Editing Port Aransas, Texas (section)

===Early history===

The [[Karankawa Indians]] were living a [[nomadic]] existence in the region when [[Spaniard]]s, led by [[Alonso Álvarez de Pineda]], probed the coast in 1519. Governor [[Francisco de Garay]] of [[Jamaica]] had commissioned him to explore the Gulf Coast from [[Florida]] to [[Veracruz|Vera Cruz]]. In the summer of 1519, Piñeda, took a fleet of four ships east to west around the Gulf Coast exploring and mapping five passes along the Texas coastline, including what is known today as [[Aransas Pass]].

In 1720, French explorer [[Pierre-Jean de Béranger]] was commissioned to explore St. Bernard Bay "[[Matagorda Bay]]" to establish a [[colony]] for [[France]] along its shores. Jean took an old Spanish ship that had been captured in Florida during the war with Spain, christened it ''St. Joseph'', and his travels resulted in the rediscovery of the Aransas Pass.

In 1739, Governor [[Prudencio de Orobio y Basterra]] named the pass Aránzazu Pass on his map of 1739, because it served the Aránzazu fort. The name was altered to Aransas on the map of a Captain Monroe of the ship ''Amos Wright'' in 1833.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rra03 |title=The Handbook of Texas Online - Aransas Pass}}</ref>