THE HISTORY
OF
Saint Augustine, Florida

WITH
AN INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY SPANISH
AND FRENCH ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION
AND SETTLEMENT IN THE TERRITORY
OF FLORIDA

TOGETHER WITH
SKETCHES OF EVENTS AND OBJECTS OF INTEREST CONNECTED WITH THE
OLDEST TOWN IN THE UNITED STATES

TO WHICH IS ADDED
A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE CLIMATE AND ADVANTAGES OF SAINT AUGUSTINE AS A HEALTH RESORT


BY
WILLIAM W. DEWHURST


NEW YORK
G.   P.   P U T N A M ’ S   S O N S
182 Fifth Avenue
1 8 8 1


Copyright
1881
By WILLIAM W. DEWHURST

PREFACE.

CONTENTS.

HISTORY OF ST. AUGUSTINE.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Unfortunately, among the Spanish knights, who at various times essayed the conquest of Florida, few were found to desert the shrine of Mars for that of Clio. While there are several valuable accounts of the Spanish occupation, the scope of the histories is narrow and unreliable on many most interesting subjects, and on others of no importance they are often most diffuse. Owing to the vicissitudes of the occupation of St. Augustine, there are few traditions. It is possible that the Spanish antiquarian may at some future day develop a rich mine of history in searching the ancient archives of that nation and of the Catholic Church. Valuable acquisitions have been made in this field of literature by the labors of the learned and genial Buckingham Smith, a resident of St. Augustine.

Two impulses prompted the early Spanish explorers in Florida. The first was a hope of finding gold, as it had been found in Mexico and South America. A second and probably more ostensible motive, was the desire and hope of extending the Catholic faith among the inhabitants of the New World.

The result of all their hardships and labors has proved so barren that even in our day it is impossible to contemplate the slaughters and disappointments of the brave men who invaded and who defended these ancient homes, without a pang of regret.

[1492-1498.]

CHAPTER II.

THE DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA.

The date 1497 is assigned as the year in which Amerigo Vespucci discovered the western continent. Vespucci was encouraged by Emanuel, King of Portugal, and, though probably lacking the inspiring genius and sublime courage of Columbus, through the accident of fortune he has perpetuated his name in the designation of half a hemisphere. Doubtless, Vespucci was the first to reach the mainland of the western continent, as Columbus did not touch the mainland until his third voyage in 1498, when he landed at the mouth of the Orinoco in South America. So entirely unsuspicious was the world at this time of a second continent, that the transcendent genius of Columbus never suspected the magnitude of his discovery, and he died in the belief that he had landed on the eastern shore of Asia.

The next to essay a voyage to the New World was also a native of Southern Europe. John Cabot, the son of Giovanni Gabota, a native of Venice, who had settled in Bristol, was commissioned by Henry the Seventh of England to sail on a voyage of discovery and conquest. Though the inception and authority for the expedition antedated the sailing of Columbus by a year, Cabot did not leave England until May, 1498. His landing on America was at or near the river St. Lawrence, from whence he sailed southward along the coast, landing only for observation, and making no attempt to form a settlement. It is doubtful if Cabot ever sailed as far south as Florida, though it is claimed that to him belongs the honor of its discovery.

Fourteen years afterward, the first landing was made on the sandy shores of Florida, and possession claimed in the name of the King of Spain.

The mystic fountain of youth, first pictured in the days of mythology, whose waters would stay the devastating march of time, endow perpetual youth, even restore vigor to the decrepitude of age, was said to exist in the New World.

This fable, with which the European had become familiar from an Egyptian or Hellenic source, found confirmation in the traditions of the Indians of the Caribbean Islands. To the mind of the Spanish knight, eager to continue his youthful prowess and the enjoyment of the adjuncts of power and authority already achieved, the belief, thus strengthened by concurrence of a tradition in the New World, seemed an authentic reality, and the sufficient foundation for great labor and sacrifice.

In this materialistic age we may laugh at the credulousness of the Spanish chevalier, whose faith in the story of an Indian girl led him to expend his wealth and sacrifice his life in such a chimerical search; yet the history of our own day will recount equal faith and as fruitless ventures.

Juan Ponce de Leon seems to have been a person of influence in Spain, possessed of a unique character, a chivalrous nature, and a comprehensive and trained mind. Born in an age when personal valor and knightly habits were the surest paths to distinction and authority, his career seems to have been that of an adventurer. When past the meridian of life, he landed in the Bahamas seeking for the spring of youth. In vain was his search, but his hopes and his ardor were undaunted. “Upon the mainland the wished-for waters flowed as a river, on whose banks lived the rejuvenated races in serene idleness and untold luxuriance.” Leaving the Bahamas he steered northwest for the coast. While some accounts make his first landing at a spot north of St. Augustine, it is more probable that his course was to the west of the Bahama Islands, and that he first disembarked at or near the southernmost part of Florida, at a place called Punta Tanchi, now Cape Sable.

