-
Fontaneda's Memoir
-
By Jerry Wilkinson
-
-
-
Hernando D'Escalante Fontaneda wrecked on
"Florida" at age 13 in 1549/50, lived 17 years with the Calusa Indians,
rescued at age 30 (1566) and wrote his memoir in 1575. Exact dates are
difficult to establish as Fontaneda does not say anything other than his
age and there were a number of shipwrecks where there was one surviving
male. Fontaneda did not say where or when he wrecked or who, where or when
he was rescued, other than he was 30. Dr. Eugene Lyon found a document
in Spain recording Fontaneda as a interpreter in 1566; therefore, he had
been rescued bu 1566. Many shipwrecks have been found in the time period
that could have been his, but we simply do not know. Regardless, depending
on his birthday, the above dates are close enough.
-
JW
-
- - - - -
-
(Translation by Buckingham Smith, 1854)
-
"Very Powerful Lord:
Memoir of the things, the shore,
and the Indians of Florida, to describe which, none of the many persons
who have coasted that country know how to describe it.
The Islands of Yucayo and of
Ahite fall on one side of the Channel of the Bahama. There are no Indians
on them, and they lie between Havana and Florida.
There are yet other islands,
nearer to the mainland, stretching between the west and east, called the
Martires; for the reason that many men have suffered on them, and also
because certain rocks rise there from beneath the sea, which, at a distance,
look like men in distress. Indians are on these islands, who are of a large
size: the women are well proportioned, and have good countenances. On these
islands there are two Indian towns; in one of them the one town is called
Guarugunbe, which in Spanish is pueblo de Llanto, the town of weeping;
the name of the other little town, Cuchiyaga, means the place where there
has been suffering.
These Indians have no gold, less
silver, and less clothing. They go naked, except only some breech-cloths
woven of palm, with which the men cover themselves; the women do the like
with certain grass that grows on trees. This grass looks like wool, although
it is different from it The common food is fish, turtle, and snails (all
of which are alike fish), and tunny and whale; which is according to what
I saw while I was among these Indians. Some eat sea-wolves; not all of
them, for there is a distinction between the higher and the lower classes,
but the principal persons eat them. There is another fish which we here
call langosta (lobster), and one like unto a chapin (trunkfish), of which
they consume not less than of the former.
On these islands are many deer,
and a certain animal that looks like a fox, yet is not, but a different
thing from it. It is fat and good to eat. [probably raccoon] On other islands
are very large bears; and, as the islands run from west to east, and the
land of Florida passes eastwardly towards these islands, that must be the
reason of bears being on them; for the mainland is near, and they can cross
from island to island. But what was a great wonder to the captives who
were there, and to those of us in other places, was the existence of deer
on the Islands of Cuchiyaga, the town of which I have spoken. Much more
would I relate of each thing, but that I have other objects which concern
me more, and I leave it.
On these islands is likewise a wood
we call here el palo para muchas cosas (the wood for many uses), well known
to physicians; also much fruit of many sorts, which I will not enumerate,
as, were I to attempt to do so, I should never finish.
To the west of these islands
is a great channel, which no pilot dares go through with a large vessel;
because, as I have said, of some islands that are on the opposite side
towards the west, which are without trees, and formed of sand. At some
time they have been the foundations of cays [Keys], and must have been
eaten away by the currents of the sea, which have left them thus bare,
plain sand.
They are seven leagues in circumference,
and are called the Islands of the Tortugas; for turtle are there, and many
come at night to lay their eggs in the sand. The animal is of the size
of a shield, and has as much flesh as a cow; it is like all kinds of meat,
and yet is fish.
Running from south to north
between Habana and Florida, the distance to the Tortugas and the Martires
is forty leagues; twenty leagues to the Martires, and thence other twenty
to Florida to the territory of Carlos, a province of Indians, which in
their language signifies a fierce people, they are so-called for being
brave and skillful, as in truth they are. They are masters of a large district
of country, as far as a town they call Guacata, on the Lake of Mayaimi,
which is called Mayaimi because it is very large. Around it are many little
villages, which I will speak about hereafter. The distance in going from
Habana to the farthest islands, which are beyond the Cape of the Martires
and almost adjoin Florida, is sixty leagues; because those islands are
near seventy leagues in extent, and run from west to east.
