RAW DOWNLOAD (complete file, unedited except for this header) DESCRIPTION: Geiger (trans.), The Martyrs of Florida by Luis Geronimo de Ore (1936), complete uncorrected OCR URL FETCHED: https://archive.org/download/martyrsofflorida00orel/martyrsofflorida00orel_djvu.txt DATE FETCHED: 2026-09-14 ============================================================================== FRANCISCAN STUDIES No. 18 JULY, 1936 THE MARTYRS OF FLORIDA (1513-1616) BY LUIS ger6nimo DE ORE, O. F. M. Translated, with Biographical Introduction and Notes BT MAYNARQ GEIGER, O. F. M. OLD MISSION, SANTA BARBARA, CAL. S O C I ET ATI S VER.BI DIVINI chmy. FRANCISCAN STUDIES FRANCISCAN STUDIES A series of monographs dealing with subjects of Franciscan history and Franciscan science. They are published at irregular intervals. The following issues have appeared to date: 1. Science in the Franciscan Order. An Historical Sketch. By John M. Lenhart, O. M. Cap. I $0.25 2. St. Bonaventure : The Seraphic Doctor. 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Translated, with Biographical Introduction and Notes BY MAYNARD GEIGER, O. F. M. OLD MISSION, SANTA BARBARA, CAL. In Sanctitate et Doati'ina NEW YORK JOSEPH F. WAGNER. INC. NIHIL OBSTAT: 53 Rev. Marion A. Habig, O. F. M., Censor Deputatus IMPRIMI PERMITTITUR: Very Rev. Novatus Benzing, O. F. M., Minister Provincial!* NIHIL OBSTAT: Very Rev. Msgr. Amos E. Giusti, J. C. D., Censor Librorum IMPRIMATUR : Most Rev. James A. Griffin, Bishop of Springfield in Illinois July 8, 1936. COPYRIGHT, 1936, BY REV. MAYNARD GEIGER, 0. F. M. FRANCISCAN STUDIES A series of monographs published under the auspices of the Franciscan, Conventual, and Capuchin Fathers of the United States and Canada. BOARD OF EDITORS Editor-in-chief REV. MARION A. HABIG, 0. F. M., A. M. Associate Editors REV. ALOYSIUS M. FISH, 0. M. C., Ph. D. REV. VINCENT FOCHTMAN, O. F. M., Ph. D. REV. REGINALD LUTOMSKI, 0. F. M. REV. BERARD VOGT, 0. F. M., Ph. D. REV. TURIBIUS DEAVER, 0. F. M. REV. FERDINAND PAWLOSKI, 0. F. M. REV. MAYNARD GEIGER, O. F. M. REV. BEDE HESS, O. M. C., S. T. D. REV. CYRIL KITA, 0. M. C., Ph. D., S. T. D. REV. SYLVESTER BRIELMAIER, 0. M. Cap., J. C. D. REV. URBAN ADELMAN, O. M. Cap., J. C. D. Publication Office, 54 Park Place, New York, N. Y. Correspondence in regard to contributions should be sent to Editorial Office, Sacred Heart Friary, 1362 Monroe St., N. E., Washington, D. C. v THE MARTYRS OF FLORIDA BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION Fray Luis Geronimo de Ore, 0. F. M., the author of the Relation de los martires que ha habido en las Provincial de* la Florida, is according to Means, “one of the least known and least often cited chroniclers of Peru.”1 It might be added that anent Ore’s Relation, there are few writers concerning whom so many chaotic bibliographical references have been made both in Spanish and English. If the present transla- tion, here offered for the first time in English, serves the humble purpose of dispelling this chaos, the labor entailed in its preparation will not have been in vain. On the other hand, the Relation, though relatively short, will be a means of making better known an illustrious and learned missionary who in his day was an international figure. Father Ore was bom at Guamanga,Peru,in the year 1554.2 Don Antonio de Ore and Luisa Diaz y Rojas reared seven chil- dren, four boys and three girls. Luis Geronimo was the third of the boys. He and his three brothers entered the Francis- can Order and were ordained to the priesthood. All were members of the Province of the Twelve Apostles in Peru. Fa- ther Ore’s three brothers were knowm as Fray Pedro de Ore, Fray Antonio de Ore and Fray Dionisio de Ore. The three girls became Poor Clares in their native city, Guamanga, where Antonio de Ore was instrumental in establishing a con- vent of that Order. Joined to their ability in rendering plain chant and in playing the organ, the four brothers became indefatigable missionaries among the Indians and approved preachers for the Spaniards. Fray Luis Geronimo was destined to become the most famous of the brothers by reason of his several scholarly writings. Among his many offices may be men- tioned those of preacher at Lima, Cuzco, Trujillo, Guanuco, and Arequipa; parish priest at Collaguas and Santiago de ix X BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION Coparaque; guardian at Valle de Juaja; guardian at Potosi; professor of Indian languages at Lima. The bishop of Cuzco, Don Antonio de la Raya, made Farther Ore pastor of an Indian parish in that city. So great an impression did the friar make on the bishop by his eloquence and his skill in the na- tive languages, that the latter requested the pope and the king to make Father Ore co-adjutor of Cuzco. No action, how- ever, was taken on the bishop's request. One is not surprised to learn that the highest office of the province was conferred upon Father Ore in the form of the provincialate. In 1598, Father Ore published at Lima, his Symbolo Ca- tholico Indiano which contained an explanation of the Apos- tles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. This work also included a description of the new world, together with a practical me- dium for teaching Christian doctrine in the Quechua and Ay- mara languages3. In offering this work to his fellow-priests in Peru, Father Ore was conscious of its utility for the conversion and instruction of multitudes of aborigines. He considered himself a pathfinder in that particular field of religious writ- ing in the native languages and humbly asked his readers to overlook whatever errors they might find in the volume pre- pared after much labor and study. Fray Geronimo de Valenzuela, Dominican prior of Parina Cocha, wrote a dedicatory sonnet for the Symbolo wherein he evaluates the work of the Franciscan linguist: ... Y si saber quisieres el camino Deste placido, ameno e emplrico puerto Aunque no tengas guia ni piloto, Fray Luis Hieronimo de Ore ques digno De escelsa loa, te lo muestra abierto En tu lenguaje con su libro docto.4 With the publication of this volume, Father Ore did not rest on his laurels. He had other projects in mind but because financial means were lacking, he was hindered from having other works printed. In 1599, Fray Fernando de Trejo, Franciscan bishop of Tucuman wrote to the king of Spain that BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION XI Father Ore was going to that country in order to have some of his books published. On this same occasion the bishop praised the efforts of the zealous missionary who had preached throughout the entire kingdom.5 In 1604 the bishop of Cuzco approved of another work of Father Ore, entitled Rituale sen Mammle Peruanum. This rit- ual or manual contained prayers in the Quechua, Aymara, Pu- quina, Mochica, Guarani, and Brazilian tongues. It was print- ed in Naples in 1607. This work is sometimes referred to as Manual de administrar los Sacramentos. Two other works in Indian by Father Ore are: Arte y Bocabulario en las dos len- guas quichua y aimara, and Sermonario de las dominions y fiestas del ano en las dos lenguas quichua y aimara.6 It was probably in the year 1605 that Father Ore travelled to Spain. Thence he went to Italy. At Alexandria, in 1606, he published his Tratado sobre las indulgencias. According to Medina who cites the Franciscan chronicler Cordova y Sa- linas, Father Ore wrote the book in Latin while in the city of Rome.7 In the following year, his Rituale , already mentioned, appeared at Naples. It is quite understandable that Father Ore became interested in publishing a life of St. Francis Sola- no, the great Franciscan apostle of Peru and Tucuman. In Spain he had ample opportunity for gathering the necessary documents. This work appeared under the title : Relacion de la uida y milagros del venerable padre Fray Francisco Solano, sometime between 1614 and 1619. Another work of Father Ore dealt with the Rosary, entitled: Corona de la Sacratisima Virgen Maria. It appeared at Madrid, in 1619.8 The chief work of this Peruvian missionary in which the interest of this treatise centers is the Relacion de los mdrtires que ha habido en las Provincias de la Florida .9 As mentioned before, none of the great bibliographers of His panic- America or of other countries have offered any reliable evidence as to the year of its publication. The Relacion of Father Ore has received prominent mention by bibliographers and historians, but owing to its scarcity, few if any were able to obtain copies of it for personal perusal and citations. BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION xii Barcia,10 writes that the Relation: “se imprimio en Quarto el Ano de 1604.” Ruidiaz y Caravia11 gives the year of pub- lication as 1605. Pinelo12 cites the years 1605 and 1612 (Li- ma) referring obviously to two editions. Beristain de Souza13 merely states that the Relation was published various times. Streit14 offers the tentative date of 1612. The great Medina offers a lengthy discourse in support of his opinion that the Relation most probably was not published before the year 1612. “La indication del ano de la publication de esta obra es tamos muy distantes de mirarla como segura.”15 These various errors with regard to the date of publica- tion of the Relation are understandable enough when one con- siders the rarity of the work. It appears, likewise that no date was attached to the original printed edition. A norm for forming a judgment as to the date of publication is af- forded by the contents of the Relation itself. Most of the outstanding bibliographers were under the impression that Father Ore was never in Florida. This is stated as probable by Medina.16 Streit declares: “aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach, war er selbst nicht in Florida gewesen.”17 Means, who is a specialist on Andean history offers the following comments: “In 1604 he [Ore] had published a Relation de los martires que ha habido en la Florida, a work of some interest for that part of American history. The fact that he, a Peruvian born, wrote about Florida puts him in the same class as the Inca Garcilaso, . . . with whom, at Cordova in 1612, he had friendly and sympathetic contact.”18 If this were so, the Relation of Ore would have only a relatively mediocre value, owing to the supposed fact that Ore described a country he had never vis- ited. Internal criticism of the Relation proves that the work could not have been printed before the year 1617, for it ends with an account of the second visitation of Father Ore to Flori- da in November and December of the year 1616. This then re- presents the terminus a quo. The Relation discloses that Fray Francisco Pareja was elected provincial of Florida in Decem- ber, 1616. In the same Relation , Father Ore states that at the BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION xiii time he was writing' it, Father Pareja was still provincial. In view of the fact that Father Ore left Spain in 1620 as bishop of Concepcion, Chile, where he was busily occupied in adminis- trative affairs till his death in 1629, in all likelihood, the Relation was published in Spain between the years 1617 and 1620. This would also coincide with the provincialship of Father Pareja. Fray Atanasio Lopez, 0. F. M., of Santiago de Compostella, Spain, who edited the modern edition of the Relation from which this translation was made, declared to the translator that the Relation was not published prior to 1617, but he was not able to offer any clue as to the exact year of the seventeenth century publication.19 There remain for consideration the labors of Father Ore from 1612 to 1629. In 1612 Father Ore while in Spain received a commission from Fray Antonio de Trejo, commissary-gener- al of the Indies, to recruit a number of friars for the growing mission field of Florida. With his usual energy, Father Ore gathered twenty-one friars from the Province of Concepcion, and accompanied them as far as Seville. These friars journ- eyed to Florida under the leadership of Fray Lorenzo Mar- tinez. An interesting event occurred during that year. At Cordova, Father Ore visited his renowned countryman, Garci- laso de la Vega. The friar asked the Inca for some copies of his history of Florida so that the new missionaries could acquaint themselves with the customs of the natives to whom they were about to minister. The Inca graciously acceded to the friar’s request and gave him several copies of La Florida del Inca together with several books of the Commentaries Reales dealing with Peru. This meeting is not recorded by Father Ore but by the Inca in the last-mentioned work.20 The Inca stat- ed, likewise that at the time Father Ore was uncertain as to whether he was going to accompany the friars to Florida as commissary or remain in Spain. As a matter of fact he re- mained in Spain. In 1614, however, Fray Juan de Vivanco, commissary- general of the Indies, ordered Father Ore to go to Florida and Cuba and make a visitation of the Province of Santa Elena. XIV BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION Father Ore complied with this order and during the same year visited the friars laboring in the territories now known as Cuba, Florida and Georgia. On this occasion he gathered much valuable information in the form of written statements, on the progress of the Indian missions. Several of these sworn testimonies, Father Ore included bodily in his Relation. After his visitation to the mainland, Father Ore returned to Cuba. Two years later the minister-general of the Order, di- rected Father Ore to proceed to Florida once more in order to hold another visitation and to conduct the canonical elections. On this occasion, the bishop of Cuba, Fray Alonso Henriquez de Toledo, authorized Father Ore to visit Florida in the capac- ity of episcopal delegate as well. Clothed with this twofold au- thority, Father Ore sailed for Florida and arrived at St. Augus- tine on November 16, 1616. For the next two months, he was busily engaged in visiting all the Indian missions of the prov- ince, conducting the visitation with apostolic zeal as well as with becoming prudence. He has left us an interesting itin- erary of his visitation which forms the final chapter of the Relation. In all probability, Father Ore left the West Indies for Spain in the year 1617. There in 1619 he published his Life of St. Francis Solano and the work on the Rosary already men- tioned. On August 17, 1620 as a crowning reward for his many useful labors Philip III, appointed him bishop of Con- cepcion, in Chile. Father Ore received episcopal consecration in Spain and set out for his new field of labor. On his way to Chile, he travelled through Peru visiting the scenes of his early labors as well as his friends and kinsfolk. In 1622 he took possession of his cathedral in Concepcion.21 Without losing much time, Father Ore determined to jour- ney to the Chiloe Indians for none of his episcopal predecessors had ever visited that Indian territory. For an entire year, the missionary-bishop travelled from island to island by canoe, attempting to bring the Indians of Chiloe into closer relations with the Church. However, he found that his new field of BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION XV labor was less promising in spiritual returns than his native Peru. This fact, however, did not dampen his ardor. Re- turning to the mainland, Bishop Ore visited his parishes to the north. Philip IV consulted him as to the best manner of subjecting the militaristic Araucanians to Spain. He answered the practical solution of the difficulty lay in withdrawing the Spanish troops from the territory and sending in their place missionaries, who would effect a spiritual and peaceful con- quest. Despite Bishop Ore's reputation for learning and sanctity, complaints reached Madrid, that he did not exercise the ne- cessary caution in ordaining to the priesthood, men with the requisite qualities. His conduct probably, was guided by his zeal in desiring large conversions for the present, overlooking the evil results that in all probability would accrue to the Church at a later period by unfit or unworthy men exercising the ministry of the priesthood. The king took cognizance of the complaint and addressed a cedula to Bishop Ore, ordering him to desist from his imprudent