2.29 America: a.d. 1501 to 1600  (Page 2/12)

Archeological and linguistic evidence discloses numerous pre-Columbian contacts between these two places. In spite of all the stories in children's histories about Ponce de Leon's trip to "find the fountain of youth", he really sailed to Florida to capture slaves and find precious metals, if available. He was authorized to make war on the Lucayhos aborigines, if necessary. Florida was erroneously regarded as just another island and the term Lucayos (or Bimini) frequently included Florida. On his first voyage, Ponce was not very successful, obtaining little more than a handful of Indians, some of whom he trained as interpreters, but when he returned in 1521 he opened war against the Caluysa and they killed him. (Ref. 267 )

There were apparently many shipwrecks of European vessels along the southern coasts in the 16th century - some say 10,000 - and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex of Indians began to use the silver coins and jewelry for their own pendants, gorgets and beads. All of this means that the Algonquians, Siouans, Muskhogeans and Iroquoians living by the ocean knew a great deal about the Europeans before they actually landed. In 1520 Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon commissioned Francisco Gordillo to sail to the northerly part of La Florida and he did so, going clear up to Chesapeake Bay, even making a short exploratory inland trip in the vicinity of Pawley's Island. After some other explorations by subordinates, Ayllon himself set forth in 1526 with 7 ships, 500 men, 100 women and Negroes, 89 horses and interpreters to settle in the region of the Cape Fear River or the Santee River. The enterprise did not prosper as one provision ship wrecked and sank and Ayllon died after an extended sickness. The remaining people relocated farther south near the future George- town, Carolina, where most died of disease, drowning or Indian warfare. A few remnants returned to Hispaniola. A little later Narvaez landed in the vicinity of Tampa Bay and detected gold among the natives' possessions. They claimed it had been obtained in Apalachee, a province in the north. Certainly there was gold in the Appalachian Mountains, but whether the Indians had mined it in truth or obtained the gold from shipwrecks or from Mexico, is not known. Narvaez searched for the source but was unsuccessful. – The only survivors of this expedition were Cabeza de Vaca, the black Moor slave, Esteban and a few others. The first two and one other wandered for 8 years across the southern United States, including Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to the area inhabited by the Pima Indians, finally reaching Mexico City. (Ref. 39 , 267 )

Leaving Spain in 1538, Hernando de Soto landed in the vicinity of present day Tampa Bay in 1539 following Narvaez' trail with 600 men and more than 200 horses. He went up the peninsula, wintered in Apalachee, then struck out northward to Cofitachiqui, west- ward to present day Alabama and across the Mississippi into Arkansas before finally dying and being buried in the Mississippi River. On his travels he visited the Queen of the powerful Coitachiqui Chiefdom, occupying a central position in present day South Carolina, and was impressed by the numerous houses, large mounds and the grand wooden mat-covered temple. The queen and her court wore long pearl necklaces - those in her possession reputedly weighing all together some thousands of pounds. Her warriors had copper-tipped pikes, maces, battle axes and perhaps 50,000 bows and quivers. The Cofitachiqui language is unknown. Supposedly Cofitachique contained at least 500 houses, as did Caxa in Alabama and Ocale in Florida. All was not sweetness and light, however, as the Spanish say that an army of 10,000 Timucuans contested De Soto's trip through Florida and up to 7,000 warriors assaulted him in Mabila. But de Soto and his Spaniards brought small-pox, measles, tuberculosis, chicken-pox, scarlet fever, typhus, influenza, whooping cough and the common cold so that within a few decades the southeast became markedly depopulated and the economic and political structure of Mississippian life collapsed permanently. Furthermore, the Caluyas and the Cofitachiqui may already have been depleted and some settlements abandoned before De Soto arrived as a result of the migration of infected survivors from a great 1530 plague in Mexico City. (Ref. 267, 39) Thus, before proceeding with a further description of the Spanish invasion, a few more words about the southeastern Indians prior to the advent of Spanish explorers seems advisable.