Doug Weller Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Alan, aren't you here just speculating as to how
> the Spanish saw Henry VIII? And in particular, an
> individual Spanish mapmaker?
>
> Doug Weller
>
> Director/Moderator The Hall of Ma'at
> Doug's Skeptical Archaeology site:

Doug,
Well I consider the explanation given in that footnote to be pretty speculative!

This is a mystery that certainly deserves some research. I have been Googling "Alonso Alvarez de Piñeda" and found many links describing his voyage. He was dispatched in 1519 by the Spanish Governor of Jamaca to (officially) seek out a passage to the Orient. He sailed with 4 ships and made landfall in the Florida panhandle, then proceeded southeast along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Then he retraced his steps and proceeded around the northern Gulf Coast eventually mapping the coast of Texas and Mexico to the Yuccatan penninsula.

This link [www.texancultures.utsa.edu] alludes to the political maneuvering of Spaniards in the New World and has a copy of the map he made which was forwarded back to Spain about 1521. Unfortunately it seems that only the map survived. It would be great if someone could find his log/journal.

Unfortunately the map is too small to read the notes, but I did find a larger map on another link which I may be able to enlarge and decipher.

Some of the links mention that he spent 40 days in Mobile Bay refitting and supplying.