actions in that matter.22 The cedula , arrived too late, however, to come into the hands of Bishop Ore, for he died on January 31, 1629. The Relation of Father Ore, though containing much valu- able information, is of unequal value in its parts. As a matter of fact the first part of the work where Father Ore treats of the early conquests of Florida prior to 1565 is quite sketchy and contains a number of errors. The intrinsic value of the Re- lation lies in the details concerning the missionary work of the friars during the early days, especially from 1595 to 1616. Therein is contained a veritable mine of information, some of which is obtainable from no other source. Father Ore has left us brief biographical sketches of the friars who went to Flori- da in 1587 and in 1595. Besides a detailed account of the Guale Revolt and the captivity of Father Avila, Father Ore included accounts of his two formal visitations, thus speaking with the authority of an eye-witness of the events he described. The perusal of the Relation shows Father Ore to have been a man of careful inquiry and observation. Though he did XVI BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION not witness the Guale Revolt, he was a contemporary of it, and was in intimate connection with persons who gave reliable in- formation concerning it. The general tenor of his work shows the means he employed in obtaining his information. For his account of the martyrdom of the friars in 1597, he used the Relation of Fray Francisco Marron who was the Franciscan superior at St. Augustine at the time of the out- break. For his account of the captivity of Father Avila, he used the latter’s own description of it, which was preserved in the archives of Havana. In fact, he gives most of Avila’s Re- lation verbatim. The same holds good for the testimonies of Fathers Pareja and Prieto given to him in 1614. On a num- ber of occasions, Father Ore is careful to distinguish what he knew from documents or interviews and what he had from hearsay. His account of his second visitation to Florida in 1616 is most valuable, for he traversed the whole mission area of Florida and Georgia on foot or by means of a canoe. In its own unpretentious way, the Relation of Father Ore takes its place among the many Narratives and Histories of the early history of Florida, occasioned by the various military exploits and religious crusades made by the Spaniards in that region. For Franciscan history of the colonial period, the Relation adds another interesting chapter to that far-flung spiritual battle line of the Franciscan friars, which at one time or another stretched from Santa Elena on the Atlantic to San Francisco on the Pacific in that area of the United States known as the Spanish borderlands. The aim of the translator has been to preserve carefully the sense of the Spanish text in preference to felicity of ex- pression in English. Father Ore proves to be very cryptic at times in narrating events, and to overcome the resulting ob- scurity or incompleteness, copious notes have been added. In- terminable Spanish sentences have been broken up into their component parts. While the Spanish text has captions throughout indicating chapters, chapter numbers have been added in the translation. BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION xvii O. F. M., for permission to translate the Relation into English. 0. F. M., for permission to translate the Relation in English. He is grateful to Dr. David Rubio, O. S. A., and in particular to Dr. F. B. Steck, 0. F. M., both of the Catholic University, for their many hours of unselfish labor expended in comparing the Spanish and English texts as well as for the valuable sugges- tions given. To Dr. J. A. Robertson, archivist of the State of Maryland and curator of the Spanish documents of the Florida State Historical Society, as well as to Dr. J. T. Lanning of Duke University, the translator is indebted for the use of their extensive documentary material, needed for the elucidation of the text, in the critical notes. Finally the translator wishes to thank the Franciscan Educational Conference for bringing this work of Father Ore to the attention of the American pub- lic. Maynard Geiger, O. F. M. The Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C. May 4, 1936 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION 1 Philip A. Means, Biblioteca Andina (New Haven, 1928) , p. 423. -Most of the facts relative to the life of Father Ore were obtained from Jose Toribio Medina, Diccionario Biogrdfico Co- lonial de Chile (Santiago de Chile, MDCMVI) , pp. 612-615, and Jose Toribio Medina, Biblioteca Hispano-Chilena, (1523-1817) (Santiago de Chile, 1897) , I, passim , especially 127-132. sQueehua was spoken in the area of Lima while Aymara was the language of the Indians farther south. According to linguists, these are not only two distinct languages but they belong to two different linguistic families. 4Cited from Medina, Biblioteca Hispano-Chilena , I, 86. The author of the dedicatory sonnet called upon the Peruvian Indians to arise from the sleep of paganism and in the light of the Christian faith to sail over a tranquil sea to eternity. XViii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION The translation of the final words of the sonnet is as follows : “And if you should desire to know the way to this placid, pleasing, and empiric port ; even if you have neither guide nor pilot, Fray Luis Geronimo de Ore, who is worthy of great praise, will show it to you clearly in your own language by means of his learned book.” The use of the adjective em- piric refers to the necessity of the Indians finding the desired haven through repeated efforts coupled with the knowledge gained by experience. 5Ibid., p. 105. QIbid., pp. 101-103. 7Ibid., p. 96. 8Ibid., p. 127. ’The modem edition of the Relation of Father Ore was published in 1931 at Madrid by Fray Atanasio Lopez, 0. F. M., under the title: Relation historica de la Florida, escrita en el siglo XVII, Vol. I. 10Ensayo cronologico para la historia general de la Flo- rida (Madrid, 1723) , p. 181. 11 La Florida su conquista y colonization por Pedro Menendez de Aviles (Madrid, 1893) , II, p. 733. 12Epitome, (Madrid, 1737) , II, c. 619. 13Biblioteca Hispano Americana Septentrional (2 edit., Mexico, 1883) , II, 359. ^Biblioteca Missionum (Aachen, 1924), II, 394. 15Medina, Biblioteca Hispano-Chilena, I, 114. 16Ibid., p. 115. 17Biblioteca Missionum, II, 395. 18Biblioteca Andina, p. 424. 19Letter of Fray Atanasio Lopez to the translator, Santia- go de Compostella, May 14, 1935. 20 Commentaries Reales (Madrid, 1723), p. 460. 21Medina, Biblioteca Hispano-Chilena, I, 129-130. 22Medina, Diccionurio Biogrdfico Colonial de Chile , p. 615. CONTENTS Page Biographical Introduction ix Translation of Original Title Page 1 Chapter I 3 II The Arrival of the Adelantado, Diego (Pedro) Menendez Valdez, in Florida and the Events That Took Place There 15 III The Discovery of Jacan, and the Martyrdom of Twelve Religious of the Society of Jesus 20 IV The Discovery of the Treachery of the Indians and of the Death of the Religious 28 V Rebellion of the Indians of Santa Elena and Guale 33 VI The Appointment of Pedro Menendez Marques to the Governorship of Florida; the Reli- gious of St. Francis who Set Out for the Conversion of the Natives ; and an Account of Jacan 41 VII An Account of the Death of Five Martyrs and of the Sufferings of One Confessor, Reli- gious of the Order of Our Holy Father St. Francis, in Florida 66 XIX XX CONTENTS Chapter Page VIII Narrative of the Great Hardships which Fa- ther Avila Endured During the Year and a Half in Which He Was Captive Among the Rebel Indians, and of the Death and Martyr- dom of Father Verascola, a Native of Vizcaya 87 IX How the Indians of the Province of Guale were Brought Into Subjection. Concerning the Great Success of the Religious in the Conversion of the Indians of Florida 100 X Other Things That Happened to the Religious in This Mission Field ; An Account of the Great Province of Apalache 112 XI Concerning the First Provincial Chapter of This Province of Florida and the Status and Disposition of Its Affairs 125 An Account of the Martyrs of the Provinces of Florida : Twelve Religious of the Society of Jesus, who SUFFERED IN JACAN, AND FIVE OF THE ORDER OF OUR SERAPHIC Father Saint Francis, in the Province of Guale. Of- fered also, is a Description of Jacan where the English HAVE FORTIFIED THEMSELVES; AND OF OTHER MATTERS RELA- TIVE to the Conversion of the Indians. Written by Father Luis Hieronimo de Ore, Lector of Theology and Commissary of the Province of Santa Elena of Florida and the Island of Cuba, I In the year 1513, 1 before any other Spaniard, Juan Ponce de Leon who was of knightly rank, and a native of the city of Leon,2 and who had been governor of the island of San Juan de Puerto Rico, discovered the coast and mainland of the king- dom of Florida. Because he discovered it on Easter Sunday (which fell on the 27th of March) he bestowed the name Florida upon it, for among Spaniards this most solemn day is called Pascua Florida. He found it lying north of the island of Cuba. He was satisfied with having discovered it, just as in other regions others were engaged in the discovery of vari- ous islands and countries.3 Such was the case of the island of Madeira, discovered by the Infante Don Enrique,4 son of the King of Portugal. A learned man and an accomplished mathematician, the Infante due to his studious enterprises succeeded in reaching still oth- er lands. At his own expense he caused maritime enterprises to be undertaken from Portugal to Madeira and other islands of that region, where, pious prince that he was, he had the faith of Christ preached, about the year 1490.5 It was he who awakened the desires of Christopher Co- lumbus, who two years afterwards6 set out from Spain, sent by the Catholic Kings. He discovered Hispaniola, called Femandina,7 and peopled the city of Santo Domingo,8 a rich port. The other islands: Cuba, Jamaica, and all those of Barlovento9 were discovered, then conquered and settled by Spaniards. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, they were in- habited by innumerable Indians, who, in all parts of these is- lands, have dwindled and died.10 Juan Ponce de Leon returned some years afterwards11 to Florida by virtue of the favor which the Catholic Kings grant- ted him to govern and conquer it. When he landed, the In- dians resisted him and struggled valorously against him until 3 4 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA they routed him and killed nearly all his soldiers. Only seven escaped, among whom was Juan Ponce.12 After this a pilot named Miruelo,13 the owner of a caravel, reached Florida owing to a storm which took him thither. However, he neglected to survey the land and take the latitude, which he should have done by reason of his office. At the same time,14 Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, oidor 15 of the Royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo and judge of the ap- pellate court (an institution in vogue on the island before the establishment of the Audiencia )16 with six companions, armed two ships17 and sailed through those islands. Their purpose was to search for and bring back Indians in order to make them work in the gold mines which they conjointly owned. The ships arrived in a storm at a cape which they called Santa Elena18 because it was her feast-day. The Spaniards landed at a river which they called Jordan because this was the name of the mariner who first saw it.19 Soon the Indians approached them to see the ships, startled over a thing for them so strange and novel. Indians and Spaniards treated each other in a friendly manner so that the Spaniards succeeded in inviting the Indians to enter their ships and see what they had brought in them.20 More than a hundred and thirty Indians went aboard. When the Span- iards saw them go below the decks, they shipped anchor and took to sail for Santo Domingo. One of the two ships was lost, but the Indians who remained in the other, although they arrived at Santo Domingo, preferred to die of grief and hun- ger, for they refused to eat, enraged over the deceit practiced on them under the guise of friendship.21 In the year 1524, 22 the oidor , Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, armed three ships in Santo Domingo. Meanwhile, Emperor Charles V honored him with the habit of the Order of Santiago and bestowed on him the title of Governor of the province of Chicora, that province which the pilot Miruelo discovered, but who neglected to determine its latitude and take its position. One of the ships was lost in the River Jordan but again joined the company of the other two along the coast, and reached a MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 5 pleasant stretch of country. The (ricLor commanded two hun- dred soldiers to land in order to go and see the Indian town which was three leagues inland. The natives regaled the Spaniards with festivities and dances which lasted for three days. Then one night, the Indians suddenly slew them all, whereby they avenged themselves for the former trick of the Spaniards, when these carried off the Indians to mine gold.23 In the year 1539, by order of Don Antonio de Mendoza, viceroy of New Spain, Captain Juan Vasquez Coronado24 set out to explore Florida, He discovered and explored much ex- cellent land but was unable to colonize it owing to many diffi- culties. About the very same time,25 Panfilo de Narvaez en- tered and explored Florida, but he with all the Spaniards who accompanied him were lost, except Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Va- ca and three other Spaniards.26 To these God gave such aid that among those infidels, they worked miracles in the name of Christ, as Father Joseph de Acosta in his book, De Natura novi orbis, and other writers regard them.27 In the same year 1539, Hernando de Soto went to Florida with the title of adelantado ,28 He had been a resident of the city of Cuzco and was one of the first and oldest conquerors of Peru. De Soto was with Marquis Pizarro at Cassamarca in the prison of Atahualpa Inca. Because De Soto was the first Spaniard who saw him and spoke to him, he entertained an affection for him.29 Powerful king that he was, and though a prisoner in his own house and country, through the audacity of those few and valiant men, he gave him rich presents and keepsakes. With these and the part which fell to him owing to the imprisonment and despoliation of so powerful a king, he returned to Spain and went to his own district which was Villanueva de Barcarrota,30 having in his possession a hundred thousand ducats.31 This amount made him a very rich man, for at that time there was not in Spain so much gold and silver as was brought in later. Not satisfied with the hardships endured in the conquest of Peru, he wished to undertake similar hazards. So with in- sistence, he entreated Emperor Charles of glorious memory, 6 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA that when he would hold his court at Valladolid, he should grant him the favor of conquering the kingdom of Florida. This he wished to accomplish at his own expense and risk. For this purpose he was willing to spend his fortune and life in the service of the king. This favor was granted with the result that he came in the year 1539 with seven galleons and nine hundred and fifty Spaniards, not counting the sailors and naval officers who formed a great number.32 Besides, there were secular priests, and religious of the Orders of St. Do- minic and St. Francis, and a Trinitarian.33 On the island of Cuba more people joined him, among whom was a knight, a conqueror of the island, named Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa. Him he made captain-general of the whole army. The armada arrived at the Bay of Espiritu Santo, at a place the Indians called Pohoi. From here he commenced the discovery and conquest of very great provinces, such as Apalache and Acuera, Avinu and others through which he en- tered Apalache. Going on great journeys he came upon and conquered the provinces up to the Great River34 where he died. Amid tears of sorrow they buried him in the middle of the river, in a tree, hollowed in the manner of a coffin which they