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2

Table of Contents
Introduction: First Encounters..................................2
Finding the Way............................................................8
Spanish Soldiers in La Florida................................16
Two Worlds Meet.......................................................34
First Foods.....................................................................39
Playtime in La Florida...............................................43

Hyperlinks
Throughout this e-booklet there are
hyperlinks to additional resources and
information. They are very useful and
provide a rich learning experience. In most
instances, hyperlinks have been shortened
using Google URL Shortener. Though you
cannot see the exact URL that you are being
directed to, the authors guarantee that all

linked content is appropriate for students


in grads 3, 4 and 5 and on topic with the
material being discussed.
For more information about Google URL
Shortener, visit:
http://goo.gl/wIEw8

When America, Europe and Africa First Meet


(1492 to 1565)
By Dr. Richard L. Shortlidge, Jr.

Come with us on a journey back in time.

of life were changed forever. Imagine what


it was like for them to meet for the first time
on the tiny Caribbean island of San Salvador!
For Christopher Columbus and his sailors,
they thought that they were meeting Asians
living on newly discovered islands off the
Asian coast. That is why they called them
Indians and the islands became known as the
West Indies, which they are still called to this
day. For the Native Americans, the Europeans
and Africans were strange looking people
dressed in clothes made from metal with
animals, weapons and other things that they
had never ever seen. For both it was both
awesome and terrifying at the same time.
At first they may have thought that they
were dreaming. But it was not pretend or
make believe. It was real. We experience
what it might have been like from Lope de
Vegas play Nuevo Mundo (New World), the
scene Monster from Another World. This is
found in the chapter Playtime in La Florida.
A young Native American boy, Tecue, has just
seen for the first time the big ships from Spain
and their strange cargo. The most frightening
of all was the monster. He runs back to the
village to tell the chief and his tribe what he
has seen in words and images drawn from his
known world. See if you can solve the riddle

We start our journey in the year 1492 and


end it in the year 1565. Do you know why
these two dates are significant? You are right!
In 1492, Christopher Columbus unexpectedly
finds the Americas while searching for a
shorter trade route to Asia from Europe. In
1565, Pedro Menendez de Aviles establishes
the city of Saint Augustine in Spanish La
Florida which becomes the first permanent
European settlement in North America. In
this e-booklet, we will explore together the
profound changes that took place in the 73
years between these two dates in Floridas
and Americas history and in the lives of
Native Americans, Europeans and Africans.
At the beginning of 1492, the original
Native Americans who lived in North and
South America had never met anyone from
Europe or Africa. Likewise the people of
Europe and Africa did not know that they
were tens of millions of people living on two
large continents separating them from Asia
to the west. These were people that they had
never met. For both these were new worlds,
new peoples and new cultures with strange
animals, plants and diseases.
By the end of 1492 what people thought
they knew about their world and their ways
4

crazy. However, if Columbus was correct,


Spain would have a great trade and economic
advantage over its main rival Portugal. So
they felt the potential pay-off to them and
Spain was much greater than the costs. Like
any new business adventure
even today there are many risks
and obstacles to overcome.
The first chapter in this
e-booklet is Finding the Way:
How Explorers Crossed Trackless
Oceans to New and Distant
Lands and Lived to Tell About
it. By 1492, the advancements
in navigation instruments, ship
building and sails made it
possible to venture out of sight
of land without getting lost.
Both Spain and Portugal were
the leaders in ocean navigation.
Spain had also already captured
the Canary Islands just off the
North African coast. With its
favorable easterly blowing
winds, these islands were an
ideal launch point for travel
across the open waters of the Atlantic.
In this chapter, we learn how to measure
latitude and direction using the compass,
quadrant and astrolabe. Latitude tells you
how far north or south of the equator you
are. The maps of Europe, Africa and Asia
even 500 years ago contained the latitudes for
many major cities, towns, rivers, mountains
and other important landmarks.
Perhaps at this time, the major obstacle to
sailing out across uncharted ocean was the

and guess what it is. Also try and think of


how you might describe something you had
never seen before.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus had a
simple idea. He knew that the world was
round. The Greeks had proved
this more than 1000 years earlier.
He also thought he knew how
far around the earth was at the
equator. Europeans and Asians
had been trading by land for
centuries. They knew how far it
was from Europe to Asia by land.
So as far as they knew the late
15th century world consisted of
Astrolab
Europe, Asia and Africa.
According to Columbus
calculation, a shorter route to
Asia was sailing west across
vast uncharted ocean. Definitely
shorter than sailing around the
tip of Africa which is what the
Portuguese were doing. But he
had three big problems. First,
no one had ever gone on a long
Chronometer
voyage across a vast ocean out
of sight of land for months without getting
lost. Or if they did they never made it back
to tell their stories. Second, he needed help
paying for the trip. Third, he had to figure
out how much food and fresh water to take
for his crew, soldiers and the animals that he
would bring along on the journey.
He solved the money problem by getting
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain
to finance the trip. King Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella may have thought his proposal a little
5

Greenwich, England, just outside


London. Before agreement was
reached on Greenwich as the
site, there were many Grand
Meridians around the world.
Even Washington, DC, in the
years following the American
Revolution was where the
Americans said the Grand
Meridian began and ended.
Packing for a trip is not easy.
Map of Florida and the Caribbean with illustrated sea monsters
What we can take depends
fear of the unknown. That is why maps of the on how we are traveling foot, bicycle,
time showed these uncharted waters full of car, plane or boat. Deciding what to put
monsters and demons which scared people in or take out of a backpack or suitcase is
even more. Maybe your class could talk about difficult. Today we can buy food and water
times in your own lives when it was difficult in stores along the way, eat in restaurants or
to do something for the first time and your take along food and beverages in a cooler
packed with ice. So when we travel we
own experiences with the unknown.
Figuring out how far east or west you had dont need to take all the food and water
travelled when out of the sight of land was for the entire trip.
However, Christopher Columbus did not
more difficult. If you look at very old maps
of the world, land masses look narrower than have these options in 1492. The Portuguese
they actually are. In the first chapter you will going to Asia around Africa followed the
discover how east and west distances were coastline. They could stop every now and
measured with charts, tables and maps while then to resupply their ships with food and
tracking time with a sandglass and speed water. However, if the ships head out across
with the lead and line. Measuring where you a great unknown ocean for the first time,
are either east or west of another location is they had to take along all the food and water
called longitude. It would be another couple needed for the estimated journey. This is
of hundred years before measuring longitude what astronauts do today when they travel
is figured out and even longer before there is in space. To carry more food, it needs to be
global agreement on where longitude starts made lighter. One way to make it lighter is
and ends. The instrument for measuring to dry it and reduce the water content. Dried
longitude is the chronometer. The starting vegetables, fruits and meat weigh less than
and ending point for longitude is called the fresh ones. Also dried food does not require
Grand Meridian which is located today in refrigeration. Another way to keep meat from
6

the Americas is discussed in chapter three on


Animals of the Old and New World.
Within the short span of 20 years after
Columbus first voyage, Spain had conquered
most of the islands of the Caribbean with
devastating consequences for the Native
Americans living on them. They found
themselves forced to work in Spanish
mines for precious metals such as gold and
silver and to cultivate the fields of Spanish
plantations. The Spanish also overlaid the
Native American society with their own form
of government, Christian religious beliefs and
practices and culture.
By far the worst aspects of these early
encounters were the deadly bacteria, parasites
and viruses that the Spanish brought
unknowingly with them. Before the arrival
of Columbus and his men, diseases such as
small pox, influenza, measles, chicken pox,
typhoid fever, scarlet fever and the plague
were unknown in the Americas. Within just a
couple of decades after the Europeans arrived,

spoiling is to salt it. These were all methods of


food preservation in 15th and 16th centuries
which are still used even today. Can you think
of some common food items today that might
fit the bill for a long ocean voyage without
refrigeration? You will find clues about what
the early explorers took along in chapter four
on First Foods.
But also not knowing exactly what
you were going to find at the end of your
journey you needed to take along those
basic European domesticated animals which
would be important for your survival and
protection. So even as early as 1492, dogs,
chickens, goats, pigs, cattle and horses were
on board ships going to the Americas. With
the exception of the dog, there were no other
major four legged domesticated animals living
among the native North Americans. With
little competition and few predators, pigs,
cattle and horses in particular adapted easily
to the American environment and spread
rapidly. The introduction of these animals to

European colonization had vanished by the


early sixteenth century.
Chapter two describes the early explorations
of what was to become known as La Florida and
the continent of North America. If you look at
early 16th century maps of the Caribbean and
compare them to maps of the region today, you
will notice that the islands in the Caribbean and
even the big island of Cuba look very much
like modern maps. However, if you look to the
north of Cuba you will see what looks like an
island. To the early explorers, they were still not
sure if they had reached islands off the coast of
the Asian mainland or discovered whole new
continents that lay between Europe and Asia.

these diseases had infected, debilitated and


killed hundreds of thousands of Native
Americans living in the Caribbean. Islands,
once populated, became completely void
of native peoples. Tragically after the first
century of Spanish conquest and exploration
the tens of millions of Native Americans living
in both North and South America had died
of diseases for which they had no immunity.
Whole cultures, societies and civilizations
were destroyed as a consequence. These
unforeseen consequences made it easier first
for the Spanish and later the French and
English to settle and establish colonies in
the Americas. Any significant resistance to

A Note to Teachers
looking for at the sight. The second team can
then challenge the first team if they think the
information given by the first team is wrong or
not accurate. If the challenge holds up then, the
it is the second teams turn to place an explorer
on the map.
Florida Living History Inc and the authors
of this e-booklet on the teaching of Floridas
4th Grade Social Studies Educational
Standard 3, Exploration and Settlement of
Florida, hope that this will prove to be a
valuable resources for use in the classroom by
teachers and students as well as by parents at
home with children 8 to 10 years of age. We
also would very much appreciate and value
your feedback and suggestions on how this
e-booklet can be improved to better serve
your interests and needs.

You might want to consider doing a display


in your class room of early 16th century maps
and late 16th century maps to see how the
continent of North America better known
at the time as La Florida after Juan Ponce de
Leon took possession in the name of the King
of Spain in 1513.
After you have read chapter two and learned
about the early explorers in La Florida such as
Ponce de Leon, Hernando De Soto, Tristan de
Luna and Pedro Menendez, you might want
to play a game of exploration using a modern
map. From chapter two you can cut out the
pictures of these early explorers. Divide your
class into two teams. The first team takes a
picture of one of the early explorers and puts
it on the map where he may have landed
along with the year. The first team would give
a little description of what the explorer was
8

How Explorers Crossed Trackless Oceans to New and


Distant Lands and Lived to Tell about It.
by Peter Cowdrey
Welcome aboard as we set sail for faraway
places, with nothing to guide us except a
compass, and estimating our position on
the Earth by means of such instruments as
the astrolabe and the quadrant, and keeping
track of where we go by means of a chart
and a logbook so we can find our way back
to our starting place.

Philippines, Taiwan, and others. Europeans


had been reading Marco Polos book, The
Travels, for two hundred years and some
were interested in going to the Far East of
Asia in order to trade with far off people for
spices, silk, and precious metals like gold
and silver, while others wanted to spread
knowledge of the Christian faith to those
who had never heard of it.

The Old World


and the New World

Portugal and Spain


Although like Marco Polo and other
Europeans had traveled to the Far East
by overland routes for the most part, the
best way Europeans thought they could
accomplish their goals was by ship, since
overland travel was more slow and even
more dangerous than ship travel. By 1492,
the Portuguese were trying to reach the Far
East by sailing southward around Africa and
then northeast to India and beyond, while
Christopher Columbus was attempting to
reach the same Far East by sailing westward,
across the Atlantic Ocean. The Portuguese
King was supporting his own subjects in their
efforts, and Columbus had the backing of
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain
for his voyage. In Portugal and in Spain, the
rulers hoped to gain great profits from any

5 centuries ago, European explorers


were just learning about places around the
world where other people had been living
and raising families for many thousands of
years. For the explorers, these were new and
undiscovered lands, but not for the people
living there already. They were already
home, and sometimes they were amazed at
the clothing, tools, and food of the explorers.
Each group considered the other new, and
for the explorers the lands they found across
the Ocean were a New World.

Europe and the Far East


If we look at a globe, we can see where
the continent of Europe is in relation to the
continents of Africa and Asia, and to such
island nations in the Pacific as Japan, the
9

Those who sailed the ship were called


the crew, and the crew was divided into
two equal halves so that half of the sailors
could do their jobs in sailing the ship for
four hours at time, then the other half took
over for four hours, and so on. This went on
for 24 hours (except for the dog watches
of 2 hours each, usually from about 4 PM
until about 8 PM), night and day, every day
of the trip. Sleep was done in naps of not
more than four hours each,1 and while half
the crew slept, the other half worked.

overseas trade that they were sponsoring,


so there was competition between Portugal
and Spain for the riches of the Far East.

