
• English pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachussets.  

1621-1629 Sister María de Agreda, a Poor Clare nun in Spain, made miraculous visits to the Jumano Indians of Texas, according to the legend. During this period, the Jumano Indians related stories, to missionaries in Santa Fe, of a "woman in blue" who appeared to them and converted them to Christianity. Friars Diego López and Juan Salas left Santa Fe for Jumano territory in Texas. When they arrived at the settlement, they were received by a great cross adorned with flowers and by more Jumanos asking to be baptized.  

1622 The Spanish galleons, Nuestra Señora de Atocha and Santa Margarita, sank near Cayo Hueso, Florida.  
• Kaspar Van Baerle published a map of the world still showing California as an island.  

1624 French corsairs defeated Spanish forces in the Caribbean islands of Guadalupe and Martinique.  
• The English defeated the Spanish forces defending San Cristóbal (St. Kitts)  
• Spanish forces explored Georgia and Carolina for rumored English settlements in those areas.  
• The Dutch bought form the Manhattan Indians the island of the same name.  

1626 Fray Alonso de Benavídes established three more missions among the Pyres Indians of New Mexico.  
• Fray Jerónimo Zárate, Francisco Porras and Cristóbal Quirós, founded missions for the Hopi, Querez and Jemez Indians of New Mexico.  

1627 Fray Alonso de Benavídes founded the Mission of the Assumption, New Mexico.  
• Dutch pirates captured Spanish ships near Cuba.  

1628 English pirates attacked and occupied the Caribbean Islands of Nevis and Barbados.  
• The Dutch attacked a Spanish fleet as it left Cuba.  
• Fray Juan Ramírez founded the Mission of San Esteban Rey on the Rock of Acoma.  

1629 Several more missions were founded in New Mexico and Arizona.  
Some fifty Jumano Indians from Texas arrived at the mission of San Antonio at Isleta, New Mexico, telling the missionaries there that the "woman in blue" asked them to look for the missionaries.  
• Friars Roque de Figueredo, Agustín de Cuéllar and Francisco de la Madre de Dios founded a mission at Cibola, called Hawikuh by the natives, in New Mexico.  
Fray Francisco de Acevedo founded the missions of the Inmaculada Concepción, San Miguel de Tajique and San Gregorio de Abó, New Mexico.  
• Franciscans Francisco Porras, Andrés Gutiérrez and Cristóbal de la Concepción founded the San Bernardino Mission, San Francisco de Oraibi, San Buenaventura de Mishongnovi San Bartolomé de Shongopovi and Kisakobi, in Arizona.  
• Apaches destroyed the Spanish pueblo of Polvareda, New Mexico.  
• Fray Juan Ramírez began preaching Christianity to the Indians of Acoma, New Mexico.

1630 By this year there were now twenty five missions and sixty thousand Christian Indians in New Mexico.  

1632 Fray Juan de Salas visited the Jumanos of Texas, for a second time.  
• Friars Francisco de Letrado and Martín de Arvide were martyred by the natives in New Mexico.  
• New Mexico Governor, Francisco de la Mora Ceballos sent a punitive expedition, under the command of Tomás de Albizu, as a reprisal for the killings of Letrado and Arvide.  

1633 In this year construction was began on the Royal Road connecting St. Augustine and St. Mark, Florida. Twenty one missions were founded along this road.  
• Capt. Alonso de Vaca explored again the territory of Gran Quivira (Kansas).  
Fray Francisco Porras was poisoned by Indians in Arizona. It is believed that his companions were killed in the same fashion.  

1634 Spain ceded Curaçao to Holland.  

1635 Spain lost the Virgin Islands.  
• Fray Gregorio Mabilla translated a book on Christian doctrine into the Timucuana language of Florida. He also wrote a book on how best to Christianize the natives.  

1637 The Spanish mounted a succesfull campaign to subdue the natives of west Florida.  

1638 Jacinto García de Sepúlveda led an expedition to the area of Brownsville, Texas, looking for a supposed Dutch settlement there.  

1639 Defenses in Puerto Rico were reinforced to protect against pirate attacks in the Caribbean.  
• Admiral Andrés Matías de Paz led an expedition to explore the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, from Pensacola to the mouth of the Mississippi.  

1640 Dutch pirates attacked Puerto Rico, Trinidad and other Caribbean islands.
• The Spanish possessions in the region were to endure more of these attacks throughout the decade.  
• French pirate Pierre LeGrand captured the flag ship of a Spanish convoy near Florida.  

1641 Spanish forces in the Caribbean attacked and recaptured several islands from the French.  
• A strong missionary effort was began in the Apalache region of Florida.  

1642 The first library in Puerto Rico was founded at the convent of San Francisco.  

1644 By this year there were thirty five missions in Sonora, Mexico, and thirty thousand Christian Indians. These missions later served for the colonization and christianization of Arizona.  
• Juan de Archuleta led an expedition to Colorado. This was the first exploration of Colorado.  

1646 England attacked and took over the Bahamas after defeating the Spanish there.  

1647 The natives of the Apalache region rose in revolt, destroying seven missions and killing the deputy governor and his family.  

1650 Captain Diego del Castillo and Hernán Martín led an expedition from New Mexico to North Central Texas. They reached the Nueces River (Concho).  

1653 Captain Alonso de León led an expedition to explore the Río Grande region of Texas.  

1654 Captain Diego de Guadalajara reached the Indians along the Nueces River and traded buffalo skins with them.  

1655 Franciscans founded more missions in Florida and Georgia.  
• By this year, in Southwest Georgia, there were nine missions dependent on the presidio and the mission of San Luis, Florida: San Lorenzo de Apalache, San Francisco de Apalache, Concepción de Apalache, San José de Apalache, San Juan de Apalache, San Cosme y San Damián, San Luis de Apalache and San Martín de Apalache.  

1656 Native revolt in Texas. The Spanish were able to quail it after executing some of the leaders.  
• The Council of the Indies, in Seville, ordered the arrest of Florida governor, Diego Rebolledo, for mistreating the Indians.  
• The English took over Jamaica after defeating the Spanish. The island would later become a strategic point for smuggling and continued English attacks on Spanish ships in the Caribbean.  

1658 Sephardim Jews (Jews of Iberian origin), arrived in Newport, Rhode Island. There they built what is now the oldest synagogue in the United States (Touro Synagogue). The were the first Spanish-speaking community in the northeast.  

1659 Spaniards built a church and a monastery in what is now El Paso, Texas.   King Philip IV of Spain gave the Keresan Indians of Acoma, New Mexico, a land grant of 45,000 hectares (which they still posses to this day). This grant was recognized by the United States in 1858 and later ratified by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, who upon receiving the seven governors of the Seven Cities, renewed a Spanish tradition, by giving each of the governors a staff of authority (vara de justicia) with a silver handle.  