This channel has many passages, and
many different outlets and little channels. The principal channel is very
wide; across it are the Islands of Vermuda, of which I have some recollection
of what the Indians said; but not wishing to extend this account in that
direction, I return to what I was talking about, the termination of the
islands of the Martires.
Toward the north the Martires end
near a place of the Indians called Tequesta, situated on the bank of a
river which extends into the country the distance of fifteen leagues, and
issues from another lake of fresh water, which is said by some Indians
who have traversed it more than I, to be an arm of the Lake of Mayaimi.
On this lake, which lies in the midst of the country, are many towns, of
thirty or forty inhabitants each; and as many more places there are in
which people are not so numerous. They have bread of roots, which is their
common food the greater part of the time; and because of the lake, which
rises in some seasons so high that the roots cannot be reached in consequence
of the water, they are for some time without eating this bread. Fish
is plenty and very good. There is another root, like the truffle over here,
which as sweet;" and there are other different roots of many kinds; but
when there is hunting, either deer or birds, they prefer to eat meat or
fowl. I will also mention, that in the rivers of fresh water are infinite
quantities of eels, very savory, and enormous trout. The eels are nearly
the size of a man, thick as the thigh, and some of them are smaller. The
Indians also eat lagartos (alligators)," and snakes, and animals like rats,
which live in the lake, fresh-water tortoises, and many more disgusting
reptiles which, if we were to continue enumerating, we should never be
through.
These Indians occupy a very rocky
and a very marshy country. They have no product of mines, or thing that
we have in this part of the world. The men go naked, and the women in a
shawl made of a kind of palm-leaf, split and woven. They are subject's
of Carlos, and pay him tribute of all the things I have before mentioned,
food and roots, the skins of deer, and other articles.''
The Auditor Lucas Vasquez, a resident of
Santo Domingo, and six others, townsmen of his, I think, left there with
vessels, (of which some Indians of the Island of Yeaga, at the end of the
Lucayo Islands, give account,) to see the river and land of Santa Elena.
Seven leagues to the north of these is a town, which, instead of pronouncing
it Orizta, they who went there called it Chicora; and as to the other town,
for Guale, they said Gualdape. The Spaniards saw no more towns; for they
explored no farther, and did not enter nor examine the coast in earnest,
for fear of grounding their vessels and getting them lost. Thus they accomplished
no more; although it is true that neither gold nor silver is to be got
there, as they are to be found only at places remote. It is said, that
sixty leagues inland towards the north there are mines of gold and copper.
At the mouth of a river, and by lakes, are towns, Otapali, Olagatano, and
many others. The inhabitants are neither Chichimecas nor the people of
the Jordan. The king is called wayor y Bran Senor (chief and great lord)
in our language; and in that of the Indians of Carlos, it is Certepe. The
cacique is the greatest of the kings, having the renown of Montesuma.
The natives are poor at the place
to which Lucas Basquez and other Spaniards went, although some seed pearls
are found there in certain conchs. The cat fish, oysters (roasted or raw),
deer, roebuck, and other animals. While they kill these, the women bring
wood to cook or broil on grates. If the Spaniards found any gold, it must
have come a long way, from the mountains, and from that king of whom I
just spoke.
The Jordan that is talked of, is
a superstition of the Indians of Cuba, which they hold to because it is
their creed, not because there is such a river. Juan Ponz de Leon, giving
heed to the tale of the Indians of Cuba and Santo Domingo, went to Florida
in search of the River Jordan, that he might have some enterprise on foot,
or that he might earn greater fame than he already possessed and close
his life, which is the most probable supposition; or, if not for these
objects, then that he might become young from bathing in such a stream.