The Ships and


Those Who Sailed in Them
Sailing ships of 500 years ago were
wooden and carried sails to move them
through the water. There were different
kinds of ships for different purposes, but
they all were made of wood and they carried
their canvas sails on poles, called masts and
yards. The men who sailed in the ships were
experienced sailors who knew how to steer
the ships, to change the sails, and to do all
sorts of other things sailors had to know to
keep the ship sailing smoothly and to keep
from hitting any of the reefs or rocks along
the shore or running aground in shallow
water. Everyone on board the ship had
responsibility to work as a team, and to obey
the officers who gave orders. The oldest men
might be 60 years old or more, and were the
most experienced. They had sailed through
many storms, had survived wars at sea, and
had seen many places in the Mediterranean
Sea and in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. The
youngest people were Ships Boys, some
as young as 10, who acted as messengers,
and who kept a sharp eye on the sandglass
to turn it every half hour exactly. In this
early period, there were no clocks, and all
time was told by a sandglass that hung close
to the helm where the steering was done by
the man holding the tiller (a horizontal pole
connected to the rudder), or a whip-staff (a
vertical pole connected to the rudder).

Food and Water


When the weather was good, hot food
could be served once a day. There was no
refrigeration, so the food at the beginning of
a voyage, or sailing trip, was always better
than it was at the end of that voyage.
Food was limited and was served out
in measured amounts, the same as the
water. Food and water were very scarce on
board, and the longer the voyage, the more
uncertain the food and water allowance.
In their book, a secondary source (a recent
source that looks back on a historical event
from an earlier time) titled Floridas Golden
Galleons: The Search for the 1715 Spanish
Treasure Fleet, authors Robert F. Burgess
and Carl J. Clausen, described the food and
water this way:
During the early part of the voyage, when
provisions were abundant and fresh,
everyone ate reasonably well. Breakfast
might consist of boiled meal with molasses
or flour dumplings fried in pork fat. On meat
days, fresh fruit and vegetables were often
10

port and goes out of sight of land, the water


looks very much alike in any direction.
Every wave looks like every other wave,
and it would be very easy to get lost and
never find their way at all. For that reason,
several instruments were available to these
early sailors and explorers, and there were
trained officers who knew exactly how to
use them. Being safe at sea was so important
to early sea travelers that according to advice
that Gonzalo Fernndez de Oviedo y Valdz
gave his readers in this primary source (one
that is original to the period under study)
that was published in Spanish in 1548:

served with Tassajos Fritossun- or winddried jerked beef. Other meals included a
thick bean soup cooked with salt pork, and
various meat and turtle stews. The choicest
food was served to officers and upper-class
passengers, who often feasted on roast fowl,
wine and honey. The usual after-dinner
treat for everyone above the rank of common
seaman was a mug of chocolate, a favorite
beverage among the Spaniards since the
conquest of Mexico, when Cortss men
inherited the bitter cacao bean drink from
the Aztecs and discovered how good it was
when sweetened. On fish days, boiled fish
supplemented the meat, along with a kind
of kidney bean soup called Mongos. Saucersized biscuits made of wheat flour and driedpea flour served as bread. In the course of
the voyage these weevil-ridden disks would
become hard as a rock and could be skipped
across the water like flat stones. When there
was an ample supply of water, the total daily
ration was three pints. A shortage reduced
the amount to a small coconut shell full.
This was all that was allowed for drinking
or bathing.

It is, moreover, a warning for the person


who is to set out to sea to inform himself of
the following if he values his life:
First of all is to know what is the state of
the ship one boards?
Second, how experienced is the pilot who
will guide it?
Third, how many sailors does it carry?
Fourth, how well provisioned is it with
food and water?
Fifth, what stops is the ship to make on its
way to the passengers destination?
Sixth, is the ship old or a bad sailer?
Seventh, how well are the sails rigged?

This quote is taken from Robert F. Burgess


and Carl J. Clausen, Floridas Golden Galleons:
The Search for the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet
(Port Salerno, Florida: Florida Classics
Library, 1982).

If these defects exist it would be ill advised


to board such a ship. Of the pilot is not
expert, knowing it and sailing with him is
like committing suicide. If the ship lacks the
sailors and people2 it should have for its size,
it is a noteworthy error and very perilous.
Some masters, in order to save salaries,
do not staff their ships with the necessary
people, and this is disastrous in a storm, for

Navigation, and Finding the Way


People traveling by ship had to trust their
instruments to have any idea of where they
were, or where they were going, or how
to get home. When a ship leaves its home
11

The above quote is taken from Gonzalo


Fernndez de Oviedo y Valdz, Chapter
XXI: Of the unfortunate event and shipwreck
(which some have attributed to a lack of
prudence) of a pilot named Juan Bermdez,
who departed the port of this city of Santo
Domingo on the island of Hispaniola bound
for Castile in the year 1538 and returned
from the Azores the following year, 1539,
without making Spain, in Misfortunes and
Shipwrecks in the Sea of the Indies, Islands, and
Mainland of the Ocean Sea (1513-1548): Book
Fifty of the General and Natural History of the
Indies, Translated and edited by Glen F. Dille
(Gainesville: University Press of Florida,
2011), pp. 99-100.

the few in times of need cannot make up for


the many when they are required. Of course,
men cannot live without the necessary food
and water. It is better that there is a loaf
of bread too much than to be short a half,
because hunger is an intolerable thing.
Many times a passenger expects to be at sea
ten days and it turns out a hundred and he
dies. The firth point, with more time and
more to know the stops a ship is to make
is something the novice passenger does not
consider and is later very troublesome for
those not forewarned. If the ship is a bad
sailer or old or not easily steered, it is a risky
thing to board and unwise if another ship is
available. All these things are important.

Instruments used in finding the way


1. 
The Mariners Compass. This was the
most important instrument on board the
ship and indicated the direction of the
magnetic north with the thirty-two major
directions arranged in a circle. In the

picture below, the north-pointing compass


indicates that north is to the right, and that
our direction is toward the west (west by
north).
2. The Quadrant. This was an instrument
for observing the North Star at night and
finding ones latitude in the Northern
Hemisphere. The navigator sighted the

Photo by
Museum
of Florida
History
Professional
Development
Officer Wanda
Richey,
Tallahassee FL

Photo of reproduction of mariners compass by Erick


Lopez, Outreach Coordinator, Mission San Luis,
Tallahassee, FL
12

North Star through the sights along one


side of the instrument while a weighted
string indicated the approximate latitude
on the edge, as read by an assistant.

Photo by
Museum of
Florida History
Professional
Development
Officer Wanda
Richey

3. The Astrolabe. The astrolabe was an


instrument for observing the suns
overhead angle as the first step in
determining ones latitude during the
day. By comparing this reading with a
reference chart and doing some simple
arithmetic, the navigator could determine
how far north or south of the Equator his
ship was on any day in the 4-year Leap
Year cycle.

problem of determining longitude became


solved in the 1700s.
By studying the maps of the early
explorers and those who came after them,
we can learn a great deal about how well
they understood the lands they were
visiting, including Florida.

Charting the Way.


Each day at noon the navigator plotted
on his chart how far the ship had sailed
since noon of the day before. Day by day, as
the ship moved through the water toward
some New Land, the navigator kept track of
every compass direction, latitude reading,
and distance sailed so that the ship could
safely return to its home port. All along the
way, he and those with him depended on

This primary source illustration is from Pedro de


Medinas Regimiento de Navegacin (Seville: 1563).

4. Globe. At sea, the navigator regularly


consulted a globe, such as this replica of
one designed by Martin Waldseemller in
1507. Because maps of that day gave the
earth a flatness that it does not have, globes
were needed to help the navigator correct
the maps he was using. As technology
became better, globes and maps became
greatly improved, especially when the

Photo by Museum of Florida History Professional


Development Officer Wanda Richey, Tallahassee FL
13

Photo by Museum of Florida History Professional Development


Officer Wanda Richey

start a new life, and some were


priests and missionaries who
hoped to spread the faith by
establishing missions among the
Native American people living
in Florida and throughout the
Americas and teaching them the
Catholic faith.
They camethe old and the
young, rich and poor, military
and civilian, free and unfree,
Europeans and Africansmen,
women, and childrenand they
all came on ships as this illustration

his abilities to use his instruments wisely


and correctly. Direction, latitude, and
distance could be determined, but longitude
remained a mystery. Then and later storms
were a constant hazard, pirate attacks
were common, diseases posed serious and
constant dangers, and everyone prayed for
a safe voyage.
Many different people came to Florida
and elsewhere in what was being called
the New World. Some were soldiers and
sailors, some were settlers who hoped to

shows.
Juan Ponce de Leon named this land
La Florida when he and those with him
first saw it in 1513, and in 1521 he and the
European and African explorers with him
returned to establish a permanent home in
Florida. They failed, and in later years many
similar attempts were madeand they
also failed. With each unsuccessful attempt
the survivors learned more and eventually,

Mid-16th century Spanish map of Florida, published


in 1586. This primary source is provided courtesy of
the State Archives of Florida.

1565 French map of Florida, published in 1591. This


primary source is provided courtesy of the
St. Augustine Historical Society.
14

and to finally establish a permanent


presence here.
That takes us to the story of the founding
of St. Augustine, the subject of a separate
lesson plan in this series.

following the French establishment of Fort


Caroline in what is today Jacksonville,
Florida, Spain sent Pedro Menendez de
Aviles and a major force of soldiers and
settlers to reclaim Florida from the French

Review Questions
5. What concerns did people have who
were crossing the ocean long ago?

1. Why did people leave their


homeland to cross the ocean during
the 1500s and after?

6. What was it like to eat and drink while


on long voyages at sea?

2. How did people cross the ocean


long ago?

7. What instruments did the navigator


carry with him on the ships to help him
find the way?

3. How safe was it for people to travel


by ship?
4. Who was responsible for finding the
way at sea?

Answers to Review Questions


it, while missionaries wanted to serve
the Native peoples and convert them to
Christianity. Many who came did not
have their names recorded, but among
the men and women who came to Florida
with Juan Ponce de Len were the African
soldier, Juan Garrido, and the Spanish
navigator, Antn de Alaminos.

1. Different people had different motives.


Some wanted to enrich themselves by
finding gold or other wealth. Some
wanted to make their fortune through
trade with people from distant lands.
Government officials were interested
in claiming and occupying as much of
new lands as possible. Families came
looking for a new start in life, perhaps
the opportunity to acquire land and farm

2. They came by ship.

15

7. The navigator carried with him several


instruments. The most important was
the mariners compass, a magnetized
instrument that indicated magnetic north
in every ocean. It had thirty-two different
directions marked on it, and the navigator
knew the names of every one of these.
It helped him to set and maintain his
course. The quadrant was a pie-shaped
instrument for measuring the height of
the North Star at night in the Northern
Hemisphere in order to find the ships
latitude. The astrolabe was used in the
daytime at noon to measure the height
of the sun in order to calculate latitude.
A small globe reminded the prudent
navigator of the true shape of coastlines he
was encountering and gave him a way to
correct the imperfections on the maps he
was using. The charts and maps, imperfect
as they were, gave him large drawings of
outlines of the coasts he was seeking and
provided him with a means of reaching
distant harbors and anchorages safely.
The navigator carried and used other
instruments alsoinstruments for telling
time without the use of clocks or watches,
and for determining the depth of the
water beneath the ship when approaching
land. He had books of instructions and
mathematical tables for reference, and he
regularly consulted these as well.

3. It was dangerous to travel by ship because


it was not possible in those days to predict
the weather to know when storms were
coming, to be safe from pirates and from
the diseases that threatened the travelers.
4. The navigator was trained in the use of
instruments and maps and charts, and
had considerable experience usually over
many years of travel at sea, and in Spain
was licensed to practice his trade. He was
a professional who knew the stars, the
sea, and the sky, and who knew how to
use the instruments he carried with him.
5. People who crossed the ocean long ago
had many concerns. Some of these were
what might be called common sense
concerns, those dealing with the ship, its
age, suitability, provisions, how long the
journey will be, how many sailors the
ship has, the experience of the navigator
or pilot (see the primary source quote by
Gonzalo Fernndez de Oviedo y Valdz
above, pp. 2 and 3).
6. People crossing the ocean long ago started
out with fresh food and plenty of water,
but with no refrigeration leafy vegetables
and fresh fruit spoiled quickly. Dried or
salted meat lasted well enough, but the
bread became stale, moldy, and infested
with weevils and water grew rancid with
storage (see secondary source quote by
Burgess and Clausen on p. 2, above).