1660 Apaches and Comanches crossed the Río Grande and attacked settlements in Monterey, Saltillo and Casas Grandes, Mexico.

1661 Diego Dionisio Peñalosa Briceño was appointed governor and captain-general of New Mexico.  

1662 Diego Peñalosa, governor of New Mexico, sent away an expedition that reached Nebraska. There the Spanish met with seventy Indian chiefs of the region.  

1663 One hundred colonists from northern Mexico, which had been attacked by Comanches, crossed the Río Grande near Eagle Pass and battled them killing many and making prisonners of others, which were sent to work in the silver mines of Zacatecas.  
• Tomás Menéndez Márquez inherited his father's ranch in central Florida and made it the largest and more productive ranches of its day.  

1664 Governor Peñalosa, of New Mexico, explored the region around the Río Grande and the Mississippi River.  

1665 The Comanches crossed the Río Grande again and raided villages in northern Mexico. The Spaniards, with the support of the Boboles Indians of Coahuila, organized a counterattack and defeated them.  

1668 The city of St. Augustine was laid to waste by the English pirate John Davis.
Spaniards built the Church of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de El Paso, Texas.  

1669 Peter Heylyn published a four-volume work on geography in which he described California as an island.  As a result of an epidemic in Arizona and New Mexico, caused by severe drought, encouraged the Comanches of Mescalero to raid the villages of Christian Indians.

1670 Spain and England signed the Treaty of Madrid by which both powers promised the territorial integrity of each other's possessions in the New World.  
Fray Pedro de Avila y Ayala was martyred in New Mexico. 

1672 Spaniards started construction of the Castle of San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida.  
Two more missions were founded in the Apalache region, Florida.  

1674 Gabriel de Vara y Calderón, bishop of Cuba, went to Florida for a ten-month stay to visit the missions. He is believed to have confirmed as many as 13,000 Indians.  
• More missions were founded in Florida.  
• Fray Manuel de la Cruz crossed into Texas, between Eagle Pass and Del Río, searching for Guyguechales Indians and went through the present Texas counties of Maverick, Kinney and Valverde. He returned to Mexico with many of those Indians.  

1675 Seven more missions were founded in Florida. By this year, the number of Franciscan missions in Florida and Georgia was sixty six.  
• Franciscans established a settlement in Amelia Island, Florida.  
• Lieutenant Fernando del Bosque, Fray Juan Larios and Fray Dionisio de San Buenaventura led an expedition into Texas to do missionary work there.  

1676 Fray Francisco de Ayeta returned to New Mexico, from Mexico, with fifty soldiers, one thousand horses and many provisions.  

1678 Construction began on the San Marcos de Apalache Fort under the direction of Artillery Captain Enrique Primo de Rivera.  

1679 Up to this year, Spain spent one million gold pesos to support the missions and settlements in New Mexico.  
• Fray Juan Ocón was prevented by the natives from establishing a mission at Sabcola, in the Chattahooche River. This would have served the dual purpose of christianizing Indians and stopping the advancement of English explorers.  

1680 Pueblo Indian uprising in New Mexico. In the city of Santa Fe, the Indian killed four hundred men, women and children and twenty one missionaries.  
The three missionaries in the Mission of Santo Domingo, Francisco Antonio Lorenzana, Juan de Talabán and José Montes de Oca, were killed during the Pueblo rebellion.  
• Friars José de Espeleta, José de Trujillo, José Figueroa and Agustín de Santa María were killed in Tusayan, Arizona, during the Pueblo rebellion.  
By this year there were eighty thousand Christian Indians, forty six villages, thirty Franciscan monasteries and one hundred twenty missionaries in New Mexico.  
• The Mission of Corpus Christi de la Isleta, Texas, was founded by retreating Spanish from the Indian revolt in New Mexico.  
• The English attacked the missions in the islands of Jekyll, Sapelo, San Simón and Santa Catalina (St. Catherine's), Georgia.  
• A presidio was built by Capt. Francisco Fuentes in San Juan de Zapala, in Sapelo Island (Georgia), when the Spanish withdrew from Catherine's Island.  
• The mission of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Tama was founded to minister to the Tamali Indians of Georgia.  
• Between 1609 and 1680, Spain spent 1,000,000 pesos maintaining the missions.  
1681 Spaniards built an irrigation system at Isleta Mission, near El Paso, which is still functional today.  

1682 Spaniards and Christian natives who had survived the Pueblo Indian revolt, founded a settlement near El Paso.  
• Diego de Peñalosa, the former Spanish governor of New Mexico, travelled to France to meet with Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle, the pirate Grammont and others, to plan the overthrow of Spain from the northern area of Mexico and Texas. He proposed the construction of a fort at the mouth of the Río Grande.  
• A combined force of French and English pirates attacked the San Marcos de Apalache Fort. A second fort was commissioned by Florida governor Juan Márquez de Cabrera and built under the direction of Juan de Siscara.  
• Antonio Otermín and Fray Francisco Ayeta founded the Texas missions of San Antonio de la Isleta del Sur, San Francisco del Socorro del Sur, San Antonio de Senecú and San Lorenzo del Real.  

1683 Friars Juan Domínguez de Mendoza and Nicolás López, explored the region of the Nueces River, Texas.  
• Six additional missions were founded in Texas: San Antonio de los Puliques, San Francisco de los Julimes, Santa María la Redonda, San Pedro de Alcántara, Apóstol Santiago and San Cristóbal.  
• Pirate raids destroyed the Spanish missions of St. Catherine Island and Jekyll, Georgia.  
• English pirates attacked St. Augustine.  

1684 Fray Juan Domínguez de Mendoza founded the Mission of San Fernando de los Julimes, Texas.  
• English pirate attacks on Jekyll Island, Georgia. The Spanish abandoned the island in the early 1700's.  

1685 Martín Echegaray occupied Espíritu Santo Bay (Matagorda), Texas. This was part of an overall Spanish strategy to forestall any French encroachments in the Gulf of Mexico area.  

1686 Alonso de León explored Texas. He led five expeditions to search for a French fort on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.  
• Because of the constant English raids on the missions of Florida and Georgia, Florida governor Juan Marqués Cabrera, organized a punitive expedition under Tomás de León against Port Royal, South Carolina, destroying the English settlement there. The missions and forts at Tolomato and Espogache (Georgia) were abandoned by the Spanish.  
• Fort San Carlos was built near Fernadina Beach, Florida.  