It was on March 27th, 1512, Palm Sunday (Pasqua Florida), and from this accidental date of discovery did the country receive its name, and not from its abundance of flowers. While the Latin adjective floridus signifies “full of flowers,” soldiers of fortune like De Leon did not make a practice of using the Latin tongue except in their litany. After erecting a cross, celebrating a solemn mass, and proclaiming the sovereignty of the Spanish crown, De Leon coasted along the Florida shore into the Gulf of Mexico, making various attempts to penetrate the interior of the country. In this he was unable to succeed, owing to the swampy nature of the land, and its barrenness of food products. After the loss of many of his men, the rest, greatly suffering for food, re-embarked. According to some historians De Leon returned to Spain, and demanded to be made governor of the new dominions; while others declare that he withdrew only to the islands, from whence he sent a description of the newly-discovered province, and begged a grant of the same. His request was acceded to by the Spanish crown on condition that he should colonize the country.

Accordingly, in 1516 he returned with two vessels, but his occupancy being disputed by the Indians, De Leon was mortally wounded in the first encounter. His followers, being dispirited by the loss of their leader in a strange and uninviting land, returned on board their vessels and sailed for Cuba. Here a monument was erected to the memory of Juan Ponce de Leon, on which is inscribed the following eloquent and deserved epitaph: “Mole sub hac, fortis requiescunt, ossa Leonis qui vicit factis nomina magna suis.”

Though De Leon died in disappointment, never having tasted the fabled waters of which he came in search, his name will ever be associated with the country he christened, and many a wasted consumptive who has regained a lost vigor and health under the assuasive influences of Florida’s climate will give a kindly thought of remembrance and regret as he recalls him who first visited Florida, a seeker after healing waters.

[1517.]

CHAPTER III.

EXPEDITIONS OF MURUELO, CORDOVA, ALMINOS, AYLLON, AND NARVAEZ.

One De Alminos, a member of Cordova’s party, made such a favorable report of the country and the advantages to be derived from a possession of the same that he induced Francisco de Geray, the governor of Jamaica, to furnish him with three vessels, with which he returned to the coast; but was unsuccessful in his attempts to make any acquisition of wealth or power in Florida, though slight progress was made in the survey of its coast. De Geray, however, trusting in the reports given him, applied to the home government to be made Adelantado of Florida, though his request is said to have been denied.

Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, an auditor of St. Domingo, a rich and learned man, formed a company with six other inhabitants of the island of Hispaniola, for the purpose of securing Indians to work as slaves in the mines of Mexico.

In the humane laws decreed by the Spanish crown against the enslaving of its Indian subjects, an exception had been made against the Caribs, or Cannibals; these Indians being considered especially barbarous and deserving of castigation.

De Ayllon falsely declaring that the inhabitants of the mainland were Caribs, set sail in 1520 with two vessels, and directed his course to the east coast of Florida. He landed in the province of Chicora in South Carolina, where the Indians were ruled by a chief named Datha who was a giant. His gigantic stature had been attained by a process of stretching which elongated the bones while a child. This practice was applied only to those of royal race.

The simple Floridians at first fled from the vessels and their pale-faced occupants. The Spaniards, however, by kind treatment succeeded in assuring the Indians, and, finally, induced the cacique and a hundred and thirty attendants on board the ships. These were at once secured, and the ships set sail for Hispaniola. It is also said that, as a parting salute, De Ayllon fired the cannon of the ships into the crowd assembled on the shores; but this inhuman act is not authenticated, and the treachery of which he certainly was guilty is sufficiently execrable to account for that remorse which he is said to have suffered afterward. One vessel was lost on the voyage, and the cargo of the other was sold upon their arrival at St. Domingo. The North American Indians, however, have never submitted like the African to the servile yoke. The Christianizing and civilizing blessings of slavery have never been appreciated by these Indians. This body of North American captives, the first which history mentions, set an example which has been followed by their unfortunate descendants. No promises nor hopes could influence these to forget their heritage of freedom. Refusing all sustenance, borne down by sorrow and home-sickness, to a man they chose death rather than slavery.

Charles the Fifth had been so affected by the eloquent and earnest appeals of that humane and nobly pious Bishop of Chiapa, Bartholomi de las Casas, that he issued decrees visiting his anger and the severest penalties upon the Spanish governors who, by their barbarous tyranny, had made the Indians of the New World to detest Christianity, and tremble at the very name of Christian. Though these ordinances appear often to have been disregarded, Vasquez’s perfidious treatment of the natives seems to have been disapproved at Court; for when he applied to the Spanish Crown for the governorship of the province, his request was granted on condition that he should not enslave the Indians.

Tempted by the profit of his first venture, he disregarded this provision of his grant, and returned to secure a second cargo. The Indians were equal to the occasion, and met the whites with their own methods. Having decoyed the Spaniards away from the shore, the Indians fell upon them and killed two hundred. The Spaniards after this attack put to sea, and soon after encountering a severe storm were shipwrecked, and are all reported to have perished except Vasquez himself, who was picked up and saved, only to pass the remainder of his life in misery and remorse. His unhappiness may have had for its cause his disgrace and the displeasure of the king, which he is said to have incurred. Another account says he was among the killed.

Despising the ignorant and untrained races of Indians and overweeningly confident in the mighty influence of the name of his king and the power of the Spanish arms, Pamphilo de Narvaez, having obtained from Charles the Fifth a grant of all the lands from Cape Florida to the River of Palms in Mexico, determined to extend the Spanish rule and the Catholic faith. Narvaez was also actuated by a desire to retrieve his own disgrace. Having been sent to Mexico by Valasquez, the Governor of Cuba, to supersede Cortez, the latter had by a sudden attack seized Narvaez and assumed the command of his forces, who were doubtless only too willing to serve under so gallant and successful a commander.

