text: Background On December 25, 1526, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor granted Pánfilo de Narváez a license to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States for the Kingdom of Spain. The contract gave him one year to gather an army, leave Spain, found at least two towns of one hundred people each, and garrison two additional forts anywhere along the coast. Narváez had to secure his own funding for the expedition. He recruited investors by marketing the promise of riches comparable to those recently discovered by Hernán Cortés in Mexico. He also called in many debts owed to him, and used this money to pay for major expenses of the expedition.
  Appointed by the Spanish Crown as treasurer and sheriff, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was to serve as the king's eyes and ears, and was second-in-command. He was to ensure the Crown received one fifth of any wealth acquired during the expedition. Other expedition members included Alonso de Solís as royal inspector of mines, Alonso Enríquez as comptroller, an Aztec prince called Don Pedro by the Spanish, and a contingent of Franciscan and diocesan priests led by Padre Juan Suárez (sometimes spelled Xuárez). Most of the expedition's 600 men were soldiers, chiefly from Spain and Portugal, including some of mixed African descent, and some 22 from Italy.