Chapter 4: Saints and Savages. c1555–1605.

By the 1550s, after a lifetime spent traversing his Spanish and Holy Roman realms, Emperor Charles V was tired of travel and weary of war. 'My life,' he said, 'has been one long journey.' In 1555 he endorsed the Peace of Augsburg, granting liberty to Lutherans across the Holy Roman Empire. In Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, however, Protestant minorities remained subject to persecution. Retiring to the tranquility of a Spanish monastery, Charles divided his empire into two more manageable units. To his younger brother, Ferdinand, he bequeathed the central European lands of the Holy Roman Empire. To his own son, Philip, he left a larger empire comprising his kingdoms in Spain, Southern Italy, and the Netherlands. As king of Castile, Philip II (1556-1598) also inherited vast Castilian possessions in the Americas. Philip made himself a Spanish king first, a European monarch second, and an emperor of the Indies last of all.

In 1560, hoping to unite the Spanish and French monarchies, King Philip married the daughter of King Henry II and Catherine de Medici: Elizabeth of Valois. Spain celebrated the marriage of Catholics with elaborate parades and fanfare, bloody bullfights, and extravagant autos-de-fe in which Protestant subjects were tried, tortured, and executed. The following year, Philip transferred the royal court from the Holy Christian city of Toledo to the old Muslim Alcazar of Madrid. Retaining the services of Titian, the king commissioned solemn religious scenes to hallow the new capital; in the more intimate chambers of his palace, Philip displayed classical nudes from the Italian master. Though Toledo's old Gothic churches and cathedrals were further embellished by El Greco, the old capital began to decline. Madrid began its ascent.

Like his father, King Philip demanded his 'Royal Fifth' of gold, silver, and spices from Spanish treasure fleets returning from the Indies. After filling their holds in Caribbean ports, Spanish ships converged in Havana and formed a convoy that sailed north along the east coast of Florida before catching westerlies across the Atlantic. In the early 1560s, Spanish captains skirting a long projection of the Floridian coast mistook reeds for sugarcane and named the cape Canebrake – CANAVERAL.

The establishment of a French Huguenot colony in Florida in 1562 not only challenged Spanish imperialism and the Catholic faith but threatened the safe passage of this treasure fleet. In 1565 King Philip granted the governorship of Florida to an old sea captain recently released from prison on smuggling charges, Pedro Menendez de Aviles. Menendez had helped chart the course of the Spanish treasure fleet and was outraged by the menacing French position. But Menendez had more personal reasons for wanting the commission: in 1563, while he languished in prison, his son Juan held command of a treasure fleet that wrecked off the coast of Florida with no known survivors. Menendez the father still hoped he might find his son alive. 1

To the 500 mercenaries recruited by Menendez, King Philip added 300 soldiers of his own – the first time any Spanish monarch had committed royal troops to the Americas. When he embarked from Cadiz on June 29, 1565, Menendez commanded a fleet of 11 ships and some 2,000 people – soldiers, mariners, colonists, and clergymen. After sighting the east coast of Florida on August 25, Menendez followed the coastline north. On August 28, the Spanish made landfall 30 miles south of Fort Caroline. Amidst blasts of trumpets and gunpowder, Menendez came ashore and claimed the land for God and King – dedicating it to the Catholic saint on whose feast day they had sighted land: 'San Agustin' – ST AUGUSTINE.

The Spanish Catholic soldiers waged an all-or-nothing war with the French Huguenot colonists. Ribault put the bulk of his forces to sea, chancing on a preemptive naval strike against St Augustine. But as a hurricane wrought havoc with Ribault's fleet, Menendez marched his troops through a treacherous deluge to the undermanned Fort Caroline. Wreaking carnage inside the fort, Catholic soldiers slew its Huguenot defenders. A music aficionado, Menendez spared the lives of six drummers and a trumpeter.

When their ships wrecked upon the Florida coast, Ribault and remaining French colonists straggled back towards Fort Caroline. Confronted by superior forces south of St Augustine, the French surrendered – pleading for Spanish mercy. Once again, Menendez spared only professed Catholics and competent musicians. But he ordered hundreds of French Protestants, hands bound behind their backs, into nearby sand dunes – where their throats were summarily slit. Menendez justified the carnage with placards reading, 'I do this not as to Frenchmen, but as to Lutherans.' Ribault's decapitated head was cleft into quarters and skewered on lances at the four corners of the Spanish fort; his clipped red beard was sent in a letter to King Philip. Showing no shame for the massacre, Menendez christened the waterside MATANZAS.

The massacre of French subjects at Fort Caroline and Matanzas ended the threat of French occupation, but engendered more bloodshed from vengeful French buccaneers. Several years after the Matanzas massacre one vengeful French pirate raided Fort Caroline, executed the Spanish soldiers stationed therein, and left a placard reading, 'This I do not as to Spaniards but as to traitors, thieves, and murderers.'