Returning to Spain, Narvaez was unable to obtain redress for the injuries sustained at the hands of Cortez, but was placated by the Commission of Adelantado of Florida.

On the 12th day of April, 1528, he sailed from St. Jago de Cuba, with four hundred men and forty horses. Landing near what is now Charlotte Harbor, he took formal possession of the country in the name of the King of Spain.

The houses of the Indians, already evacuated, were in sight of the bay. Proceeding inland, he came upon a town located on another and larger bay (Tampa Bay), where the Indians offered him corn.

Here was promulgated a manifesto prepared by Narvaez, in the Spanish language, abounding in arrogant assumption of power and superiority, intended to awe the Indians, and secure at once their allegiance and homage.

This curious document is still extant among the Archives of the Seville Chamber of Commerce. The proclamation throws such a light upon the estimate which the Spaniards had of the rights and condition of the Indians, of their own authority, its source, and the purposes for which it was to be exercised, that a considerable extract is quoted.

“A summons to be made to the inhabitants of the countries which extend between the River of Palms and Cape Florida:

“In the name of his Catholic and Imperial Majesty, ever august King, and Emperor of all the Romans; in the name of Dona Juana, his mother; King of Spain; Defender of the Church, always victorious, and always invincible, the conqueror of barbarous nations; I, Pamphilo de Narvaez, their servant, and Ambassador and Captain, cause to be known to you in the best manner I am able.” How God created the world and charged St. Peter to be sovereign of all men in whatever country they might be born, God gave him the whole world for his inheritance. One of his successors made a gift of all these lands to the Imperial Sovereigns, the King and Queen of Spain, so that the Indians are their subjects. After claiming their allegiance he closes with the following invitation to embrace the Catholic faith, which is more after the pagan than Christian order:

“You will not be compelled to accept Christianity, but when you shall be well informed of the truth you will be made Christians. If you refuse, and delay agreeing to what I have proposed to you, I testify to you that, with God’s assistance, I will march against you, arms in hand. I will make war upon you from all sides, and by every possible means. I will subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and His Majesty. I will obtain possession of your wives and children; I will reduce you to slavery. I notify you that neither His Majesty, nor myself, nor the gentlemen who accompany me will be the cause of this, but yourselves only.” That the Indians gave little heed to the claims and threats of this haughty knight is evident from the sad result of his expedition. While resting at the village about Tampa, Narvaez was shown some wooden burial cases, containing the remains of chiefs, and ornamented with deerskins elaborately painted and adorned with sprigs of gold. Learning that the gold came from farther north, at a place called Appalache, Narvaez immediately ordered his men to march thither. With more judgment or prophetic wisdom his treasurer, Cabeça de Vaca, endeavored in vain to dissuade him. Having distributed a small quantity of biscuit and pork as rations, he set out on the 1st of May with three hundred men and forty horses. They marched through a desolate country, crossing one large river and meeting only one settlement of Indians until the 17th of June, when they fell in with a settlement, where they were well received and supplied with corn and venison. The Spaniards learning that this tribe were enemies of the Appalacheans, exchanged presents and obtained guides to direct them to the Appalachean town. This they reached on the 25th, after a fatiguing march through swamps and marshes, and at once attacked the inhabitants without warning, and put them all to the sword.

The town consisted of comfortable houses well stocked with corn, skins, and garments made from bark cloth. Not finding the wealth he had expected, and being subject to the repeated attacks of the Indians, Narvaez, after a month’s rest at Appalache, divided his command into three companies, and ordered them to scour the country.

These companies returning, after an unsuccessful search for gold or food, the Spaniards continued their march toward the north and west, carrying with them in chains the Indian chief captured at Appalache. This plan of securing the chief of an Indian nation or tribe, and forcing him to march with the troops as a guide and hostage, seems to have been adopted by each of the Spanish commanders, and always with disastrous results. The sight of an Indian chief in chains aroused a feeling of outraged friendship wherever they passed, and gave a premonition of the servile fate that would be assigned to their race whenever the Spaniards obtained the dominion. This captive urged on the Indians to harass and persistently follow up the marching army, influencing even tribes that were inimical to himself.

The march of Narvaez through the western part of Florida continued until fall, with an unvarying succession of attacks and skirmishes at every halt, and often pitched battles at the towns that lay in his path. Little progress was made on their journey, owing to the uncertainty of their course, the unproductive and difficult nature of the country traversed, and the unremitting attacks and obstacles opposed by the wily Indians, who were ever on the watch to pick off man or beast, and prevent the collection of supplies.

Disheartened at the continued losses sustained by his army, and despairing of ever reaching by land the Spanish settlements in Mexico, Narvaez, having reached the banks of a large river, determined to follow it to its mouth, and take to the sea.

Slowly they moved down the river, and arrived at its mouth in a sadly distressed condition. Despair lent them an energy that was fanned to a burning zeal by the hopes of being able to reach their friends and salvation on the shores of the same waters before their view. A smith in their party declared that he could build a forge, and with bellows made of hides, and the charcoal they could supply abundantly, he forged from their swords and accoutrements bolts and nails for building boats.

Diligently they worked, incited by the memory of all their hardships and perils, and the joyous hope of safe delivery. Such was their energy and determination, that in six weeks they constructed from the material at hand, five large boats capable of holding fifty men each. For cordage they twisted ropes from the manes and tails of their horses, together with the fiber of plants; their sails were made from their clothing, and from the hides of their horses they made sacks to hold water.

