Ferdinand de Soto.
Ferdinand de Soto, eager to rival the exploits of Cortez in Mexico, and
of his former commander, Pizarro, in Peru, offered to conquer Florida at
his own expense. Appointed governor-general of Florida and of Cuba, he
sailed with seven large and three small vessels. From Espiritu Santo Bay
he, in 1539, marched with six hundred men into the country of the
Appalachians and discovered the harbor of Pensacola. After wintering at
Appalachee he set out into the interior, said to abound in gold and
silver. Penetrating northeasterly as far as the Savannah, he found only
copper and mica. From here he marched first northwest into northern
central Georgia, then southwest into Alabama. A battle was fought with
the natives at Mavila, or Mobile, in which the Spaniards suffered
serious loss. Ships that he had ordered arrived at Pensacola, but de
Soto determined not to embark until success should have crowned his
efforts. He turned back into the interior, into the country of the
Chickasaws, marched diagonally over the present State of Mississippi to
its northwest corner, and crossed the Mississippi River near the lowest
Chickasaw Bluff. From this point the general direction of the Spanish
progress was southwest, through what is now Arkansas, past the site of
Little Rock, till at last a river which seems to have been the Washita
was reached. Down this stream de Soto and his decimated force
floated--two hundred and fifty of his men had succumbed to the hardships
and perils of his march--arriving at the junction of the Red with the
Mississippi River on Sunday, April 17, 1542. At this point de Soto
sickened and died, turning over the command to Luis de Moscoso. Burying
their late leader's corpse at night deep in the bosom of the great
river, and constructing themselves boats, the survivors of this
ill-fated expedition, now reduced to three hundred and seventy-two
persons, made the best of their way down the Mississippi to the Gulf,
and along its coast, finally reaching the Spanish town near the mouth of
the Panuco in Mexico.
A Palisaded Indian Town in Alabama.
Burial of de Soto in the Mississippi at night.
[1562]
Thus no settlement had as yet been made in Florida by the Spanish. The
first occupation destined to be permanent was brought about through
religious jealousy inspired by the establishment of a French Protestant
(Huguenot) colony in the territory. Ribault, a French captain
commissioned by Charles IX., was put in command of an expedition by that
famous Huguenot, Admiral Coligny, and landed on the coast of Florida, at
the mouth of the St. John's, which he called the River of May. This was
in 1562. The name Carolina, which that section still bears, was given to
a fort at Port Royal, or St. Helena. Ribault returned to France, where
civil war was then raging between the Catholics and the Protestants or
Huguenots. His colony, waiting for promised aid and foolishly making no
attempt to cultivate the soil, soon languished. Dissensions arose, and
an effort was made to return home. Famine having carried off the greater
number, the colony came to an end. In 1564 Coligny sent out Laudonniere,
who built another fort, also named Carolina, on the River of May. Again
misfortunes gathered thickly about the settlers, when Ribault arrived
bringing supplies.
Fort Carolina on the River of May.
[1565]
Pedro Melendez.
But Spain claimed this territory, and Pedro Melendez a Spanish soldier,
was in 1565 sent by Philip II. to conquer it from the French, doubly
detested as Protestants. He landed in the harbor and at the mouth of the
river, to both of which he gave the name St. Augustine. Melendez lost no
time in attacking Fort Carolina, which he surprised, putting the
garrison mercilessly to the sword. The destruction of the French colony
was soon after avenged by Dominic de Gourgues, who sailed from France to
punish the enemies of his country. Having accomplished his purpose by
the slaughter of the Spanish garrison he returned home, but the French
Protestants made no further effort to colonize Florida.
Spain claimed the land by right of discovery, but, although maintaining
the feeble settlement at St. Augustine, did next to nothing after this
to explore or civilize this portion of America. The nation that had sent
out Columbus was not destined to be permanently the great power of the
New World. The hap of first landing upon the Antilles, and also the warm
climate and the peaceable nature of the aborigines, led Spain to fix her
settlements in latitudes that were too low for the best health and the
greatest energy. Most of the settlers were of a wretched class,
criminals and adventurers, and they soon mixed largely with the natives.
Spain herself greatly lacked in vigor, partly from national causes,
partly from those obscure general causes which even to this day keep
Latin Europe, in military power and political accomplishments, inferior
to Teutonic or Germanic Europe.
