Panfilo de Narvaez, a Spanish soldier and explorer, was given the right to conquer and govern Florida and the unexplored land of the northern Gulf of Mexico coast. He landed in Tampa Bay in 1528 and marched north in search of gold. The expedition lost contact with its ships and had to build new boats at the shore of Apalachee Bay in northwestern Florida. While here Narvaez did much exploring in what is now Bay County. In 1538, Hernando De Soto, another Spanish explorer, was named governor of Cuba and Florida and began a three year expedition throughout much of the southeastern United States in search of the gold he never found.