1687 Jesuit Frs. Eusebio Francisco Kino, Antonio Salvatierra and others founded Dolores Mission along the bank of the San Miguel River, in northern Mexico. This mission would become a base of operations from which Fray Kino would launch the founding of more missions in the region. From 1687 to 1711, Kino preached Christianity to the Indians and it is believed he baptized 48,000 people. He founded or helped to found 29 missions and 73 Visitas (missionary chapels). 8 of those missions were in Arizona.  
• Frs. Kino and Salvatierra founded the mission of San Gabriel de Guevavi, Arizona. 
• The first African-American slaves escaping the plantations of South Carolina, arrived in St. Augustine. Plantation owners asked the Spanish to return them, the Spanish authorities replied that they had converted to Catholicism and, therefore, they were free under Spanish law. They started a settlement. This was perhaps the first town of free African-Americans in the United States.  

1688 Domingo Jironza de Cruzate, led an expedition from El Paso to recapture Santa Fe and, even though, the Spaniards fought a battle against the rebellious Pueblo Indians, causing them six hundred dead, the expedition returned to El Paso, for fear of encountering a larger force of Indians.  
• English pirate Robert Searles attacked St. Augustine.  

1689 Alonso de León and Fray Damián Massanet led a strong armed force to explore the coast of the Gulf of Mexico by land. Alonso de León suggested to the King that Spain occupy this area of Texas.  
• Sia was the scene of the bloodiest battle of the Pueblo revolt where 600 Indians died and many were made prisoner.  
• A military fort was built in Coweta, near Columbus, Georgia, under the direction of Capt. José Primo de Rivera.  

1690 Alonso de León and Franciscans Damián Massanet, Miguel Fontcuberta, Francisco Casañas and Antonio Bordoy, led an expedition to the Neches River, Texas. They founded a village and two missions, San Francisco de los Tejas and Santa María. Alonso de León brought livestock with him to San Francisco de los Tejas. This was the beginning of the cattle industry in east Texas.  

1691 Spain made Texas a province and Domingo Terán de los Ríos was appointed as the first governor. He and Fray Massanet organized the colonization of Texas and founded eight missions there.  
• Diego de Vargas Zapata Luján y Ponce de León became governor of New Mexico and he began the process of reconquering the territory. He also began the reconstruction of Santa Fe.  

1693 Governor Vargas returned to New Mexico, from Mexico, bringing with him soldiers, colonists, livestock and missionaries for the recolonization of the region.   The King of Spain, Charles III, issued an edict by which all runaway slaves were to given their liberty. This encouraged runaway slaves from the British colonies to Spanish Florida.  
• The scientist Carlos de Siguenza y Góngora accompanied Admiral Andrés de Pez on a scientific expedition to the southeastern United States. He published the findings in: Descripción de la bahía de Santa María de Galve (antes Penzacola), de la Movila o Mississippi, en la costa septentrional del seno mejicano. He also published a history of Texas.  

1694 Friars Francisco Farfán and Antonio Moreno led a group of sixty one families in the founding of the village of Santa Cruz (La Cañada), as "La Villa Nueva de Santa Cruz de los Españoles Mexicanos del Rey Nuestro Señor Carlos Segundo" [although it was always referred to as "La Villa Nueva de Santa Cruz de la Cañada"] north of present-day Santa Fe.  
• Fr. Eusebio Kino expanded the colonization of southern Arizona, reaching as far as the Gila and Colorado Rivers. He founded the Mission of Tucson and the Visita of San Javier del Bac. Two other missions were founded, San Cayetano de las Calabazas and San José de Tumacacori.  
• Governor Diego de Vargas accompanied by Fray Juan de Alpuente reached Colorado.  

1696 A new native rebellion in New Mexico was succesfully quelled by governor Vargas.  
• Juan Ulibarri led an expedition to explore southern Colorado and the Arkansas and the Animas Rivers.  

1697 After the rebellion, the Viceroy of Mexico sent many provisions to the colonists in New Mexico, such as, corn, blankets, sheep, cows, bulls, etc.  

1698 Andrés de Arriola landed at the Bay of Pensacola and began construction of the Fort of San Carlos. The city of Santa María de Pensacola was established nearby.  

1699 Preacher Cotton Mather wrote the first book published in Spanish in the United States, La religión pura en doze palabras fieles, dignas de ser recibidas de todos.  
• Frs. Eusebio Kino and Adan Gil and Capts. Juan M. Manje and Diego Carrasco reached the area of the Gila and Colorado Rivers.    

1700 Construction began on the mission of San Javier del Bac, in Tucson.  
The mission of San Francisco Solano was founded near de San Juan Bautista Mission, Texas.  

1702 The Mission of Santa Fe, in Florida, was destroyed by English settlers from South Carolina  
• An English fleet under Carolina governor, James Moore, attacked St.Augustine, setting

1703 Three more missions were founded near the border of the Río Grande, Texas.
• The Mission of San José de Ocuia, Florida, was destroyed by Apalache Indians.

1704 James Moore attacked the Apalache area in the Tallahassee region, destroying fourteen missions and twenty-four settlements, committing all kinds of atrocities. Franciscan missionaries were tortured and killed. Fray Juan de Parga was beheaded. Twelve Christian Indians were taken prisoners to be sold as slaves in South Carolina. After the English attacks, the San Marcos de Apalache Fort felt into disuse.

1705 Silver mines near Phoenix and Tucson were exploited at the suggestion of Fr. Kino.

1706 Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés with fifty families from Santa Fe, founded the city of Albuquerque as "La Villa de San Francisco de Alburquerque" in honor of the Duke of Alburquerque, then Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico).
The Mission of Los Padillos was founded nearby.
• Commander Roque Madrid led an expedition to subdue the native tribes in Northern Arizona.
• Capt. Juan de Uribarri led an expedition to northeast New Mexico towards the upper Arkansas river to subdue some Pueblo Indians.
• Uribarri led another expedition from Santa Fe into Kansas to prevent French encroachment from Canada. Uribarri took possession of Colorado in the name of the King of Spain, Philip V. He founded the settlement of Santo Domingo de El Cuartelejo.

1707 James Moore destroyed Pensacola. Diego Ramón was sent on a punitive expedition against the Ranchería Grande Indians in Texas.

1709 Fray Antonio Olivares led an expedition to explore more Texas and New Mexico territories. Fray Isidro Félix de Espinosa led a missionary expedition to Texas. He arrived at the present site of San Antonio and named the springs there, San Pedro Springs. New Mexico's governor, Antonio Valverde, led a military expedition to Kansas for the purpose of preventing French encroachment.

1710 The Mission of St.Augustine, in Isleta, New Mexico, was founded. The Governor of New Mexico, José Chacón, Marquis of Peñuelas, organized a succesful campaign against the Navajos, for their constant hostility towards Christian Indians in the regions of Zuñi and Acoma.

1711 Fr. Eusebio Kino died.

1712 Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollón, new governor of New Mexico, reinforced the defenses of the city of Albuquerque.

1714 Friars Gregorio Osorio, José Arransegui, Andrés Ramírez and Juan A. García, led and expedition north of the Río Grande and founded the towns and missions of San José de los Puliques, San Antonio and San Cristóbal.