16

by Allen Hilburn

Ponce de Leon (1474 1521)


The Early Years (1474 1511)

The First Voyage (1511 1513)

Born in Santervs de Campos, Castile,


Spain in 1474 Ponce de Leon first visited
the new world as a soldier accompanying
Christopher Columbus on Columbuss
second voyage in 1493.
After distinguishing himself Ponce
de Leon was appointed first Governor of
Puerto Rico, then called San Juan Bautista,
in 1509. This posting
came under political
attack from Diego
Coln Moniz, the
son of Christopher
Columbus, who was
engaged in a legal
battle to inherit the
titles and privileges
granted to his father. Pomce de Leon
Diego Coln finally
succeeded in establishing his claims and
Ponce de Leon was forced to relinquish the
Governorship to Coln in 1511.

Rumors of lands to the north Cuba, known


as the Islands of Benimy (Bimini) reached the
Spanish court around 1511 prompting King
Ferdinand to urge Ponce de Leon to finance,
plan and lead an expedition to find them,
granting Ponce de Leon a royal contract
which outlined his rights and authorities.
Research question 2: What title was
Ponce de Leon granted with respect to his
contract to search for Benimy?
March 4th 1513, Ponce departed San
German Puerto Rico with around 200 men
in three ships, the Santiago, the San Cristobal
and the Santa Maria de la Consolacion. Ponces
small fleet sailed northwest along the great
chain of islands then known as the Lucayos,
present Bahamas, reaching the northern end
of the chain on March 27th, Easter Sunday.
Ponce then set off over open water heading
west, but being swept north by the then
unknown Gulf Stream current, he sighted
land on April 2nd, 1513 and christened it La
Florida, (Flowery Land) due to the lush
vegetation and it being the Easter season
which the Spanish called Pascua Florida

Research question 1: Why is Diego Coln


Moniz properly referred to as Diego
Coln rather than Diego Moniz?
17

Research question 3: What was the


significance of the discovery of the north
bound Gulf Stream for later events in the
Spanish empire?
By May 4th Ponce reached Biscayne
Bay and stopped at an island named San
Marta, now known as Key Biscayne, to take
on water. Continuing south Ponce de Leon
discovered the Florida Keys, eventually
finding a passage through to the west coast
of Florida getting as far north as Sanibel
Island before heading south where they
encountered the Dry Tortugas on June 21st
1513 before making an attempt to sail to
Cuba. Again, the Gulf Stream plays a roll and
the fleet is carried east through the Straits of
Florida eventually reaching Grand Bahama
on July 8th 1513. Here the fleet disbanded
and Ponce returned home arriving in Puerto
Rico on October 19, 1513.

Professor Dr. Michael Gannon speaks at the Viva


Florida 500 Summit

(Festival of Flowers). The following day,


Ponce de Leon came ashore and believing
this land to be another island took possession
of the land for Spain.
April 3, 1513, Ponce de Leon first
set foot on what would become Florida
USA. Interestingly he claimed this and all
attached lands as part of La Florida, which
would indicate, no matter where you are
in North America that could be construed
as attached you are in what was once
Spanish Florida. (Additional information on
the subject of navigation in the time of Ponce de
Leon can be found in the Chapter 1 dealing with
Navigation.)
Ponce stayed in the area of the initial
landing for about five days, then headed
south along the coast where on April 8th
1513 he encountered, and more importantly
recognized, the Gulf Stream at its strongest
between the Bahamas and Florida. This
strong current forced the fleet to anchor
and the smallest ship the San Cristobal was
separated from the fleet for a couple of days.
Linking back up, the fleet proceeded south
hugging the shore to avoid the current.

The In-between Time (1513 1521)


In 1514 Ponce de Leon returns to Spain to
report personally on his expedition. There he
was knighted and awarded a personal coat
of arms by King Ferdinand, the first Spanish
explorer to be so honored. Wile in Spain
Ponce was also awarded a new contract
confirming his rights to the islands of La
Florida and Benimy
Having been ordered to subdue the Caribs
who were attacking Spanish settlements in
the Caribbean, Ponce left Spain May 14th
1515 with three ships and was so engaged
until the mission ended with the death of
Ferdinand in 1516. Ponce again served as
18

It was generally believed this well was


located in India, so keeping in mind that the
Caribbean was initially thought to be near
India and even called to this day the West
Indies, the connection was logical based on
the thinking of the time.
The Fountain of Youth rumor in relation to
Ponce de Leon was probably initiated by the
publication of Gonzalo Fernandez Historia
General y Natural de las Indias published in
1535, some 14 years after the death of de
Leon. In it Fernandez states Ponce de Leon
was looking for the waters of Benimy to
regain youthfulness. This assertion is further
propagated by Francisco Lopez de Gomara
in his Historia General de las Indias in 1551.
The Fountain of Youth rumor was picked
up by succeeding authors and expanded
upon until Ponce de Leon and the search for
the Fountain of Youth have become almost
synonymous. The fact is the expeditions of
Ponce de Leon were in keeping with and
aimed towards the expansionist agenda of
the Spanish beginning in the late 15th century
and continuing through the early 18th
century. The Fountain of Youth myth related
to Ponce de Leon is an excellent example of
the type of inaccuracies that can creep into
history and why a dedicated historian has
to delve deeply into the secrets of the past in
order to gain a real understanding of those
who came before, their motivations were
and what their actually accomplished.

Governor of Puerto Rico from 1515 to 1519


where the Governorship and, following the
death of his wife Leonor, family matters
keep him busy.

Final Voyage (1521)


Under the provisions of the contract
issued in 1514 Ponce de Leon organized
an expedition consisting of some 200 men
and two ships. In contrast to his earlier
voyage of exploration, this was a voyage of
colonization, including not just soldiers and
sailors, but priests, farmers, horses, domestic
animals and farming implements.
Soon after their arrival near Charlotte
Harbor or the Caloosahatchee River on the
southwest coast of Florida, they were set
upon by Calusa warriors and Ponce de Leon
was struck in the leg by an arrow. Following
this attack the colonists withdrew back to
Havana, Cuba where Ponce de Leon died of
his wound in July of 1521 at the age of 47.

Ponce de Leon and the


Myth of the Fountain of Youth
It is widely reported today that Ponce
de Leons explorations of La Florida were
motivated by the search for the legendary
Fountain of Youth. Many societies attribute
great significance to water and water
sources. A widely believed myth at the time
was that of the well at the end of the world
which had magical healing properties.

19

Hernando de Soto (1496/1497 1542)


The Early Years (1496/1497 1539)

In 1534 de Soto returned to Spain with his


new found wealth where he was admitted
to the Order of Santiago, a Spanish order
of knighthood. During this period de Soto
married Isabela de Bobadilla, and was
granted governorship of Cuba. As part of
this contract, he was expected to colonize the
North American continent for Spain within
four years. A tall order to say the least.

Born in 1497 or 1497 in the Extemadura


region of Spain, two towns claim to be his city
of birth, Barcarrola
and Badajoz both
of which he spent
time in during his
childhood. De Soto
first sailed to the
new world with
the first Governor
of
Panama,
Pedrarias Davila,
Hernando de Soto
where he gained
gained fame for his
abilities as a soldier, including the capture
and subsequent ransom of native leaders.
Keep in mind, the ransom of captured
noblemen was common in European
conflicts, so while some sources point to this
as an example of de Sotos brutality, it was
in keeping with the practices of the time in
the old world.
In 1530, de Soto became a regidor of
Leon, Nicaragua and explored the Yucatan
Peninsula before joining Francisco Pizarro
in campaigns against the Incas where de
Soto distinguished himself, quickly being
promoted to Captain. Here again, ransom
was used to acquire more wealth, and de
Soto, who was actually of quite humble
financial status, became very wealthy.

Florida (1539 1540)


Departing Havana in seven ships of the
King and two caravels of his own, de Soto
made landfall in Tampa Bay near Shaws
Point, Bradenton Florida in May of 1539
which he named Espiritu Santo (Holy Spirit).
Here, at what is now De Soto National
Memorial, de Soto came ashore with some
620 colonists and supplies, including soldiers,
mercenaries, craftsman, clergy, engineers,
farmers and tons of equipment including
the weapons and armor so associated with
Spanish Conquistadors.
Research question 5: What does
Conquistador mean in English?
Undoubtedly to his surprise, de Soto
meets Juan Ortiz, a member of the earlier,
failed, Narvaez Expedition who has been
held by the Uzita natives. Ortiz joins de
Sotos party acting as interpreter and
guide. Leaving the Tampa Bay area, de Soto
raveled north along Floridas West Coast
fighting a running battle with the natives

Research question 4: What is a regidor?


20

until he reaches Anhaica in Floridas


western panhandle, where he encamps for
the winter. Here, near present Tallahassee,
De Soto and his men celebrated the first
Christmas in what is now, the continental
United States and Canada.

small part of Louisiana. May 21, 1542, almost


exactly three years after landing in Florida,
de Soto dies of fever. Historians disagree
as to the exact location, but possibly either
near present-day MacArthur Arkansas or in
Louisiana. Before his death de Soto appoints
Luis de Moscoso Alvarado as commander
of the expedition. De Moscoso leads the
expedition back to the Mississippi River
where they build boats, sail down the river
and along the gulf coast to Matagorda Bay
in Texas near Aransas or Corpus Christi Bay,
where they traveled overland to Mexico
City, arriving in mid to late 1543.
For ease of reference, I have referred to
Hernando de Sotos travels with relation to the
present-day states through which he traveled;
but a point to keep in mind. Recall the initial
claim by Ponce de Leon regarding La Florida.
Based on this claim, all of de Sotos travels in the
new world could be said to have taken place in
La Florida.

After Present-day Florida


(1740 1743)
The spring of 1740 de Soto leaves presentday Florida, heading north east into present
Georgia. During the remainder of 1740
through 1741 de Soto explores areas of the
present states of Georgia, the Carolinas, and
Tennessee, crossing the Mississippi River
near present Memphis, Tennessee. Cutting
back through North West Georgia de Soto
then passed through, Alabama, Mississippi,
and Arkansas. The winter of 1741 was spent
in Autimique on the Arkansas River In 1742
Juan Ortiz dies and de Sotos path becomes
more erratic, wondering through Arkansas,
possibly Oklahoma, Texas and possibly a

Tristan de Luna y Arellano and the Founding of Pensacola (1559)


Ponce de Leons and de Sotos, consisting of
some thirteen ships and over 1500 soldiers
and settlers. Unfortunately, de Luna proved
to not the leader one could have hope for and
a series of disasters plagued the endeavor
from its outset.
On June 11, 1559, the de Luna Expedition
departed Vera Cruz, Mexico, arriving in
what is now Pensacola Bay on August 14,
1559. There, at the site currently occupied by

Born in Borobia, Spain in 1519, Tristan


de Luna y Arellano, after serving with
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in Mexico
was selected by the Viceroy of New Spain
(Mexico), Luis de Velasco to establish a colony
on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico
and setup an overland trade route to the
yet-to-be established colony of Santa Elena
in present-day South Carolina. De Lunas
expedition was massive in comparison to
21

(Nanipacna or Ninicapua), renaming this


abandoned village Santa Cruz, where
they lived for several months awaiting the
arrival of the relief ships from Vera Cruz.
Once they arrived, these relief supplies got
the de Luna party through the winter, but
supplies expected to arrive in the spring had
not arrived by September. The deteriorating
situation led to a near mutiny when some
colonists began refusing de Lunas orders.
This situation was averted when Angel de
Villafane arrived and offered to take all who
wished to Cuba and Santa Elena. The majority
of the party departed with de Villafane,
including de Luna, who never returned to
Florida, dieing in Mexico in 1571.
De Villafane left fifty men under Captain
Biedma at the Pensacola colony awaiting
further orders from Viceroy Velasco.
When after several months the remaining
Spaniards sailed away marking the end of
the de Luna attempt to establish a colony
on Pensacola Bay. The area would remain
uninhabited by Europeans until 1698 when
the Spanish successfully founded the city
of Pensacola.

Naval Air Station


(NAS) Pensacola,
they established
the encampment
of Puerto de Santa
Maria and began a
reconnaissance of
the area. De Luna
also dispatched
one of his ships
back to Vera Cruz
Tristan de Luna y Arellano
to report on the
successful landing and two ships to Spain,
bringing the number of vessels on hand
down to ten.
Unfortunately de Luna waited to unload
his supplies from the ships while these
scouting missions were ongoing. On the
night of September 19th 1559 a hurricane
devastated the anchorage resulting in the
loss of seven ships and their supplies with
one caravel aground, but with its cargo
recoverable.
The shore party abandoned the
encampment and moved up the Alabama
River to the village of Nanipacana

Pedro Menendez de Aviles and


the Founding of Saint Augustine (1565)
The Early Years
(1519 March 20, 1565)

colorful characters in the history of Spanish


Florida. A sailor, Menendez, operated as a
corsario (privateer) and with all probability
as a contrabandista (smuggler) for much of
his career before receiving a contract from
Philip II in 1565 to establish a colony on the

Pedro Menendez de Aviles (1519 1574)


was born on the northern Iberian Peninsula
in the Asturian Region of Spain on February
15, 1519, and is perhaps one of the more
22

his own, San Pelayo, at over 900 tons, by far


the largest ship in the fleet, thus bringing
the fleet to a total of eleven sail. (Note: In the
age of sail, it was common to refer to the number
of ships in a fleet as so many sail, rather than so
many sailing ships.)

east coast of La Florida which went into


effect with the King affixing his signature on
March 20, 1565.
Research question 6: What is the
difference between a corsario and a pirata
(pirate)?

