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Early Expeditions Of Spanish
Adventurers. Ponce De Leon. L. Valasquez De Ayllon. Pamphilo De Narvaez.
Fernando De Soto. His Landing And Establishment At Tampa. Story Of John Ortiz, A
Spanish Captive Among The Indians.
Few portions of the Western Continent
have witnessed such scenes of barbarous
warfare between the natives and European
adventurers, or between subjects of
contending nations at the East, as the long,
low peninsula, which lies at the southern
extremity of the Atlantic seacoast of the
United States. Its whole history is
strangely romantic, and might well tempt us
away from our subject, were there room to
chronicle all the interesting details of its
discovery, conquest, and settlement.
The first picture presented to our minds,
when we turn back to these early times, is
of Juan Ponce de Leon, governor of Porto
Rico, led by Indian fables in 1512 to search
amid the low islands of the coast for a
fountain that should bestow perpetual youth;
landing upon the green and flowery shores,
and bestowing upon the country its pleasing
and musical appellation. All of North
America, to the northward and eastward of
Mexico, went by the name of Florida, before
English settlements were made upon the
coast. Failing in his first search, Leon
undertook a second expedition into the
unknown world, in hopes of finding mines of
the precious metals, but was killed in a
fight with the natives.
The perfidious Luke Valasquez de Ay lion, in
1518, visited the coast to the northward of
Florida, to procure gold and slaves. The
kindly natives, whom he tempted on board,
were shut under hatches, and conveyed to
Cuba. Returning again to the country, he and
his party were justly punished for their
treachery, nearly all of them being slain by
the inhabitants, who, mindful of former
injuries, rose upon them unawares, after
putting them off their guard by
demonstrations of friendship. Those who had
been carried into servitude mostly perished,
some by voluntary starvation, and others
from grief and despair.
The Indians of Florida are represented by
all early historians as a high-spirited and
courageous race, showing considerable skill
in agriculture, and exhibiting marks of far
greater civilization than those of the
North. It seems not improbable, judging from
their traditions, appearance, and customs,
that they, as well as the Natchez, had
emigrated from Mexico, perhaps at no very
remote period. They resided in towns and
villages of considerable extent, and showed
a degree of resolution and desperate valor,
in defending their homes against the
murderous Spaniards, which has seldom been
equaled. Unappalled by the terrible
execution of the unknown weapons of their
enemies, who, mounted upon horses (hitherto
unknown in the country) and clad in
defensive armor, presented a novel and
unaccountable spectacle to their wondering
eyes, they disputed the invaded territory
inch by inch.
Like most of their red brethren, they could
not long brook the indignity of slavery; the
proud spirit of the Indian can never, like
that of the African, be so humbled that his
race can continue and multiply in servitude.
The old Portuguese narrator of De Soto's
conquest, speaking of the Indian slaves of
Cuba, says that their custom was to hang
themselves, to escape the toil and
degradation of working the mines. He tells
of an overseer in the service of Vasco
Porcalho, (afterwards De Soto's
lieutenant-general,) who, "knowing the
Indians under his charge had resolved to
hang themselves, went and staid for them at
the place where they intended to put this
dismal resolution into execution, with a
rope in his hand: he told them they must not
imagine that any of their designs were hid
from him, and that he was come to hang
himself with them, that he might torment
them in the other world an hundred times
more than he had done in this." His
expedient had the desired effect upon their
superstitious and credulous minds, and,
giving up their purpose, they returned
submissively to their tasks.
Pamphilo de Narvaez, in April 1528, with a
commission from Charles the Fifth to conquer
and take possession, landed four hundred men
and forty or fifty horses at East Florida.
Penetrating the wilderness, they crossed the
country to Appalache, sometimes experiencing
kind treatment from the Indians, at other
times in danger from their attacks. Finding
no gold, and but little provision at this
town, from which they drove out the
inhabitants on their first arrival, the
Spaniards shaped their course to the south
towards Aute. Tormented by hunger; beset by
hidden foes; disheartened by the terrible
difficulties which beset their path, from
the almost impassable natural conformation
of the country; and worn out by incessant
exertion, Narvaez and his men reached Aute
only to "find it burned and deserted by its
inhabitants.
Many of the party having already perished,
the rest, hopeless of making further
progress by land, set to work to construct
boats in which they might reach a port of
safety. "With singular ingenuity they
prepared tools from the iron of their
accoutrements; and, with no further
materials than were furnished by the
productions of the forest, and the manes,
tails, and skins of their horses, five small
boats were built. They embarked and set
sail, but nearly all perished either by
famine or by the dangers of the sea. Only a
handful of the number were ever heard from,
among whom was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca.
With only four companions he kept on his
course to the West, and, after years of
peril, hardship, and servitude, reached the
Spanish settlements of Mexico.
The next Spanish expedition to Florida was
of far more importance and interest than
either that had preceded it. The celebrated
Fernando de Soto, after acquiring an immense
fortune as a companion of Pizarro, at Peru,
was moved by the restless spirit of
adventure to undertake a more complete
examination of the New World opened to
Spanish cupidity and curiosity.
