Note 22 — Chapter II · JUAN DE GRIJALVA EXPLORES THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE MEXICAN GULF. 1518.

It was the crosses, which the Spaniards here regarded of miraculous origin, more than any physical feature which after all gave the name to these shores. Cortés established it for all the region under Aztec sway, and under the viceroys it was applied to all the Spanish possessions north of Guatemala, including the undefined territories of California and New Mexico. Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 6-7, and others, have even shown an inclination to embrace thereunder Central America, but for this there is not sufficient authority. See Medina, Chron. de San Diego de Mex., 227; Lopez Vaz, in Purchas, His Pilgrimes, iv. 1432, and Gottfriedt, Newe Welt, 74; also Torquemada, from Herrera, and several standard authors. New Spain was for a long time divided into the three kingdoms of New Spain, New Galicia, and New Leon, each composed of several provinces. Under the administration of Galvez, this division gave way to intendencias, among them Mexico and a few provinces, and New Spain came to be limited in the north by the Provincias Internas, though including for a time at least the Californias. With the independence the name New Spain was replaced by Mexico, less because this term applied to the leading province and to the capital, than because the name was hallowed by association with the traditions of the people, whose blood as well as sympathies contained far more of the aboriginal element than of the imported. On Colon’s map the name is given in capital letters, Nova Spaña. Under Nveva España Ribero writes dixose asì por que ay aquy muchas cosas que ay en españa ay ya mucho trigo q̄ an lleuado de aca entanta cantidad q̄ lo pueden encargar para otras partes ay aquy mucho oro de nacimiento. Robert Thorne, in Hakluyt’s Voy., carries Hispania Noua east and west through Central America, while Ramusio, Viaggi, iii. 455, places La Nova Spagna in large letters across the continent.