Encounters

Juan Ponce de León

On April 2, 1513, Ponce de León’s expedition made landfall, probably south of Cape Canaveral. The group then sailed south and, for the first time, encountered Florida Native people near Jupiter. A fight resulted in which two Spaniards were wounded and one Ais was captured. After sailing around the peninsula and entering Calusa territory, Ponce de León’s ships returned to Puerto Rico.

Fountain of Youth
Rumors about a “fountain of youth” circulated in Europe and among the Indigenous people of Cuba and other Caribbean islands. Popular legend said that Juan Ponce de León came to Florida searching for it. However, scholars have found no evidence to support this claim. Like other explorers, he was seeking new lands to colonize.

Map of Florida, ca. 1584
The Spaniards made landfall during the Easter season—Pascua Florida in Spanish. Ponce named the land La Florida, which became the name for all of the lands north and northwest of the modern state of Florida.

Abraham Ortelius, La Florida, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Image from a 1602 or 1612 reprint in the collection
of the Museum of Florida History

Juan Ponce de León
In 1521, Ponce de León returned to southwest Florida to establish a settlement, but a Calusa attack forced the Spaniards to leave. Ponce suffered an arrow wound and later died in Cuba.

Collection of the Museum of Florida History

Pánfilo de Narváez

In 1528, Spaniard Pánfilo de Narváez attempted to explore the Gulf coast and establish a colony. He landed with 400 men near Tampa Bay in Tocobaga territory and marched north. This expedition was the first to travel the interior of Florida. It was marked by hardships and ended in failure.

A Difficult Journey
The hungry group reached Aute on Apalachee Bay, and facing starvation, they were forced to eat their horses. They built rafts to sail to Mexico, but many men were lost at sea, including Narváez. Only four men made it to Mexico. The rest were captured or killed by Native people, or died from drowning, starvation, or illness.

Narváez’s Florida Route

Courtesy of Jerald T. Milanich

Life-cast figure representing Juan Ortiz

Spaniard Juan Ortiz was with a search party sent to look for Pánfilo de Narváez’s army in 1528. While he was on shore near Tampa Bay, the Uzita Indians captured him. Ortiz was mistreated and almost burned to death by the Uzita chief. The chief’s wife and daughters intervened to save his life. Eventually Ortiz escaped to the Mocoso tribe, where he received better treatment. He lived among the Native people for eleven years and learned their language and adopted some of their practices, such as body tattooing. Hernando de Soto’s men came upon Ortiz in 1539.
He avoided being killed when he identified himself, in Spanish, as a Christian. Ortiz then traveled with the de Soto expedition as an interpreter.
He died in present-day Arkansas in the winter of 1541–1542.

Black People in La Florida

Black people participated in the exploration and colonization of the Americas. The same was true in La Florida. Two free Africans accompanied Ponce de León, and fifty Black people were part of the French settlement attempt in 1564. The experiences of Black people in La Florida, both free and enslaved, often were overlooked in European accounts.

Black People among the Native Inhabitants
Sometimes Black people became members of Native communities. At least one enslaved Black person with Hernando de Soto escaped to live with Indigenous people, and in the mid-1500s, at least five shipwrecked Black and mulatto (having one White and one Black parent) people lived with various Florida tribes.

Detail of map showing site of San Miguel de Gualdape, 1529
In 1526, Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón established San Miguel de Gualdape and brought the first group of enslaved Black people
to the United States. The settlement was short-lived, and its exact location, perhaps near Georgia’s Sapelo Sound, has yet
to be discovered.

Carta universal en que se contiene todo lo que del mundo se ha descubierto fasta agora, map by Diego Ribero, Library of Congress Geography and Map Division

Juan Garrido
Juan Garrido (pictured left), a free Black man, sailed to Florida with Ponce de León in 1513. Here he is shown during the 1519 conquest of Mexico.

Original source, Fray Diego Durán, História de las Indias de Nueva España y Islas de Tierra Firme, 1581

Life-cast figure representing Esteban

Esteban was born in West Africa and taken as a slave to Spain. He accompanied his master on the disastrous Pánfilo de Narváez expedition to Florida in 1528. The group faced many hardships in Florida, so they built rafts in an attempt to sail to Spanish territory in present-day Mexico. Many Spaniards died at sea, but Esteban and three other survivors washed ashore in south Texas. The group tried to locate a Spanish settlement and traveled across southern Texas and into Mexico, staying with various Native tribes along the way. Esteban played an important role as the interpreter and negotiator when the group encountered new Indigenous tribes. Finally they reached a settlement in Mexico eight years after arriving in Florida. In 1539, Esteban served as a guide on an expedition to present-day New Mexico. During the expedition, he was killed by
Native people.

Hernando de Soto

Rumors of gold persuaded Hernando de Soto to come to La Florida. He personally financed the large expedition of more than
600 people. Soldiers, priests, tradesmen, two Spanish women, free and enslaved Black people and Native people were part
of the group. The expedition brought horses, pigs, dogs, and supplies for eighteen months. The four-year journey covered thousands of miles.

Encounters with Native Tribes
Encounters between de Soto’s army and Florida’s Indigenous tribes often were violent. The Spaniards frequently raided Native food supplies. Sometimes they held the chief hostage to obtain corn. Native people were captured and used as burden bearers, guides, and translators. Many of them died as a result.

