In the Narváez story, what if...?

Part of a 1559 map of La Florida, 31 years after the Narváez expedition. The "Baya de Baxos" might indicate the St. Marks, Florida estuary, likely the Narváez "Bay of Horses."

History is full of those fascinating what-if alternatives that we like to think might have changed everything. In the story of the Narváez expedition, the what-ifs are fascinating. For instance, what if instead of first spending a fruitless month searching for treasure around Apalache, Narváez had immediately sent a detachment to the coast to look for and reestablish contact with their support ships, which were still cruising the coast in search of them? Then, after giving up on Apalache, they could have sailed farther west along the coast to a good harbor such as those at Pensacola or Mobile Bay. Rested and reprovisioned, they could have launched another invasion from there and/or founded a colony, which the king had authorized them to do. Narváez might now be famous for having established the first permanent settlement in the U.S. (predating St. Augustine by 37 years). Or what if the debilitated and desperate Spaniards, instead of trying to escape westward to Pánuco (then, a Spanish province and settlement in northeast Mexico) in their handmade boats—a coastal distance of over 1,200 miles—had sailed southeastward and back along the coast toward Tampa Bay to reconnect with their ships at the original landing site, only a couple hundred miles away? Of course, not knowing their longitude or that of Pánuco, they had no idea the distances were so different. Either way, could Narváez have lived longer to become a more famous and enduring character in our history? Given his careless nature, maybe not.