covered with wood; and with a heavy trunk of oak, they low- ered him to the bottom of the river, lest the Indians, in mock- ery, cut his remains to pieces.35 The governor who succeeded him, and whom De Soto had appointed before his death,36 to- gether with the captains and the other people, set out over unknown lands to the city of Mexico where they separated and went to live in different parts of that kingdom".37 Although both Spaniards and Indians (who are very war- like, of unconquerable spirits, and valiant warriors) performed great military deeds, encountered huge difficulties and suf- fered hunger and fatigue, — things worthy of honor and ever- lasting memory — it was not God's will that with such a large body of soldiers and horses, they should settle any part of that kingdom ; but rather, being continually on the move, they were always discovering new lands and great provinces thickly populated with Indians. MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 7 When the death of the adelantado, De Soto, became known Emperor Charles V in the year 1549, 38 sent thither a religious of the Order of St. Dominic, Fray Luis Cancel,39 as superior of the other religious of his Order.40 These offered their services as preachers to reduce those peoples to the obedience of the Church and the King. Coming to Florida they set on land and commenced to preach to the natives. These Indians, apprized by past experience with the Spaniards, without waiting or wishing to listen to them, killed Fray Luis and two of his companions.41 The others made for the ship and returned to Spain where they gave an account of the fierceness of those barbarous Indians. Also, certain French ships endeavored to enter the king- dom of Florida. They anchored in the Bay of San Mateo where they set up a monument to the King of France. It was a very high shaft and on it they placed an escutcheon of the arms and the fleur-de-lis of France. When the King of Spain was ad- vised of this, he ordered the governor of Havana, Diego Mazariegos, to send someone to tear down the shaft and the escutcheon. Hernan Manrique de Rojas, a knight of the king- dom of Toledo, was chosen to do this. He went to Florida and cut down the shaft and threw it upon the ground. He took away the coat-of-arms and frustrated the hope of more Frenchmen returning to that place. This happened in the year 1554.42 Yet ten years afterwards,43 the French insisted on entering and settling there. What happened to them will be seen in the following chapter. NOTES 1 historians with few exceptions, till about fifty years ago, gave the year of Ponce de Leon's discovery of Florida as 1512. Garcilaso de la Vega, in La Florida del Inca , (Madrid, 1728), p. 3, distinctly says that Easter Day on which Florida was discovered, “fue el ano de mil quinientos y trece, que se- 8 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA gun los Computistas se celebro aquel ano a los veinte y siete de Margo.” Fray Luis Geronimo de Ore obtained his knowledge of the correct year of Florida's discovery from the Inca whom he met at Cordova, Spain in the year 1612. Father Ore, a cre- ole and native of Peru wras naturally interested in meeting his renowned countryman, whose writings even today are inval- uable. At that time Father Ore was engaged in sending to Florida some Franciscan friars. He asked the Inca for some copies of his history of that country. To this request the Inca responded by giving to Father Ore, three copies of La Florida del Inca, and four copies of the Commentaries Reales , relating to the history of Peru. Vide Commentaries Reales (Madrid, 1728), p. 460. Also, Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico para la his- toric.i general d,e la Florida (Madrid, 1728) , p. 181. La Florida del Inca was first published at Lisbon in 1605; the Commen- taries Reales, at Lisbon, in 1609. The patent authorizing Ponce de Leon “to discover and settle the Islands of Beniny” was signed, February 23, 1512. It was physically impossible for this patent to reach the navigator in time to enable him to fit out his vessels and discover Florida by March 27 of the same year. A concise explanation of how modem historians have solved the problem and determined the date of discover}" as 1513 is contained in Frederick Davis, “The Record of Ponce de Leon's Discovery of Florida, 1513,” The Florida Historical Society Quarterly, XI (1932), 14-15. 2Garcilaso de la Vega, in La Florida del Inca, p. 3, writes that Ponce de Leon was a “Cavallero Natural del Reyno de Leon.” Lowery, citing Herrera, says he was '‘a native of San Servas in the province of Campos and the kingdom of Leon.” Cf. The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the United States, 1513-1561 (New York, 1901), p. 131. (Cited hereinafter as Spanish Settlements , I) . 3This sentence of Father Ore, “he was satisfied with hav- ing discovered it,” is more clearly expressed by the Inca: “Con- tentose Juan Ponce de Leon solo con ver que era Tierra Firme, 6 Isla, vino a Espafia.” La Florida del Inca, p. 3. MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 9 *Prince Henry of Portugal, commonly known as the Navi- gator, 5Father Ore is in error here. He misses the date of Prince Henry's death by thirty years! Prince Henry died November 13, 1460, Arthur Helps, The Spanish Conquest in America (New York, 1900), I, 39. note. See also: Atanasio Lopez, 0. F. M., ed., Relacion historica de la Florida escrita en el siglo XVII (Madrid, 1931), I, 56, note. He writes: “El Infante D. Enrique, ilamado el Navegante, murio el 13 re noviembre de 1460/’ He cites as his authority the work of D. Antonio Cae- tano de Sousa, Historia geneologica de Casa Real Portugeza (Lisbon, 1736) , II, 110. This work of Lopez will be cited here- inafter as Relacion historica. ' Thirty-two years afterwards. Cf. note 5. 7The island was called Isla Espanola by Columbus. Fer- nandina was the name given to Cuba, though not from the beginning. 8The city of Santo Domingo was founded by Bartholomew Columbus in 1496 during Christopher’s absence in Spain. San- to Domingo is the oldest European settlement in the Amer- icas. Barlovento, or the Lesser Antilles were known to the Spaniards but no settlements of account were made on them. 10By the time of Father Ore’s visit to the Caribbean, the is- lands of the area had declined in prosperity and population for a number of reasons : the greater attractions of the continent, especially Mexico and Peru ; the death of the Indians ; and the inroads made by foreign filibusters. See: Bolton and Marshall, The Colonization of North America, 1492-1783 (New York, 1932), p. 67. "In 1521. 12Ponce de Leon died in Cuba shortly after returning from Florida. His death resulted from an arrow wound received in the encounter with the Floridian Indians. 13Diego de Miruelo, in 1516. 14This expedition was sponsored by Vasquez de Ayllon, 10 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA who, however, remained at home. The pilot of the expedition was Francisco de Gordillo. 15 An auditor of the court. 16“In 1511, a tribunal of independent royal judges was constituted in the colony of Espanola to try cases appealed from the town magistrates and the governor.” Charles H. Cunningham, The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies (Univ. of Calif. Publications in History , Berkeley, 1919) , IX, 10-11. The usual date given for the establishment of the audiencia is Sep- tember 14, 1526. That the audiencia existed earlier, however, is very probable. Vide Cunningham, op. cit. p. 19, note. 17Ayllon sent one ship. The two vessels are explained by the fact that Gordillo was joined by Pedro Quexos in the Lu- cayas. Quexos had been out on the Carib hunting expedition and was returning home when he met Gordillo. Lowery, Span- ish Settlements, I, 154-155. 18Santa Elena was not named on this occasion, but later by one of Ayllon’s pilots. Mary Ross, “The Spanish Settle- ment of Santa Elena (Port Royal) in 1578,” The Georgia His- torical Quarterly, IX (1925), 352. 19 Jordan was one of the captains of the second Ay lion ex- pedition in 1526. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, I, 165. 20Not, however, before the Indians took to flight at the appearance of the well dressed Spaniards. The Spaniards pur- sued them and captured two. These were sent back to call the others. Confidence was then restored. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, I, 155-156. 21Lowery, citing Gomara says the same. Hunger strikes in modem times are nothing new. Nor was this the first time Indians preferred death to submission. Spanish Settle- ments, I, 157. 22Quexos who went ahead of the main expedition in 1525 had two ships. When Ayllon sailed in July, 1526, he had six ships. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, I, 164. 23This story of poetic justice is given by Garcilaso de la Vega, La Florida del Inca, p. 4. Ayllon’s colony failed be- MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 11 cause of the cold winter and lack of food. Ayllon himself died, and after that, internal dissension completed the ruin. 24The explorer's name was Francisco Vasquez de Coronado as given by Pedro de Castaneda, who accompanied the Coro- nado expedition and who became its historian. Father Ore writes that Coronado set out to discover Florida. The regions north of Mexico were known only in a hazy manner, while the Florida of that day included all the hinterland: from Newfound- land to Texas. One has only to read Barela's Ensayo Crono- logico and the documents of the period to realize what a wide extent Florida had. Pedro de Castaneda in his narrative of the Coronado expedition, throws light on the hazy ideas en- tertained at the time with regard to the geography of the north. Concerning New Mexico he writes: “For example, some make it an uninhabitable country, others have it border- ing on Florida, and still others on Greater India, which does not appear to be a slight difference." Cf. F. W. Hodge, ed. Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States , 1528-1 5 AS (New York, 1907), p. 282. 25In 1528. 26Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, Maldonado and Esteven, the negro. They reached Mexico in 1586. Too often it is for- gotten that there was a fifth survivor, Juan Ortiz who had been left in Florida and who was rescued by the members of the De Soto expedition. Vide Francis Borgia Steck, “ ‘Cap- tain John Smith’ in Florida," Franciscan Herald , XXIV (1986) 81-88 and 104-107. 27Cabeza de Vaca's account of the cures among the Indians is given in his own narrative. Vide F. W. Hodge, ed., Span- ish Explorers in the Southern United States 1528-15 AS, pp. 76-78. For an interesting discussion of the reputed cures, see Lowery, Spanish Settlements I, 456-457. Acosta in his Historia natural y moral de las Indias (Madrid, 1894), writes about Cabeza de Vaca and the circumstances of the cures. Acosta, op cit., II, 847-348. Acosta's work appeared at Salamanca in 1589 in Latin, and at Seville in 1590 in Spanish. It has since appeared in a number of editions. As the title indicates, 12 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA Acosta's Historia natural y moral is physical and ethnical rather than political and military. His purpose was to pre- sent a history of the Indians themselves as well as to make known the causas y razon of the new and strange things in the Indies, Acosta, op. cit., I, xiii. 28The asiento and capitulacion between the emperor and De Soto were executed at Valladolid, April 20, 1537. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, I, 215. 29From Cassamarca or Cajamarca, Pizarro sent Hernando de Soto with thirty horsemen ahead to interview Atahualpa. Writers disagree as to the manner in which Atahualpa received De Soto. Philip A. Means, Fall of the Inca Empire and the Spanish Rule in Peru: 1530-1780 (New York, 1932), p. 30. After Atahualpa’s capture, De Soto stoutly opposed having the Inca murdered. The murder was accomplished in De Soto's absence. Against this act he registered his fierce protest. Means, op. cit. pp. 44-45. 30Villanueva de Barcarrota is in the province of Badajoz in southwestern Spain, adjoining Portugal. 31 From Atahualpa’s ransom, Pizarro and the conquerors were able to obtain 1,326,539 pesos in gold and 51,610 marks of silver. From this amount was deducted the royal fifth which was sent to Spain. Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, p. 36. Garcilaso de la Vega writes that De Soto received over 100,000 ducats. Father Ore's statements as well as some of his phrases are taken from La Florida del Inca, pp. 1-2. 32This number is given in La Florida del Inca, p. 9. The Gentleman of Elvas says: “Six hundred men in all followed him to Florida." T. H. Lewis, ed., Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, p. 139. 33One of the purposes of the De Soto expedition was the conversion of the natives of Florida. This purpose was ex- pressed in the royal grant. Twelve priests in all accompanied De Soto, eight of whom were secular priests, and four of whom belonged to religious Orders. The names of only four secular priests have come down to us: Rodrigo de Gallegos, Diego de Banuelos, Francisco del Poqo, Dionisio de Paris. Luis de MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 13 Soto and Joan de Gallegos were Dominicans; Juan de Torres was a Franciscan ; and Francisco de la Rocha was a Trinitarian. La Florida del Inca, p. 9. For details of the religious aspects of the expedition, vide F. B. Steck, 0. F. M., “Neglected As- pects of the De Soto Expedition,” Mid-America, IV (1932), 3-26. 34The Mississippi. 35Garcilaso de la Vega gives a very detailed account of De Soto’s burial. He was first buried in the earth and later low- ered into the Mississippi. La Florida del Inca, pp. 208-209. 36When he felt death coming on, De Soto named Luis de Moscoso de Alvarado as his successor and commanded the of- ficers of the expedition to obey him until the king of Spain should ordain otherwise. La Florida del Inca, p. 207. 37Some of the remaining members of the expedition stayed in Mexico but the majority went to Peru. La Florida del Inca, p. 264. 38The royal cedula giving Fray Luis Cancer permission to go to Florida was given to him December 28, 1547. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, I, 417. 39The usual form in which the friar’s name is found is Cancer. His full name was Fray Luis Cancer de Barbastro. He was an Aragonese. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, I, 411. 40Those who accompanied Fray Luis were: Fray Gregorio de Beteta, Fray Juan Garcia, and Fray Diego de Tolosa. A fourth member was an oblate named Fuentes. Lowery, Span- ish Settlements, I, 418. 41Fray Luis Cancer, Fray Juan Garcia and the oblate were the three who were killed by the Indians. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, I, 421-427. 42The French made their first settlement along the Florida coast in 1562 under Jean Ribaut. He “erected on a sand-hill near the mouth of the river [St. Johns] a stone column, on which were engraved the French arms, the date, and the name of the commander of the expedition.” Woodbury Lowery, The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the United States , Florida, 1562-157 U (New York, 1905), pp. 33- 14 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 34. (Hereinafter this work will be referred to as Lowery, Spanish Settlements, II.) Ribaut did not found a settlement there but passed on to Port Royal in South Carolina where he established a French base and then returned to France. At Port Royal a second column was raised. Hernando Manrique de Rojas went to Florida in 1564 to carry out the royal orders, among which was the one to tear down the French columns. He was unable to locate the one on the St. Johns but succeeded in securing the column at Port Royal. This was taken aboard ship and transferred to Havana. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, II, 35 and 47-48. 431564. This date is correct but it was only two years aft- er the founding of the colony of Ribaut that a second was established by Rene de Laudonniere. Stopping at the St. Johns River Laudonniere found the Ribaut column which Manrique de Rojas had failed to locate. On the St, Johns, Fort Caroline was built and there the colony made its settlement. