Santa Elena: a Brief History of the Colony, 1566-1587 Eugene Lyon
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University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Archaeology and Anthropology, South Carolina Research Manuscript Series Institute of 1984 Santa Elena: A Brief History of the Colony, 1566-1587 Eugene Lyon Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/archanth_books Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Lyon, Eugene, "Santa Elena: A Brief History of the Colony, 1566-1587" (1984). Research Manuscript Series. 185. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/archanth_books/185 This Book is brought to you by the Archaeology and Anthropology, South Carolina Institute of at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Research Manuscript Series by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Santa Elena: A Brief History of the Colony, 1566-1587 Keywords Excavations, Spaniards, Spanish Florida, Santa Elena, South Carolina, Archeology Disciplines Anthropology Publisher The outhS Carolina Institute of Archeology and Anthropology--University of South Carolina Comments In USC online Library catalog at: http://www.sc.edu/library/ This book is available at Scholar Commons: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/archanth_books/185 SANTA ElLENA: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COLONY, 1566-1587 by ~jugene ]~yon Research Manuscript Series 193 Prepared by the INSTITUTE OF ARCHEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY UNIVERSal OF SOUTH CAROLINA 1984 • The University of South Carolina offers equal opportunity in its employment, admissions and educational activities, in accordance with Title IX, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and other civil rights laws. ii PREFACE For the past five years I have carried out archeological excavations on the site of the Spanish colonial city of Santa Elena (1566-1587). This work has been done with historical information published for the most part in the 1920s by Jeanette Connor, Mary Ross, and A. S. Salley, Jr. (Connor 1925, 1930; Ross 1925; Salley 1925), plus Eugene Lyon's Book, The Enter prise of Florida published in 1976, and a manuscript on the fortifications at Santa Elena by Paul Hoffman, which he prepared for the National Geo graphic Society in 1978. In several of the reports I have prepared I have emphasized the need for research into the documentary sources relating to Santa Elena and her forts in a thorough manner. Finally, in 1983, a proposal was submitted to the National Endowment for the Humanities for funding for Eugene Lyon to transcribe and translate and annotate many of the surviving documents, now on microfilm, so that these data could be available for scholars in his tory, archeology, anthropology, etc. in addition to the traditional refer ences now used. However, unfortunately, this research was not funded by NEH. Perhaps some day this important research into the documents will be accomplished through grant funding. Meanwhile, this paper, written by Eugene Lyon in 1982, provides an excellent introduction and brief history of the Spanish colony of Santa Elena, filling an important need for those of us involved in research in the Spanish colonial period of American history. We are pleased to be able to present this paper in our Research Manuscript Series as a companion piece to those archeological reports on Santa Elena that have appeared in the same publication series (South 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984), funded by the National Geographic Society, The Explorers Club of New York, the U.S. Marine Corps, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation, in conjunction with the University of South Carolina's Institute of Archeology and Anthropology. Stanley South, Archeologist Institute of Archeology and Anthropology University of South Carolina May 1984 iii REFERENCES Connor, Jeannette T. 1925 Colonial Records of Spanish Florida: letters and reports of governors and secular persons, translated and edited by J.T.C. Vol. 1. Florida State Historical Society, Publication 5. Deland. 1930 Colonial records of Spanish Florida: letters and reports of governors and secular persons, translated and edited by J.T.C. Vol. 2. Florida State Historical Society, Publication 5. Deland. Hoffman, Paul E. 1978 Sixteenth century fortifications on Parris Island, South Caro lina. Ms. on file at the National Geographic Magazine, Wash ington. Lyon, Eugene 1976 The Enterprise of Florida. The University Presses of Florida. Gainesville. Ross, Mary 1925 The Spanish settlement of Santa Elena (Port Royal) in 1578. Georgia Historical Quarterly IX (1925): 352-379. (Essentially a transaction of the Inspection of Alvaro Flores de Valdes). Salley, Alexander S., Jr. 1925 The Spanish settlement at Port Royal, 1565-1586. South Caro lina History Magazine 26(1925): 31-40. South, Stanley 1979 The search for Santa Elena on Parris Island, South Carolina. University of South Carolina, Institute of Archeology and Anthropology, Research Manuscript Series 150. Columbia. 1980 The discovery of Santa Elena. University of South Carolina, Institute of Archeology and Anthropology, Research Manuscript Series 165. Columbia. 