This thought was of itself proof that all must have been fiction that was
told by the Indians of Cuba and its whole neighborhood, who, to satisfy
their tradition, said that the Jordan was in Florida; to which at least
I can say, that while I was a captive there, I bathed in many streams,
but to my misfortune I never came upon the river. Anciently, many Indians
from Cuba entered the ports of the Province of Carlos in search of it;
and the father of King Carlos, whose name was Senquene, stopped those persons,
and made a settlement of them, the descendants of whom remain to this day.
And the same objects that they who left their country came in quest of
in the River Jordan, the kings and caciques of Florida, although savages,
took information of and sought after, as though they had been a more polite
people, that they might see what river that could be which did such good
work, even to the turning of aged men and women back to their youth. So
earnestly did they engage in the pursuit, that there remained not a river
nor a brook in all Florida, not even lakes and ponds, in which they did
not bathe; and to this day they persist in seeking that water, and never
are satisfied. In the attainment of the promises of their faith, those
of Cuba determined, for such was their vow, to venture their lives on that
sea; and it ended in all that numerous people who went over to Carlos forming
a settlement: but to this day youth and age find alike that they are mocked,
and many have destroyed themselves. It is cause for merriment, that Juan
Ponz de Leon went to Florida to find the River Jordan.
We will speak of the country of Abalachi,
which is in the direction of Panuco, where resounds the fame of its abundance
of pearls; and it is certain that they do exist. Between Abalachi and Olagale
is a river the Indians call Guasaca-esgui, which means in our language,
Rio de Canas (river of canes). On this river, arm of the sea, and coast,
are the pearls, which are got in certain oysters and conchs. They are carried
to all the provinces and villages of Florida, but principally to Tocobaga,
the nearest town; because in it resides the king, who is chief cacique
of the region lying on the right-hand side coming to Habana. He is called
Tocobaga chile, has many vassals, and is an independent king. He lives
inland on the last cape of the river. There are more than forty leagues
of distance, following up the stream, to where Hernando de Soto thought
to colonize; but he did not do so, in consequence of his death. When that
took place, the intention was abandoned, and the soldiers marched on. The
Spaniards, on their way, hung the cacique of Abalachi, because he would
not give them provision of maize for the journey; or, as the Indians of
the town of Abalachi say, because their cacique had around his neck some
large pearls, and in the middle of them a very big one, about the size
of an egg of the turtledove, which there are in that country, and have
nests in their season on trees; and this is what the Indians state . There
are no mines of either silver or gold, at least the natives do not know
of any. Their food is maize and fish; and there is a very great deal of
both. They kill a great many deer, antelopes, and other animals, that they
eat; but their usual food is fish. They make bread from a certain root,
such as I have described before as growing in swamps; and they have much
fruit of many different kinds, which to mention would be endless.
These Indians do not wear clothing,
not even the women. They go naked, except some dressed deer-skins made
into breech-cloths, with which they only conceal their shame. The females
cover themselves about the waist with the straw that grows on trees. This
plant is like tow, or wool, but is brown, instead of white.
We will now leave Tocobaga, Abalachi,
Olagale, and Mogoso, which are separate kingdoms; and I will name over
the villages and towns of the deceased cacique Carlos, who was put to death
by sentence of the Captain Reynoso. First, a place called Tampa, a large
town, and another town, which is called Tomo ; another, Tuchi and another
Soco; another by the name No, which signifies town beloved; another,
Sinapa ; and another, Sinaesta ; and another, Metamapo; and another,
Sacaspada; and another, Calaobe; and another, Estame ; another, Yagua ;
another, Guevu ; another, Muspa ; another, Casitoa ; another, Tatesta ;
another, Cayovea ; and another, Jutun; another, Tequemapo; and another,
with the name of Comachica ; also, Quisiyove, and two other towns of that
territory, the names of which I do not recollect, for it has been six years
since I came from there. Besides, there are others inland, on the Lake
of Mayaimi ; and another town, and the first is Cutespa; another, Tavaguemue;
another, Tomsobe, another, Enempa; and other twenty towns there are, of
which I do not remember the names. There are also two towns more, which
are on the Islands of the Yucayos, subject to Carlos, the Indian before
mentioned; the one is called Guarungunve, and the other, Cuchiyaga. Carlos,
after his father, was lord of these fifty towns, until the time of his
execution, as I have said; and now Don Pedro reigns, the son of Sebastian.