Hernando de Soto
In 1533, de Soto participated in the conquest of Peru, where he gained experience and wealth. In 1537, Charles V granted him the right to conquer Florida and named him Adelantado of Florida and Governor of Cuba.

Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida

De Soto’s Florida Route
De Soto’s ships landed near Tampa Bay in May 1539. The army marched north and west to Apalachee territory, traveling among many Timucua-speaking groups along the way.

From Florida with the march of de Soto and his men, 1539-1544, Bormay & Co., N.Y.,
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Winter at Anhaica
De Soto’s army spent the winter of 1539–40 in Apalachee territory. They took over the village of Anhaica (located in modern-day Tallahassee) and consumed corn and supplies that the Apalachee had stored. The Apalachee frequently ambushed small groups of Spaniards with their deadly arrows. In March 1540, the expedition resumed its exploration.

Life-cast figure representing Ana Mendez

Ana Mendez came to Florida as part of the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1539. She was one of two Spanish women on the journey, and the only female survivor. She was a teenager when she arrived in Florida as a servant of Don Carlos Enríquez, who participated in the expedition.
The group traveled through much of the Southeast and crossed the Mississippi River. Along the way, Don Carlos was killed during a battle with Native people. After the four-year journey, Ana Mendez went back to Spain. Many years later, she testified that she and others had experienced danger and difficulty in La Florida. She recalled that while crossing the Cove of the Withlacoochee, in central Florida, the party trekked through swamps and rivers, sometimes through neck-high water. Apart from her testimony, no record exists of what happened to Ana Mendez when she returned to Spain.

After de Soto
The de Soto expedition traveled thousands of miles through much of the southeastern United States. It encountered numerous Indigenous tribes in its quest to find riches and establish settlements. De Soto died in 1542 and was buried in the Mississippi River. After his death, Luis de Moscoso assumed command of the expedition. Survivors reached Mexico by boat in 1543. The expedition never found gold or established any settlements.

Four Maravedi Coin
This Spanish coin, minted between 1505 and 1517, was carried by someone who marched with de Soto. It was discovered in 1987 in modern-day Tallahassee, where de Soto’s group spent the winter of 1539–40.

Courtesy of the Florida Division of Historical Resources

De Soto’s projected route through the Southeast
The long-term effects of the Spaniards’ encounters with Indigenous people had a deep and lasting impact. The Spaniards brought diseases that decimated Native populations throughout the Southeast. Decades later, when other Europeans trekked through the same areas, many of the villages the de Soto expedition had encountered were gone.

Florida with the march of de Soto and his men, 1539-1544, Bormay & Co., N.Y., Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Items for Trade
Not every encounter between Europeans and Indigenous groups was hostile. The Spaniards and French carried trade items, such as glass beads, brass or copper hawk bells, scissors, mirrors, and cloth. In exchange for these items, Native leaders provided painted deer skins, food, or other goods.

Copper Bell
The small trade item known as a hawk bell has been found in archaeological sites across the South. The bell pictured here, found near St. Marks, Florida, might be associated with the Narváez expedition.

Courtesy of the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature, Bradenton, Florida

Life-cast figure representing Fray Cáncer

Fray Cáncer was a Spanish priest of the Dominican Order. He was one of many members of the Catholic clergy who worked to spread Christianity throughout the Americas. Converting the Natives to Christianity was mandated by the Spanish monarchs. Cáncer served successfully as a missionary in Guatemala for four years and for this reason, he wished to preach to the Native people of Florida. Cáncer obtained royal permission to organize an expedition, and in 1549, he and three other Dominican priests sailed for Florida. The ship landed near Tampa Bay, where de Soto’s army had encountered Native people ten years earlier. Although the ship began to leak and their supplies were running low, Cáncer was determined to go ashore and preach. The Spaniards rowed their small boat toward land. Although they saw many Indigenous men armed with clubs, Cáncer left the boat and waded onto the beach, where he was killed. His companions returned to the ship and sailed away.

Tristán de Luna Expedition

Despite previous failures, the Spanish Crown still wished to settle La Florida because it needed outposts to protect shipping. Tristán de Luna y Arellano was charged with establishing three colonies in La Florida. Luna’s fleet of eleven ships left Veracruz, Mexico, in 1559. The ships carried 1,500 people as well as food, livestock, and supplies.

Disaster Strikes
The expedition landed at Ochuse (modern Pensacola). Five weeks later, a hurricane destroyed seven ships, all of which were still loaded with food and supplies. The loss of these provisions dealt such a devastating blow that the colony never took root and survived only two years. The remaining settlers returned to Mexico.

Luna’s Sunken Ships Found
One of the larger ships in de Luna’s fleet was found in Pensacola Bay in 1992. Another was discovered in 2006. These are the earliest shipwrecks discovered to date in Florida waters. Archaeologists have closely studied the wrecks to learn more about colonial expeditions.

Courtesy of the Florida Division of Historical Resources

Map of Excursions from Ochuse
In search of food, scouting parties traveled north to places where twenty years earlier, de Soto’s men had encountered thriving Native villages. But the villages that Luna’s men found had declined steeply in prosperity and population.

Courtesy of C. Hudson, M. Smith, and C. DePratter