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, II, 54-58. II The Arrival of the Adelantado, Diego (Pedro) Me- mendez Valdez1, in Florida and the Events That Took Place There. His Majesty the Emperor, having concerned himself in the discovery and conquest of Florida, as I have said, King Philip II, our lord of glorious memory, continued it with the same interest. Wherefore His Majesty, in the year 1564, sent Pedro Menendez Valdes, a knight of the habit of Santiago, with the titles of adelantado , governor and captain-general of those provinces, making, moreover, various stipulations con- cerning the conquest.2 Menendez was at the same time gov- ernor and captain-general of the island of Cuba and in charge of the armada of twelve galleons in the service known as the fleet of the Indies. He was a person of such ability that he alone at that time occupied and fulfilled with exactness those offices which today are held by four distinct persons.3 A son of the adelantado was lost at sea, so Menendez with some vessels, went to look for him along that coast.4 Stopping at a port called San Mateo, twelve leagues from St. Augustine, he found at the entrance of the port certain French ships. Their general was Jean Ribaut.5 The French had already built a fort a league away from the bar. They [the Spaniards] had certain quarrels as to who should lower the flag, so they with- held the challenge [for a battle] for some other day.6 Since the adelantado considered the French force the stronger, he took to sail that night in the direction of Havana and entered the port of St. Augustine. Here on the following morning he sighted the enemy who came out to seek him and whom he let pass by. Then with some Indian friends who knew the country, he set out overland and returned to the French fort, and without losing any of his men, he assaulted 15 16 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA and conquered the French at dawn, sacking the fort and taking possession of what was in it.7 When the French armada arrived near Cape Canaveral, thirty leagues from St. Augustine, a wind storm hit it with such force that it was stranded. The people went on land and then travelled along the beach toward the north in search of their fort. The adelantado held for certain that the ship- wreck of the enemy had taken place owing to the violent storm they encountered!.8 With his infantry he went to the pass of the bar of Matanzas, five leagues before one arrives at St. Augus- tine from the south. There Jean Ribaut and the greater num- ber of the people of his armada arrived and when he was about to pass there, the adelantado sent him a message com- manding him to surrender, at the same time stating that the fort had already been taken. In testimony of this, the adelantado sent him at the same time the keys of the fort to- gether with a hat of the French general. When Ribaut rea- lized such evident signs of defeat, he surrendered. The com- pany crossed over in a bark and the Spaniards beheaded them all.9 Those who escaped into the interior, afterwards came to the same end. After this victorious event, the adelantado returned to St. Augustine by way of the seashore, leaving Jean Ribaut, the French general in the custody of a captain named Bayona. To the latter the order had been given that along the beach he would find a lance planted in the ground and that he should kill Ribaut at that place.10 This he did, stabbing him with a poniard. Because the French were killed at that bar, [the Spaniards named it Matanzas.11 After the adelantado had strengthened the fort at St. Augustine he went to Havana and notified the king of what had taken place. Within eight months there came storeships filled with provisions, munitions and supplies. With them came the cap- tain-general, Sancho de Arciniega, with about a thousand re- lief troops.12 By order of the king, with them the adelantado fortified four presidios from the Bay of Carlos13 to Santa MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 17 Elena,14 dividing the infantry among them. Because ships were lost every year along the coast of Matacumbe, owing to the unskillfulness of the pilots in the Bahama Channel, the Indians killed the Spaniards who took refuge on the beach. As a result they called the place The Martyrs’ which perhaps, some were for their deaths took on the nature of martyrdom, because they died as Catholics at the hands of the infidel.15 The Spaniards who remained in the forts, which they built in different parts, made some incursions and had many encounters with the warlike Indians. All of that coast are warlike, particularly those of Santa Elena and the surround- ing district. In these encounters many people died, or suffered hunger, privations and great hardships. They bore up with these, however, defending particularly the forts of St. Augus- tine and Santa Elena. NOTES II 1Pedro Menendez de Aviles was the adelantado’s proper name. The asiento entered into between Philip II and Menendez de Aviles was dated March 20, 1565. According to the several provisions of the asiento , Menendez was to divide the land in- to repartimientos among the five hundred settlers, found two towns, introduce horses and cattle, take along religious and above all drive out the French by whatever means he saw fit. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, II, 142-143. The royal officials on whom devolved the duties of ruling the province at the time of Father Ore’s writing were the gov- ernor, the treasurer, the accountant, and the factor. The son here referred to was Don Juan Menendez. He was wrecked off the Bermudas on a return trip from Mexico. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, II, 139. 5Menendez encountered four French ships at the mouth of the St. Johns River on September 4, 1565. Lowery, Spanish 18 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA Settlements , II, 155. This was twelve leagues north of St. Augustine. Later a Franciscan mission was founded in the vicinity and called San Juan del Puerto. 6There appears to be no record of a quarrel. Menendez and his council of captains differed as to whether the French should be attacked then and there. Lowery, Spanish Settle- ments, II, 155-156. 7The stronghold of the French, Fort Caroline, was taken by surprise by Menendez and his soldiers on the morning of September 20. Orders were given to spare the women and children. Fort Caroline was rechristened Fort San Mateo in honor of St. Matthew, whose feast fell on September 20. Low- ery, Spanish Settlements, II, 172-180. sMenendez’s surmise that the French had been wrecked became an assurance when Indians from the south notified him of Ribaut’s disaster. Lowery, Spanish Settlements , II, 189-190. 9Ten of Ribaut’s men who stated they were Catholics were saved from execution through the interposition of Father Mendoza, the chaplain of St. Augustine. Lowery, Spanish Settlements , II, 198-194. 10 Jean Ribaut and his men were executed the very same evening at a spot pointed out by Menendez. The place of their execution was a line drawn in the sand by Menendez’s spear. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, II, 194. 11 Motor means to slay. Matanzas means slaughterings. 12Arciniega arrived at St. Augustine in June, 1566. His fleet comprised seventeen ships, fifteen hundred men, five hundred sailors and plentiful supplies. Lowery, Spanish Set- tlements, II, 255-256. 13The Bay of Carlos was in the territory of the Caloosa or Carlos Indians in the southwestern part of Florida. Vide Lowery, Spanish Settlements, II, map opposite p. 210. 14Santa Elena was the second Spanish city to be founded in Florida. It was located on Parris Island, South Carolina. Mary Ross, “The Spanish Settlement of Santa Elena (Port MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 19 Royal) in 1578/’ The Georgia Historical Quarterly, IX (1925), 853. 15 According to Lowery, who cites Herrera, the Martyr Islands or Los Mdrtires were so named by Ponce de Leon on his first voyage of discovery in Florida, “because the high rocks looked at a distance like men who are suffering.” Low- ery, Spanish Settlements, I, 141. It is quite possible that the term Los Mdrtires was given a new signification in the course of time by reason of the many lives lost there by shipwreck and Indian killings. Ill The Discovery of Jacan, and the Martyrdom of Twelve Religious of the Society of Jesus. About the year 1570, while the adelantado, Pedro Me- nendez was governing the presidios of Florida, a ship from the port of Santa Elena, lost its course towards the north, at a latitude of 37% degrees and put into a large bay which the sailors called the Bay of Madre de Dios.1 From among some Indians who came aboard they retained a young cacique , whom they took along with them to Spain, where after instructing him in the faith, they baptized him and gave him the name Luis,2 The king ordered that the necessary sustenance be given him all the time he remained in Spain. They placed him with the fathers of the Society of Jesus to be educated. In the year 1577s the adelantado brought fifty settlers to Florida and divided them between the two forts of Santa Elena and St. Augustine. In the following year, 15784, eight religious of the Society came for the purpose of converting the natives of Florida. When they arrived they exercised their ministry in Santa Elena, while two of them went to the prov- ince of Guale, fourteen leagues from there, between St. Augus- tine and Santa Elena, in order to instruct the natives. One went to the northern district, to a province called Escamacu, taking in his company a boy of ten years of age, named Juan de Lara, a son of a settler, in order to learn the language. To- day Juan de Lara lives at St. Augustine. After serving the natives for a year and a half, considering the little progress that he made, the father returned to Santa Elena, where the other religious were. Father Alamo (this was the name of one of the religious of that Congregation) went to Spain5 to give an account to his superiors of the condition and character of the natives of that 20 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 21 land, and of the meagre progress he made among them. For, owing to their resistance and obduracy, the fathers did not deem it fitting to baptize any during this entire period.6 At that time the cacique , Don Luis was living in the [Jesuit] house at Seville, advancing in the Spanish language, as well as in reading and writing, together with other branches of knowl- edge which they taught him. When he learned that religious had gone for the conver- sion of the natives of Florida, he told the Father Rector and others that he would venture to take some priests to his coun- try and that with the help of God and his own industry, the Indians of that land would be converted to the faith. These words aroused in the hearts of the religious an intense desire and zeal for the salvation of souls. Moved to resolution, they offered themselves to the king, and asked his permission as well as for the necessary provisions to go to those parts, and to take with them the cacique , Don Luis. When His Majesty had granted permission and the sup- plies they had asked for, they set out from Spain and arrived at Santa Elena in safety.7 From here the adelantado gave them a ship and provisions for a year, and ordered that a captain, Vincente Gonzales by name, should take them thither. There were all together twelve religious priests8 and a boy, Alonso de Lara,9 the elder brother of the other mentioned be- fore, sons of a settler of Santa Elena. Having arrived at the Bay of Madre de Dios at Jaean, they ascended the river for a distance of twelve leagues. On the banks of this river, the cacique , Don Luis had his towns. Two brother caciques of Don Luis together with other Indians received them and gave them lodgings amid demonstrations of great joy. Seeing the good condition of the land, they unloaded their provisions and found lodging in a house which they soon con- structed, made of palms. This had a small apartment to one side where the fathers were to say Mass until they could build a more commodious church. From here Vincente Gonzales returned to Santa Elena to give an account to the adelantado as to where he had left the religious. And as the enemy of 22 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA the human race always tries to impede works of this sort, de- dicated to the salvation of souls, he instigated the cacique, Don Luis (now placed in the position of being in the midst of his own people) to give himself over to immorality in so shameful a manner that the superior of those religious, Father Juan Bautista, reprimanded him severely. Afterwards in words couched in the spirit of religion and charity, he admonished and begged him, telling him that he should remember that they had come, moved by the promises he had made in Spain, and under his protection. Moreover, if he gave such bad ex- ample, they would not be able to implant the Gospel, in whose ministers and interpreters, cleanness of life is so very impor- tant. Despite these and other gentle words which he and the other religious spoke to him, they could not soften him, but rather they were the occasion of spiritual hardening of the heart, for the devil reigned in his heart as he did in the heart of Judas. He forged the treachery in his breast. Wishing to withdraw from the sight of him who had reprimanded him, Don Luis said he was going to look for chestnuts and nuts of other varieties, in one of his towns, which was four leagues from there, and that he would return very soon, within a de- finite number of days. The fathers let him go, but seeing that he did not return on the day and at the time specified, they wrote him a letter,10 asking him for the love of God to come, and to remember that they were without an interpreter and that after God, the conversion of the natives depended on him. But it had no influence on the apostate cacique neither to induce him to come nor to answer the letter. On this account those servants of God were in great confusion. Wherefore, they determined to send a father whom he respected, and who was a preacher, together with a companion to the place where Don Luis was.11 These were to admonish him to come along with them. They presumed they would not be killed when he saw them coming personally. But as the devil had the upper- hand in his heart already, he killed the two priest ambassadors as soon as they came ; then he set out to kill the others, on the MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 23 vespers of the Purification of Our Lady,12 on the day of the renowned martyr, St. Ignatius,13 in whose heart was written the name of Jesus. On such a day these two blessed martyrs of the Company of Jesus shed their blood. Having arrived at the place where the others were, the cacique Don Luis said that the fathers remained behind with the Indians who were bringing the chestnuts and other varie- ties of nuts for his repast; that they would arrive in the morning, and that the next day being the solemn feast of Candlemas, he wished to go with all the Indians to cut wood in order to construct a church for the Virgin ; and: that a fa- ther should say Mass in the morning. Therefore hei asked for hatchets and other tools in order to distribute them among the Indians. On hearing this the fathers perceived that a church could be constructed. In the morning [one of the priests] said Mass. The youth, Alonso de Lara was in the house of a cacique, a brother of Don Luis, who also was a conspirator with his brother for the death of the religious. He had pity on Alonso for he did not kill him after the others, but took him to his house to give him some breakfast. When the priest was celebrating Mass at the altar, and the others were assisting and officiating at it, Don Luis came and gave him a heavy blow on the head with a cutlass, and then wounded and killed the other companions, who were like sheep among those wolves and butchers. At the sound of the noise, Alonso de Lara came forth but the cacique who had taken him to his house, caught him by the arm and detained him from going to the scene. When all were dead the boy went out and saw the priest who had been celebrating Mass, stretched on the ground and: breathing