From Acapulco to a Link With South America

Acapulco was now a point of departure for conquest, exploration and even a mission of aid. In 1536, while in Cuernavaca, Cortes ordered a shipment of food supplies and materials to be sent to Francisco Pizarro, via his ships, under the command of Hernando de Grijalva, who finally sailed from Acapulco on his well-favored journey to San Miguel de Piura, a port in northern Peru, and the first settlement founded by Spaniards in Incan territory.

As one of those ships returned to Acapulco the following year, a commercial route was established in the Pacific between Mexico and Peru, although due to the difficulties of transport from the coast to the inland capital of New Spain, Acapulco was replaced by Huatulco, between 1539 and 1578, an anchorage on the southernmost region of the coast, near Puerto Angel, with good overland connections to the new Antequera, named thus by its founder, Nuno de Mercado, in 1528, but called, after 1872, by its present name, Oaxaca de Juarez.