In 1566, Menendez led a flotilla from the east to the west coast of Florida, scouting for the possibility of a waterway that cut across the peninsula, and investigating rumors of shipwrecked Spaniards along the coast – hoping his son was among them. Reports of white men living amongst the Calusa Indians fired his paternal hopes. Menendez opened diplomatic talks with a new Calusa chief, who had inherited the name of Carlos, with each vying to overawe the other. Carlos flaunted thousands of warriors and treated his guests to lavish feasts in his grand hall. Menendez paraded hundreds of armored arquebusiers and regaled his hosts with his makeshift orchestra. Menendez negotiated the release of a dozen Spaniards still held captive by Carlos, though his son was not among them. Carlos insisted that Menendez marry his sister to seal their relations. Both Menendez and Carlos plotted to kill the other.

Among the Spaniards now liberated from the Calusa was Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda. The young Spaniard had been shipwrecked on the coast of Florida 17 years earlier and been among the lucky minority to survive; most of his compatriots had been executed in the ensuing years. Fluent in several Indian tongues, Fontaneda proved an invaluable translator and source of local knowledge. Absorbed by the mercenary army under Menendez, whom he called 'Melendez,' Fontaneda now found himself in conflict with his adopted tribe. As simmering tensions threatened open warfare, Menendez dispatched a captain to contain Chief Carlos, by whatever means necessary. In doing so, Menendez sealed the fate of a cacique whose influence stretched over southern Florida. Listing off villages once under the authority of Carlos, Fontaneda began: '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...' Although the tribe later abandoned the large town, the name was retained by a nearby bay, TAMPA; centuries later a much larger town assumed the name of the bay. Fontaneda left no explanation for the name's origin.

The Calusa saw their name preserved in the Calusa River, CALOOSAHATCHEE River. Fontaneda recorded other Indian territories in the peninsula, like 'Mayaca' – now spelled MYAKKA; and 'Tequesta' – still spelled TEQUESTA. Again, the names referred to the Indians as much as the land they inhabited. Fontaneda reported another Indian tribe as the 'Ais,' whose name was long affixed to a stream called the 'Rio de Ais.' Perhaps because 'Ais' sounded like 'Ass,' English-speaking cartographers later changed the name to the generic INDIAN River.

Fontaneda could not assist Menendez in locating his son, but he knew of other white men living in the wilds of Florida, including one Pedro Vizcaino. As his surname suggests, Vizcaino had origins in the Basque Region of Spain called Biscay, bordering the Bay of Biscay. Unlike Fontaneda, Vizcaino felt more loyalty to the Indians than to the Spanish crown. Contrasting himself with Vizcaino, Fontaneda explained how easily Spanish soldiers could subdue the Indians, provided their guides were loyal: '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.' Although Pedro Vizcaino had tried to lure Menendez into an ambush, he escaped Spanish retribution. Living for years in southeast Florida, the Biscayan – 'El Biscaino' – came to be closely associated with his adopted tribe, such that they were called 'Vizcaynos' or 'Biscaynos.' A bay around which they lived was later called BISCAYNE Bay. The bay thus echoes the name of a Spanish man, an American tribe, and a European region.

Seeking a waterway across Florida, Menendez marched into Florida's vast southern wetlands, exploring the complex network of lakes and rivers further south. Indians spoke of a large inland lake, whence many rivers drained and flowed. Transcribing the Indian name, Menendez called the lake 'Maymi.' In his account of his Florida experiences, Fontaneda wrote that it was 'called Mayaimi because it is very large.' Indeed, the name meant Large Water – though it was subsequently transferred from the largest lake in Florida, to a long river fed by the lake, and then on to a small coastal river: MIAMI.

While Menendez campaigned in southern Florida into the late 1560s, he dispatched a force under Juan Pardo to the northwest. In a multifaceted expedition, the dogged Pardo was to find a viable overland route to the mines of New Spain; build a chain of forts to defend Spanish territorial claims; procure food for Christian missions; forge alliances with local tribes; and locate any European castaways or captives living among the Indians. Pardo crossed north of the Altamaha River in 1567, and then north of another river soon to appear on Spanish maps as SAVANNAH. The source of the name remains obscure. The word resembles the English word 'Savannah' or 'Savanna,' borrowed from the Spanish 'Sabana,' which in turn was taken from a Caribbean term meaning grassy plain. Since the Savannah River meanders through grasslands, Spaniards probably applied this name as a description of the terrain. 2