With seven ships of his own providing, and
accompanied by from six hundred to one
thousand warlike and energetic adventurers,
many of whom were of noble rank, De Soto set
sail, in the month of April, 1538. Upwards
of a year was spent, mostly upon the island
of Cuba, before the fleet set sail for the
Florida coast. In the latter part of May,
1539, the vessels came to anchor off the bay
of Espiritu Santo, now Tampa Bay, on the
western sea-board, and a large division of
soldiers, both horse and foot, were landed.
The Indians had taken the alarm, and,
although the smoke of their fires had been
seen from shipboard in various directions,
all had fled from the district, or lay
concealed in the thickets. De Soto appears
to have been desirous to proceed upon
peaceable terms with the natives, but
hostilities soon followed. Some skirmishes
took place near the point of landing, and
the Spaniards speedily possessed themselves
of the nearest village, where were the
head-quarters of the cacique Ucita or Hiriga.
Here De Soto established himself in "the
lord's house," which was built upon a mound
by the seashore; while the soldiers used the
materials of the other buildings in
constructing barracks.
At the inland extremity of the town stood
the temple devoted by the Indians to
religious observances. Over the entrance of
this building was the wooden figure of a
fowl, having the eyes gilded placed there
for the purpose of ornament, or as symbolic
of the tutelary deity of the place.
Clearings were now made around the village,
to give free scope to the operations of the
cavalry, and parties were sent out to
explore the country, and to make prisoners
who should serve as guides or hostages.
The remembrance of horrible outrages
committed upon himself and his people by
Narvaez, had so embittered the old chief
Hiriga against the whites, that no
professions of friendship and good will
could appease his hatred. De Soto released
prisoners who were taken by his scouting
parties, charging them with presents and
conciliatory messages for their chief, but
all in vain.
In the tangled forests and marshes the
Indians were found to be no contemptible
opponents. They were de scribed as being "so
dexterous fierce and nimble that foot can
gain no advantage upon them." Their bows and
arrows were so effective that coats of mail
did not prove a sufficient protection
against their force. The arrows were headed,
as usual, with stone, or with fish-bones;
those which were made of canes or reeds
produced the deadliest effect.
A party under Gallegos, scouring the country
a few miles from the camp, attacked a small
body of Indians and put them to flight; but,
as a horseman was charging with his lance at
one of the number, he was amazed to hear him
cry out, "Sirs, I am a Christian; do not
kill me, nor these poor men, who have given
me my life."
Naked, sunburned, and painted, this man was
scarce distinguishable from his wild
associates. His name was John Ortiz, and he
had lived with the Indians twelve years,
being one of the few followers of Narvaez
who escaped destruction. Since the
disastrous failure of that expedition he had
made his way to Cuba in a small boat, and
had returned again to Florida in a small
vessel sent in quest of the lost party. The
Indians enticed a few of the crew on shore,
and made them prisoners. Ortiz was among the
number, and was the only one who escaped
immediate death. After amusing themselves by
various expedients to terrify and torment
their captive, the savages, by the command
of their chief, Hiriga, bound him to four
stakes, and kindled a fire beneath him. He
was preserved, even in this extremity, by
the compassionate entreaties and persuasions
of a daughter of the cacique. His burns
having been healed, he was deputed to keep
watch over the temple where the bodies of
the dead were deposited, to defend them from
attacks of wolves. His vigilance and
resolution, in dispatching a wolf, panther,
or a "lion," (according to one account)
which had seized the body of a child of one
of the principal chiefs, aroused a kindly
feeling towards him, and he was well used
for three years. At the end of that time
Hiriga, having been worsted in fight with
Moscoso, a hostile chief whose dwelling was
at a distance of two days journey, thought
it necessary or expedient to make a
sacrifice of his Christian subject to the
devil. "Seeing," says our Portuguese
historian, " the devil holds these people in
deplorable bondage, they are accustomed to
offer to him the life and blood even of
their subjects, or of any body else that
falls into their hands."
Forewarned of this danger by his former
benefactress, Ortiz fled in the night
towards the country of Moscoso. Upon first
meeting with the subjects of this chief, he
was in great danger from the want of an
interpreter to explain whence he came, and
what was his errand; but, at last, finding
an Indian who understood the language of the
people with whom he had lived, he quieted
the suspicions of his hosts, and remained
with them in friendship no less than nine
years. Moscoso, hearing of the arrival of De
Soto, generously furnished his captive with
an escort, and gave him free permission to
return to his countrymen, in accordance with
a promise made when Ortiz first came to his
territory.
The long-lost Spaniard was joyfully
received, with his companions, at De Soto s
camp; his services as guide being considered
invaluable. In answer to the first inquiry,
however, where gold was to be sought, he
could give no satisfactory information.
The cacique Moscoso being sent for, soon
presented him self at the Spanish
encampment, and after spending some clays in
familiar intercourse with the wonderful
strangers, departed, exulting in the
possession of a shirt and other tokens of
royal munificence.
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Indian Races of North and South America, By Charles De Wolf Brownell, 1865