These two were brought to Havana by Pedro Melendez, that he might gratify
them, and he directed that they should be so named; but they became worse
than they were before he made them gifts, and still worse would matters
have stood had they been christened; but, as I did not wish that they should
be, they were not; for, by their conversation, I discovered that baptism
was not lawful for them, they were heretics; and since then it appears
they have returned to their old ways, and are more wicked than they were
formerly.
That people understand the greater part
of our strategy, and are archers and men of strength. No one knows that
country so well as I know it, who write this; for I was a captive among
its inhabitants, from a child the age of thirteen years until I was thirty
years old. I speak four languages, but not the language of Ais and Jeaga,
which is a country I never traveled into. I wish only to say this more
of Carlos, it is a large country, is rich in pearls, and possesses little
gold, because it is far from the mines of Onagatano, which are distant
on the snowy mountains of Onagatano, who is the farthest vassal of Abalachi
and Olagatano, and is far from Olagale, Mogoso, and the people of Cafiegacola.
These last, the Indians say, are numerous, and are great warriors; they
go naked, although some of them are clothed in skins; and they are great
painters, and whatever they see, they paint. They are called Canogacola,
which means a people without respect, skillful with the bow. But the good
arms of the Spaniards will overcome them - good crossbows, firelocks, and
shields, swords broad and sharp, good horses and escopetas [shotguns],
with one or two persons who understand their ways, the interpreters being
true and trustworthy, not like the Biscayan, who would have betrayed Pedro
Melendez to the Indians had it not been for me and a mulatto, who discovered
the treason, otherwise every one must have been slain, and I among the
rest. Pedro Melendez would not then have died in Santander, but in Florida,
in the province of Carlos. There is no river nor bay there that can be
hidden from me; and had I received the consideration I merit, the Indians
at this day would be the vassals of our powerful king Don Felipe, whom
God preserve many years! I have already said that the cacique is lord of
the River of Canes, where the pearls and lands of lapis lazuli are, and
that the gold is afar off in the last dependency and town of Olagale.
One Don Pedro Vizcaino, whom His
Majesty made Keeper of the Swans, was a captive in this province. If he
on whom this gift was graciously conferred had been more of a man, the
Indians of Ais, Guacata, Jeaga, and their vassals, would already have been
subjugated, and even many of them made Christians; but he was a man of
little intelligence and capacity, so there is nothing more to be said.
He understands well the language of Ais, and the languages of the other
places mentioned, which are spoken as far as Mayaca and Mayajuaca, places
toward the north; but I think that because of the order of Pedro Melendez
to hang him, in consequence of a falsehood that he raised against Domingo
Ruiz, his companion, he was frightened, and came to Spain with the news
about Florida, and would not go back again. If he did go back, it must
have been to bring with him a son he had among the Indians, as he brought
him here and never went there more. And because of the unjust treatment
to the interpreters, he desired not to go back, as others of us have not,
remaining as we are without pay to this time; for, as we came destitute,
it gave us little wish of returning to Florida to serve without any recompense.
The King of Ais and the King of Jeaga
are poor Indians, as respects the land; for there are no mines of silver
or of gold where they are; and, in short, they are rich only by the sea,
from the many vessels that have been lost well laden with these metals,
as was the case with the transport in which Farfan and the mulatto owner
were; with the vessel of the Vizcaino, in which came Anton Granado, who
was a passenger, and was captured; and with the vessel of which Juan Christoval
was master and captain, lost in the year '51, when the Indians murdered
Don Martin de Guzman, the Captain Hernando de Andino, Procurador of the
Province of Popayan, and Juan Ortiz de Zarate, Distributor of Santa Martha;
and there came in her also two sons of Alonzo de Mena, with an uncle, all
of them rich. He that brought least was I, but with all I brought twenty-five
thousand dollars in pure gold; for my father and mother remained in Carthagena,
where they were comenderos, and served His Majesty in those parts of Peru,
and afterwards in the city of Carthagena, where they settled, and I and
a brother were born. Thence they sent us to Spain to be educated; when
we were wrecked on Florida, as I have stated.