With these frail and clumsily constructed crafts, open boats loaded almost to the water’s edge, and without a navigator in the party, or provisions for a single week did this little army of desperate men set out on the open sea. Narvaez commanded one boat. The others were under the command of his captains, one of whom, Cabeça de Vaca, has preserved to us the account of this fatal expedition.

De Vaca gives a long and minute account of their voyage, and the hardships and misfortunes they underwent until they were all shipwrecked, and out of the two hundred and forty who started on the return only fifteen were alive. Narvaez himself was blown off from the shore while almost alone in his boat and never again heard of. Only these four are known certainly to have been saved, Cabeça de Vaca, the treasurer of the expedition, Captain Alonzo Castillo, Captain Andreas Orantes, and a negro or Turk, named Estevanico.

These managed to preserve their lives, and attain an influence among the Indians by pretending to a knowledge of physic, and a supernatural origin. Their method of practice was unique, and as universal in its application to every form of disease as that of the celebrated Dr. Sangrado. It consisted in marking the patient with the sign of the cross, repeating over him a paternoster or Ave Maria, and then calling upon him to assure his comrades that he was entirely healed. The fee for this skillful treatment was the customary reward among the Indians for the services of the Medicine Man, the transfer of all the worldly possessions of the patient to the physician in exchange for restored health. The Indians thus despoiled by Cabeça de Vaca and his companions begged them not to be distressed about it, assuring them that they held the loss of their goods as naught in comparison with the pleasure of having beheld the children of the sun, who had the power to heal the sick and take away life. They declared they should hide nothing from them, because everything was known to these divinities. So great was the terror which their presence inspired, that for the first few days upon their arrival in any new place, the inhabitants never stood before them without trembling, and did not dare to speak nor lift up their eyes. De Vaca says: “We kept up much state and gravity with them, and in order to maintain this we spoke but seldom to them. The negro who was with us talked often to them, informed himself of the roads we wished to take, of the villages we should come upon, and of other things which we desired to know. Although we knew six languages we could not in all parts make use of them, as we found more than a thousand different languages. If we had had an interpreter so that we could have made ourselves perfectly understood we should have left them all Christians.”[1]

Thus did Cabeça de Vaca and his companions for nearly six years pursue their journey among the Indians. During all this long period they never once abandoned their hope and design of reaching Mexico. Finally after many other strange adventures De Vaca arrived at the Spanish settlements in Mexico, and was received by his countrymen with the greatest consideration and rejoicing.

Having been sent over to Spain, he presented to the crown a narrative of the unfortunate expedition of Narvaez, representing that the country contained great wealth that he alone was able to secure, and begging that he be made the governor. In this he was disappointed, however, but was placated by the government of La Plata, in South America. The narrative of De Vaca has been received by historians and antiquarians as in the main veracious, though describing some wonderful customs and people. It is the earliest account of Florida which we possess, having been published in 1555, and is of inestimable value.

Among the sailors in the ill-starred expedition of Narvaez was one Juan Ortiz, who has attained a celebrity on account of his connection with the later expedition of De Soto. Ortiz was among those who returned to Cuba at the beginning of the expedition. It is said that the wife of Narvaez, by a great reward, induced him to accept the command of a small vessel which she fitted out to go in search of her husband. Ortiz, having returned to the shores of Florida, was decoyed by the Indians to put himself in their power, and was then seized and brought before the chief named Hiriga, or Hirrihigua, who, feeling inflamed at the treatment he had received at the hands of Narvaez, ordered the captive to be stretched out on a pile and burned to death. Then history relates an episode similar to that of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, only more romantic. In this case not only did the beautiful Indian maiden supplicate an angry father, and clothe the quality of mercy in such attractive garb as to melt the flinty heart of a stern old savage; but, having procured the release of Ortiz from his imminent peril, she, with her equally noble and heroic affianced husband, sacrificed their love on the altar of humanity. Ortiz having been set to watch a burying-ground, allowed a wolf to drag off the body of a lately-buried chief, and though he pursued and killed the wolf, he was again sentenced to death to appease the outraged spirit. In despair of saving a life that was so justly forfeited, the daughter of the chief sent Ortiz to her lover, a neighboring chief named Macaco, who protected him for a period of twelve years until the arrival of De Soto. He thus incurred the enmity of Hiriga, who refused to consent to the alliance with his daughter unless the white man was sacrificed to placate the wrath of the spirit he had failed to protect. Unfortunately history has failed to preserve the name of this remarkable girl, and still more unfortunate is it that there is no reason to believe that after the arrival of De Soto, any return was made the chief’s daughter, which would show an appreciation by the white men of conduct so worthy of the highest encomiums and reward.

CHAPTER IV.

HERNANDO DE SOTO.—AN ACCOUNT OF HIS MARCH THROUGH FLORIDA.

Here he exhibited remarkable courage and capacities, and soon rose to be second in command. Having gained a valuable experience and a splendid reputation in the conquest of Peru, he was induced by Pizarro to seek his pleasure or glory in another field, lest his own achievements should be rivaled by those of his lieutenant. A million and a half of dollars was the sum which he received on relinquishing the field. This, in those days, princely fortune was but a small portion of the exorbitant ransom paid by the captured Inca.