Research question 8: What is the


distinguishing feature of a galley?

Research question 7: What did the Spanish


call the contracts issued to Ponce de Leon
and Pedro Menendez de Aviles?

This was however not all of the Menendez


Expedition. Besides the fleet at Cadiz, other
ships were sailing from northern Spain with
additional personnel and supplies, and a fleet
under command of Pedro de las Roelas had
sailed somewhat earlier. Both of these fleets
intended to rendezvous with the Menendez
and his fleet in the Caribbean. As you can see,
this was a massive undertaking. The reader
will also note how these expeditions have
increased, almost exponentially, in size from
the 200 men accompanying Ponce de Leon,
to the just over six hundred with the de Soto
expedition to the thousands participating
with Pedro Menendez.
By the end of June, Pedro Menendez had
assembled his fleet at Cadiz in preparation for
the crossing to La Florida via the Caribbean.
Onboard the eleven ships were some fifteen
hundred souls, eight hundred plus of whom
were soldiers, but also consisting of tailors,
carpenters, shoemakers, millers, masons,
silversmiths, gardeners, barbers, a hatmaker, a weaver of silk and a brewer. All
in all, there were some thirty-eight trades
represented not to mention almost one
hundred and twenty farmers. Along with
all these landsmen, the ships company,

Cadiz to Saint Augustine


(March 20th, 1565-September 8th, 1565)
As part of
this contract,
the Adelantado
(Menendez)
was required
to fulfill certain
obligations.
These included
establishing
settlements,
but also the
expulsion
of
the French who
Pedro Menendez
had established
a fort, Fort Caroline, on the St. Johns river
near the current location of Jacksonville,
Florida.
As one of his obligations under the
asiento, King Philip II provided Menendez
with ten ships, most ranging from sixty
to seventy-five tons, including the galley
Victoria, but also including the caravel San
Antonio of one hundred and fifty tons. To
the Kings ten ships, Pedro Menendez added
23

for Puerto Rico. The Pelayo, under jury rig,


along with the remaining five ships, arrived
in San Juan harbor on August 8, 1565.
This was a serious setback for Menendez.
His ships were in desperate need of repair,
he had lost two of them with their personnel
and supplies and to make matters worse, the
expected rendezvous with his northern fleet
and the third fleet under Pedro de las Roelas
had failed to materialize. In one of those
strange turns history sometimes takes, to
the rescue comes Juan Ponce de Leon. Juan,
of the family of Ponce de Leon, was a large
landowner with good credit. He and Pedro
Menendez was able to negotiate a business
arrangement in which Menendez was able
to establish a line of credit in exchange for
basically cutting Juan Ponce in on some of
the rights Menendez exercised under his
contract with the King. This alliance also
provided him with a point of supply near
at hand in Pureto Rico which could be
invaluable in the future.
While refitting his existing ships,
Menendez was able to acquire one additional
ship and two small boats. He also recruited
forty two soldiers but this gain was offset by
the desertion of thirty of his men and three
of the Priests.
Planning on visiting Havana to
acquire reinforcements, Pedro Menendez
departed San Juan on August 15, 1565,
with his revamped fleet, heading west and
crossing the Mona Passage before sighting
Hispaniola, modern Haiti and the Dominican
Republic, on August 15, 1565. At this point
the Adelantado abandons his plan to go to

that is those sailors and seamen who were


responsible for actually sailing the ships,
numbered some one hundred and seventy,
including eighteen artillerymen or, to use
the nautical term, gunners. This was not,
however, an all male endeavor for aboard
the San Pelayo sailed twenty-seven families,
including women and children. And least
we forget, the massive influence of religion
in the time of Menendez, no less than seven
priests accompanied the colonists, including
Francisco Lpez de Mendoza Grajales,
whose writings will chronicle the Menendez
Expedition for future generations.
Wednesday, June 27, 1565, under a clear
sky, Pedro Menendez de Aviles and his fleet
weigh anchor and depart the ancient city of
Cadiz sailing west into theAtlantic. Following
an uneventful passage, on July 4, 1565, the
fleet entered the harbor at Las Palmas on the
island of Great Canary in the Canary Islands
chain. Here, after resupplying, eight ships
sailed on for the Windward Islands of the
Caribbean while three ships stayed behind,
making preparation to return to Spain.
This passage would prove to be not as easy
as the passage from Cadiz to the Canaries.
On July 21, 1565 the fleet was struck by a
hurricane which caused serious damage to
all the ships including the Pelayo which lost
two masts and was in danger of foundering
since she lacked maneuverability without
her sails. When the storm abated on July
23, 1565, one ship had become lost and one
had run aground and sunk on the island of
Guadalupe. As a result, Menendez decided
to forego the Windwards and make directly
24

Demanding the Spanish identify themselves,


the Spanish responded they were under the
command of Pedro Menendez de Aviles,
the Adelantado of Florida and under orders
form the Spanish King to capture any French
heretics they found in Spanish lands and
bring them to justice, which he intended to
do as soon as it was light. The French scoffed,
replying why wait?. The exchange then
deteriorated into curses and name calling,
infuriating Menendez, who decided not to
wait but to attack immediately. Anchoring
Pelayo forward of Ribaults flagship, Trinite,
Menendez began paying out his anchor line
in order to bring Pelayo alongside Trinite.
As this was being accomplished, the French
fleet cut their cables, raised sail and began to
move off to leeward. San Pelayo got off five
shots from her massive bronze guns, but in
the darkness was not able to determine if any
damage had been done to the French ships.
Hoisting anchor and giving pursuit, the
Spanish ships chased the French throughout
the night, but were unable to keep up,
probably due to the damage sustained during
the hurricane in July and the fact that the
French had unloaded their cargo and were
therefore lighter than the still fully loaded
Spanish ships. By dawn it was obvious the
French had escaped so Menendez ordered
the fleet to regroup and considered an
immediate assault on the French position
ashore. Unfortunately, the shoal area near
the shore prevented the Pelayo form being
able to get in close enough for this plan to
work, so Menendez abandoned the idea and
determined to establish his own base from

Havana, possibly due to concerns about


being intercepted by the French and heads
directly for La Florida, navigating through he
dangerous shoals of the Bahamas. Emerging
into the Gulf Stream, the fleet sailed North
West sighting land near Cape Canaveral
then tuning North toward Fort Caroline.
At about the same time a French resupply
fleet had arrived on the River May (St. Johns
River) under the command of Jean Ribault.
Around two in the afternoon of
September 4, 1565 Menendez sighted four
ships anchored in the mouth of a great river
and observing French colors flying from
the masthead, realized this to be Ribault,
who Menendez had known was en route
to resupply Fort Caroline, and had been
hoping to beat to the fort before it could be
resupplied and reinforced. Having dispense
with landing in Havana to reinforce his
own ships in order to beat Ribault to Fort
Caroline, Menendez was now faced with
the possibility he was going to be encounter
a superior force. Menendez, corsario that
he was, decided on the direct approach, as
soon as the winds were favorable, he would
attack the French fleet.
It was well after dark when the wind
began to blow and the Spanish fleet was able
to move in on the French. Menendez plan
was to anchor near the French and attack at
first light. This was not to be however. As
the Spanish approached the French ships,
the they haled the French, demanding they
identify themselves. The French responded
they were French, under the authority of the
French King and command of Jean Ribault.
25

First Muster Jackson Walker http://jacksonwalkerstudio.com/

which to pursue a longer, more drawn out


campaign.
Sailing south, the Spanish fleet anchored
off Saint Augustine, which they had
discovered a few days before. There, on
September 8th, 1565, Pedro Menendez de
Aviles came ashore and was sworn in as
the Adelantado, as well as the CaptainGeneral and Governor of La Florida. This
ceremony was followed by feasting along
with some of their new native allies and the
giving of thanks for their successful arrival
in Florida. Thus begins the history of the
oldest continuously occupied European city
in what was to be the continental United
State and Canada, with the celebration of the
first Thanksgiving.
Immediately following, construction of
what would be the first in a series of wooden
forts was begun, while simultaneously plans
were made to move against the French in

Fort Caroline. During this period, the French


perform a reconnaissance of the Spanish
activity at Saint Augustine and begin planning
their attack which they determine should
proceed immediately while the Spanish
forces are split up working on multiple
projects, including construction of their fort.
After some delay, Ribaults fleet sails south
with some four hundred soldiers and two
hundred seamen to attack Saint Augustine.
Being concerned that the San Pelayo was
at the mercy of hurricanes, in unknown
waters and could be sunk or captured by
the French, Menendez determined to have
her sail to Hispaniola, returning in January.
She sailed just after midnight on September
10th, 1565. At dawn, the French fleet arrived,
having just missed the San Pelayo. As she was
the most formidable ship the Spanish had,
they, the French, set off in pursuit intending
to capture or sink her.
26

September 28, 1565, friendly native bring


news of a large number of Frenchmen some
eighteen miles south near a small inlet.
Menendez sets off with one company of
men and a French interpreter, arriving at
the inlet the morning of September 29, 1565.
A parley is held with the French in which
they are advised that no promise of safety
will be given if they surrender. As their only
other option after hearing of the capture
of Fort Caroline is to set off to the south
where starvation and capture by the natives
is assured, they surrender and are ferried
across the inlet where all but a few skilled
individuals are executed.
Returning to Saint Augustine, Menendez
begins writing his first report to the King
since arrival in Florida. He is interrupted
when he is advised that a second group of
French have arrived at the inlet. This time
he takes 150 men with him as he heads
back to the inlet. Arriving on the morning
of October 11, the proceedings were much
the same as before, only this time half the
French decided to take their chances to
the south. The rest, including Jean Ribault
surrendered, and again after sparing a few
skilled men, the remainder including Ribault
were put to death. Today this area bears the
name Matanzas, Spanish for slaughter in
remembrance of the vengeance of Menendez.
While this tactic was somewhat common at
the time, it remains the largest stain on the
memory of Pedro Menendez.

Two days later, a storm, possibly a hurricane,


blew up and realizing this storm would
prevent the French fleet from returning to Fort
Caroline, Menendez, having been advised by
the natives that he could reach the French
fort by traveling up the river now known as
the Matanzas River, decided to immediately
attack Fort Caroline. Prior to marching north
to attack Fort Caroline, on September 16th
1654 Pedro Menendez established a Militia
which would remain in Saint Augustine as
a defense in case the French fleet returned
while he was away attacking Fort Caroline.
This was the first muster of civilian soldiers
in Florida which today is sighted as the first
muster of the Florida National Guard.
On September 18, 1565, two days after
mustering the militia, Pedro Menendez,
personally lead an expedition of 500 men at
arms north toward Fort Caroline. Arriving
in the area of the French outpost, September
20, 1565, the Spanish attacked Fort Caroline
at dawn, easily gaining entry to the fort
and its depleted garrison. Inside, a bloody
skirmish ensues with over a hindered
French causalities.
In the meantime, Ribaults fleet had
suffered disastrously, all but one sunk or
aground near Mosquito (Ponce de Leon)
Inlet. The crew of the one ship to survive
deciding to desert Florida and head in to the
Caribbean. Ashore, the castaways, formed
into two groups and set off toward the north
and Fort Caroline.

27

Of Arms and Armor in the Age of the Conquistadors


by the early explorers. The carrying of
a rapier served more as a badge of rank
than a weapon to be used during and
expedition, so many, especially those of
noble birth, did carry them. There is some
evidence that the explorers would have
the blades replaced with stouter units
for field use. Pictured left, a couple of
typical Spanish a cup-hilt rapiers. Other
designs featured a scroll like hilt, but the
employment was similar.
The rapier was sometimes employed
with a shorter, dagger like weapon called a
main-gauche (French for left hand) that
acted to perry or trap the opponents blade.
The rapier would have been worn on the
hip, left hip for a right handed individual,
while the main-gauche would have been
worn diagonally, tilted to the left, across
the back. The sword would be drawn using
the right hand, and the main-gauche drawn
with the left.

This is an intriguing period from the


perspective of a weapons historian. The age
of the Conquistadors combines elements
of the days of knights in shining armor
and that of firearms, for both exist at this
juncture of history.

