The Spanish	"Known by early residents as Fronton, Point Isabel was the site where Taylor took on most of his supplies. He set up a small garrison there and moved between that location and a fort alongside the Rio Grande across from Matamoros. " From Rio Grande Heritage by Brian Robertson.
Records involving Padre Island date from 1519 when a Spanish cartographer sketched the first map of the Texas coast. He sailed with Alonzo de Pineda of the Spanish fleet who was commissioned by the governor of Jamaica to explore the Gulf of Mexico, charting its environs in the search for a water route that was expected to lead into the Pacific Ocean. When Pineda got to the Padre Island area, he noted on the map that the series of barrier islands had water passes between. He called the coastal islands collectively Islas Blancas (White Islands) and the mainland Amichel. Along the same route with a fleet of ships four years later the governor of Jamaica observed the good pass at the southern tip of Padre and named it El Paso de Brazos de San Lago (The Pass of the Arms of Saint James) after the patron saint of Spain. Today the channel is called Brazos Santiago Pass or just Brazos Pass.(Santiago is Spanish for James)