Returning to Spain, his wealth and achievements seem to have excited genuine admiration rather than envy, and he at once became the favorite of the court. His martial spirit craved adventures, and could not remain content with the dullness of court life. He therefore petitioned the king to be allowed to fit out an expedition to occupy and settle the Spanish northern possessions. The country at that time designated as Florida extended from the Chesapeake Bay to Mexico, and, as was thought, embraced the richest portion of the world, full of all things good.

De Soto’s request having been granted, he was at once commissioned Adelantado and Marquis of Florida. A fleet of seven ships and three cutters was at once purchased, and armed and equipped for the expedition, and, as it was De Soto’s intention to colonize the country, much attention was given to providing a supply of such seeds and animals as were desirable to introduce. It is possible that some of the seeds scattered by the followers of De Soto may to-day be reproducing themselves in Florida. The origin of the wild horses of America has also been assigned to the Spanish introduction at this time. So great was the desire to accompany De Soto, and so certain seemed the rich recompense of wealth and honor to be achieved under such a leader, that the complement of a thousand chosen men was recruited with ease. Of this number more than three hundred were gentlemen of rank, knights and hidalgoes of the best blood of Spain, who lavished their means in the purchase of arms and equipments, thinking that with these they would procure wealth in plenty. With this brilliant corps were twelve priests, to minister to the spiritual welfare of the Spaniards, or Indians, or both.

Leaving Spain in the spring, the fleet proceeded as far as Cuba, where it was delayed a while in completing the arrangements. Here De Soto married the lady Isabella, a sister of the famous Bovadilla. The enjoyment of the society of his new wife, however, could not detain him from the pursuit of honor. In May, 1539, he left Cuba and landed in Florida on Whitsunday, in the same month. The bay in which they landed, now called Tampa Bay, was named by them “Espiritu Santo,” in honor of the day on which they arrived. A detailed account of the march of De Soto would be too long to introduce in a work like this. There were two reports published in the sixteenth century, both of which have been translated into English. While of great value and interest, they both contain much that is fabulous and exaggerated. Soon after beginning the march northward, the advance guard of the Spaniards fell in with a body of Indians, who advanced apparently to oppose them. The Spanish captain, thinking it was an assault, ordered a charge, when, greatly to their surprise, they heard the Spanish tongue in a supplication not to kill one of their own countrymen. The speaker proved to be the captive Ortiz, before mentioned. Having acquired a knowledge of the Indian language he was a great acquisition to the command, though unable, from his restricted confinement, to give a satisfactory reply to the first question asked him by his countrymen, “Where was there any gold to be found?” By the advice of Ortiz, or from motives of policy, De Soto pursued a pacific policy at first, and met with friendly treatment and generous supplies of provisions at the various Indian towns. The Indians, at that time, seemed to have paid considerable attention to agriculture, and to have lived in towns that were rudely fortified, and built with very considerable dwelling houses and barns. Some of the houses of the chiefs are described as more than a hundred feet long, containing many rooms, and set upon artificial mounds. They were built of palings, sometimes plastered with clay, and covered with thatch. At nearly every town the Spaniards found provisions stored, consisting of walnuts, dried grapes, beans, millet, and corn, besides growing vegetables, among which are mentioned beets. Some of the towns must have been very large, as many as six thousand inhabitants dwelling in and around several mentioned. At one town called Mabila, the baggage and valuables of the Spaniards were carried within the palisades by the Indians forced to transport them. There an attack was made upon the town, and twenty-five hundred of the savages were slain. The chief and a company of natives to transport the baggage were seized at every town, unless packmen were offered voluntarily. After marching a short distance away from their homes, the women were allowed their freedom, but the men were led by a chain attached to a Spanish soldier. Arriving at a town, these bondsmen were released, and new captives taken, to be in turn exchanged further on.

In this manner did De Soto march through what is now Florida, thence north-easterly through Georgia into South Carolina, thence back to the vicinity of Pensacola.

While in South Carolina De Soto fell in with an intelligent race of Indians, whose sovereign was a woman. Here he secured a large store of pearls, nearly three hundred pounds, some of which were said to be worth their weight in gold. These, however, were all lost, together with the other valuables and the baggage, in the burning of the town Mabila.

W. Gilmore Simms, the novelist, has seized upon the fables connected with this Indian queen, in his romance of “Andres Vasconselos.”

Trusting to the disingenuous tales of the Indians, and ever led on by his overweening faith in the existence of vast stores of gold, De Soto had marched on and ever further on until, consuming a year’s time, he had made a complete circuit of the country, and found himself empty-handed within six days’ march of Pensacola, then called Ochuse. Here he had ordered his lieutenant, Maldonado, to await his arrival with the ships he had sent back to Cuba for a supply of provisions and mining tools.