The Arms and Armor of Old


Carried by the Conquistadors are a
number of medieval offensive and defensive
systems. Offensive systems in included
swords, notably the rapier, crossbows, while
defensive systems included shields, helmets
and chain and/or plate armor.

The Sword

The Crossbow
This is one of the premier ranged
weapons of history, originating somewhere
in the middle of the 4th century BC, but
exactly where or with what culture remains
a mystery. European use of the crossbow
can be documented during the 5th century
by the Greeks, and versions existed that
ranged from individual carried weapons to
artillery sized even predating the catapult in
this latter respect.

The rapier, a gentlemans blade, is a long


thrusting weapon designed for use by a
skilled individual. It would serve for both
offensive and personal defense use. Due
to their length and the relative thinness of
the blade, rapiers were not suited for use
aboard ship or in confined spaces such as
the thick vegetation encountered ashore
28

In contrast, training of a crossbowman will


only take a few weeks, thus allowing masses
of crossbowman to be
deployed to the battlefield
much more rapidly and to
be,likewise,replacedmuch
more rapidly. Crossbows
also allow for much
higher draw weights, the
draw weight being the
peak amount of weight
in pounds or other
units that an archer will
pull while drawing the
bowstring to the rear.
While long bows are
limited by what a man
could draw using the
strength his arm alone,
crossbows can employ
various
mechanical
methods to assist in the drawing
of the bowstring including
leaver type devices and hand
cranked wenches. While the
rate of fire of a long bow is
much greater than a crossbow,
this ability to mechanically
cock a crossbow means the
crossbow can have a draw
weight of hundreds of pounds,
thereby greatly increasing its
power and range.
As with modern ammunition, crossbow
quarrels were mission specific. By this
we mean, they were designed for specific
purposes, like general hunting or armor

The first recorded introduction of the


crossbow to La Florida was with Ponce de Leon,
and its use in Florida
continued through the
establishment of Saint
Augustine, with Pedro
Menendez. In fact, while
much focus is placed upon
early firearms during the
Conquistador period,
crossbows undoubtedly
outnumbered
them,
as they were not
subject to logistical
shortcomings, ie lack of
gun powder, and they
were less expensive
both to produce and to
operate.
The crossbow, like
the bow, fires an arrow
like projectile, but the crossbow
quarrel is shorter in length
and has only two opposing
feathers or wooden fins where
arrows can have three feathers.
This is to allow the quarrel to
pass between the corssbows
stock and the bow string, a
design consideration the bow
does not share. Crossbows are
also easier to train soldiers to
use effectively when compared
to the bow and the length of time required
to so train them is very greatly reduced. To
train a long bowman typically takes years, the
recruit beginning training at a very young age.
29

Plate Armor

piercing. The main difference in these


variations was the metal tip of the quarrel.
Where a hunting quarrel would have a
flattened point, a metal piercing quarrel
would have a much heavier tip that would
be square in cross-section rather than flat.

Plate armor has been in use since at least the


Roman-era, but full plate armor, the type we
usually think of
when we picture
an
armored
knight, was a
development of
the Late Middle
Ages (1300 1500). By the
time of Ponce de
Leon, we were
approaching the

Chainmail

end of this period,


and with the advent
of
firearms,
the
tactical use of plate
armor was waning.
Plate armor is
effective
against
swords and arrows,
but less so against
the more powerful
crossbow
quarrel.
Typically, during the
exploration of La
Florida, the arm and
leg pieces had been done away with and the
chest and head protection all that was used.
In ceremonial situations, however, more
elaborate plate armor was still seen.
Interestingly, in recent times, plate armor
has made a reappearance, although the
plates are now made of ceramic material

Dating back
to the 3rd century,
chainmail is a
type of armor
made up of
interlocking
links. Small rings are made with their
overlapping ends riveted together. It is
effective against sword slashes, but less
so against thrusting weapons and arrows.
Its advantages are that it is flexible, of
relatively light weight and less expensive
then plate armor.
Chainmail could be worn alone, or in
combination with plate armor, which was very
common during the medieval period.
30

The Horse

rather than steel. Sometimes are called plate


carriers, that is a fabric vest with pockets
into which the plates are placed, are now
in quite common use by modern military
organizations. As a result, the Spanish soldier
with his helmet and chest armor looks much
less antiquated.

Also of great importance as a weapon


was the horse, which could be armored
in its own right and effectively acted as
a modern tank would during a battle,
transporting the soldado at great speed

Quilted Armor
Quilted armor in its simplest form is
designed to help distribute the force of any
received blows like other types of armor. It
was primarily used by individuals of lessor
means as it was very inexpensive and easily
self fabricated. It also served as an under
armor garmet for plate and other type of
metal armor to prevent chaffing.
Many variations of this type or armor
exist. In some instances, scrap metal plates
could be sewn into the fabric or hard leather
scales could be attached to the exterior.

and placing him above the fray where he


could attack from this high ground. The
physiological effect alone would have
been devastating, at least initially. Later in
our history, the plains Indians would be
described as the worlds best light cavalry,
which points out the fleeting nature of
technological advantage in war.

31

The Dawn of Modern Firearms


Handgonnes

By the time of Ponce de Leon this was


old technology, however, in larger calibers
(1-inch or above) they would have provided
usable, easily transportable firepower on the
order of a small field gun (cannon).

Also referred to as the gonne or hand


cannon, the handgonne is perhaps a
modification of the crossbow, where the bow
has been removed and a small cannon barrel
has been lashed or otherwise attached to the
crossbows stock. The handgonne probably
originated in China in the 1200s. The earliest
European use of such weapons dates from
the 14th century
The handgonne was operated by one or
two men, one to load and aim the other to
use a botafuego to
fire the handgonne.
The
botafuego
was a stick with
a fork like metal
end which holds
match cord to
igniting
muzzle
loading cannons
etc. These weapons
were
marginally
effective, probably more of a psychological
weapon than anything else. However when
loaded with shot consisting of multiple
projectiles, similar to a modern shotgun
using buckshot, they could be quite
devastating at close range. Unfortunately
the reloading process was not conducive
to use in close quarter combat where an
adversary could use a sword on the gunner
while he was trying to reload.

The Matchlock
Technically an arquebus or harquebus,
but generally referred to as a matchlock
today. The matchlock or matchlock full
musket weighed about seventeen pounds
and was fired using a support stick as was
the custom with the handgonne, while the
arquebus weighed on average around ten
pounds and could be fired without the
support stick. The lock, or lock plate on both
was similar, so we will refer to both here as a
matchlock for claritys sake.
The matchlock was first appeared in
Europe in the mid-15th century and in
common use by the beginning of the16th
century. Interestingly, while gun powder was
the invention of the Chinese, the matchlock
was a European invention, introduced to the
Orient by the Portuguese in 1543. Therefore
all of our explorers, including Columbus
(1492) had access to matchlock weapons.
The matchlock improved on the
handgonne by offering a lighter individual
weapon with improved aiming and accuracy.
Its major drawback was its inability to be
reloaded and fire quickly and the inherent
danger of a lit match cord in close proximity
32

to gun powder. The matchlock was


used in conjunction with what was
called the twelve apostles, twelve
wooden containers, each containing
a single powder charge, suspended
from a strap worn diagonally across
the body. In some instances there was
a larger apostle which held priming
powder while in other cases, a separate
priming flask or horn was employed.
Attached to the lower end of the diagonal
strap was a pouch which held the bullets.
Loading a matchlock consisted of
holding the burning match cord away from
the powder as the soldado primed the pan
of the weapon using the larger apostle or
separate priming flask or horn. He then
charged the matchlock by selecting a full
apostle and pouring the powder down the
barrel. A bullet was then selected from the
bullet pouch and placed in the barrel and
extracting the scouring stick, what we now
refer to as a ram rod, he rammed down
the ball, seating it and the powder charge
in the breech of the matchlock. The match
cord was then placed in the serpentine and
tested to make sure it was in line with the
pan, which was closed to prevent premature
discharge. The weapon was ready to fire.
Firing consisted of opening the pan
and squeezing the trigger in an upward
direction causing the serpentine to
descend with the lit match cord into the
pan igniting the priming powder which
flashed trough the touch hole igniting the
main charge in the breech and discharging
the weapon.
33

Answers to Research Questions


of war, operating under a contract known
as a letter of marque and reprisal by the
English and more commonly referred to
simply as a letter of marque. This letter
of marque, at least in theory, exempts the
holder from being hung as a pirate. This,
however, requires the capturing nation
to recognize the holder as exempt which
was often not the case.

1. In Spain the first name is followed by


the fathers surname then the mothers
maiden surname For legal purposes it
is proper to refer to oneself using only
the first name and fathers surname and
when naming children the fathers name
is passed along exclusive of the mothers
maiden name.
2. Adelantado

7. An asiento, specifically the contract that


granted the title Adelantado was an
Adelantamiento. The bearer of such a
contract could be correctly referred to as
Adelantado, as we would, today, refer to
the Governor of Florida as Governor.

3. Because of the powerful boost provided


by the current, it would soon become the
primary route for eastbound ships leaving
the Spanish Indies bound for Europe
4. A member of a council of municipalities,
effectively a city councilman.

8:. It can be powered by sweeps, large oars


that can be run out the sides of the ship,
as well as by sail.

5. A conqueror.
6. A corsario or privateer is a private man

34

Animals from the Old World and the New


by Andrew Batten
animals, some of them completely unlike
anything they had ever seen in Europe.
Among the new animals the Spanish
encountered in Florida were:
Alligators
American Crocodiles
Manatees
Whitetail Deer
Red Wolves
Florida Panther

As early as 1492, Spanish explorers like


Christopher Columbus had been carrying
European animals on their voyages of
exploration and colonization. European
breeds of dogs, chickens, pigs, goats and
cattle were all established on islands in
the Caribbean.
In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon became the
first known European to set foot in what
is today the United States of America. He
and his human shipmates, however, were
not alone. On board Ponces ships, and
in the later Spanish voyages of discovery
and settlement, came the first European
animalshorses, dogs, cattle and hogs
and even such unwelcome visitors as the
rat and cockroach.
It was a meeting not only of cultures, but
of worlds. While the Spanish brought new
species of animals to America, they also
met amazing new creatures they had never
before seen. Humans and animals met and
mixed in the Spanish colony of Florida,
helping create the state we know today.

This 16th Century drawing shows members of the


Timucua tribe hunting alligators

It was not only on land that the Spanish


encountered new varieties of wildlife.
Sailing past the southern tip of Florida in the
spring of 1513, Ponce de Leons crew caught
fourteen Lobos Marinos, or Caribbean
Monk Seals, as well as hundreds of sea
turtles. Ponce de Leon named the islands on

What Was Here?


Spanish explorers who reached the
shores of Florida discovered a strange and
fascinating new world of animal species.
They found a land teeming with exotic
35

For more information:


http://goo.gl/akMjW
http://goo.gl/s8wUI
http://goo.gl/DG8Rn

What Came With The Spanish?


Florida is a land of firsts in terms of the
introduction of non-native species. The first
European horse to arrive on our shores sailed
with Ponce de Leon in 1513, although it is not
known if the horse made it ashore. It is also
unknown if Ponce brought his famous wardog (a greyhound named Bercerillo), on his
first voyage to Florida. If so, than this was the
first European breed of dog on Florida soil.
Ponces second voyage to Florida in 1521
introduced cattle and hogs, which may have
been the origin of the feral hogs and cracker
cows of today. Coming not to explore but to
establish a settlement, Ponce brought a full
inventory of livestock for his new colony
on the west coast of Florida (near todays
Charlotte Harbor). One account of Ponce de
Leons cargo states as a good colonist, he

Timucua preserving meat using woodsmoke on a frame


called a barbacoathe source of our modern barbeque

A Sixteenth Century engraving shows Florida native


hunters wearing deerskins to stalk their prey

which he found the turtles the Tortugas,


the Spanish name for the species, a name
that exists to this day.
Later Spanish explorers also took
advantage of Floridas abundant wildlife,
and found some of it delicious. Hernando
de Soto, passing through northern Florida
in the summer of 1539, named one river he
crossed The River of Deer (today known
as the Suwannee River) because a local
native village offered him several whitetail
deer as food.

