The History of Saint Augustine, Florida

by William W. Dewhurst

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

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

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

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

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

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

Misled by the fabulous stories told of the wealth of Florida, and by the still more deceptive innuendoes in the account of De Vaca, and having before their eyes continually the immense treasures actually secured in Peru and Mexico, the Spaniards were satisfied that it only needed a force sufficiently large and ably commanded to secure to the conquerors even greater treasures in their northern possessions. They were, moreover, convinced that the Indian tribes would not defend, with such persistent valor and great sacrifices, a worthless country, when the incalculable wealth of the Aztec had been so feebly defended.

At this favorable moment there appeared at court a man who was acknowledged to be eminently qualified to inspire confidence in any undertaking he might enter upon. No knight stood higher in the esteem of his sovereign, or enjoyed greater popularity with the cavaliers than Hernando de Soto. Born of a good family in the northern part of Spain, he had early entered the service of D’Avilas, the governor of the West Indies, by whom he was put in command of a detachment sent to Peru to reinforce Pizarro.

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