The little ships of Pineda’s expedition therefore must be supposed, according to these maps, to have entered the Mississippi by one of its numerous outflowing navigable bayous, which, before the construction of levees, discharged a considerable part of the waters of the great river through Lakes Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and Borgne. The Indian town noted at the mouth of the river may have been at the mouth of the bayou, that is, on or near Lake Maurepas; or it may have been near the chief place of outflow from the main river, which was most probably then, as in recent times, at Bayou Manchac, 117 miles above the site of New Orleans by the course of the river, and 14 miles below Baton Rouge. There is no reason to distrust the statement that within six leagues thence up the Mississippi the Spaniards observed forty groups of temporary or permanent Indian dwellings. If the ships only entered the mouth of the bayou (or of the Amite river, through which the several bayous send their waters to the lake), being there careened and repaired, it is easy to infer that some of the Spaniards ascended the Amite and Bayou Manchac in small boats to the Mississippi, noted the width of that mighty stream, sounded its great depth, and reported its Indian villages. The delta, jutting out as a long cape, was neglected by Pineda in his mapping, which was accepted generally by cartographers. The chart of Vespucci’s first voyage, more truthful as to this river’s embouchure, had been lost and forgotten. Harrisse, from a thorough study of records of Pineda’s cruise, concludes that he came to the Mississippi in April or May, 1519, remained at the Indian town forty days, as stated, and went onward, exploring the coast of Louisiana and Texas, in June and July. He coasted beyond the Panuco river, but turned back when he reached the neighborhood of Vera Cruz, already occupied by Cortes. The next year Pineda again voyaged to the Panuco, with many men and horses, to establish a colony, in which endeavor he and most of his company were killed by the Indians. The next expedition noting the Mississippi river was under the command of Pamphilo (or Panfilo) de Narvaez, for exploration and colonization of the country north of the Gulf of Mexico, from Florida westward nearly to the Panuco river, over which he had been given the title of governor. Grandly but ignorantly planned, this expedition was most utterly disastrous. Out of the three hundred men who began it, only Cabeza de Vaca, the historian of their shipwrecks and wanderings, with three others, survived to reach Spanish settlements.