Other vessels have been lost,
among them the armada of New Spain, of which it was said the son of Pedro
Melendez was General for the Indians took a Spaniard that reached the shore
whom they found starving. And I saw him alive and talked with him and one
Juan Rodriguez, a native of Nicaragua. He told us that they came from New
Spain, and were going to Castile; that the General was a son of Pedro Melendez,
the Asturian; that he came as a sailor in another vessel; and that the
people of neither knew any thing of what had befallen the other, until
the Indians armed themselves to go to the coast of Ais, when he saw them
go and return with great wealth, in bars of silver and gold, and bags of
reals, and much clothing. As he was newly captured, or found, and understood
not the Indians, I and Juan Rodriguez were the interpreters for this man,
and others, as we already knew the language. It was a consolation, though
a sad one, for those who were lost after us to find on shore Christian
companions who could share their hardships and help them to understand
those brutes. Many Spaniards have saved their lives by finding themselves
with Christian companions already there. For the natives who took them
would order them to dance and sing; and as they did not understand, and
the Indians themselves are very mean, (for the most so of any are the people
of Florida,) they thought the Christians were rebellious, and unwilling
to do so. And so they would kill them, and report to their cacique that
for their meanness and rebelliousness they had been slain, because they
would not do as they were told; which was the answer, as I have said, made
to the cacique when he would ask why they had killed them. One day, I,
a negro, and two others, Spaniards recently made captives, being present,
the cacique, in conversation with his vassals and the great chiefs of his
train about what I have just mentioned, asked me, I being mas ladino
(better
acquainted with the language than any one), saying: 'Escalante, tell us
the truth, for you well know that I like you much: When we tell these,
your companions, to dance and sing, and do other things, why are they so
mean and rebellious that they will not? or is it that they do not fear
death, or will not yield to a people unlike them in their religion- Answer
me; and if you do not know the reason, ask it of those newly seized, who
for their own fault are captives now, a people whom once we held to be
gods come down from the sky.' And I, answering my lord and master, told
him the truth: 'My Lord, as I understand it, they are not contrary, nor
is it for any evil reason, but it is because they cannot understand you,
which they earnestly strive to do.' He said it was not true; that often
he would command them to do things, and sometimes they would obey him,
and at others they would not, however much they might be told. I said to
him: 'Even so, my lord, they do not intentionally behave amiss, nor for
perversity, but from not understanding. Speak to them, that I may be a
witness, and likewise this your free negro.' And the cacique, laughingly,
said: 'Se-le-tie-ga,' to the new comers; and they asked what it was he
said to them. The negro, who was near to them, laughed, and said to the
cacique: 'Master, I will tell you the truth; they have not understood,
and they ask Escalante what it is you say, and he does not wish to tell
them until you command him.' Then the cacique believed the truth, and said
to me: 'Declare it to them, Escalante; for now do I really believe you.'
I made known to them the meaning of Se-le-tega, which is, 'Run to the look
out, see if there be any people coming;' they of Florida abbreviate their
words more than we. The cacique, discovering the truth, said to his vassals,
that when they should find Christians thus cast away, and seize them, they
must require them to do nothing without giving notice, that one might go
to them who should understand their language. And so it happened, that
the man just spoken of, who was called Pijiguini, was the first found after
that. In our tongue his name was Martinez, a sailor, as before stated,
who came from Mexico in the flota that was lost.