his last. The boy told Don Luis to help him bury the bodies and in the midst of the fear which he felt on seeing this deed, he took courage to ask with tears, that respect be shown to those priests, his com- panions and good masters, that they should receive burial. Digging the graves, they buried them all as well as they could.14 These were the trees they cut down and which will remain in perpetual memory as twelve15 columns of the church 24 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA which was erected in Jacan, when God was willing that the land be watered with the blood of martyrs so that new plants should sprout for heaven. Holy Job says: “A tree hath hope: if it be cut, it grow- eth green again, and the boughs thereof sprout.”16Well may we apply these words, at the same time, to the death and burial of those innocent martyrs whom the sacrilegious apostate deceived that night when he said he was going to cut wood to build a church. These words foretold their precious death in the sight of the Lord and their names are written in heaven. These names I have not been able to find out in the diligent in- quiry that I have made, except that of Father Juan Bautista, their prelate and superior.17 A miraculous thing happened : while the Indians were go- ing about busily in despoiling the clothing, chalices, patens and sacerdotal vestments which they divided among themselves, profaning the vases and sacred objects in an abominable man- ner, they found a chest which contained relics and a crucifix which the martyrs had brought along for their devotion and consolation. An Indian wanted to give the chest a blow with a hatchet, but on raising his arm and on swinging to strike it, he fell dead. At this, fear fell upon the others with the result that they did not dare to approach it any more. Alonso de Lara told Don Luis that the relics should be placed in a garita.18 These are found all over Florida and in them the Indians place the maize they keep for their sustenance; it is a type of barn supported by four posts, high and bulky, raised from the earth. These they call garitas. Up into one of these, Alonso de Lara and Don Luis together raised the box of relics and the crucifix. It is hardly possible but that the soul of Don Luis was confounded and that his thoughts turned on the punishment of Heaven and the horrors of condemna- tion, over such a nefarious act and treasonable deed, which he committed.19 Such wras the martyrdom of these servants of God. And as the Indians were the lords of the land and the authors of this abominable act of treachery, they held it a secret lest the MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 25 Spaniards find it out. Thus it was not discovered, nor di- vulged until the following year. It happened in this way : NOTES III xThis bay, Chesapeake Bay, was called by the Spaniards Baia de Madre de Dios de Jacan or Baia de Santa Maria de Jacan. The year in which this Spanish vessel reached Jacan was 1561 and it belonged to the Villafane expedition. M. Kenny, S. J., The Romance of the Floridas, (New York, 1934), pp. 88-89. 2The Indian cacique taken on this occasion was Don Luis de Velasco. He was taken by Captain Velasquez under Villa- fane. Don Luis was taken to Mexico where he embraced Christianity. The viceroy of Mexico at the time was Don Luis de Velasco who was sponsor for the cacique at his bap- tism and who gave the cacique his name. Kenny, The Ro- mance of the Floridas, p. 89. Whatever the date may be to which Father Ore refers, it cannot be later than 1574. That year in September, Menendez died at Santander, Spain. “Aviles, who at the outset had so keenly appreciated the importance of cultivating the soil, sent out farmers at different times to colonize his province.” Low- ery, Spanish Settlements, II, 375. 4The first Jesuit missionaries came to Florida in 1567. They were Fathers Pedro Martinez and Juan Rogel, and Brother Francisco Villareal. Father Martinez was killed by the Indians as soon as he reached the coast of Florida. Father Ro- gel labored in Caloosa, while Brother Villareal went among the Tegesta in the region of modern Miami. In 1568 the follow- ing Jesuits set out from Spain for Florida : Fathers Juan Bau- tista de Segura, Gonzalo del Alamo, and Antonio Sedeno; Brothers Juan de la Carrera, Pedro de Linares, and Domingo Agustln Baez. In November, 1568, Fathers Segura, Sedeno 26 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA and Alamo were conducted to Tegesta. Brother Villareal was appointed catechist there. Father Alamo went to Caloosa, while Fathers Sedeno and Segura went to Guale or the coast of Geor- gia. Brother Baez worked among the Timucuans. A Brother Ruiz was sent to Tegesta. In 1570, the Jesuits Father Luis de Quiros, Brothers Gabriel Gomez and Sancho Zeballos left Spain for Florida. Kenny, The Romance of the Floridas, pas- sim,, especially pp. 1 58-232. 5 Father Alamo was called to Spain by St. Francis Borgia, the general of the Society. This was in 1569. Kenny. The Ro- mance of the Floridas, p. 228. 6This is not quite correct. It is true that little progress was made in the matter of conversions, yet there were a few baptisms. By 1570 seven persons were baptized in Guale, four of whom were infants while the others were in danger of death. Kenny, The Romance of the Floridas, p. 256. The general results of the Jesuits’ work with regard to conver- sions during the entire period of their stay was very meagre. 7The names of the Jesuits who left Spain on this mission were: Father Luis Quiros, and Brothers Gabriel Gomez and Sancho Zeballos. Kenny, The Romance of the Floridas, pp. 244-245. sThe number of Jesuits who went to Jacan were eight. They were: Fathers Juan Bautista de Segura and Luis de Quiros; Brothers Pedro Linares, Gabriel Gomez, and Sancho Zeballos ; the novices Juan Bautista Mendez, Gabriel de Solis and Cristobal Redondo. Kenny, The Romance of the Floridas, p. 273. 5The name of the boy was Alonso Olmos. He went along to serve the Fathers’ Masses. Kenny, The Romance of the Floridas, p. 273. 10These letters were sent through the medium of the Jesuit brothers. Kenny, The Romance of the Floridas, p. 276. ^Those sent on this occasion were Father Quiros and Brothers Bautista Mendez and Gabriel de Solis. Father Quiros “appeared to have won the Indian’s attachment on the voyage MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 27 from Spain.” Kenny, The Romance of the Florida s, p. 276. On this occasion all three were killed. 12The Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin or Candlemas Day falls on February 2. Since it is a feast of high rank its celebration commences with Vespers on the preceding day. 13The Saint Ignatius mentioned here is not to be confused with Saint Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Refer- ence is made here to the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Asia Minor, who suffered martyrdom for the faith during the persecution of the Emperor Trajan. F. X. Funk, A Manual of Church History (St. Louis, 1910) , I, 40. The feast occurs on February 1. 14In certain details Father Ore's account agrees with an account given by Brother Carrera. According to the latter, however, the priests were not slain at Mass but during their early morning devotions. Kenny, The Romance of the Flori- da, p. 278. Father Kenny places the date of the martyrdom of this second group on February 9. op. cit.y p. 281. 15The number should be eight to correspond with that number of martyrs. Cf. note 8. 16Book of Job, xiv, 7. 17Cf. note 8. 18 A garita was a public granary. Le Moyne (1565) has left a picture of such a garita in drawing. Vide David I. Bushnell, Jr., Native Villages and Village Sites East of the Mississippi (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 69), plate 16. 19An account of this story is given by Father Rogel. Ken- ny, The Romance of the Floridas, pp. 281-282. A later record of this event, also written by Father Rogel, was preserved in the Jesuit Archives of Mexico. For an English translation of the event according to Rogel, vide Kenny, op. cit. , p. 282, IV The Discovery of the Treachery of the Indians and of the Death of the Religious. After a year had passed, the same captain Vincente Gon- zales set out to carry provisions to the religious.1 When he arrived within sight of the town, he saw along the beach, peo- ple vested in cassocks and religious robes and it seemed to him that these were the religious. He was waiting until some one should come on board. Then a canoe came containing Indians. He asked them by signs why the fathers did not come on board. He wrote giving them notice that he was Vincente Gonzales and when no answer was forthcoming, suspicion of evil arose. Of the Indians who returned to the ship, he seized two while the others jumped into the water.2 From yon- der in a short time he saw that many Indians were coming in canoes. Then he took to sail and came to Santa Elena where he took the confession of the Indians.3 They said that the re- ligious were dead and that there remained there a boy called Alonso de Lara. At this time the king called the adelantado to Spain, but before going thither, it happened that he went from Santa Elena to St. Augustine, where he had two new frigates which were just being completed. Since it was the month of July, he sailed from that port to Spain. At the importunity of the religious who remained: at Santa Elena, they stopped at Jacan, for he was to go and hunt for Alonso de Lara. He took with him a hundred and fifty soldiers of the presidio and among them Juan de Lara, the younger brother of the captive. All these sailed in four ships. Arriving at the bay, they found two Indians who belonged to the cacique by whom Alonso de Lara had been protected from the fury of Don Luis. The cacique had disguised him during the night to make him look 28 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 29 like Don Luis’s niece for he knew Alonso’s “uncle” would not kill him. They anchored the ships. Approaching the Indians, Juan de Lara asked for his brother Alonso. The Indians answered that he was in the power of their cacique, a day’s journey from there. The adelantado told them to say that Alonso was his son and that they should tell their cacique to send him to him. At the isame time he sent some gifts. The following day he sent Captain Vincente Gonzales with a tender and thirty soldiers to Don Luis’s town so that he could per- chance catch and apprehend him. Arriving at the edge of the town, the captain commanded the soldiers to hide below the decks. Since the Indians saw no more than six men, sixty Indians came on board in canoes, wearing the patens belonging to the chalices as ornaments about their necks. Since they were naked (which is the custom of the Indians of the whole land) they covered their private parts with the corporals. The captain invited them to eat honey-cakes and biscuits which he brought. Then while they were in the midst of their meal, the soldiers sallied forth from below the decks, seized hold of thirteen of the more important Indians, and killed more than twenty.4 With this booty of prisoners they returned to the bay where the adelantado had remained. At that place there arrived within two days, two hundred Indians who brought with them Alonso de Lara, whom they handed over. He was naked, in Indian fashion. It was he who gave a true and lengthy story of the martyrdom of the fathers in the manner in which it has been related.5 The adelantado then sent Don Diego de Velasco, his son- in-law with a hundred soldiers, as well as the two Lara broth- ers to look over the condition of the land and to speak to the cacique who had defended and taken under his protec- tion Alonso de Lara. From the information obtained regard- ing the territory, it appeared that the land was rich. They re- turned, however, with little or no news concerning the things they desired to know for the frightened Indians had fled. The adelantado put many questions to the thirteen prisoners whom 30 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA Captain Gonzales brought with him. He made a proposal to them saying: would anyone venture to bring Don Luis to him, dead or alive? One offered to do this. He gave him a definite time to return and said that if at the time determined he would not come through with his undertaking, he would have to hang them all. They asked for a period of ten days in which to carry out their enterprise. They sent him out to ac- complish that which the adelantado had told them to do. He never returned, although more days passed beyond the time stipulated. The adelantado then gave orders that the cap- tured Indians be put to death. He asked them if they wished to die as Christians, and this they accepted. Willingly they asked for baptism. A religious6 instructed them and exhorted them as was fitting. Then they were hung from the yard- arms. When this was accomplished, the adelantado went to Spain on August 24, 1572, sending a religious7 and Alonso de Lara in a tender to Havana. The reason why the adelantado , Pedro Menendez, went to Spain was because His Majesty had sent for him and had or- dered him to get ready the armada at Santander. There, how- ever, the adelantado died.8 His body was carried to the town of Aviles, where he was bom.9 They placed his body in an honorable grave in the parish church. His tomb was covered with a canopy and the cross of Santiago, together with an epitaph in gold letters which relates his deeds and the offices he held and the title of adelantado.10 He left the government of Florida in the hands of his son-in-law, Don Diego de Velas- co, who was married to his younger daughter, Dona Maria Menendez.11 The adelantado had explored the coast of Florida from Cape Canaveral which is in 28 degrees latitude, to the Bay of Madre de Dios in Jacan where the English have now fortified themselves and peopled it in latitude of 36 degrees.12 He explored, likewise, the coast of the Bahama Channel from Cape Canaveral directly up to Carlos Bay. MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 31 NOTES IV ‘The Jesuit Brother Juan Salcedo accompanied this ex- pedition,. Kenny, The Romance of the Floridas, p. 284. 2The ship went first to Havana and then returned to Florida. One of the two Indian captives “jumped overboard and disappeared” in the Bahama Channel. Kenny, The Ro- mance of the Floridas , p. 284. 3Menendez de Aviles in Cuba heard of the fate of the Je- suit missionaries. From there he set out for Santa Elena where he arrived on July 22, 1572. From Santa Elena he pro- ceded to Jacan. Lowery, Spanish Settlements, II, 373. 4 According to Lowery only eight Indians were seized. Spanish Settlements, II, 373. 5The account of the Jesuit martyrdom rests entirely upon the veracity of Alonso de Lara. He was the sole surviving witness of the deaths of the religious. “This religious was Father Rogel. Lowery, Spanish Set- tlements, II, 373. 7Cf. note 6. 8On September 17, 1574. 9This occurred in the year 1591. Lowery, Spanish Set- tlements, II, 383. Aviles is on the bay of Biscay in the prov- ince of Asturias. 10The inscription over the grave of Menendez is as fol- lows: “Here lies interred the very illustrious cavalier Pedro Mene.z de Aviles, native of this town, Adelantado of the Provinces of Florida, Commander of the Holy Cross of La Carga of the Order of Santiago and C.n Gen.al of the Ocean Sea and of the Catholic Armada which the Lord Philip II. as- sembled against England in the year 1574, at Santander, where he died on the 17th of September of the said year being fifty- five years of age.” Lowery, Spanish Settlements, II, 383-384. 41In 1575 Don Diego de Velasco wrote to the king: “Owing to the absence of the Adelantado, my father-in-law, I have 32 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA served: four years in the office of captain-general and governor of these provinces ; and in order to do it better, I brought hith- er my wife and household.” Diego de Velasco to the king, St. Augustine, Florida, August, 1575, in J. T. Connor, Colonial Records of Spanish Florida (Deland, 1925) , I, 145. (Herein- after cited as Colonial Records.) Menendez de Aviles had left Florida in 1572. 