1715 A hurricane sank ten Spanish galleons off the Florida Coast. Native revolt in South Carolina and Georgia against the English. The Indians were defeated and many of them sought refuge in Florida. The mission-pueblo of El Señor San José was founded near Presidio, Texas. Juan Antonio Trasauina Retis founded an Indian pueblo at La Junta de los Rios, present-day Presidio, Texas, and named it San Cristóbal. It was abandoned after de Presidio del Norte was establshied in 1760.

1716 Texas was separated from Coahuila and made a separate Mexican province. Captain Domingo Ramón led an expedition to Northern Texas, with colonists, eleven Franciscans, agricultural tools, seeds and cattle. They arrived at the Neches River and the following new missions were founded: Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hanai, Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de los Ais, Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de los Tejas, San José de los Nazonis, San Miguel de Linares de los Adaes and Nuestra Señora de los Nacogdoches. The mission of San Francisco de los Neches was founded in Texas. Los Lunas Mission was founded south of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1718 Fray Antonio de San Buenaventura Olivares advised Spanish authorities in Mexico about establishing a fort between Río Grande and the Neches area. His plan was approved and soon thereafter he and Martín de Alarcón, the governor of Coahuila, arrived at San Antonio River and construction began immediately on the Fort San Fernando de Bejar and on the Mission of San Antonio de Valero, best known as the Alamo. Texas governor, Martín de Alarcón, founded the town of Villa San Antonio de Bexar, present-day San Antonio, Texas. Martín de Alarcón established the Indian pueblo of San Francisco de Valero.

1719 French forces from Louisiana attacked Pensacola, Florida, and burned it to the ground. New Mexico Governor Antonio Valverde led a punitive expedition into Colorado against the Ute and Comanche Indians.

1720 Fray Margil de Jesús and Captain Juan Valdés founded the mission of San José and San Miguel de Aguayo, in the San Juan Valley, Texas. Captain Pedro de Villazur and Fray Juan Minguez, led an expedition crossing Colorado and Kansas and later arriving in Nebraska, looking for suspected French settlements in those areas.

1721 Captain Domingo Ramón started construction of Fort Loreto on the Bay of Espíritu Santo at the mouth of San Antonio River. The new governor of Coahuila and Texas, José Azlor Virto de Vera, Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo, reached the Neches area at the head of a strong armed force designed to protect the area and to prevent French incursions in the area. Fort Pilar was built. Franciscan brother José Pita was martyred in Carneceria, Texas, killed by Apaches. The Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo and Fray Isidro Félix de Espinosa founded the mission of San Francisco de los Neches. The Marquis brought with him four hundred sheep and three hundred cattle. This was the beginning of the cattle industry in south Texas.

1722 The mission of San Francisco Javier de Nájera was established near San Antonio, Texas. The Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo brought horses, mules, cattle and sheep in the San Antonio area of Texas.

1723 Alejandro Wauchope arrived at the island of Santa Rosa, Pensacola Bay, to build a garrison and houses for the colonists. The new governor of New Mexico, Juan Domingo Bustamante, prohibited the sale of arms and horses to hostile Indians.

1725 English forces attacked San Marcos Fort at St. Augustine, Florida. Presidios were built in San Antonio de los Adaes and La Bahía to protect the missions and to ward off possible French incurssions into Texas.

1726 Pedro Rivera made an inspection of the frontier posts of Texas.

1727 Gral. Pedro Rivera made a survey of all military posts in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Bishop Benito Crespo of Durango, Mexico, visited Arizona as part of the territory under his ecclesiastical authority. He asked the king for permission to found three more missions at his own expense.

1728 The English attacked St. Augustine in retaliation for the Spanish policy of giving sanctuary to runaway slaves from the English colonies. The African-American soldiers fought so bravely that the Spanish governor freed all slaves that were soldiers and abolished slave trade. Thus, becaming the first town in the United States to abolish slave trade.

1730 Sixteen families from the Canary Islands came to settle San Fernando de Bejar, Texas.

1731 More Franciscans arrived in Texas and three more missions were founded: Purísima Concepción, San Francisco de la Espada and San Juan Capistrano. A group of settlers from the Canary Islands, led by Juan Leal Goras, arrived to settle San Antonio, Texas. Fray Benito Fernández de Santa Ana arrived at the mission of San Antonio de Valero as FrayPresident of the four Quereteran missions. The new governor of Texas, Juan Antonio Bustillo y Ceballos, established a peace between the Spanish and the Apaches.

1732 The governor of New Mexico, Gervasio Cruzat y Góngora, forbade gambling, alcoholic beverages and prostitution in the Indian villages. He also forbade the sale of Apache prisoners to Pueblo Indians.

1733 Benjamin Franklin studied Spanish and made it part of the curriculum at the Academy of Philadelphia. Fray Mariano Francisco de los Dolores y Viana arrived in Texas and founded several new missions. Sephardim Jews arrived in Savannah, Georgia.

1734 The mayors of Bernalillo and Acoma, New Mexico, were removed from office for mistreating the natives.

1736 The governor of Coahuila, Blas de la Garza Falcón, explored both banks of the Río Grande.

1737 Texas governor, Carlos de Franquis, was removed from his post after being accused by the Franciscans of using natives for his own interests. Jesuit Father Gaspar Rodero wrote a report on California indicating its fair weather and the overall good quality of the region.

1738 Construction began on the church of San Fernando in San Antonio, Texas. The governor of Florida, Manuel de Montiano y Sopelena, ordered the total freedom of black slaves coming from the Carolinas and Georgia and put them in a settlement north of St. Augustine. The settlement was called "Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose." These men formed a militia and built Fort Mose. The commander was Francisco Menéndez, another former slave. Many of the colonists in Florida were free black craftsmen and soldiers in the Spanish army.

1739 The War of Jenkins' Ear between Spain and England began over the control of Georgia. An epidemic of smallpox and measles broke out in San Antonio and many Indians deserted the missions, but the missionaries were able to bring many of them back the following year.

1740 Revolt of black slaves in Stone, South Carolina. They tried to escape to Florida, but were captured by the English. English forces under general James Oglethorpe from Georgia, attacked St. Augustine.

1741 The first Spanish grammar book was published in the United States by Garret Noel, A Short Introduction to the Spanish Language. The English tried to conquer St. Augustine. Florida governor, Manuel de Montiano, led a Spanish force to destroy the English in Georgia and the Carolinas, during the War of Jenkin's Ear (1740-1748).

1743 The English tried to conquer St. Augustine again. Jesuits José M. Mónaco and José J. Alana created a Catholic community near Florida Cape and the Ratones River.

1744 General José de Escandón started the colonization of the Río Grande Valley, Texas.

1745 Fray Francisco Javier Ortiz reported on his inspection of the San Antonio missions that there were two thousand two hundred and eighty two Christian Indians.