De Soto at this time exhibited that masterly force of character which had secured his former success and his great influence. Unwilling to endure the disgrace that would attach to an unsuccessful issue of the expedition, a disaster which, with the unfortunate results of former expeditions, he feared would preclude any future attempts to settle the Spanish domains in Florida, he resolved to conceal from his followers their location and the nearness of the fleet, lest, being disheartened by their want of success and worse than uncertain prospect of the future, they would refuse to continue on, and taking possession of the ships, set sail for the West Indies. He therefore forbade Ortiz to mention to the troops the arrival of Maldonado, which had been learned from the Indians. Recruiting his men and horses by a short rest, he marched on again into the unknown wilderness, and turned his back forever upon home, friends, and all that makes life worth living. Still searching for gold he marched from region to region, ever meeting and overcoming difficulties and opposition, and yet unsuccessful. He proceeded as high as the Cumberland River, then turned west, crossed the Mississippi, and reached the Red River. In that region the Spaniards wintered, and in the spring De Soto retraced his steps to the Mississippi, having determined to reach the mouth of that river, from whence he could send to Mexico and Cuba for further supplies. The disappointment and mortification which his gallant nature had so long opposed was eating like a cancer into his heart, and unsustained by a hope, which in other circumstances would have thrown off disease, his body at last gave way to fatigue and malaria, and he began to sink under a wasting fever. Deep despondency settled down upon him as he thought of home, his young wife, and all the comforts and prospects he had put so far from his reach. Calling his followers about him, he thanked them for their courage and devotion, and besought them to accept of his appointment of a successor to lead them after his death, which he assured them was near at hand. His followers tried to afford him the regulation comfort at such times, depicting this life as so full of misery that he was most happy who was soonest relieved of its burden. They finally received from him the appointment of Louis Moscoza as their captain.

Shortly after, on the 21st day of May, 1542, died that chivalrous knight, Don Hernando de Soto, Governor of Cuba, and Adelantado of Florida, far from his native land, in the wilderness on the banks of that great Father of Waters, whose vast and turbid flow ever recalls his great name and deeds, and whose discovery has proved his most enduring remembrance.

Desirous of impressing the Indians with the supernatural origin of De Soto, his followers declared that his father, the Sun God, had taken him to himself, and lest their deception should be manifested by the sight of his dead body, the corpse of their illustrious and beloved leader was placed in a canoe, and in the darkness of the night consigned to the waters of the mighty river.

Immediately after the death of De Soto, the Spaniards began to build boats and collect provisions in preparation for their long voyage. They continued thus employed until the annual floods had subsided, when they descended to the gulf. Though continuously receiving attacks from the Indians, they at last reached the Spanish settlement of Panuco, in Mexico. Here they were received with joy, and every kindness proffered them. Three hundred and eleven men kneeled before the altar in thanksgiving to God for their safe deliverance from those distresses and perils which had swept away more than two-thirds of the gallant army that four years before had landed in Florida, an army that had overrun a country containing thousands of brave inhabitants, subsisted for more than three years on the country through which it passed, ever maintained the unity of its command and devotion to its valorous leader while he lived, and executed his wishes after his death.

In 1559 the Spaniards made another attempt to explore Florida. Mendoza, the governor of Mexico, under advices from Spain, ordered the equipment of a larger and more complete expedition than ever had landed in Florida.

Fifteen hundred soldiers and many of the religious orders set sail from Vera Cruz in the spring of 1559, under the command of a soldier of some reputation, Don Tristan de Luna. Landing near Pensacola, the Spaniards underwent an experience similar to that encountered by their countrymen in the previous expeditions, and after being distressed by hunger, weakened by losses, and divided by mutiny, finally returned without having accomplished more than to view the desolation wrought by De Soto and Narvaez in the country through which they had passed.

CHAPTER V.

HUGUENOT SETTLEMENT UNDER RIBAULT.

Continuing their exploration of the coast, they sailed north about “ninety leagues,” until they finally disembarked near Port Royal, South Carolina, where they concluded to plant the colony. The site selected for their new city was a favorable one, being in a fertile and pleasant country, “abounding in mulberry and persimmon trees, and inhabited by a race of hospitable Indians, who supplied them with food for the merest trifles.” Though the prime object of the expedition had been to establish a colony in America, when the moment arrived to decide who should remain in the new settlement so far from home, and who return in the ships to France, it seems that it was necessary to appeal to the honor and the patriotism of the company to secure volunteers to retain possession of the territory which they had christened New France. Twenty-six of Ribault’s followers, however, agreed to remain, under the command of Albert, one of his lieutenants.

A field, sixteen rods long and thirteen wide, was stockaded, and within this they built a fort, which they named in honor of their sovereign, Fort Charles. We shall see that this honor paid to their king was reciprocated on the part of that vacillating monarch by a total neglect of the rights and interests of his loyal subjects.

Leaving provisions and ammunition for the little colony, Ribault sailed away in the middle of July, trusting to soon return with a large company, who should be the pioneers of a great branch of the French nation on this continent. Having arrived in France, he found the government so divided by civil discord and confusion that he was unable to secure any attention for the settlement of New France.

Meanwhile Captain Albert visited the Indian chiefs in the vicinity, cultivating their friendships, and exchanging simple presents for their gifts of pearls and some silver ore, which the Indians reported as having been dug from the ground on certain high hills by a tribe who lived ten days’ journey to the west.

The colonists seem to have expected to live on the provisions left within the fort until the return of the fleet from France. When the weeks passed by and their supplies began to be exhausted, with no sign of relief from France, the colonists began to be disobedient, quarrelsome, and unmanageable. In the company was one Laclerc, a licentious demagogue. This Laclerc, being opposed by Albert in his attempt to reduce certain of the Indians to slavery, raised a mutiny, in which the captain lost his life. After the death of Albert, the Indians refused to supply the colony with provisions, and their situation became so serious that they resolved to desert the country, and if possible return to France. Choosing one of their number as captain, they set to work to build a small ship and collect a store of provisions.