12Reference is here made to the English settlement at Jamestown. Jamestown however is between 37 and 38 de- grees latitude. V Rebellion of the Indians of Santa Elena and Guale. When the adelantado went to Spain, and left the govern- ment of the presidios to his son-in-law, Don Diego de Velasco, the Indians of Guale and Escamacu were quiet and peaceful to such an extent that a lone soldier went securely to any of the towns from one district to another and treated with the In- dians. Then it happened that one of the principal caciques of the peninsula of Guale together with his wife became Chris- tians. And because one of his vassals refused him respect and obedience, the cacique approached the town. A nephew of the recalcitrant cacique killed the Christian chieftain by an arrow shot. Wherefore the wife of the dead chieftain went to Santa Elena to complain to the governor. Since her husband had become a Christian, she asked the governor to protect her and avenge the murder. To appease her, the governor com- manded all the principal chieftains of the province of Guale to be called together, giving them the assurance that he would do them no harm. He ordered them to bring to him the In- dian who had killed the Christian cacique. With this assur- ance they went to Santa Elena with the murderer. Though the governor tried to placate the woman with gifts and cajolery, he was unable to satisfy her in any way. Seeing before her the murderer of her husband, she asked for justice the more insistently, protesting that unless justice were meted out, many more deaths would occur among them. The governor then, to avoid greater evil, sentenced the Indian murderer to be hung. The sentence was put into execution and he was hung in the presence of the other caciques. When they saw that the governor had broken his plighted word, they went to their towns in an angry mood, swearing that they would avenge this affront.1 83 34 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA Soon the Indians conspired with those of Escamacu, their neighbors who live to the north. They sent them gifts as well as an account of the injury they had received. They told them that if they brought any Spaniards to their towns they would kill the same and would not let them return. These In- dians of Escamacu are very valiant, feared and esteemed as such. At this time, certain Indians in the Spanish service fled and took with them the clothing of their overseers. Twenty- two soldiers went out to search for these Indians.2 When they arrived at Escamacu, they were well received by the Indians. Since these Indians had already determined to put into execu- tion their wicked designs, they arranged not to have their wo- men and children appear, which is a sign of war. When an ensign inquired why the women did not appear the Indians asked why the Spaniards had on padded armor and appeared with lighted matches. The ensign not wishing to excite the Indians, commanded the soldiers to disarm and placed a guard at the end of a hut. At dawn when a soldier came forth and went among the thickets to answer a need, he saw a group of Indians attack the hut, with the result that the alarm was given. While the soldiers were lighting their matches, the Indians shot the greater number of them with their arrows. The one who was in the thickets, not being able to obtain his arms, fled whither fortune led him toward Santa Elena. Looking back, he saw Alonso de Lara (the one who was rescued in Jacan) and anoth- er soldier coming, both badly wounded. They said that all their companions were dead. The soldier then said to them: “I am well, and you are badly wounded; good-bye, my broth- ers.” For he saw all the Indians coming after them. So he parted from them and plunged into a lake until he saw the Indians return, dancing over their victory, with the heads of Alonso de Lara and his companion. As it was growing towards night, he came forth from the lake. Without a road he struck out for the south and the next day he found the island of Santa Elena, but he was MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 35 forced to swim across the bay to reach it. Juan de Lara and other boys saw a naked man coming towards them through a swamp. They ran to him in order to assist him, for they knew who he was. His name was Calderon.3 To them he told the story of the death and sad fate of his companions. Together they went to the city, where the news became known with the result that great was the weeping for brothers, sons and husbands who had been killed. Likewise, at this time, there were in the province of Guale three soldiers who had gone out on a rescuing expedi- tion. An Indian woman warned them that the natives were intent on killing them and that, therefore, they should go to Santa Elena. Accordingly, that night, without the Indians having perceived it, the Spaniards departed. Four leagues from there, there was a strait so narrow that a canoe could hardly pass through it. There, Indians from Escamacu who were carrying to the caciques of Guale twenty heads of dead men as gifts, met them. The Indians apprehended the three soldiers, took them to Guale and killed them. Thus all the land of Guale was in a state of rebellion.4 At this time the king sent Hernando de Miranda as gov- ernor and captain-general of the provinces of Florida owing to the death of the adelantado.5 Miranda was the son-in-law of the adelantado and the husband of Dona Catalina Menendez, the adelantado' s heir according to the capitulations.6 Arriving in Havana from Spain, he found the annual subsidy and the money which had been brought from New Spain for the relief of the soldiers of Florida. When he landed at St. Augustine, he paid the soldiers, for that is the first port. Thence, with three ships he departed for Santa Elena where the wife of the adelantado was. When he came as far as the bar, there was a contrary wind ; wherefore the royal officers asked him that he allow them to land that afternoon. With ten men they set out in a launch for the town. Soon the weather grew calm and a favorable wind arose so that the general took to sail and left the royal officers on land. Next day, in the morn- ing, these set out in search of their general and not finding 36 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA him where they had left him, sailed along the coast as far as the bar of San Mateo which from that point is connected with Santa Elena by means of a channel, so that one does not have to go out to sea. They arrived at a town, the first of the land of Guale, where they landed, leaving four men in the launch. They did not know that the country was in a state of rebellion. When they entered a hut, these royal officers and soldiers were killed by the Indians who had made a sudden inroad upon them.7 Afterwards they killed those in the launch. The general ar- rived at Santa Elena and when he was informed that the In- dians had rebelled, he dispatched a tender with thirteen sol- diers to search diligently for the royal officers. When the sol- diers arrived, it was late. Having placed themselves at the mouth of a channel near the town of Guale, they saw the Indians making great fires, which among them is a means of giving signals. Within an hour of their arrival, the soldiers saw twelve canoes full of Indian warriors coming to the assistance of the town. Thus the soldiers knew that the royal officers as well as the militia who had: gone with them, were dead. The Indians invited the soldiers to land, promising them chickens and women. At this, the soldiers returned to Santa Elena with one man less, whom they put on land because he was a spy. So with this one there were thirty-six dead all told. They arrived near the fort at night, and because the sea-breeze was con- trary, they left the tender in a river and went to the fort by land. But before they arrived at a quarter of a league away, they saw a great number of fires ; also a number of Indians dancing, by which they understood that the fort was encom- passed.8 They came to the town and the fort. At the news that the royal officials and those who had gone with them, had perished, there resulted great confusion and weeping which the people made over them with notable feeling. The following day, the general sent Captain Solis and nine soldiers to overrun the island, to see what Indians were abroad. The Indians, who were in ambush, sent one of their MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 37 men forward to skirmish with the soldiers ; then the rest came out and there killed them. They also came near the fort so that for forty-five days they advanced twice a day to assault it. The general realizing that the Spaniards were being har- rassed, and that there was a lack of hempen fuses which they made from bed-sheets, determined that all the people who did not belong to the military, should embark and go to St. Augus- tine. He remained with sixty soldiers and burned the fort. The general made use of a stratagem in this fashion: while he was asleep, the women, as if by force, put him on board ship. (A notary of his land has given testimony of this.)9 The soldiers were in the parrel apportioning those who were to remain. From the poop the governor said to them that the women had forced him to embark and that all should come on board ship. This they did in a hurry, leaving their property to the pillage of their enemies. Hardly had they lifted anchor when a multitude of Indians came running to the fort and be- gan to pillage it on a grand scale, destroying all the artillery in the fort. The Spaniards arrived at St. Augustine where Velasco left in his place, as governor, Gutierre de Miranda.10 Then Velasco went to Spain to give to the king an account of what had happened and to ask for help. With him he took seven chests of the annual subsidy. In Spain he was appre- hended and examined as to the reason of his coming as well as concerning his resolution which resulted in the destruction of Santa Elena. At this time there arrived above the bar of St. Augustine, a French galleon called El Principe. 11 This ship came, dam- aged by the armada which Don Cristobal Eraso brought. It remained anchored for three days, half a league from the bar. Knowing that Santa Elena had been depopulated and that ar- tillery had been left there, the sailors went to the bay. A league before coming to the bar, the ship ran into a sand bank where it was destroyed. The mariners were not able to save a thing, not even the food. While the Indians were going hunt- ing, they discovered the men and made an assault upon them 88 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA until they surrendered. The Indians divided them up as slaves among- the caciques of Guale and Escamacu. NOTES V father Ore appears to be making use of documentary evi- dence on Indian affairs in Florida. Relative to the Escamacu massacre of which Father Ore subsequently treats, Mary Ross writes : “Sometime before that disaster Solis, the commander at Santa Elena, had unwisely interfered with a local quarrel in Guale, even going so far as to execute some of the Indian leaders who had put to death a fellow chieftain, who happened to be a Christian. That drastic step had aroused bitter feel- ings in Guale against the Spaniards, and now, linked with the hatred that had arisen in Orista, it caused disaffection among the natives along the entire Georgia-Carolina seaboard.” “French Intrusions and Indian Uprisings in Georgia and South Carolina (1577-1580) ,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly, VII (1928), 254. A brief account of these uprisings is given in a letter of Bartolome Martinez to the king, Havana, February 17, 1577, in Connor, Colonial Records I, 289-241. 2The events and those of the two subsequent chapters are given in a document of the year 1577 entitled: Report of the Uprising of the Indians of Florida, and Loss of the Fort of Santa Elena, in Connor, Colonial Records, I, 192-208. The soldiers twenty-one in number under Captain Moyano set out from Santa Elena for Orista in search of food. On the In- dians refusing to provide the food, Moyano seized it, while the Indians retired and prepared for battle. Connor, Colonial Records, I, 195. For variation of the details of this battle and its antecedents see, Connor, Colonial Records I, 192-208. 3Once more, history is entirely dependent on the veracity of Calderon as to what happened in Orista. He was the one survivor who reached Santa Elena to tell the story. MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 39 4The Indians killed three groups of Spaniards at this time. Captain Solis and eight soldiers were killed in July, 1576. Again five men, including an interpreter, were regarded as dead in Guale. On another occasion the Indians killed four officials and five soldiers en route from Santa Elena to St. Augustine. Letter of Bartolome Martinez to the king, in Connor, Colonial Records , I, 241. 5”Early ini 1576 . . . the other son-in-law of the great adelantado, Hernando de Miranda, to whom the adelantado had left his title and offices in Florida, became, through the ac- quiescence of the king in 1575, the second regularly appointed adelantado and captain-general and governor of Florida, since actual colonization.” J. A. Robertson, in Connor’s Colonial Records of Spanish Florida , II, xxv-xxvi. 6In March, 1575, a petition from Hernando de Miranda who described himself as the husband of Dona Catalina Me- nendez, was read by the Council of the Indies. In that peti- tion Miranda asserted: “It so happens that the said Adelan- tado, in the asiento he made concerning the conquest of Flori- da aforesaid, concluded the contract not only in his favor , but in mine , and so arranged that by the said asiento, I was to possess all what whereof he had had or did have possession ” A Petition of Hernando de Miranda to the king, Madrid, March 7, 1575, in Connor, Colonial Records, I, 117. On the strength of this original asiento or capitulacion, Miranda received the governorship of Florida. Connor, Colonial Records, I, 119. 7On this occasion the factor, Diego de Otalora, the treas- urer, Pedro Menendez the younger, the assistant accountant, Miguel Moreno, the notary and five soldiers were killed. Bar- tolome Martinez to the king, Havana, February 17, 1577, in Connor, Colonial Records, I, 241. 8 A description of the loss of the fort at Santa Elena is given in the document entitled Report on the Uprising of the Indians of Florida, and Loss of the Fort of Santa Elena, in Connor, Colonial Records, I, 193-203. Likewise, in the Letter of Bartolome Martinez to the king, Connor, Colonial Records, I, 241. 40 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 9Is Father Ore citing a document he saw or is he giving the testimony derived orally from the unnamed notary or from a third party? This opera bouffe, if reliable may be looked upon as the first feminine cotop d’etat perpetrated in what is now United States territory. Perhaps the story was put in writing to discredit Miranda all the more. From the circum- stances of the rebellious Indians and the poor defense the Spaniards were able to offer it would appear that Miranda’s recourse to so unheroic an act was quite unnecessary. 10When the visitador, Baltasar del Castillo de Ahedo ar- rived in Florida in November, 1576, he found Captain Gutierre de Miranda serving as lieutenant-governor of Florida in place of Hernando de Miranda. Baltasar del Castillo de Ahedo, Visitador to Florida, to his Majesty, Havana, Febru- ary 12, 1577, Connor, Colonial Records, I, 203-205. 