Greyhound, similar to Ponce de Leons war dog


Bercerillo
36

(Ponce) carried mares and heifers and pigs


and sheep and goats and all sorts of useful,
domestic animals to serve the people.
Ponce de Leons settlement failed, and the
colonists quickly fled back to their homes in
the Caribbean. It is not known if they took
their animals or not. What is known is that
one of the next Spanish Explorers, Hernando
de Soto, brought even larger herds of animals
on his voyage of exploration and conquest.
Hernando de Soto landed on the west
coast of Florida (somewhere near present
day Tampa) in the spring of 1539. He did not
come to settle, but to explore. Still, de Soto
brought with him a good supply of animals
240 horses, several breeds of dog (probably
greyhounds, mastiffs and deerhounds) and
a herd of pigs. Not the fat, pink pigs that we
think of today, Spanish pigs of the Sixteenth
Century were small, strong and used to
rooting for their own food. These hogs
were not only hardy, but they reproduced
at a fantastic rate, providing fresh meat to
de Sotos men all the way along their four
year trek through the Southeast. Some of the
hogs, however, wandered off along the way,
establishing a population of feral hogs which
today number in the millions throughout
the southern United States.
Along with useful animals like horses,
hogs and dogs, there were other species who
first traveled to Florida with the Spanish. A
shipwrecked Spanish vessel discovered in
Pensacola Bay shows that black rats had
reached Florida by at least 1559, and it is
probable that cockroaches followed them
as well. Even unwelcome pests made their

This medieval illustration shows the type of hogs


that would have come to Florida with the Spanish.
Here, a swineherd knocks acorns from the trees for
his hogs to eat.

way to the shores of Florida in those early


days of exploration.
For more information:
http://crackercattle.org/
http://goo.gl/GhAC7
http://goo.gl/Z8rpZ
http://goo.gl/JBgNI
http://goo.gl/prA55
http://goo.gl/llZUZ

What is Missing?
Many native species which would have
greeted the Spanish explorers in 16th century
Florida are now extinct. The Caribbean Monk
Seal, which Ponce de Leons men captured off

Mayan rendering believed to represent the Caribbean


Monk Seal
37

the Florida Keys, is now extinct. The wildlife


of this new world seemed so abundant to the
Spanish and later explorers and settlers that
it was impossible to imagine that some of it
might vanish forever, and yet it did.
Some of the other species found in
Sixteenth Century Florida which are now
extinct include:
Carolina parakeet
Passenger pigeon
Eastern bison
Eastern cougar
Red wolf (considered virtually extinct
in the wild, although a small population
is maintained in several Florida zoos)

Although she later became Queen of


England, Kathryn of Aragon was born
and raised in Spain. Here she holds a
spider monkey, circa 1530.

For more information:


http://goo.gl/4AbYv
http://goo.gl/GjudG
http://goo.gl/5KEsI

IV.A Two-Way Street


Just as the Spanish imported new
species into the Americas, so they were also
sending American animals back to Europe.
Small monkeys from South America, like

This elegant Spanish lady has her maid hold two


pet cotton-top tamarin monkeys, natives of South
America. Portrait circa 1585.

Two Spanish princesses pose with their parrot


38

cotton-top tamarins and spider monkeys,


and all types of tropical birds became popular
fashion accessories for elegant Spanish
ladies. The Atlantic Ocean now carried
animal settlers in both directionshorses,
dogs, cows and pigs to the New World and
monkeys and parrots from the jungles of the
Amazon back to the Old World.

helped establish the state we inhabit.


Hogs, cattle and horses with origins in
Spain now share the Florida peninsula
with native deer, panthers and alligators.
Two worlds met, then became the one in
which we live today.
Many zoos in Florida have some of the
species discussed here on exhibit. In addition,
there are many organizations in our state
dedicated to preservation and conservation
of native species. Here are some resources to
find out more about Florida wildlife:

For more information:


http://goo.gl/SniEN

V. Two Worlds Blend

For more information:


http://goo.gl/TIos4
http://myfwc.com/
http://goo.gl/J0JHk
http://goo.gl/fz1qN
http://goo.gl/0y6wm

Just as human settlers came from Europe


500 years ago and met the native inhabitants,
so too with animals. Today, Florida is truly
a blended environment, where species from
two worlds met, struggled and eventually

39

How the founding of Florida in the 16th century and the


blending of Native American, European, and African foodways
led to the birth of the first uniquely American foods.
By Davis Walker and Shannon Golden

Timucuan Foods In La Florida

Timucuan women also gathered wild fruits,


Before the Europeans and Africans first roots, nuts, and berries. These included
came to Florida in the 16th century, our acorns, coontie (COON-tee) roots, pecans,
state was inhabited by a number of Native native grapes, palm berries, hickory nuts,
blackberries,
persimmons,
American peoples. One of the first groups maypops,
and blueberries. Corn was
of Floridas Native Americans
ground into meal and used
to have regular contact with
to make pesolo (PAY-sothese newcomers from the Old
lo), an ancestor of todays
World was a people known as
cornbread. Grits and hominy
the Timucua (tee-MOO-qua),
are also Native American
who lived in Northeast and
corn dishes that are still eaten
North Central Florida and
today. Stews were made from
southeast Georgia. They were
vegetables and flavored with
the largest native group in
meat, fruit, and nuts. One
that area, consisting of about
such Timucuan stew, gacha
35 chiefdoms composed of
(GAH-cha), was the first form
approximately 200,000 people.
of succotash encountered by
One of the Timucuas major
Photo by Jackie Hird
Europeans and Africans in
sources of food was farming
North America.
planting maize (corn), beans,
The Timucua sometimes brewed and
squash, native peas, melons, pumpkins, and
other native vegetables as part of their diet. drank a native tea, which they called the
Fields were cultivated with wooden hoes black drink or cassina (cuh-SEE-nuh). It
and digging sticks. After being harvested, was made from the leaves and twigs of the
their crops were kept in storehouses to Yaupon Holly tree, which were harvested and
protect them from insects and weather. lightly roasted. After browning, the leaves
and twigs were boiled in large clay pots
40

Spanish Foods In La Florida


The leader in 16th-century European
exploration and colonization, Spain was
the first nation in Europe to discover the
treasures of the New World. Beginning in
the late 1400s, Spanish explorers returned
from voyages to the Americas carrying
such exotic, new foods as corn, potatoes,
beans, tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes,
chocolate, and vanilla. In the 16th century,
the settlers of colonial Florida were the first
to introduce into the continental U.S. such
European foods as oranges, rice, peaches,
pigs, wheat, chickens, onions, cheese, sugar
cane, cattle, garlic, sweet potatoes, European
grapes, and various spices and herbs.
Upon arriving in Florida, the Spanish
colonists used plows, iron hoes, and other
European farming tools to prepare fields.
They planted the seeds and cuttings they
had brought with them from Spain to see
if they would grow in this new land. They
began clearing land for pastures for their
cattle and goats and building pens for their
pigs, chickens, and the other livestock
they had brought with them from the
Old World.
Asturias, on the northern coast of Spain,
was the homeland of Admiral Don Pedro
Menndez de Avils, the Adelantado
of Florida, and most of his colonizing
expedition, which founded St. Augustine,
Florida, our nations oldest city, in 1565.
The most famous regional dish of Asturias
was fabada (fuh-BAH-duh), a rich stew
made with white beans, pork shoulder,
pork sausages, onions, garlic, and saffron.

Photo by Jackie Hird

filled with water until the liquid reached a


dark brown or black color, giving it its name.
Cassina was important to the Timucua and
to other native groups. The Timucua would
trade cassina with Native Americans to the
north of Florida, where Yaupon Holly trees
do not grow, for items from those regions
that the Timucua wanted.
In addition to food produced by farming,
Timucuan men would hunt game. This
included deer, turkeys, rabbits, bears,
ducks, raccoons, turtles, geese, frogs,
opossums, water fowl, and snakes, as well
as manatees, alligators, and, occasionally,
whales. They would also fish in local rivers,
lakes, and the sea for sharks, bass, rays,
catfish, bluegills, drums, mullet, flounders,
and others using nets, fish-traps, spears,
and fishing lines. Freshwater and marine
shellfish and crustaceans, such as oysters,
clams, crabs, coquina, mussels, shrimp, and
conchs were also collected and consumed.
Meat was cooked by boiling or roasting; or
preserved by smoking it on a wooden grill
or rack known as a barbacoa, the origin of
our word barbecue.
41

This became the first version


in a letter to his king, Felipe
of Americas popular dish,
II of Spain, on October 20,
pork-and-beans.
1566: This land awaits good
When Menndez founded
and honorable men ... raised
the
settlement
of
St.
up with gazpacho, garlic,
Augustine on September 8,
and onion
1565, the Spanish celebrated
African Foods
a Mass of Thanksgiving.
In La Florida
Afterward, Menndez hosted
a feast to which he invited as
Africans, both free and
guests the local Timucuan
enslaved, arrived in early
natives. We do not know
colonial Florida with the
what this meal consisted Photo by Jackie Hird
Spaniards. Most, but not all,
of, but, based on what we
came from the western region
know the Spaniards had on board their five of Africa. The cultivation and use of many
ships, we can guess that it was cocido (coh- agricultural products in the modern-day
SEE-doh), a stew made from salted pork, southern U.S., such as yams, peanuts, okra,
garbanzo beans, and garlic, accompanied sorghum, black-eyed peas, sweet potatoes,
by hard ships biscuits. It is likely that the watermelon, and sesame seeds all common
local Timucuans contributed to the meal elements in West Africas cuisine can be
from their own food stores, so the menu traced to African influences.
could have included turkey, venison, and
Some of the foods widely eaten in Africa
gopher tortoise; seafood, such as mullet, (such as peanuts, sweet potatoes, cassava)
oysters, and shark; and maize (corn), beans, had been introduced to that continent by
and squash. This First Thanksgiving at St. European traders after Columbus sailed
Augustine was celebrated 56 years before to America in 1492. These foods were then
the English Pilgrims had their thanksgiving carried to Africa by the Portuguese from
at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts.
Brazil, the Caribbean, and tropical Asia.
Many of the settlers who arrived in Florida Some of these New World foodstuffs were
in 1565 and later came from southern Spain. then reintroduced to North America by
This regions foods include gazpacho (guz- Afro-Spanish colonists and slaves.
PAH-cho), fried fish, and hams. Gazpacho,
An important element of African cuisine
a soup made with chopped tomatoes, imported to colonial Florida and the
cucumbers, onions, peppers, herbs, and Caribbean was nyami (NYAH-may or YAHthickened with stale bread, was a traditional may), a word from Africas Wolof language
food of Spanish farmers. Referring to his for our modern-day yam (not the sweet
new Florida colony, Menndez commented potato, which is an entirely different root).
42

Some of Colonial Floridas


Food Firsts include:
1521 The first introduction of Old World
horses, cattle, and pigs, as well as food
crops, into the continental U.S. by Don
Juan Ponce de Len at the first European
colony near todays Ft. Myers, FL;
1576 The first restaurants - the Olmos
family ran a taberna (tavern; pronounced
tah-BER-nah) in St. Augustine, while
another was owned by Don Martn de
Argelles the Elder, the citys first mayor;
1580s The first agricultural exports in
the continental U.S. - shipments of onions
began from St. Augustine to Havana;
1598 The first public market in the
continental U.S., established in St.
Augustine by Governor Don Gonzalo
Mndez de Canzo, who also built the first
grist mill;
Early 1640s The first cattle ranches in the
continental U.S., such as the Hacienda de la
Chua (now Alachua County, FL), founded
by the Menndez Marquez family;
Late 1640s The first cattle drives in the
continental U.S. - Native American and
African vaqueros (cowboys) drove herds
across north Florida to St. Augustine,
where the cattle were slaughtered, the
beef sold, and the hides and tallow
exported to Havana;
And much more!

This is the native African food equivalent


of the potato and can be served similarly
mashed, baked, fried, boiled, or roasted.
Another basic part of the African diet was
efo (or greens spinach, collard, mustard,
turnip, dandelion, pokeweed, amaranth,
etc.; pronounced EH-faw). They were eaten
throughout Africa and were prepared in
many traditional ways boiling, frying,
steaming, raw, etc. Efo would be flavored
with meat (pork, fish, game, etc.) or meat
drippings, vinegar, onions, citrus juice,
peanuts, garlic, peppers, and so on. Greens
remain a popular and healthy dish in the
American South to this day.
We can see the founding of Florida in
the 16th century and the blending of Native
American, European, and African foodways
led to the birth of the first uniquely American
foods. And we still enjoy many of these same
foods today!

43

by Ben Gunter

Three Kinds of CLUES

History is full of mysteries mysteries


that you can help solve. Heres an example:
what was playtime like for people in Spanish
colonial Florida?
This chapter will give you some starter
solutions to that mystery. More advanced
solutions remain to be discovered in all
kinds of places:
in museums and living history villages
(like Mission San Luis in Tallahassee),
in archaeological digs at historic sites all
over the Sunshine State (for example,
the City of St. Augustine Archeology
Program), and
in books and letters and pictures that people
who came to La Florida from France and
England and Spain sent home to tell the
world about their adventures in the New
World (like the treasures stored in the
Archivo de Indias in Seville, Spain).
For a sneak peek at these amazing clues
about life in La Florida hundreds of years
ago, click on these links. Then make a note
of things youll need to learn in order to
become a conquistador of the mysteries
hidden in Floridas history:

Right now, were going to work with three


kinds of clues about playtime in Spanish
colonial Florida. Well examine clues about:
1. GAMES that Florida Natives and Spanish
newcomers played,
2. SONGS that people from Spain and people
from Florida used to sing, at moments
when music had a big role to play in
public life, and
3. PLAYS and other moments of high drama
that Florida Indians and European settlers
acted out.
To help us get up close and personal
with these mysteries, well use some of the
oldest pictures that historians have found
of Native people playing in Florida, songs
from plays that the first Spanish explorers
may have brought to Florida with them,
and scenes from plays that famous Spanish
playwrights wrote about characters from
Florida history, while newcomers from
Spain were building the first European
settlements in continental North America.
Watch out! These clues call for peeling
your eyes, putting on your thinking caps, and
stepping inside what historians call primary
sources documents produced hundreds
of years ago by eye- and ear-witnesses.
You might see things that we miss in these
sources and the sources that we visit as
clues may contain new mysteries to solve.