Having succeeded in constructing a small vessel, calked with moss and rigged with cordage made from fibrous plants, they set the sails made from their garments, and embarked to cross the wide ocean in a craft that had neither the capacity nor equipment for a coasting voyage. Soon after putting to sea they became becalmed, and continued so for twenty days, by which time they had been reduced to a starving condition.

So great was their necessity that they were about to cast lots for a victim, whose flesh should support life in the rest, when Laclerc the mutineer, offered himself as the victim. So desperate was their strait that his offer was accepted and his flesh distributed among the company. Life being sustained, they were soon after relieved from the repetition of such a shocking tragedy, being picked up by a passing vessel and taken to England. Having been brought before Queen Elizabeth, they gave such an account of Florida as to excite in her a great interest in the country.

CHAPTER VI.

SECOND HUGUENOT SETTLEMENT UNDER LAUDONNÈRE.

It is greatly to be regretted that the astute Coligni had not assumed in person the command of this expedition intended to establish in America a New France, forty-three years before the first settlement of the English at Jamestown, and sixty-six years before the Puritans on the Mayflower landed at Plymouth. His counsels would doubtless have preserved the weak colony who were so cruelly exterminated, and he himself would have escaped his untimely end. Coligni was one of the first victims of the horrid massacre of Paris on the eve of St. Bartholomew’s Day, in 1572, being assassinated by one of the servants of the Duke of Guise.

Laudonnère came upon the coast at St. Augustine, but, stopping only for a reconnoisance, he sailed to the site of the former colony and Fort Charles, with the hope of relieving his countrymen. Finding the fort deserted, and learning of the time that had elapsed since the departure of the colony, he determined to return to the river May (now the St. Johns), and found his settlement on its banks, where, as he says, the “means of subsistence seemed to abound,” and the signs of gold and silver observed on the former voyage had been very encouraging. These signs must have been the possession by the Indians of some pieces of quartz, which seems to have been very general, and to have led the French like the Spaniards from tribe to tribe like a very ignis-fatuus.

Laudonnère’s account of his landing at the harbor of St. Augustine is extremely interesting, and by his description the location is readily recognized. He says: “We arrived on Thursday, the 22d of June (1564), about three o’clock in the afternoon, and landed at a little river which is thirty degrees distant from the equator. After we had struck sail and cast anchor athwart the river, I determined to go on shore to discover the same. Therefore, being accompanied by Mons. de Ottigni, with Mons. d’Arlac, mine Ensign, and a certain number of gentlemen and soldiers, I embarked myself about three or four o’clock in the evening, and being arrived at the mouth of the river, I caused the channel to be sounded, which was found to be very shallow, although that further within the same the water was there found reasonably deep, which separateth itself into two great arms, whereof one runneth toward the south, and the other toward the north. Having thus searched the river, I went on land to speak with the Indians, which waited for us upon the shore, which at our coming on land came before us crying with a loud voice in their Indian language ‘Antipola Bonassou,’ which is as much as to say, brother, friend, or some such like thing. After they had made much of us, they showed us their paracoussy, that is to say, their king or governor, to whom I presented certain toys wherewith he was well pleased and for mine own part I praised God continually for the great love I found in these savages, which were sorry for nothing but that the night approached and made us retire into our ships. Howbeit before my departure I named the river the River of Dolphins, because at mine arrival I saw there a great number of dolphins which were playing at the mouth thereof.”[2] The dolphins or porpoises still continue to play in the river and harbor at St. Augustine, especially during the summer season. Throughout the greater part of the year rare sport could be obtained by good shots who had the skill to lodge a rifle ball in the head of the porpoise as he rises to “blow.”

The Indian town located on the present site of St. Augustine was Seloy, and the same name seems to have been given to both of the rivers which unite to form the harbor. From the narration it would seem probable that the point where Laudonnère landed was upon Anastatia Island, the Indians having come over from the mainland on seeing the French ships in the offing.

Laudonnère having left Fort Charles, entered the river May, and selecting a favorable site, about six leagues distant from the mouth, built a small settlement, which he fortified with palisades and an embankment of earth in the shape of a triangle, and named it Carolus, still doing honor to the king who so little deserved esteem. With a religious fervor characteristic of the age, and probably heightened by their isolation, and proximity to the vast ocean which they had just passed in safety, and solemnly impressed by their surroundings on a vast and unexplored continent, the little band of strangers assembled and dedicated their work and themselves to the glory of God and the advancement of his holy faith.

The site of the Huguenot settlement is now known as St. John’s Bluff, the first point of high land on the south after entering the St. Johns River from the ocean. It is a sightly hill, probably formed by sand dunes at an early period when the shore was far to the west of its present coast line. The bluff rises some forty feet above the river, and is covered with a thick growth of oaks and other hard woods. At the foot of the hill on the east lay the broad marshes stretching for four or five miles toward the sea, and reaching to the narrow ridge of sands and woods adjoining the beach. The channel of the river here approaches the southern bank, and the strong current sweeping in against the mobile sands at each tide has greatly abraded the hill until probably the site of Laudonnère’s fort has become the channel of the river. The site has been fortified several times since. During the rebellion a considerable earthwork was erected there by Florida troops, but the encroachments of the river have already swept away the site.