1746 The mission of Cebolleta, New Mexico, was founded. Fray Isidro Félix de Espinosa wrote a chronicle of the apostolic colleges in Texas. Cristóbal de los Santos Coy founded the first Texas non-mission school in San Fernando de Béxar.

1747 Gral. José Escandón established fourteen towns along the Río Grande with five hundred families. The governor of Texas, Francisco García Larios, ordered Joaquín Orobio y Basterra to explore the Gulf Coast. Orobio gave the first description of the present bay of Corpus Christi. Pedro de Rábago y Terán explored the Big Bend country of Texas. José de Escandón was instructed to spread Christianity into the lower Río Grande Valley, Texas.

1748 Jacobo Rodríguez Rivera, a wealthy merchant, settled in Newport, Rhode Island. Introduced sperm oil industry to the colonies and the manufacture of spermaceti candles as well. Fray Francisco Mariano de los Dolores y Viana founded the missions of San Ildefonso and San Francisco Javier de los Horcasitas, Texas.

1749 Fray Mariano de los Dolores extended missionary activity to include the area between the San Marcos and Brazos Rivers, Texas. Spaniards signed a treaty with the Apaches. The Governor's Palace was built in San Antonio, Texas. The mission of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria was founded in Texas. José de Zúñíga founded the Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo Mission, in Goliad, Texas. Captain Oribio y Basterra built the presidio of Nuestra Señora de Loreto de la Bahía, in Goliad, Texas. Later, Captains Manuel Ramírez de la Piscina and Francisco Tovar y Cazorla added to its fortifications due to frequent Indian attacks.

1750 The governor of New Mexico, Tomás Vélez Capuchín, battled the Comanches. The settlements of Dolores, Peñitas and La Lomita were founded on the banks of the Río Grande, Texas. Pedro de Bustamante led a punitive expedition into Colorado against hostile Indians.

1751 Sugar cane was introduced in Louisiana by Spanish missionaries from Santo Domingo. Pima Indian rebellion in Arizona. Frs. Francisco Javier Saeta and Enrique Ruhen were killed with other 100 people at Sonoita Arizona and Caborca, Sonora. Jacinto de Barrios y Jáuregui was appointed governor and captain-general of Texas. He encouraged missionary work in the region.

1752 Captain Juan Bautista Anza founded the settlement of Tubac, Arizona. Fray José Ganzábal was martyred in Texas.

1753 José Vázquez Borrego started a ferry service to cross the Río Grande to Dolores, Mexico.

1754 Fray Juan de Dios Cambreras founded the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary, near La Bahía, Texas. The San Marcos de Apalache Fort was rebuilt, yet again, under the direction of engineer Juan de la Cotilla. New Mexico governor, Antonio del Valle, built the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Luz, in Santa Fe.

1755 Tomás Sánchez, a member of José Escandón's expedition, founded Laredo, Texas. José Escandón founded a settlement north of Laredo. The Mission of San Francisco de Asís was built in Rancho de Taos, New Mexico. The town of Nuestra Señora de Dolores was founded thirty miles below the present city of Laredo, on land owned by Juan Antonio Vidaurri and José Vásquez Borrego.

1756 Mission of Our Lady of the Light was built on Galveston Bay, at the mouth of the Trinity River, Texas. The mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe was founded in Texas. Jacinto Barrios y Jáuregui and Marcos Ruiz founded the presidio of San Agustín de Ahumada, near present-day Wallisville, Texas. Texas lieutenant-governor, Bernardo de Miranda, explored de Llano and Colorado regions in search of mineral deposits. The city of Pensacola, Florida, was built with an stockade to protect Christian Indians.

1757 Pedro Romero de Terreros donated 150,000 pesos for the establishment of a mission and town near the San Sabas River, Texas. Colonel Diego Ortiz y Parrilla built the San Luis de las Amarillas Fort, Texas. He had brought 400 settlers, mostly from the Canary Islands. The mission of San Sabá de la Santa Cruz was established in the San Saba River, near present-day Menard, Texas. It was destroyed by Comanches the following year. José de la Tienda, a Texas rancher, reported having 80,000 head of cattle, horses and mules and over 300,000 sheep. Jesuit priest Andrés Burriel wrote a book about California, which was later translated into several European languages. Miguel Venegas published in Spain a history of California. Colonists from the Canary Islands arrived in Florida. Francisco María Celi arrived at what is now the town of Temple Terrace (in the Tampa region) to explore for pine trees to be used as masts by the Spanish Navy. He called the forest "El Piñal de la Cruz de Santa Teresa." The expedition drew a detailed map of the Great Bay of Tampa. David Rodríguez Monsanto, a Sepahrdim Jew, moved to New Orleans where he founded a trading company. He was very succesful until he was expelled by the Spanish governor.

1758 The Mission of San Sabas was destroyed by Comanches. Fray Alonso Giraldo de Terreros and Fray José Santiestebán were martyred.

1759 The Bishop of Guadalajara, Mexico, Francisco Martínez Tejada visited the missions of the Río Grande and San Antonio, Texas. There he confirmed 644 persons, Spanish and Apache. Captain Alonso Rubín de Celis found a presidio in Presidio del Norte, Texas.

1760 Captain Blas María de la Garza Falcón received a royal charter of land in Texas of 975,000 acres. He called it "King Ranch of Santa Petronilla", the largest land-holding piece in the United States. Bishop Pedro Tamarón Romeral of Durango, Mexico, visited New Mexico. There he confirmed about 14,000 people. Fray Bartolomé García wrote a guide for missionaries on how to minister to the natives. He translated it into the native language of the Texas Indians. Felipe de Rábago y Terán rebuilt the San Saba presidio, Texas.

1761 A wall was built around the mission of San Antonio, Texas, for the protection against Apaches. Fray Diego Jiménez and Captain Felipe Rábago y Terán began construction of the San Lorenzo de la Santa Cruz Mission, on the banks of the Nueces River, Texas. They also built Candelaria Mission. The Apaches led a fierce attack on the Pueblo de Taos, New Mexico. As a reprisal, Governor Manuel de Portillo y Urrizola sent out a punitive expedition during which 400 Indians were killed. Juan María de Rivera was the first European to cross the Rockies. The Governor of New Mexico, Tomás Vélez Capuchín, sent Juan María de Rivera, Joaquín Laín, Gregorio Sandoval and Pedro Mora in an expedition to Colorado in search of precious minerals. 100 Catalonians arrived in Florida.

1762 France ceded Louisiana to Spain, but did not actually take over until 1765. By the Treaty of San Ildefonso (1810), Spain receded Louisiana to France. English forces occupied Havana briefly. France and Spain went to war against England. The mission of San Lorenzo del Cañón was founded on the east bank of the San Antonio River, Texas. New Mexico Governor Tomás Vélez Capuchín made a truce with the Comanches.

