RIO LAGARTOS

Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, in his 1511 cartographic study *De Orbis Novo*, noted the area and named it Río de Lagartos (River of Lizards). Bernal Díaz del Castillo recounted in his *True History of the Conquest of New Spain* that during one of the voyages of exploration, the crew needed to obtain fresh water and, believing it to be a river, decided to explore it. As they ventured inland, they noticed the large number of crocodiles and named it Ría de los Lagartos (Stream of the Lizards).