Laudonnère had found the Indians very friendly, and this peaceable disposition was by him assiduously cultivated. Trinkets and small presents were exchanged for the provisions which they liberally provided, and on several occasions the French lent their aid in making war on the enemies of the friendly tribes about them.

The chief or cacique of the tribe which inhabited the country between the mouth of the St. Johns River and St. Augustine was named Satourioua, or Satouriva, and in his intercourse with the French and Spanish he exhibited a remarkable sagacity and fidelity, as well as a dignity unlooked for in a savage.

Laudonnère describes his first meeting with this chief in these words: “We found the Paracoussy Satourioua under an arbor, accompanied by fourscore Indians at the least, and appareled at that time after the Indian fashion, to wit: with a great hart’s skin, dressed like chamois and painted with devices of strange and divers colors, but of so lively a portraiture and representing antiquity with rules so justly compassed that there is no painter so exquisite that could find fault therewith. The natural disposition of this strange people is so perfect and so well guided that without any aid and favor of arts they are able by the help of nature only, to content the eye of artisans; yet even of those which by their industry are able to aspire unto things most absolute.

“The paracoussy now brought us to his father’s lodging, one of the oldest men that lived upon the earth. Our men regarding his age began to make much of him, using this speech, Ami—ami—that is to say friend, whereat the old sire showed himself very glad. Afterwards they questioned with him concerning the course of his age; whereunto he made answer showing that he was the first living original from whence five generations were descended. M. de Ottigni having seen so strange a thing turned to the man praying him to vouchsafe to answer him to that which he demanded touching his age. Then the old man called a company of Indians, and striking twice upon his thigh, and laying his hand upon two of them, he showed him by signs that these two were his sons; again, smiting upon their thighs, he showed him others not so old who were the children of the first two; which he continued in the same manner until the fifth generation. But this old man had his father alive, more old than himself, and this man, which seemed to be rather a dead carcass than a live body, for his sinews, his veins, his arteries, his bones and other parts appeared so clearly that a man might easily tell them and discern them one from another, and both of them did wear their hair very long, and as white as possible, yet it was told us that they might yet live thirty or forty years more by the course of nature, although the younger of them both was not less than two hundred and fifty years old.”[3]

Laudonnère employed the Indians to assist him in finding gold, and sent various boat expeditions to the head-waters of the St. Johns River. It is reported, though unlikely, that one of his officers penetrated the interior as far as the Mississippi.

Some of his men appear to have been dissatisfied with the position assumed by their leader. They accused him of setting up a regal state, and also of having obtained a knowledge of the location of gold which he concealed from the rest of the company. Through the influence of these disaffected ones a conspiracy was organized to depose Laudonnère. He got rid of several of the disaffected ones, however, by sending them back to France in a vessel which was returned for supplies at this period. Subsequently the discontent increased, and Laudonnère was confined for fifteen days upon one of the vessels in the river, while the mutineers set about equipping two small vessels which he had built for exploration. After rifling the fort of such supplies as they needed, they set sail in these two ships on a piratical expedition. One of these vessels, having been separated by a gale from its consort, captured a Spanish ship, and after various adventures was finally captured and the crew destroyed. The other, after having exhausted its supplies, returned to the colony, and four of the leaders were tried and shot for mutiny.

Hearing that there were white captives among the Indians who resided further south, Laudonnère sent word that he would pay a considerable ransom for their delivery. Soon after there appeared two Spaniards who had been wrecked fifteen years before. They had adopted the costume of the natives—long hair, et preteria nihil. They reported that there had also been saved several women who had married and consented to live among the Indians.

The vessel sent to France for supplies not having returned, the garrison were threatened with an exhaustion of their stores. During all this time the French seem to have made no effort to cultivate the ground, expecting either that they would be supplied from home or that the Indians would furnish all that was required for subsistence. Their store of presents having become exhausted, however, the Indians became very niggardly and exacting, and finally declared that they were unable to supply any sort of provisions. At this Laudonnère seized a chief of one of the tribes inhabiting the territory to the south, and demanded of the Indians a large amount of provisions as a ransom. This he did not succeed in securing, and only engendered in the Indians an unfriendly spirit, which prompted them later to give to Menendez information of the location and condition of the French forces. He finally obtained supplies from some of the tribes to the north, among which was one inhabiting the sea islands, whose ruler was a beautiful queen. Finding themselves in danger of starvation, the French set about constructing a vessel to return home. They were diligently pushing on the work of construction when there appeared off the coast an English fleet under the command of Sir John Hawkins, who put into May River for water. Laudonnère entertained the English with the best he had, even killing sheep and poultry that he had been saving to stock the country. This hospitality was reciprocated by Sir John, who, seeing their desperate condition, offered to transport the whole company to France. Though he pledged his word to land them on the shores of France before touching England, Laudonnère refused his offer, fearing, as he said, “least he should attempt somewhat in Florida in the name of his mistress.”

Sir John Hawkins, however, with a generous humanity, consented to sell to the French one of his vessels, and suffered them to assess its value. With the vessel the English admiral delivered to them a thousand rounds of ammunition, twenty barrels of flour, five barrels of beans, a hogshead of salt, with wax for candles, and, as he saw the Frenchmen were barefooted, fifty pairs of shoes. Having delivered these things to the French, Sir John sailed away bearing with him the blessings of these forsaken Frenchmen. Alas! their enjoyment of the fruits of the Englishman’s humanity was destined to be short-lived.