11The ship El Principe is mentioned in a letter of Pedro Menendez Marques to the king, Santa Elena, October 21, 1577, in Connor, Colonial Records, I, 269 and in a letter of Francisco Carreno, governor of Cuba to Philip II, Havana, December 10, 1577, in Connor, Colonial Records, I, 337. The ship was wrecked in a storm at Santa Elena in December, 1576. Most of the men were slain by the Indians. The rest were retained as slaves. VI The Appointment of Pedro Menendez Marques to the Governorship of Florida ; the Religious of St. Francis who Set Out for the Conversion of the Natives ; and an Account of Jacan. In the year 1577, His Majesty ordered Pedro Menendez Marques, nephew of the Adelantado, to take with him infantry and rebuild the fort of Santa Elena, with the title of Governor of Florida and its provinces.1 Marques was then admiral of the galleons of the Indies’ fleet and accountant of Florida. When the general arrived, he discussed the restoration of the fort of Santa Elena and took one hundred soldiers with him. These had many encounters with the Indians until the fort was built. From Santa. Elena as a center, they went forth to burn the Indian villages and to inflict whatever damage they could. In one of these assaults, they killed and captured a hundred and twenty persons, while in the province of Guale they burned all the towns so that when the Indians saw their villages overrun and their people dead or in captivity they sub- mitted, made peace and asked for religious who would instruct them in the things necessary for receiving baptism and em- bracing Christianity. Thus they went about straightening out matters and subduing the Indians.2 The first Christian towns were Nombre de Dios and San Sebastian for so they named those towns which are near St. Augustine.3 In the year 1585 it became known that the English came to settle on the coast of Jacan.4 On receiving orders from His Majesty, General Pedro Menendez left St. Augustine in a frigate and sailed towards Jacan to reconnoitre it and ascer- tain what he could about the settlement. So in the year 1587 he came near the place but encountered a tempest so dire that he was forced to put into harbor with great risk to himself. 41 42 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA He came to Havana and then set out for St. Augustine where he arrived in July. He and Juan de Texeda, captain-general of the army, agreed that the fort of Santa Elena should be reduced in favor of that of St. Augustine. On his arrival he soon carried this out. This was done in view of the fact that the year before (1586) 5 the corsair Francis Drake had burned the fort of St. Augustine by the aid of a great force of infantry and the artillery which he put on land ; also because of the few people and the meager defense which there was in the presidio. Con- cerning this, a bugler who had gone over to him, gave him the information. During the time he was in the port, however, great damage was inflicted on him, such as launches that were sunk, and a number of Englishmen who were killed. One in particular was a person of note who was killed by a soldier, Luis Fernandez. Him he killed with a single shot. Fernandez is living today, very old and poor and with children. Drake had such feeling for him that he ordered a gun to be fired as a signal to depart. Drake left and returned to his course of piracy in which he was engaged. Much more damage would have been inflicted on him and a greater resistance given, had it not been necessary to give attention to repairing the dam- age which the Indians from the interior of Icaste and Cacacolo6 intended to do, namely, to rebel and to capture the women and children who were in safe keeping in the woods. The Indians intended to take these to themselves. In their councils they had already apportioned the women out according to the status of the women and Indians alike. His Majesty considered it well to listen to the advice given him concerning the harm done and the expense which afterwards would have to be sustained in order to reconquer the Indians. Moreover, since the infantrymen were so few in the presidio, it was impossible to resist the great force of the enemy in a fort constructed of wood and sand, without hope of succor. In the month of December, in the year 1587, there came from Castille, Fray Alonso Reinoso, of the Order of Our MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 43 Holy Father St. Francis, with fellow-religious, for the con- version of the Indians.7 These religious were stationed in the towns of Nombre de Dios and San Sebastian, in San Antonio and its district, in San Pedro and San Juan and in other places in their jurisdictions.8 1 Some years before, at the request of General Pedro Me- nendez Marques, the same Fray Alonso de Reinoso entered Florida with the first companions be brought with him.9 There they were engaged in the land of Guale, in Tolomato, Tupi- qui,10 Santa Elena and St. Augustine, Everywhere they be- gan to gather abundant fruit by preaching and exhortation. A number of people were baptized and became Christians. In the beginning the missionaries notably lamented the situation, not because there were no Christians, — for there were Chris- tians and at that not by force, but of their own free wills, — but because of those who were not, and these latter constituted the greater part of every town. These infidels persecuted the Christian Indians and held them as outcasts among them, of- fering them a thousand injurious affronts, which they suf- fered and which were turned into precious pearls for them. This persecution lasted twenty years. During this same period there were always Indian ambuscades about the town, for when a soldier carelessly went out for wood, or to fish or hunt or for some other reason, the Indians immediately killed him, as has been told in previous chapters. To this end they employed their force and ingenuity so that no Spaniard, neither his crops nor his cattle should remain in the land. God wished, however, that this difficult situation be gradually straightened out and be changed to the desirable state of af- fairs that now obtains, namely that the Indians consider it an honor to be Christians ; they even persecute those who are not and offer them affronts in such a manner that we religious find it necessary to become the defenders and protectors of the Hanopiras11 among the Christian Indians. This term sig- nifies a painted man because the pagans in greater part go about smeared and painted with a bright reddish color, and when this is lacking they paint themselves with soot and char- 44 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA coal. In this the Indians of Florida are similar to those pa- gans and barbarous Indians who live in the cordilleras of Peru. Both make use of arrows, but in Peru they go about clothed, or at least, are less naked than the Indians here. The Peru- vians excel in being more warlike. But the Indians of Florida are not addicted to the vice of drunkenness, to which all the Indians, both of New Spain and Peru, are given.12 In the following year, 1588, at the end of the month of May, Captain Vincente Gonzales left from the port and: presi- dio of St. Augustine. With Gonzales went the sergeant-ma- jor, Juan Menendez Marques and thirty soldiers and sailors in a long bark which had come from San Lucar13 to Havana the year before as a dispatch boat. This boat was bought for the expedition to Jacan. The purpose of this expedition was to run along the coast up to the Bay of Madre de Dios, in order to try to obtain knowledge of and to reconnoitre the English settlement and fortification.34 After they made the journey along the coast, the party came to Santa Elena and found the Indians at peace; the same was true at the port of Cayagua,15 which they judged to be a good port. Then they followed the coast, having passed the cape of San Roman.16 They spoke with the Indians but the interpreters whom they had brought along did not understand their language. They continued their journey, passing the Cape of Trafalgar17 and that of San Juan;18 likewise two other ports. Whereupon they arrived at the Bay of Madre de Dios de Jacan, in the month of June, in the year 1588. The mouth of the bay is about three leagues wide,19 with- out shoals or reefs, and is more than eight fathoms deep. It runs northwest-southeast and forms a large round gulf. Be- tween the entrance and the place where one reaches the main- land, it extends toward the west and the northwest for about three leagues. In the east-west direction, at the mouth, on the mainland, there is a good port which at its entrance has a depth of three fathoms.20 A little less than two leagues from there, there is another port toward the northwest,21 where Captain Gonzales said he had landed when he brought the re- MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 45 ligious of the Society, whom Don Luis and his accomplices put to death, as has already been told. Captain Gonzales said that on a plain which is beyond a ravine and where there was a group of pine trees, an altar had been erected and Mass had been said. From there he re- turned toward the east, where on the mainland of that area, but within the bay and near some small islands and an inlet, the Adelantado had been. It was there that the Adelantado finished the gunwales of two frigates in which he sailed for Castille from that place.22 Thereupon they departed from the said port, and coasting along the shore of the mainland toward the north, they dis- covered another port which appeared to be a good one and of great depth. On the shore there was an abundance of large stone, while the cape of the land to the north formed a high headland. These three ports can be seen at one glance from the mouth of the bay ; the last, however, only faintly. As they continued to sail north, the land from the east jutted into the bay. It became narrower in such a manner that at its narrowest place, from the western shore whence it stretched toward the eastern part, it was two leagues.23 After that they discovered coves and inlets as well as rivers along the western shore. Then they came upon a large fresh water river, which, where it entered the bay, was more than six fathoms deep. To the north there was very high land, with ravines, but without trees, delightful and free, which had the aspect of a green field and was pleasant to behold:. On the south shore of this river the beach is very calm and is lined with small pebbles. Farther up on the south bank of the same river there appeared a delightful valley, wooded, and pleasant land which seemed to be fertile and adaptable to stock raising and farming. This river was located in latitude of 38 degrees. They named it San Pedro.24 They continued to sail north along the western shore and passed the night in a small inlet under the protection of high and well-shaded land. The next day many Indians came to 46 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA the beach, and the one among them who appeared to have the greater dignity, wore a necklace, which seemed to be of fine gold. There they seized an Indian youth of about fifteen years of age.25 Advancing farther, they discovered many other ports and important rivers which entered the bay from the western shore until they came to latitude 3526 where they discovered mountain ridges which were very high and which ran in the direction of south-west, north-east. Still more rivers were dis- covered. Soon in the middle of the bay there appeared a small island27 while along the western shore the depth began to di- minish to such an extent that they could go no further. They found it necessary to turn eastward. In front of the island, the land was high and broken and well wooded. Near the is- land on the eastern shore there were shoals of greater or lesser depth. Sailing closer toward the eastern shore, they found a channel of great depth.28 Continuing still farther north, they found that the hills began to encircle the view. In different parts they found mouths of rivers and coves. Where this semi-circular bay ends, it is about as wide as the harbor of Cadiz.29 More than two or three leagues, before they reached the terminus of the bay, they found that the water was fresh. That evening they were on the point of en- tering a river toward the north, north-west between some high hills and rocks.30 At high tide the mouth was more than three fathoms deep. Because it was already night, at about a quarter of a league from there, they cast anchor. At dawn, there was low tide. It was almost a miracle that the bark re- mained between the rocks by which the river was enclosed from one side to the other. At great risk, and amid shouts and orders,31 it sailed forth as far as the mouth of the river which was clear. There they saw a small shad,32 dead and floating on the water, which was of no use. In a brook which came down between the rocks, some small trout were seen, like those of the mountains. This was the eve of the feast of St. John the Baptist, and out of devotion they called the river San Juan de las Penas.33 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 47 They went up to the sierra on the level place and beheld on the other side, another river, and together with it ranges of hills and rolling land.34 Below in the fold of this range there was a fair valley with trees, with fertile and pleasing land. From the latitude of 38 degrees up to the end, there is found a great quantity of chestnuts and large walnuts as well as wild vines with bulky grapes. The same day they departed from that river and went along the coast toward the east at a good rate, where they discovered a very agreeable inlet, 55 thick with trees where many deer appeared. They en- tered it toward the north, and sailed as far as its extremity. Then they landed on a pleasant beach, below some small ra- vines. At that termination there was a quiet and pleasant valley, containing trees, without any craggy place. In it they found many deer. They killed one of these and made a feast of it on the day of the glorious Saint John the Baptist. Captain Vincente Gonzales and the pilot Gines Pinzon took the latitude which they found to be at about 40 degrees.36 They had taken it also at the first port after they had entered the bay and there they found it to be at 37 degrees and 37 minutes.37 On that same day, the feast of St. John, they left that end of the bay and sailed south along the western shore. In view of the fact that one of the Indians had been captured there (as mentioned before)38 no Indian appeared along the western shore until the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.39 In the morning they crossed to the eastern shore and came to some small islands which are within view of the mouth of the bay. There they landed. From that place to a spot farther on, and in view of the cove where the Adelantado had been, they steered for land, but because the water had little depth, they could not reach it. Many Indians both men and women came to the beach. When some came to the bark, after wading in water up to their knees, the Spaniards seized one of them and sailed away.40 When they departed from the bay, it was evening. All that night they navigated toward the south with the help of a strong west wind. The same was true all the next day 48 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA till sunset. The wind, however, became too strong, and they were forced to unmast the ship. By rowing they came to the shore and interned at a bar of very shallow depth. Within the bar there was a large cove to the south, which at low tide remained almost dry. The view toward the north showed a great portion of the bay as well as a large arm to the north- west, while the land was thickly wooded. Also, along the coast, to the north, there appeared another mouth which seemed to be better than the one they had entered. That portion of the coast, for about a league, between one bar and another, is low and broken by sand. In the interior of the region where they were, there was. a ship-yard, indicated by the presence of sloops, while on the land there were some re- mains of English barrels^ Besides, there were other signs of debris, indicating that people had been there.41 The next day they again departed. They found the lati- tude to be 85 degrees.42 Continuing toward the south, they passed the three capes referred to before.43 Then in turn they passed the ports of Cayagua, Santa Elena and the whole land of Guale until they arrived at the island of San Pedro which was then thickly populated with native Indians. There they found Fray Baltasar Lopez who was beginning to gather abundant fruit in that mission. He had already baptized many Indians. By these, the navigators were well received: and regaled according to what they had asked, for they arrived in great need of provisions.44 After they passed the bar of this island, they returned to St. Augustine, in the month of July, in the same year, 1588. This trip of exploration and discovery, from start to finish, they made in a little less than a month and a half, according to this report, so exact and prolix, which was made by the said sergeant-major