For more information:


http://goo.gl/5ATYL
http://www.digstaug.org/
http://goo.gl/rynQH
http://earlyfloridalit.net/?page_id=130
http://goo.gl/wCX6c
44

GAMES played by Florida Natives

This picture (below) is chock full of clues


about games that young Natives used
to play in Florida. The pictures caption
specifically names five games. Can you
crack this mystery, and dig all five games
out of the picture before you read the
caption? (Hint: try stepping into the picture
from the front, listing games you see in the
foreground first, then games you see in the
middle areas of the picture, then games you
see in the background.)
To read the caption for this picture from
Le Moynes Short Story of What Happened to
Us in La Florida, click on the Le Moyne link
below. (This click will also point you toward
ways to learn more about Native Florida
games from Le Moyne, and ways to learn
more about Native games from other parts of
the Americas, from Theater with a Missions
Gabrielle Reed-Sparkis.)

From June of 1564 to September of 1565


(when Spanish soldiers killed them off
or chased them out of Florida), a group
of settlers from France lived at a place
called Fort Caroline along the St. Johns
River, where Jacksonville stands today. A
cartographer (mapmaker) and artist named
Jacques le Moyne de Morgues was one of
these French newcomers to the New World,
and Le Moyne left wonderful clues about
playtime in 16th-century Florida.
Forty-two pictures of Florida Natives at
work and at play (plus descriptions of the
activities illustrated in the pictures, and a
short narrative of the whole expedition from
France to Florida) were printed in Europe in
1591, all presented as the work of Jacques le
Moyne. In 1595, the illustrations in one copy
of this rare book were colored as a present to
Prince Maurice of Orange-Nassau.
One of the pictures from that hand-colored
book has a title that reads (translated into
English) The Youth at Their Exercises.

For more information:


http://goo.gl/5GvIi

45

GAMES played by
newcomers from Spain

one player used to call out, in Latin, par est


[this will be a match!] while the other said
non est [no, its going to be a miss!], and over
the course of time (as the game got fast and
fun), par est y non est [its a match & its a miss]
got boiled down to pares y nones [matches
& misses]. (Alberto del Ro connected this
dictionary definition to Encinas play on page
97 of his edition in 2001.)
Jos Gueitz-Romero, a member of Florida
Living History, Inc., who lives in Ocoee,
Florida, explains pares y nones as basically a
form of rock-paper-scissors with a twist.
You know how to play rock-paper-scissors,
dont you? In rock-paper-scissors, you win
by making your hand into the shape of
something that breaks, covers, or cuts the
shape that your opponent makes with his
hand. So rock (your hand clenched into a
fist) breaks scissors (your first two fingers
splayed out into a scissors shape), but
paper (your whole hand spread out flat)
covers rock, and scissors cut paper.
Pares y nones is one step more complicated
than rock-paper-scissors. In pares y nones,
you win by guessing whether two of your
friends are going to make shapes that match
or miss. So if you call pares [a match] and
both of your friends make scissors, you
win or if you call nones [a miss] and one
friend makes paper and the other makes
rock, you win.
But if you call pares [a match] and your
friends make different shapes, or if you call
nones [a miss] and your friends make
matching shapes, you lose. Tough game to
win, but lots of fun to watch, and fast to play,

When they came to Florida, newcomers


from Spain brought Spanish holidays with
them. Did you know that Florida gets its name
from the Spanish name for Easter Pascua
florida [Flowered Feast] which was the
holiday season when Juan Ponce de Len first
sighted the east coast of Florida in 1513? Did
you know that the first Christmas celebration
in North America happened in 1539, in an
Apalachee Indian city named Anaica where
Tallahassee now stands, while Hernando de
Soto was exploring La Florida?
In the 1500s, games played a part in
Spanish holiday celebrations. Lets look at
two games in particular, which turn up in
a Christmas play that early travelers from
Spain could have imported to Florida.
The play is by Juan del Encina, who wrote
music and poetry poetry so important that
historians call him the founder of Spanish
drama, and music so fine that people still
perform it today. Around 1498, Encina
premiered the gloga de las grandes lluvias
[Shepherds Play about the Heavy Rains]
in Spain; in 2011, Theater with a Mission
presented the plays first translation into
English as Wet Christmas in Florida. The
four shepherds who star in the play get to
play two games games we bet you can use
historys clues to figure out well enough to
play yourself.
The first game is called pares y nones
[matches & misses]. An important Spanish
dictionary published by Covarrubias in 1611
explains that this game got its name because
46

since every time somebody loses, he has to


put something in the winners pot and pass
his turn as the guesser on to the next person
in the game.
Try several rounds of pares y nones with
your class. Can you carry on a conversation
about current events while youre playing
the game? The characters in Encinas play
do! To see how Encina has his four Christmas
shepherds play the game (in Spanish) and
how Theater with a Mission has translated
that conversation into 21st-century English
(while the characters play a 21st-century
game), click on this link.

someone near him in the room before passing


the candle out again. The idea is to show off
the cleverness of the compliments kind of
a non-offensive yo mamma contest.
Get the idea?

For more information:


http://goo.gl/RO6pL

Jacob Smith (age 10) and Ed Apodaca getting the idea


of the game in Wet Christmas

The second game in Wet Christmas is called


vivo te lo doy [I present you with this present].
Spanish literature scholars like Alberto del
Ro say that vivo te lo doy was a game that
royal people played, by passing a word or an
object from courtier to courtier. Every time
the object changed hands, the person on the
presenting end said, vivo te lo doy [I present
you this present], and the person on the
receiving end said, para d? [What for?]
Then the person who passed the present had
to pay the person who took the present a wellturned compliment, saying something nice
that connected the present to the person.
Heres
how
Jos
Gueitz-Romero
reconstructs the game for you to play today:

Try playing a round of vivo te lo doy.


Get four or five friends together, and find
a birthday candle (or something equally
pretty but easy to handle) to pass around.
Be sure to have a parent or a teacher present
if you want to light the candle. Now practice
passing the candle around, and strain your
brain to say the nicest things possible to each
other (before the candle burns out).
Remember: the person passing the
candle says, I present you this present
to the person whos taking the candle. The
person taking the candle says, What for?
Then the person passing the candle says
something sweet and well-spoken about the
person taking the candle.
Hint: during Floridas colonial period,
characters in Spanish plays loved to

Participants pass a candle around to each


other, and the candle-holder at the time has
to give a compliment back to the giver or to
47

compliment other characters on their eyes.


So your compliment will sound something
like out of history if you say,

While Jacques le Moyne was living in


La Florida, newcomers from France found
their ears opened to brand-new sensations
as Native Floridians made music for them,
repeatedly. The first time music turns up in
Le Moynes Short Story of What Happened
to Us in La Florida is when a Native king
named Saturioua comes to visit. (Our best
guess at pronouncing the kings name is
sah-too-REE-wah. Practice saying his
name several times, then find out more
about him and his family by clicking on the
link below.)

Prince:
I present you this present.
Princess: What for?
Prince: Because the light in your eyes
shines brighter than this candle.

or
Because the candle finds the
glory of Christmas, shining in
your eyes,

or
Because your eyes light
the way to the happiest of
birthdays,

or something even more flowery.

For more information:


http://www.manataka.org/page1232.html

The link below will take you to a longer


script with a more complicated game from
Spain to play. (Theater with a Missions
Gabrielle Reed-Sparkis can show you how to
have even more fun with games from Spain.)

In Le Moynes history, King Saturioua


comes visiting soon after the Frenchmen
have landed, while theyre just starting
construction on Fort Caroline. Heres how
Le Moyne describes that visit, as translated
by Fred B. Perkins in 1875:

For more information:

The king was accompanied by seven or


eight hundred men, handsome, strong, wellmade, and active fellows, the best-trained
and swiftest of his force, all under arms
as if on a military expedition. Before him
marched fifty youths with javelins or spears;
and behind these, and next to himself, were
twenty pipers, who produced a wild noise,
without musical harmony or regularity, but
only blowing away with all their might, each
trying to be the loudest. Their instruments
were nothing but a thick sort of reeds, or
canes, with two openings; one at the top to
blow into, and the other at the other end for

http://goo.gl/8MhYu
Clearly, games can give you valuable clues
for building a living picture of playtime in
Spanish colonial Florida. By studying games
that Native Floridians and newcomers from
Spain used to play, and then playing them
yourself, you can make history come to life.

Native American MUSIC


Music, songs, and dances offer clues
to living history, too clues that can open
your eyes and ears to brand-new blasts
from the past.
48

An illustrated clue to playing more kinds


of Native music turns up in Le Moynes
engravings. Here, a Native leader labeled R.
Holata Otina [King-Chief Outina] is showing
his French friends how Florida Natives play
after returning from a military expedition.
Outina stands in the front of the picture, on
the left. Notice the gold discs hanging down
around the King-Chiefs legs. Those discs are
actually a kind of music instrument, since
(as Le Moyne says in his Short Story of What
Happened to Us in La Florida) in walking, they
tinkled like little bells. In the center of the
picture is the tribes sorcerer, whos doing a
homecoming dance. The dance band is on the
right. Heres how Le Moynes caption for this
picture describes the band:

the wind to come out of, like organ-pipes or


whistles. (quoted in Bennett, 93-94)
Take a closer look at Le Moynes wordpicture of that music, so different from
anything European ears were used to hearing
that Le Moyne could only record a mystery
a wild noise, without musical harmony or
regularity. What wild sounds have you
run into unexpectedly, in unfamiliar places?
How did those sounds surprise and scare,
or even delight and thrill you?
Have you ever heard an instrument like
the Native pipes that Le Moyne describes?
You can listen to present-day Natives from
South America performing on Pan Pipes by
following this link to YouTube:
For more information:

Three men kneeling down, one of whom holds


in both hands a club, with which he pounds
on a flat stone, marking time to every word
of the sorcerer. At each side of him, the other
two hold in each hand the fruit of a certain
plant, something like a gourd or pumpkin,
which has been dried, opened at each end,
its marrow and seeds taken out, and then
mounted on a stick, and charged with small
stones or seeds of some kind. These they rattle
after the fashion of a bell, accompanying the
words of the sorcerer with a sort of song after
their manner. (Bennett 34)

http://goo.gl/65ZNL
Do you hear a wildness in the Pan Pipes
noise? Do the Pan Pipes on YouTube look
like the mysterious instruments that Le Moyne
saw Native Floridians play thick reeds, open
at the top and bottom? What would it sound
like, to have 20 people playing Pan Pipes all
together, marching toward you with an army?
Try making some open-reed instruments
with your class. How easy are they to play?
How hard do you have to work to be the
loudest? Can you reconstruct an ear-picture
of Saturiouas visit to Le Moynes friends?

Comb this historic picture (on the next


page) for clues, then see if you can re-create
some of the sounds of Native Florida. (Hint:
Le Moynes caption has just given you stepby-step directions for making one of the
instruments that he saw Florida Indians play.)

For more information:


For instructions to build pipes of your
own, check out the clues at:
http://www.philtulga.com/Panpipes.html
49

Spanish MUSIC

For more information:


http://goo.gl/8g9hd

Wild sounds must have come to Florida


from Spain, too. By 1513, people in Spain
expected music to play a major part in
all sorts of important occasions church
services, civic holidays, state occasions, and
play performances.
What did the music that Spanish people
brought to Florida sound like? Theres a
clue to that mystery in the music of Juan
del Encina, the playwright who wrote Wet
Christmas. Encina was famous as a composer
(someone who writes music) as well as a
playwright, and in 1496 he published a song
for Carnestolendas [Mardi Gras] that people
are still singing today.
The song is called Oy comamos y
bebamos [Today Lets Stuff and Swig], and
its part of a special playtime that people in
Spain enjoyed on Antruejo [Fat Tuesday],
the day before Lent started (40 days before
Easter). To hear a performance of Encinas Oy
comamos, click on this link.