1763 The Peace Treaty of Paris was signed. England gave Havana back to Spain in return for Florida and Georgia, while France ceded Louisiana to Spain, as compensation. The English expelled from the St. Augustine area all Christian natives. They went West and took the name of Seminole. 200 families from the Canary Islands arrived to settle in Florida.

1764 Cuba became a separate captaincy-general. Within that arrangement in the Spanish empire, Florida and Louisiana fell under Cuban jurisdiction.

1765 Captain Juan Rivera led an expedition across the Rocky Mountains. English colonists arrived in Florida.

1766 Juan Alonso Ulloa, a scientist and an officer in the Spanish Navy, was appointed governor of Louisiana. He founded the first astronomical observatory and the first laboratory for the study and analysis of metals. A Texas storm destroyed the presidio and mission of San Agustín. José de la Garza Falcón led an expedition from Camargo to Texas to explore the coast and look for suspected English settlements there. The play by Henry Fielding Don Quixote in England, based on the work by Miguel de Cervantes, enjoyed great success in Philadelphia.

1767 Spain expelled the Jesuists from all her territories. A Royal Commission arrived in Texas to distribute land in the area of Nuevo Santander. Many of the properties in this area can trace their origins to these deeds (Deeds of the General Visit of Inspection). Spanish laws regarding water rights and usage became the foundations of the current Texas laws regarding water rights and usage. 1767-1768 Fray Gaspar José de Solís inspected Texas missions.

1768 The king of Spain sent a military force to Upper California as a precautionary measure to prevent Russian encroachment in that area. Two ships left La Paz, in Lower California, with soldiers and missionaries, Fray Fernando Parrón, Fray Francisco Gómez and Fray Juan González Vizcaíno. Two other expeditions left by land, one left from Loreto and was headed by Captain Gaspar de Portolá and Fray Junípero Serra and another one left from Velicata and was headed by Capt. Juan Rivera and Capt. Juan Crespi. Both met in San Diego Bay. Fray Serra founded the Mission of San Diego. The expeditions explored the area in great detail. 1,255 colonists from Minorca Island, Spain, arrived in St. Augustine.
• 1768-1774 Missionary-explorer Francisco Tomás Hermenegildo Garcés, from the Mission of San Xavier du Bac, arrived in New Mexico. He remained for six years and made four expeditions to the Gila and Colorado rivers.

1769 King Charles III of Spain, ordered the founding of missions along the Pacific Coast. A mission was founded at San Diego, in honor of San Diego de Alcalá by Fray Junípero Serra. Pedro Fages and Gaspar de Portolá, discovered San Francisco Bay, Monterrey Bay and founded the mission of San Carlos de Borromeo, in present-day Carmel, California. José Francisco de Ortega, a member of Portolá's expedition, discovered San Francisco Bay. The first Indians to be Christianized in California were baptized by Fray Juan Crespi at Los Cristianos, near present-day San Clemente. Fray Crespi had accompanied Capt. Fernando Rivera y Moncada on one of the expeditions to San Diego. Portolá was the first white man to discover oil in California when he camped at the Brea Pits in Los Angeles. Fray Crespi called the location "Spring of the Anders of San Estevan." Fray Junípero Serra founded the Missions of San Fernando de Vellicatá and San Diego de Alcalá. He introduced cattle ranching in California. Alejandro O'Reilly arrived in New Orleans as Spanish governor of Louisiana. The Apaches attacked the mission of San José de Tumacacori, Arizona, and burned it to the ground.

1770 Fray Serra founded the Mission of San Carlos Borromeo, CA. Miguel Costanso published his work on Upper California. Portolá led another expedition to Monterey Bay. The mission of San Carlos de Monterey was founded by Fray Junípero Serra. It was later moved in 1771 to its present site on the banks of the Río Carmelo and re-named "Misión de San Carlos de Borromeo del Carmelo." Portolá and Fray Serra founded the presidio of Monterey, California. Capt. Pedro Fages led an exploration through the Santa Clara Valley, up to San Francisco Bay to near the present-day city of Alameda, California. Between the missions of Holy Spirit and that of El Rosario, Texas, there were around seventy thousand head of cattle. Settlers from the José de Escandón colony began settling San Benito, Texas. The San Elizario Mission and presidio were founded in Texas.

1771 Friars Junípero Serra, Miguel Pieras and Buenaventura Sitjar founded the mission of San Antonio de Padua.   Friars Angel Somera and Pedro Benito Cambón founded the mission of San Gabriel Arcángel, near present-day Los Angeles.  

1772 Friars Junípero Serra and José Cavaller founded the Mission of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, California.   Captain Pedro Fages explored San Francisco Bay and Sacramento River and the San Joaquín Valley.  
• Fray Cirilo de Barcelona and four other Capuchins arrived in New Orleans.   San Antonio was made the capital of Texas.  
• Luis Cazorla explored the Texas coast looking for a suspected English trading post.  
• Antonio de Bonilla wrote the first history of Texas.  
• Fr. Francisco Garcés founded Tucson, Arizona.  

1773 Antonio Gil y Barbo and his descendants established the town of Nacogdoches, Texas.  
• The mission of San Elizario was founded on the Rio Grande, just below El Paso, Texas.  
• The first California boundary was established by Fray Francisco Palou put up a cross to define the limits of the missionary provinces of Lower California (Dominicans) and Upper California (Franciscans).  

1774 Captain Anza, Fray Garcés and Juan Díaz, with twenty soldiers, established a land route between the American Southwest and California.  
• 1774-1775 Juan Pérez and Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra explored the coast of the North Pacific. During this voyage, Pérez explored the Coast of Oregón, Washington, British Columbia, Prince of Wales Islands and also the Bay of Nootka at Vancouver Island and Seattle Bay.  
• Juan Pérez sailed from Monterey to explore and conquer the northwest coast of America to 60 degrees. He reached Queen Charlotte's Island in 55 degrees.  

1775 A Spanish woman gave birth to the first European born in California, Salvador Ignacio Linares. His parents were members of the expedition Anza had sent to colonize San Francisco.  
• Juan B. Anza founded the city of San Francisco, California.  
• Bruno Heceta and Juan Pérez led another Spanish expedition to explore the coast of the North Pacific. Triniday Bay and the mouth of the California River were discovered.  
• Juan Manuel de Ayala with pilots José Cañizares and Juan Bautista Aguirre entered San Francisco Bay, California, and mapped it.  
• Monterey became the capital of California.  
• The Continental Congress adopted the Spanish dollar as its currency. The simbol derived from the two pillars and the wrapping motto "Plus Ultra" from the Spanish royal coat of arms.  
• Capt. Juan Baustista de Anza led a second land expedition to California from San Miguel de Horcasitas, Sonora. Accompanying him were 240 colonists, mules, horses and cattle and Fray Pedro Font and Fray Francisco Garcés.  
• Indians attacked the San Diego Mission and killed Fray Luis Jaume, thus, becoming the first California martyr.  
• Fray Garcés left Anza's expedition to travel and teach Christianity to the Indians of Southern California.  
• Fray Francisco Garcés was probably the first European to set foot in Nevada.   Fray Pedro Font, a companion of Fray Garcés, saw snow-covered peaks, which he called Sierra Nevada.  
• Carlos Butrón and his Indian wife received the first land grant in California, near the San Carlos de Barromea Mission.  
• 1775-1776 Fray Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and Fray Atanasio Domínguez explored Arizona, Colorado and Utah.    