1982 Exploring Santa Elena 1981. University of South Carolina, Institute of Archeology and Anthropology, Research Manuscript Series 184. Columbia. 1983 Revealing Santa Elena 1982 • University of South Carolina, Institute of Archeology and Anthropology, Research Manuscript Series 188. Columbia. 1984 Testing archeological sampling methods at Ft. San Felipe 1983. University of South Carolina, Institute of Archeology and Anthropology, Research Manuscript Series 190. Columbia. iv SANTA ELENA: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COLONY, 1566-1587 During the Southern Historical Association Conference held in November 1982, Paul E. Hoffman described the long-range concerns which led to the Spanish settlement at Santa Elena, Parris Island, South Carolina, now being excavated by Stanley South, of the Institute of Archeology and Anthro pology, University of South Carolina. This paper sketches the lit;e and history of that colony and offers suggestions as to its significance. After decades of projected settlement and evangelization of eastern North America, Spain came to the 1560s with its aims still unfulfilled. The Ribault settlement at Port Royal thoroughly alarmed King Philip II of Spain. On February 13, 1563, he notified the Cuban Governor and Pedro Menendez de Aviles, his main fleet commander, to investigate and erase the intrusion. Before anything was done, the French had abandoned Port Royal, except for one man left, to be picked up later by Spaniards from Cuba. Thus, when the next Florida conquest-contract was granted on June 4, 1563, its focus was Santa Elena. The contractor, to be named Adelantado, was the second Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, and he was to build an agricultural colony for married settlers. After that expedition proved abortive, Frenchmen under Rene de Laudonniere came to build Fort Carolina on the St. Johns River. This was, however, not known in Spain until after a new Florida contract was signed on March 22, 1565, this time with Pedro Menendez. As conquest entrepreneur, Menendez gained governmental control of Florida for two lives, the opportunity to grant lands to his followers, and to earn for himself a major landed estate and the title of Marquis like that of Cortez. He also received shipping privileges, tax exemptions, and the right to import 500 black slaves: all in return for funding and leading the Florida enterprise. The comparison is imprecise, but Spain's sixteenth-century conquest-contracts were more like the English royal patents issued to Gilbert, Raleigh and other PTfprietors than like the grants made to the Plymouth and London companies. The limits of Menendez' Florida jurisdiction extended along the Atlantic coast from the Keys to Newfoundland; it is clear, however, where he intended to make his main establishments. Menendez' memorial of February, 1565, had urged settlement at Santa Elena. In other writings, he proposed colonies there and at the Bay of Santa Maria (the Chesapeake). The Adelantado's projected expansion lay not only northward; it was conti nental in scope. He believed Santa Elena, a good port, offered riverine access inland to the mountains 100 leagues away. From thence, Menendez mistakenly reasoned, it was but another 250 leagues to the Zacatecas mines in Mexico. Like many of his contemporaries, he believed that a waterway led from Newfoundland to the South Sea; he also surmised that it ran near or into another strait which reached the Mexican mines. Menendez obtained a copy of a Soto expedition narrative from a quarter-century before as he grappled with the concept of the northwest passage and the exploitation of a continent by land, river or strait. Pedro Menendez had, in fact, in§er ited all the previous experience of Spanish North American exploration. The Florida conquest was momentarily diverted from its wider purposes to the peninsula by the French incursion at Fort Carolina. Once the news of its building reached Spain, the Crown added troops and supplies of its own to Menendez' efforts and promised a major reinforcement in 1566. After his whirlwind victory over Laudonniere and Ribault and the establishment of a Spanish town at st. Augustine, Pedro Menendez went to Cuba seeking supplies and hoping to link up with his private reinforcements from Asturias. At Havana in January, 1566, he had news that a French ship believed to be that of Ribault's son, Jacques, had put into Guale on the present Georgia coast in the vicinity of St. Catherine's Island; they were said to be fortifying there. Rejoining his kinsman Esteban de las Alas, Menendez commandeered an armada ship and returned to Florida. At the first of April, the Adelantado took a sizeable force northward to Guale and Santa Elena. At neither place did he find a French fort, but he determined to establish at Santa Elena. Near there he met with the cacique of the Orista grouping; it was a harmonious first contact, for Menendez returned prison ers taken by the Guale. Still, Guale influence extended to the Edisto River. The Indians in the area spoke a similar language, and the possi bility of confederation existed.