Pánfilo de Narváez

Timeline

1. 1509–1519Cuba · CubaAround 1509 he took part as a soldier in the conquest of Jamaica, and from 1511 he joined his relative Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar in the conquest of Cuba, leading troops into Camagüey and elsewhere. The eyewitness Bartolomé de las Casas recorded that he presided over the Caonao massacre. He later owned estates in Cuba and served as lieutenant governor, becoming a leading military figure on the island.
2. 1520–1522Cempoala · VeracruzSuspecting Cortés of disobeying orders, Velázquez appointed Narváez governor of Mexico and sent him with about nineteen ships and 1,400 men to arrest him. After landing at Veracruz, Narváez encamped in the Totonac town of Cempoala. On May 27, 1520, Cortés launched a night attack with inferior numbers and won; Narváez lost an eye and was captured, and most of his men defected to Cortés's army. He was imprisoned for about two years before returning to Spain.
3. 1527–1528Tampa Bay area · FloridaCharles V granted him a charter to conquer and govern the region from the River of Palms to Cape Florida. On June 17, 1527, he set out from Sanlúcar with five ships and about 600 men; after hurricane losses in Cuba, he landed near present-day Tampa Bay in April 1528. He ordered the fleet to sail north along the coast while he led about 300 men overland to meet it, but the two groups never rejoined. After finding nothing in the Apalachee territory, the expedition built rafts and sailed west; Narváez's raft was blown out to sea in a storm off the Texas coast and he drowned. Only four men, including Cabeza de Vaca, reached New Spain in 1536.