If youd like to read Theater with a Missions


translation of a food fight from the play that
introduced Oy Comamos y Bebamos to the
world, click here:
For more information:
http://goo.gl/ESMzO

MUSIC Spanish playmakers


meet Native Floridians
Music gives you a chance to look at what
happens in one of historys most excellent
mysteries when New World traditions
meet Old World traditions face-to-face,
and those different ways of living start to
influence each other in what historians call
Columbian exchange.
Theres an excellent (and cleverly hidden)
example of Columbian exchange in the first
50

play that anyone ever wrote with scenes set


in America. This play is named El Nuevo
mundo descubierto por Cristbal Coln, and
it was written by Lope de Vega in Spain
around 1599. Its a particularly great play
for people living in Florida today to explore,
since it names some of its Indian characters
after real-life Natives from Floridas history.
In fact, the first time you see Americans
in the play is when cacique Dulcanquelln (a
character named for a historic chief from La
Florida) and Tacuana (an Indian princess
from a neighboring island) come onstage
in a wedding march. Thats also a place
where you can hear Columbian exchange
happening, since Lope asks the actors to
combine Spanish musical instruments with
Native American musical forms.
Heres how American scholar Robert
Shannon translates Lopes instructions to
the actors for this scene:

in on a chorus line. And areitos come from


America, not from Spain. (In fact, areito is a
Native American word that Spanish speakers
picked up in America, as they learned to
sing Native American songs.)
So the music in this scene makes two
worlds meet for the first time, right in your
ears. Lets listen to the grand finale of the
areito from Nuevo mundo, in its most recent
published translation.
Heres how Kenneth A. Stackhouse,
from Virginia Commonwealth University,
translated Lopes lyrics in 2003. (Hint:
imagine a wedding march, just as the bride
comes down the aisle toward her groom, as
you read these lyrics aloud. Try setting these
words to music in your head.)
For such a handsome Indian chief,
Now that the sun has risen,
A goodly wife for a great man.
Now that the sun has risen,
Our glorious wedding songs ring out,
Now that the sun has risen,
And consecrate their union in song,
Now that the holy sun arises,
Now that the sun has risen.
(Stackhouse 72)

Enter Indians with little drums and


tambourines, two braves and two squaws
and behind them, two more Indians as
sweethearts with their entourage. They sit
down. Their names are Tecu, Aut, Palca,
Mareama, Dulcanquelln and Tacuana. A
squaw sings and the others respond in the
refrain: Today the divine sun rises. Today
the sun rises. (Shannon 151-53)

Can you hear the rhythm of the areito


one person calling out and everybody
calling back in these words? (Hint: have
one person read the lines that change as a
solo, then everybody else read the repeated
line as the chorus.)
And do you notice something particularly
interesting about this song for Floridians
today, when the world thinks of Florida as
the Sunshine State? (Hint: Count how many

Professor Shannon states that the


tambourines (panderos in Spanish) which the
script tells the actors to play are instruments
that come from Spain, not from America. But
the song that the script gives the actors to
sing is an areito, a song where a soloist calls
out one line and then everybody chimes
51

times sun comes up in this song! And then


think about this: in Spanish, the verb salir,
which Professor Stackhouse translates as
(a)rise, can also mean make an entrance
onto the stage. So at this point in the play,
the Sun makes its own star entrance!)
Theater with a Mission is currently
working on a new translation of this song
for the 500th anniversary of first contact
between Spain and La Florida. How do you
think the areito from Nuevo mundo should
salute the sun in 2013? You can help Theater
with a Mission to solve this mystery, and
read more scholars translations of the song,
by clicking on this clue:

theaters with all the latest equipment for


making special effects, downtown in big
cities, to places where actors set up playing
spaces in town squares or courtyards or out
in the open fields, and all the theatrical magic
happened in the audiences imagination.
There were plays for every occasion
including Pascua florida [Easter], the
festival that was in progress in 1513 when
Juan Ponce de Len made the first official
recorded contact between Europe and North
America, along the east coast of Florida.
Did people traveling with Ponce de Len
bring Easter plays with them? Its certainly
possible. Juan del Encina the author of the
gloga de las grandes lluvias [Wet Christmas]
and the composer of Oy Comamos y Bebamos
[Today Lets Stuff and Swill] had published
two short musical Easter plays in 1496, 17
years before Spanish ships sailed for Florida.
By 1513, Encina was world-famous; hed even
been hired to put together musical plays for
the Pope in Rome. Even more importantly,
by 1513 Spanish people had come to expect
plays to play a major part in important public
occasions like Easter.
To track down clues from Encinas Easter
plays and to hear more about plays playing
big roles in La Floridas special occasions
click on this link:

For more information:


http://goo.gl/zKkS1

PLAYS from Spain


and from America
Clues from songs and games can help
you build a picture of playtime in Spanish
colonial Florida, and set the picture to
music. Then clues from plays can help you
put your musical picture in motion, like a
slice of history come to life.
During the time that people from Spain
were pouring into La Florida, the greatest
outpouring of plays in history was coming
out of Spanish-speaking people, in Europe
and in the Americas. Thousands of worldclass plays in a tremendous variety of
lengths and flavors were performed during
this Spanish Golden Age [the Siglo de Oro],
in settings that ranged from specially-built

For more information:


http://goo.gl/lT8Ig
Theres evidence that Native Americans
used plays to commemorate important
occasions, too. Spanish ethnographers
52

dramatic way. One of the first things French


people did when they got to Florida in 1564
was to put up a stone column, showing that
Florida had been visited by representatives
of the King of France. When they came back
to visit the column a year later, they found
Native Floridians performing a moment
of high drama all around it. Jacques le
Moynes picture of that dramatic moment
is below (with hints about how to comb the
picture for clues).
On the right-hand side of the picture, you
see Chief Athore (son of Saturioua), setting
the scene for the Frenchmen. (See how
tall Chief Athore is? Le Moyne describes
him as:

(people who write down and study the


customs practiced by different ethnic
groups) recorded at least three ceremonies
from Natives in America that read like
dramatic events. You can track down more
clues about those mysterious documents by
clicking on these clues:
For more information:
http://goo.gl/6YZps
http://goo.gl/WKrVz
http://goo.gl/c7qyn
Did Florida Natives act out plays to
welcome, or to warn, newcomers from
Spain? Exciting answers to that mystery
may well lie hidden in the Archivo General
de las Indias, where clues about hundreds
of years of contact between cultures lie
waiting for people to rediscover them. You
could become the next sleuth to unlock
mysteries about life in Spanish Florida, and
change the way people
write history.

... very handsome, prudent, honorable,


strong, and of very great stature, being
more than half a foot taller than the tallest
of our men; and his bearing was marked by
a modest gravity, which had a strikingly
majestic effect. Bennett 18)

Natives Acting
European
We dont have a
primary source yet
to show you that
Native
Floridians
performed plays, but
we can show you
a striking picture
of Florida Indians
responding to French
culture in a highly
53

you can set in motion by acting them out.


Theater with a Mission has started a wiki
where you can step inside a whole series of
great scenes from Lopes play. Here, well
give you a sneak preview from just one
scene. But this scene gives you an awesome
mystery to solve as you play the scene.
Theater with a Mission calls this scene
The MONSTER from ANOTHER
WORLD. The speaker is a Native American
named Tecu, and hes telling his chief (and
his tribe) about something too weird to put
into words. Tecu has sneaked up right next
to one of those big scary ships that have
just arrived from Spain alien ships so
big they look like Council Houses, floating
on the water. Unseen, Tecu has seen the
newcomers unload a whole army of men.
Then comes a creature so horribly huge and
incredibly lethal that it could completely
wipe out Native civilization.
Tecu can hardly talk after seeing such a
monster up close and personal what words
could a kid put together to describe something
so unthinkable? But he has to pass on the news,
so speak he does. Heres one of Theater with
a Missions translations of Tecus report. Can
you solve the riddle of Tecus monster?

In the middle of the picture stands the


column, ornamented (as Le Moyne reports)
with the arms of the king of France. (See
the gold fleurs de lis in the blue shields
under the crowns on the column? Those are
symbols of the King of France.) All around
the column are Native Floridian people and
presents and theyre all present to act out
an extraordinary scene of friendship and
welcome. To quote Le Moyne,
On approaching, [we] found that these
Indians were worshipping this stone as
an idol; and the chief himself, having
saluted it with signs of reverence such as
his subjects were in the habit of showing
to himself, kissed it. His men followed
his example, and we were invited to do
the same. Before the monument there lay
various offerings of the fruits, and edible
or medicinal roots, growing thereabouts;
vessels of perfumed oils; a bow, and
arrows; and it was wreathed around from
top to bottom with flowers of all sorts, and
boughs of the trees esteemed choicest.
(Bennett 18)
How many of the stage props mentioned
in Le Moynes description from the fruits
and roots to the arrows and wreaths can
you find in the picture?

Tecu :
Those things that brought them here
things as big as houses, big-bellied as a
pregnant woman
have spewed out more men marching
on the beach
than this world has ever seen.

Acting Out Contact


between Natives and newcomers
In his play Nuevo mundo, Lope de Vega
paints word-pictures of dramatic exchanges
between Natives from America and
newcomers from Spain word-pictures that
54

I saw one amongst them, Chief


Dulcanquelln,
so tall that I solemnly state
hed outstrip the towering pines that
crown
this mound you govern from.

Dreadful sight!
Scared me silly,
right down to the conquistadores
beard he wears
behind him.
What is Tecus monster? Guesses from
people watching Theater with a Mission
perform have included a giraffe, a
kangaroo, an alien from outer space,
and a horse, but none of these answers
use every single one of Tecus clues to
solve the mystery completely. Can you
fully unravel this riddle?
Tecus scene is so full of clues about how
people in Spanish colonial Florida might
have played out moments of high drama as
they got to know each other, that Theater with
a Mission has translated it several different
ways. To see Tecu as a 10-year-old boy who
loves to scout, or as a 12-year-old girl who
loves the movies (and Universal Orlando),
click on the clues collected for you here.

His marchings remarkable, since he takes


2 heads with him on the warpath,
one of them worn half-mast, at his
bodys halfway mark.
From where I stood,
the higher of the two heads looked
smaller
about yea big.
But it was the head in the middle, fixed at his
corporal center,
that made my blood run cold as a
corpse
Gigantic, with flaring nostrils;
framed in curly warlocks from
forehead to neck.

For more information:

Frothing at its mouth, with a voice thats


clear and
carrying,
it grunts, bellows, sprints, and springs
into the air,
all nightmarish agility and speed.

http://goo.gl/QH7Pp
http://goo.gl/FhhhD

Its ears are superhuman wide open,


pricked up like
swiveling antennas.
Barrel chest. Skinny legs, but wellequipped for
covering ground,
since hes a Quadruped.
55

SUM-UP: More Clues to Click On


If you like mysteries, youll know that a
lot of great mystery stories have a scene near
the end where the chief detective sums up all
the clues, just before cracking the code and
solving the case. So lets start the wind-up of
this chapter with a general summing-up.
We started out this journey into the
mysteries of playtime in Spanish colonial
Florida by looking at clues about games that
newcomers and Natives played. We found
clues in Jacques le Moynes pictures and
Juan del Encinas Christmas play gloga de
las grandes lluvias [Wet Christmas].
Then we examined clues about songs that
Native Floridians and Spanish newcomers
to La Florida sang. Again, we found great
clues to look at in Le Moynes pictures and
great clues to listen to in Juan del Encina
this time, in a play written to commemorate
Carnestolendas [Mardi Gras]. We also
discovered an example of New World music
mixing with sounds from the Old World, in
the wedding scene that introduces America
in Lope de Vegas El nuevo mundo descubierto
por Cristbal Coln [Christopher Columbus
Encounters the New World].
Finally, we dug up drama-charged
clues about plays that people used to
mark important occasions occasions like
Easter, for example, or a royal wedding,
or a first encounter between New World
Natives and newcomers from the Old
World. We took Le Moynes picture of
Native Floridians dramatizing the return

of French visitors as our backdrop, and


then we dove into one key scene from
Lope de Vegas Nuevo mundo, chock full
of dramatic clues about how people from
Spain and Natives in Florida played out
historic encounters with each other.
Unlike a mystery novel, a thriller movie, or
a cop show on TV, this examination of real-life
mysteries from Floridas past doesnt end with
a neat solution presented by an all-knowing
detective. Instead, it ends with a cliff-hanger
and a personal challenge to you.
Right now, history-making clues about
Spanish colonial Florida lie buried in
archives, in archaeological sites, and in plays
and pictures and music and memoirs from
the Spanish Golden Age. You could become
the detective who digs up those clues and
shows the world what life was like, long ago
in La Florida.
You can start your journey toward
making history come to life by clicking on
the clues scattered all the way through this
chapter. To take a look at the sources weve
used, click here:
For more information:
http://goo.gl/LqKVO

Happy sleuthing!

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