Juan Menendez,45 who at present is the royal treasurer in the city of St. Augustine. Because the description of the Bay of Madre de Dios and of the ports with their latitudes, and of the directions of their explorations is so trustworthy and so necessary for the time when Your Majesty may be pleased to command that the bay MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 49 be cleared of the robbers who have occupied it and fortified it for thirty years,46 it seemed well that I should dwell on it at some length. This same information was obtained from what was learned at Havana, from a pilot, Pedro Diaz Franco,47 namely, that the port which was referred to above as being* at 85 y2 de- grees latitude, and where the remains of the English barrels were seen, was the location of the English settlement. He reported further that they had taken him along on two voy- ages and that at that time, it had about three hundred men and as many women. To the question why they had not seen the settlement from the bark, since they reached the place where the remains were, he answered that he was not able to see, since it was ten leagues from the port by the arm above the shore of the northern entrance. Another reason was that they tried to conceal their purpose until they should discover good land for settlement and fortification.48 The same was said by David Glavid who was brought to the city of St. Augustine from Havana where he was forced to serve in the galleys. He said the English had brought him thither by force. But he said more : that they penetrated the interior for many leagues up a river and that a quantity of gold dust was obtained. This David Glavid who gave this in- formation, said he was an Irishman.49 Having obtained the account of the voyage from the cap- tain and sergeant-major Vincente Gonzales and the one which the pilot Pedro Diaz Franco gave, General Pedro Menendez de- sired to go to Castille, leaving in his place his brother-in-law, Juan de Posadas and taking with him his first cousin, ser- geant-major, Juan Menendez. But he encountered adverse weather and suffered a torn sail. This brought him in sight of Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo. Unable to make any other port, he arrived at La Yeguana50 in dire necessity. Wishing to continue his voyage and to disembark at Cape San Nicolas,51 he was prevented by the lack of sufficient wind. Consequently he was forced to double the point of Mayci52 and 50 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA take the way of the old channel to Havana. From there he went to St. Augustine, whence he started out again for Cas- tille on May 18, 1859. He entered the port of San Lucar on July 5 of the same year accompanied by Fray Alonso de Reinoso53 and the sergeant-major. He then went to court and gave an account to His Majesty of the discovery spoken of before. He was told to return to Havana with four supply ships, with infantry, provisions, stores and munitions and from there to take the galleys and merchant ships, as it would seem fit- ting to him, and go to St. Augustine. There he was to station the new troops and take the seasoned ones with him to 35% degrees. He was to enter St. Augustine with the galleys and merchant ships since the bar has little depth, and send the supply ships to the bay. And after reconnoitering the lay of the land, he was to erect a fort in the place which to him appeared most suitable. He was to leave there the best equip- ment he could afford with three hundred infantry men. More- over, he was to give orders to the alcaide 54 in charge, that at the most opportune time, either he or his lieutenant should explore the interior in order to reconnoitre the land, and sat- isfy themselves as to the topography and to find out whether there were any mines. Such was the understanding. Nevertheless, this order was not carried out because soon another was issued whereby General Pedro Menendez was instructed to go to Tierra Firme with two lateen-rigged vessels, and in these, he was to bring to Castille the silver, gold and pearls belonging to His Ma- jesty.55 This he did, leaving the Bay of Cadiz on May 16, 1590. He returned with the treasure, entering the port of Viana de Camina56 on September 4, of the same year. The sergeant- major, Juan Menendez, took the news of the arrival to His Ma- jesty of glorious memory to the Escorial, while the treasure was taken to the mint at Segovia. In the year, 1591, Pedro Menendez was placed in charge of the frigates belonging to the fleet of the Indies, as well as of the carriage of the silver from Tierra Firme and New MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 51 Spain, Having gone to Nombre de Dios,57 he returned to San Lucar de Barrameda in the month of January, 1592, In the following year 1593, His Majesty was informed that in the presidio of St. Augustine the people were refusing obedience to the governor, Gutierre de Miranda, who was governing the presidio by virtue of a royal cedula, in the ab- sence of General Pedro Menendez. News was likewise received that Rodrigo de Junco was drowned at the bar of San Mateo. He had come to govern by virtue of a royal cedula . Likewise the captain, Juan de Posadas, was drowned. He had come to take the place of the treasurer, because of the death of Juan de Cebadilla. When the king received this news, he ordered General Pedro Menendez to go to the presidio of St. Augustine and put down the uprising against the governor. But he had hardly gone, when sickness overtook him so that he was forced to ask the king to send another person who was satisfactory, in his place. So there were provided for Florida, a governor and captain-general, a treasurer and accountant who were respectively: Domingo Martinez de Avendano,58 Juan Menendez, the sergeant-major, and Barto- lome de Argiielles. The Indian who had been apprehended on the eastern side of the bay, died in the port of San Pedro, of anger and melan- choly. The one who had been first apprehended, went to Cas^ tille. He accompanied the general in a lateen-rigged vessel, but on the return voyage, he died at Viana of the small-pox. Being already a Christian, they buried him in the convent of Santo Domingo. He was a linguist and spoke much about the excellence and fertility of his land and about the gold that was in it. This, in his native tongue he called tapisco.59 Some years later, in the month of June, in the year 1609, the governor, Pedro Ybarra,60 sent Captain Francisco Fernan- dez de Ecija in a light vessel with infantry and sailors, to- gether with the major-pilot of Florida, Andres Gonzales, to reconnoitre the English settlement which was said to be es- tablished on the bay, and which was thought to have a large fortification as well as a great number of soldiers and settlers. 52 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA This expedition entered the mouth of the bay. After having recognized a large ship within, in the region of the islands, they retraced their steps, without having been able to detect anything else and then returned to St. Augustine with the report.61 In the month of June, in 1611, there passed by the presidio Don Diego de Molina and an ensign named Marco Antonio and an English pilot in a caravel, in which they later arrived at the bay. When the three landed, the English seized them and said that they were sending an English pilot who would take the caravel further in, which according to the information they received was the first port on the mainland within the bay. The Portuguese on the caravel apprehended the English pilot, took to sail and went with him to Havana, leaving the three aforementioned friends with the English.62 Since the fortification and the settlement were so strong, as it is understood, great strength of arms will be necessary to dislodge them. According to the view of him who entered and saw the situation of the bay, which we have described, it will be necessary to enter it with three sturdy galleons and a dispatch-boat, two galleys, and two long barks, built with care and light in structure. For it will be necessary to go in and come out with ease, the various parts and places which it might be fitting to investigate within the bay. The galleons, dispatch-boat and galleys must be well supplied with artillery, arms, munitions and supplies, manned by about a thousand soldiers, artillerymen, the necessary sailors and an engineer. Likewise there is needed a quantity of armor, of sail cloth and cotton, well basted. With these preparations one will be able to reconnoitre with this end in view and obtain definite information concerning the fortification, settlement, and mili- tary strength of the enemy. Moreover with the galleons and galleys, one will be enabled to obstruct the enemy’s commerce and trade with England, vexing and disturbing the settlement at the same time on land by skirmishes and ambuscades. For within the bay there are favorable places, ports and rivers to serve these purposes, and to erect a fortification wherein to MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 53 lodge themselves and thence to go out and dislodge the enemy. By this means that seizure of territory will come to naught in a short time, as well as the other which they are now fortify- ing in latitude of 33 degrees in the island of Bermuda. The enemy’s ships arrive from England with practical security, there being no one to resist them or to thwart their designs. From these two ports of Jacan and Bermuda,63 boats of the enemy set out every year and run along the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Santo Domingo. They rob what they can, without our being able to punish them. With their booty of cow-hides, wine and other things which they can lay their hands on, they pillage and leave again by way of the Bahama Channel, with which they are as familiar as the pilots who have made the journey to the Indies ten or twelve times. Then they enter into one of these haunts, whence they return to England, rich from the robbery they were able to commit, leaving the owners poor and bereft of their money and merchandise, which they carry away. All this without alleviation to the women folk who waited for it from the returns, from the sale of leather. Above all the re- putation of the Spanish name has been shamed by this silence and continuous suffering for so many years.64 So many cor- sairs are entering the unfortified places, that they take as much as they please, either bargaining for it or taking it by force of men and arms. Conditions are such that without a fleet of galleons, no journey is safely taken for any part where fri- gates and- large sea-going vessels carry on trade. These are not in danger of attack from corsairs during the winter season when the corsairs return to the two ports. It is then that the ships prefer to appear in order to avoid the danger of enemies, robbers and corsairs. NOTES VI 4Pedro Menendez Marques ruled in Florida first as gov- ernor ad interrim from 1577 to 1578 and then permanently 54 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA from 1578 to 1589. Vide Spanish Governors of Florida, 1565- 1768, in Connor, Colonial Records, I, xxxiii. 2From Santa Elena, October 21, 1577, Pedro Menendez Marques wrote to King Philip II: “Your Majesty expressly commands that. . . I should strengthen this fort of Santa Elena and the others there may be in these provinces, because it so befits your Majesty’s service and the safety of the rest of the Indies.” Connor, Colonial Records, I, 265. Even while Menendez was rebuilding the fort at Santa Elena he and his soldiers were unsafe because of the presence of some French- men from the Principe in the interior. Letter of Pedro Menendez Marques to the king, St. Augustine, June 15, 1578, in Connor, Colonial Records, II, 78-83. Indians from Guale and Santa Elena had come to treat with those in the neigh- borhood of St. Augustine in the attempt to get them to destroy the Spaniards in the latter city. 3Nombre de Dios is described as a quarter of a league from St. Augustine. Vide Nota de las missiones de la provincia de la Florida, in Serrano y Sanz, Documentos historicos de la Florida y la Luisiaiva siglos XVI al XVIII (Madrid, 1913) , p. 132. (Hereinafter cited as Documentos historicos.) Docu- ments of the mission period refer to it as “dos tiros de mos- queta” away from St. Augustine to emphasize its propinquity. It was ruled by Dona Maria, the cacica, who was married to a Spanish soldier, Clemente Vernal. Doha Maria Cacica and Clemente Vernal, her husband, to the king, St. Augustine, Nov. 30, 1592. Archivo General de Indias, estante 87, cajon 4, legajo 4. Florida State Historical Society photostat. Herein- after the photostats of this collection will be abbreviated in this manner : (A. G. I. 87-4-4) F. S'. H. S. phot. San Sebastian according to Swanton, Early History of the Creek Indians and their Neighbors (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 73, Washington, 1922) , p. 328, is described as “a town on an arm of the sea near St. Augustine, destroyed about 1600 by a flood.” (Hereinafter, Swanton, Early History of the Creek Indians.) MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 55 4Here reference is made to the English settlement at Roanoke. Roanoke and Jacan were contiguous. Cf. Log of the Jacan expedition. 5Drake and his armada appeared at St. Augustine about two o’clock in the afternoon, Friday, June 6, the day after the Feast of Corpus Christi. On the following day artillery was landed from the English vessels, and placed behind the sand dunes from which vantage point the wooden fort of San Juan de Pinello was bombarded. Menendez Marques had less than a hundred able and equipped soldiers to defend the fort ; so he and his officers decided to abandon it. Drake had from 1,500 to 2,000 men according to the Spanish reports. The women and children had been moved to safety in the woods. It was thither that Menendez and his soldiers fled after abandoning the fort. Drake burned the fort, the church, and in fact, the entire pueblo. He remained a week careening one of his ships. Thereupon he left for the north, and carried away the Roanoke colony to England. He missed the Spanish fort of Santa Elena passing it most probably by night. Documents relative to Drake’s attack on St. Augustine from which these facts, are taken are the following: Pero Menendez Marq.s por cartas de 17 de Junio y de 16 de Jullio de 86. [Spain] (A. G. I. 2-5-2|12) F. S. H. S. phot. — Fernandez de Quinones to the Casa de Contratacion, San Cristobal de Havana, [July 2, 1586] (A. G. I. 42-1-8 13) F. S. H. S. phot. — Royal officials to the king, Havana, July 4, 1586. (A. G. I. 54-1-34, No. 15) F. S. H. S. phot. — Information sobre la perdida del fuerte de San Augus- tin de la Florida [Cuban officials to the king, July 30, 1586] (A. G. I. 40-3-1 123) F. S. H. S. phot. — probanza echa e la ciudad desto agustin de la florida antel capitan franco salazar por comision del muy ylle senor po menendez marquez gouer- dor y capitan general enstas prouyas por su mag. sobre la benida estrago y dano que hizo el corsario franco drag ingles. [St. Augustine, August 12, 1596] (A. G. I. 54-5-14) F. S. H. S. phot. — Pedro Menendez Marques to the Casa de Con- tratacion, August 30, 1586. (A. G. I. 42-l-8|3) F. S. H. S. phot. 56 MARTYRS OF FLORIDA 6Icaste, probably the same as Casti, “given by Laudon- niere as a Timucua town.” Swanton, Early History of the Creek Indians , p. 824. The cacique of Cacacolo belonged either to the area of San Juan del Puerto or San Pedro (Cumberland Island). Vide Juan Menendez Marques to Fray Miguel Aven- gozar, St. Augustine, June 7, 1606, in Ruidlaz y Caravia, La Florida su conquista y colonizacion, II, 498. (Cited herein- after as Ruidiaz, La Florida). 7These were not the first Franciscans who came to Florida after the departure of the Jesuits. The first friars to enter Spanish Florida (barring those who accompanied the earlier expeditions) were members of the group who came to Santa Elena in 1578. Vide A Fragment of the Description of the Voyage of Pedro Menendez Marques along the east Coast of Florida, in 1578, in Connor, Colonial Records, I, 881. The translation stating that there were “nine new religious,” how- ever, is a slip. The Spanish text on page 330 merely states there were (