Leaving this matter aside, I desire
to speak of the riches found by the Indians of Ais, which perhaps were
as much as a million dollars, or over, in bars of silver, in gold, and
in articles of jewelry made by the hands of Mexican Indians, which the
passengers were bringing with them. These things Carlos divided with the
caciques of Ais, Jeaga, Guacata, Mayajuaco, and Mayaca, and he took what
pleased him, or the best part. These vessels, and the wreck of the others
mentioned, and of caravels, with the substance of the Indians of Cuba and
Honduras who were lost while in search of the River Jordan, and who came
well off, were taken by Carlos, and by the chiefs of Ais and Jeaga. The
Indians of the Islands of Guaragunbe are rich; but, in the way that I have
stated, from the sea, not from the land. From Tocobaga to Santa Elena,
which may comprise a shore of six hundred leagues, there is neither gold
nor silver native to the country, and only that of which I have spoken
as coming by the sea. The land is abundant in pasturage; but I do not want
to say for certain whether there is any fit for settlement or not, since
the Indians can live on it; nor yet for the planting of sugar-cane, as
I do not know it positively, although some stalks were set out which grew;
but as I was not afterwards present, I did not see the result.
In all these provinces which I have
named, from Tocobaga-chile to Santa Elena, the people are great anglers,
and at no time lack fresh fish. They are great bowmen, and very faithless.
I hold it certain they never will be at peace, and less will they become
Christians. I will sign this assertion with my name as a very sure thing,
for I know what I say. If my counsel be not heeded, there will be trouble,
and matters be worse than they were beforetime. Let the Indians be taken
in hand gently, inviting them to peace; then putting them under deck, husbands
and wives together, sell them among the Islands, and even upon Terra Firma
for money, as some old nobles of Spain buy vassals of the king. In this
way, there could be management of them, and their number become diminished.
This I say would be proper policy; and the Spaniards might then make some
stock farms for the breeding of cattle, and be there to safeguard the many
vessels that are wrecked all the way along from Carlos to the Province
of Sotoriva, in which is the port of San Agustin, and river of San Mateo.
There the Lutherans of France had made a fort, and found a nook whence
to plunder as many ships as should come from Terra Firma, whether from
Mexico, or Peru, or from other parts; which they did, and retired to that
river of San Mateo, where resides the perfidious cacique of Sotoriba, Alimacani,
and of other places, his dependencies. Midway up the river San Mateo, sixty
leagues inland, is another cacique, having an independent sovereignty,
and being Lord of his land, whose name is Utina; and Saravai, and Moloa,
and many others are his vassals, until coming to Mayaguaca, in the land
of Ais, which lies towards Cafiaberal, so called by our pilots who sail
thither. With these two caciques Pedro Melendez made treaties of friendship.
They have no gold, silver, or pearls; their people are poor, very treacherous
and wicked, and great archers. They go naked, like the rest of whom I have
spoken before.
By way of this River San Mateo, one
may go to Tocobaga, on the other side of Florida, to the west; I do not
mean all the way by the river, but in this manner: Enter over the bar of
the San Mateo, and arrive at Zaravay, which is fifty or sixty leagues in
the interior up the river, or at the Province of Utina, and there disembark,
keeping a westerly course from town to town, until coming upon the people
of Cafiogacola, subjects of Tocobaga; and thence upon the country of Tocobaga
itself, which lies within on another large river, where Soto was, and where
he died .
With this I will end, and say no
more; for, if the conquest of that country were about to be undertaken,
I would give no further account of it than I have rendered. Its subjugation
is befitting His Majesty, for the security of his armadas that go to Peru,
New Spain, and other parts of the Indies, which pass, of necessity, along
that shore and channel of the Bahama, where many vessels are wrecked, and
many persons die; for the Indians are powerful archers, and oppose them:
and because of this, I say, it is well to have a small fort for the protection
of that channel, with some income for its repair, and the maintenance of
soldiers as a garrison in it, which income might be drawn from Mexico,
Peru, the Island of Cuba, and all the rest of the Indies. Thus much should
be done; and another thing also to go in search of pearls, for there is
no other wealth in that country. So, I conclude, and as this account may
become important; I sign it.
HERNANDO D'ESCALANTE FONTANEDA"
Use Back Arrow to return to reading previous page or:
To return to General History, Click
HERE.
|