1776 The College of Philadelphia offered the first college course in the U.S. on Spanish grammar and literature.  
• Spanish missionaries and settlers founded the Dolores Mission at the center of today's San Francisco.  
• José Joaquín Moraga and Friars Tomás de la Peña and Francisco Palou founded the presidio of San Francisco, California.  
• The mission of San Francisco de Asis, in California, was founded by Friars Francisco Palou, Pedro Cambón, José Nocedal and Tomás de la Peña.  
• Friars Junípero Serra and Gregorio Amurrio founded the mission of San Juan Capistrano, in California. It had been previously founded in 1775 by Fray Fermín Lasuén and Lt. José Francisco Ortega, but it had been abandoned.  
• The presidio of San Agustín del Tucson was built. The fortifications were a palisade at first raised by Commander Pedro Allende y Saavedra. Later, however, adobe walls were built. Thus, Tucson, became the only walled city of the United States.  
• The Thirteen Colonies declared independence from England.  
• Luis Unzaga, Spanish governor of Louisiana, sent 10,000 pounds of gunpowder to General Charles Lee.  
• Charles III, king of Spain, ordered that help be given to the American revolutionaries in their fight against England, from Cuba, Louisiana, Texas and Mexico.  
• Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee and Silas Deane were sent to Spain by the Congress of Virginia to request Spanish aid.  
• Charles III authorized in September 1 million torinese pounds for the American revolutionaries. The funds were used to buy the following: 216 cannons, 27 mortars, 209 canon carriages, 12,826 bombs, 51,134 bullets, 30,000 rifles with bayonets, 4,000 tents, 30,000 uniforms and large amounts of gunpowder and lead. These funds were also used to finance the trip of General Marquis de Lafayette to America.  
• One hundred Spaniards fighting with the revolutionaries were taken prisoners by the British in New York.  
• Jorge Farragut, a Spanish merchant, joined the fight against England. He will be the father of David G. Farragut, the first admiral of the U.S. navy during this country's civil war.  
• In October, Charles III, issued a decree recognizing the right of the English colonies to their own sovereignty.  
• Fray Francisco Garcés was the first to cross the Grand Canyon, from west to east. Franciscans Silvestre Vélez Escalante and Atanasio Domínguez, led and expedition from Santa Fe to find a good passage to California. They went through the western part of Colorado and arrived at Utah Lake. They descended toward Arizona crossing the Grand Canyon from east to west for the first time. Fray Escalante spent 25 years exploring the territories of New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, while doing missionary work with the Yuma, Comanche, Apache, Tirangapuy, Moqui, Zuñi, Navajo and Pueblo Indians.  
• Spain separated the northern territories of New Spain from the jurisdiction of the viceroy of Mexico to create a semiautonomous region called the "Internal Provinces." Under this arrangement, Texas and Nuevo León became the Eastern Internal Provinces and New Mexico and Arizona, the Western Internal Provinces. • Captain Fernando Rivera led a group of settlers from Arizona to California. Most of them were killed by the Yuma Indians.  

1777 Arthur Lee, official representative of the 13 colonies reached and agreement with the Spanish government, by which it would send aid to the American rebels.  
• Juan de Miralles, left Cuba to establish a diplomatic liason between the Spanish government and the Congress of Philadelphia.  
• The new Spanish governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez, a key figure in the revolutionary war against England, apprehended 11 British ships and expelled all the British subjects from the territories under his control. He also opened the Mississipi River to free navigation and trade with the Thirteen Rebel Colonies and informed the Continental Congress that they were free to buy supplies in Spanish territory. He allowed American ships into New Orleans.  
• Gálvez allowed a representative of the rebels to open and maintain a building in New Orleans to buy and store supplies for the rebels.  
• Gálvez, himself, became very open in his support of the rebels and he sent many supplies to Virginia and Pennsylvania on Spanish ships. In this year he sent $74,000 worth of supplies and a shipment that arrived from Spain consisting of 6 cases of quinine, 8 cases of medicine, 108 cotton bales, 15,000 pounds of gunpowder and 300 rifles with bayonets.  
• An invoice of the Spanish government showed a total of $7,730,000 worth of materials and supplies for the American revolutionaries. It consisted of the following: 8 warships, copper and tin for cannons, 60,000 pairs of shoes, 10 tons of gunpowder, 80,000 blankets, 80,000 shirts, 3,000 horse saddles.  
• Felipe de Neve, the first Spanish governor of California, sent Liutenant Joaquín Moraga and Fray Tomás Peña and José Munguía to establish a town, later known as San José, on the banks of the San José River.  
• The Santa Clara Mission in California was founded by Fray Tomás de la Peña.   Juan Agustín Morfi compiled a history of Texas.  
• Bernardo de Gálvez surveyed the Texas coast, looking for English troops.

1778 Gálvez sent another shipment of supplies to the revolutionaries worth 100,000 gold dollars.  
• 12,000 rifles arrived in Boston from Spain.  
Spanish businessman, José M. Vigo, funded the campaign of General George Rogers Clark for the capture of Vicennes, Indiana.  
• 2,100 colonists from the Canary Islands arrived in Louisiana. They founded the city of New Iberia together with colonists from Málaga. Another 100 colonists arrived from Granada.  
• 1778-1883 3,000 Canary Islanders arrived in Louisiana, mainly to Galveztown, Valenzuela, La Concepción, Barataria and San Bernardo, which was started by Pedro Felipe de Marigny, a lieutenant of Gálvez, who brought some of those Canary Islanders to work on his land grant. He provided them with land, tools, seeds and money to build their houses.  
• Fernando de Leyba assumed command of St. Louis (Missouri). He played a key role in supplying Gen. George Rogers Clark.  

1779 Spain declared war on England and recognized the sovereignty of the American colonists.  
• General Antonio Barceló blockaded Gibraltar, therefore, no English ship left from there to America.  
• The Spanish navy attacked the British in the Bahamas.  
• A Spanish fleet of 13 ships under the command of Admiral José Solano, patrolled and protected the east coast from British attacks.  
• Lt. General Luis Córdoba captured 70 British ships at Espartel Cape.  
• Ignacio Arteaga and Juan B. Bodega y Quadra explored the Pacific Coast north of California.  
• Franciscans Francisco Garcés and Juan Díaz and Commander Teodoro Croix, established a mission and a town in Yuma, Arizona.  
• Governor Felipe de Neve drafted his Reglamento, a legislative code for the province of the Californias.  
• Gálvez took Manchac, Batoun Rouge and other important objectives in the South. In one month, he controlled the lower region of the Mississipi River.  
• Capt. Juan Bautista de Anza defeated the Comanche leader Cuerno Verde. Sometime later, however, Anza was asked by the Comanche Chief Paruanarimuco to help them become sedentary. Anza helped them to settle on the banks of the Arkansas River and they founded the town of San Carlos de los Jupes (the Jupes were one of the Comanche groups). Anza sent them 30 farmers with tools and seeds and masterbuilder Manuel Segura. Anza also supplied them with livestock.   • Antonio Gil y Barbo was appointed Lieutenant-governor of Texas. He was the first Hispanic of African heritage to achieve such high position.  

1780 Gálvez took Mobile, Alabama.  
• Commander Teodoro de Croix ordered the establishment of two missions on the California side of the Colorado River. The first one, located opposite Yuma was founded by Friars Juan Antonio Barreneche and Francisco Garcés and named "Misión La Purísima Concepción de María Santísima." The second mission was founded twelve miles down the river by Friars Juan Díaz and Matías Moreno and named "Misión San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer."   Washington presided at the funeral for Juan Miralles, an Spanish emmisary, who had died while visiting him in Morristown, New Jersey. Miralles was buried with great pomp and military honors.  
• Commander Fernando de Leyba built Fort San Carlos to defend the city of St. Louis against an English force much larger than his own of 25 soldiers and 289 civilians. After a two-hour battle, the English were forced to withdraw. As a result, the English were unable to gain control of the Mississippi Valley.  
• Captain Baltasar de Villiers took possession of the territory of Mississippi in the name of the King of Spain.  
• English forces attacked Spanish, French and Revolutionary traders on the bank of the Little Maquoketa River (Iowa). As a reprisal, a force of 300 men was organized, 100 of which were provided by the Spanish Lt. Governor of St. Louis, Fernando de Leyba.  
• Benjamin Nones, a Sephardim Jew, became the first official interpreter of Spanish and French for the United States government.  

1781 March 9. Gálvez reached the Bay of Pensacola, Florida, commanding an expeditionary force organized in Cuba, with soldiers from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Pensacola fell to Gálvez, after 61 days of seige, one of the greatest military feats of the Revolutionary War, taking over 10,000 English prisoners. With this victory, the British were definitely expelled from the Gulf of Mexico.  
• John Jay was appointed Minister to Spain.  
• George Washington and his family spent the winter at the home of Francisco Rendon, Spanish representative in Philadelphia.  
• Bernardo de Otter, lent Oliver Pollock $40,000 of his own fortune, to buy supplies for the revolutionaries.  
• Miguel Cajigal, the Spanish governor of Cuba, raised 1,200,000 torinese pounds for the Americans. This was used to prepare for the battle of Yorktown, which clinched the independence of the United States.
• Yuma Indians attacked the missions of San Pedro y San Pablo and La Concepción (California). Friars Francisco Garcés, Juan Díaz, Juan Antonio Barreneche and José Matías Moreno were killed, as well as, 100 other people.  
• Felipe Neve founded the city of Los Angeles, California, as Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles.  
• John Hay published his Castilian Days.  
• Spanish troops and Indian allies attacked the English fort of St. Joseph, in Nile, Michigan.  

1782 Friars Serra and Cambón founded the mission of San Buenaventura, California.  
• Lieutenant José Francisco de Ortega founded a presidio at Santa Barbara, California.  
• England reorganized her forces in the Bahamas in an attempt to counterattack and take over the colonies again. The Spanish navy defeated them.  
• Poet Antonio Crespo y Neva wrote a collection of poems dedicated to Bernardo de Gálvez. He died in New Orleans the following year.  

1783 By the Treaty of Versailles, East Florida was returned to Spain, ending twenty years of British occupation.  
• Juan Bautista Filhiol and a group of settlers started the city of Monroe, Louisiana. 
• The Congress of Philadelphia passed a resolution, bestowing on the King of Spain, Carlos III, the title: "Powerful Protector and Defender of the Independence of the United States of America."  

1784 Fray Junípero Serra died in California.  
• Fray Francisco Palou became Father President of the California missions. He wrote a biography of Fray Serra.  
• The first land grant in California was given by gov. Pedro Fages to José María Verdugo. It covered portions of the present-day cities of Glendale and Burbank.  
Construction began on the mission of San Javier del Bac, Arizona.  
• John Adams, Benjamin Frayanklin and Thomas Jefferson were appointed ministers plenipotentiary to Spain. Frayanklin was admitted into the Royal Historical Society.  

1785 Esteban Rodríguez Miró became governor of Louisiana. He continued with the same capable and enlightened administration as his predecessor, Bernardo de Gálvez. He provided the leadership needed after the fire that destroyed the center of town.  
• After the fire, Andrés Almonester y Rojas, funded with his own fortune the cathedral of St. Louis, the Cabildo, a hospital, a public school and the chapel of the Ursuline Sisters in New Orleans.  

1786 Pedro Vial began planning the Spanish Trail, a route to link San Diego and St. Augustine, Florida. This was the beginning of U.S. Highway 80.  
• As a result of Spain's continuous support and her open door policy to Americans to trade with her colonies, the Congress granted Spain control of both shores of the Mississippi River for twenty-five years.  
• Friars Fermín Lasuén, Antonio Paterna and Cristóbal Orámas founded the mission of Santa Barbara, in California.  
• Juan Bautista Anza and the Comanches signed a peace treaty. The Comanche chiefs travelled to Santa Fe for the signing of the treaty which was done amid great pomp and ceremonies.  
• José Francisco de la Mata established a school in San Antonio de Bejar, Texas.   St. Peter's Church in New York was opened in the presence of the Spanish Ambassador, Diego de Gardoqui, who had led the effort to raise funds for its construction. At the banquet, Washington was seated at Gardoqui's right and the church trustees, in gratitude to Gardoqui, decided to reserve "forever, a bench situated in a preferential position for the use of the representatives of His Catholic Majesty the King of Spain."  

1787 An attempt was made to create an independent state called "Franklin State" and the governor asked for help to Spain. Spain declined and the secessionist movement did not progress.  
• Another movement appeared to create an independent state west of the Alleghenies but, again, Spain refused mostly as a result of her good relations with the United States.  
• Spain granted permission to thirty families from the United States to settle in Camden County, Arkansas.  
• José Mares led a survey group to find a shorter route from Santa Fe, New Mexico to San Antonio, Texas.