Beyond the Savannah, laboring through grasslands, swamps, and forests, Spanish soldiers encountered delegations of chiefs who welcomed them into their villages. Juan de Bandera, Pardo's chief scribe, diligently recorded their tribal names. The tribe whom the Spaniards called 'Catapa' and 'Cataba' lived on the CATAWBA River. Skilled artisans, the Catawbans crafted ornate pottery and, to guard their burial temples, they carved wooden statues of warriors that stood tall as Spanish soldiers. Networks of Indian paths connected Catawba villages, while river travel facilitated communication between closely affiliated tribes living on key regional waterways. The tribe would extend their influence over the TOCCOA River, a Cherokee name signifying where Catawba live. Pardo encountered other tribes affiliated with the Catawba, including the 'Vehidi' of the PEEDEE River; the 'Enuque' of the ENO River; the 'Saruti' of the SALUDA River; the 'Gueca' of WAXHAW Creek. Pardo met the 'Guatari' of the WATEREE River, greeted by their powerful female chief, Guatari Mico. The 'Sauxpa,' later known as the SAXAPAHAW and SISSIPAHAW, lived on the abbreviated HAW River. The 'Uniaca' were perhaps early residents of WYNAH Bay.

Neighboring the Catawbas, but speaking a different language, lived another set of affiliated tribes. Bandera reported one tribe as the 'Cocao' or 'Cozao,' whose territory once included COOSAW Island, and the COOSAWATCHIE River, literally the Coosaw-River River. Variants of their name would later be applied to a larger confederacy of which they were part, the CUSABO. Pardo met other Cusabo tribes, including the 'Sanapa,' who later migrated to the SAMPIT River. Pardo also met with the powerful chief of the 'Orista' near the EDISTO River and Island; the French had met the same tribe years earlier and called them 'Audusta.'

Thus far, all the rivers Pardo had explored flowed east to the Atlantic. But as he pushed west into the Appalachians, he picked up a river system flowing west. Upon this river in 1567, the Spanish found a fortified Indian village: '...called Tanasqui, which was situated on a certain piece of solid ground, like an island surrounded by water, because the place was like that, surrounded by two copious rivers, which join one with the other, at the tip of the said island.' The name of the Indian village 'Tanasqui,' perhaps signifying where the waters meet, passed onto one of these two copious rivers and then onto the longer waterway of which both were but tributaries: the TENNESSEE. Undaunted by the terrain, or his dying comrades, Bandera described the region as a 'tierra de Angeles,' a land of Angels.

Overextending his limited forces, Pardo ordered the construction of a half a dozen forts – dedicating each fort to a Catholic saint and giving each corresponding terrain a Spanish name. Establishing the first of these forts on the Catawba River in 1567, Pardo dedicated it to his patron, 'San Juan,' St John, and then named the neighboring land 'Cuenca' after his birthplace in Spain. Completing the last fort in January of 1568, he dedicated it to 'Santiago,' St James, and named the neighboring land 'Salamanca.' Leaving barely twenty or thirty men to guard each fort, Pardo withdrew to the coast. In spring, after repeated clashes between Spanish soldiers and Indian warriors, the Catawbas launched a coordinated series of attacks on these interior Spanish forts. All but one of the Spanish soldiers were slain – the lone survivor escaped to the woods and followed moonlit Indian trails back to the coast. In reclaiming their lands, the Indians ensured that their names – many first recorded by Juan de la Bandera – were fixed on the maps. Pardo's Spanish cities and Catholic saints never materialized.

At other extremities of the empire, with sustained occupation, Spanish Catholics had more success planting the names of saints and hometowns in interior Indian lands. From Chile, conquistadors crossed the Andes to settle Argentina. 3 While from central Mexico, others extended the frontiers of New Spain farther north. 4

The middle years of Philip II's reign were marked by military campaigns colossal in both cost and consequence. When his half-brother, John of Austria, led Italo-Spanish squadrons to victory over the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571, Philip styled himself the savior of Christendom from the forces of Islam. Within Christendom, Philip remained a violent champion of Catholic primacy. He continued to interfere in the French Wars of Religion, and upon hearing of the St Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 – in which Parisian Catholics murdered 20,000 Huguenots – King Philip's laughter echoed through his court. When Dutch Protestants rebelled against his rule in the Netherlands, he gave his soldiers free rein to eradicate the heretic rebels. And after the new Protestant queen of England refused his offers of marriage, the Spanish king began building up an armada to Catholicize England and the Netherlands by force.

Governor Pedro Menendez committed himself to Spanish Florida for almost a decade – leading more military campaigns and supply voyages – until he died in Spain in 1574. For decades to come, the governorship was held by his sons-in-law, nephews, and other relatives. No trace of his eldest son, Juan Menendez, was ever found. 5

In 1580, King Philip II of Spain scored the greatest dynastic coup of his reign when he assumed control of a vacant and disputed Portuguese throne. In annexing Portugal, Philip absorbed the entire Portuguese Empire – thus uniting the Americas under his distant kingship. But other kingdoms were rising to challenge his authority over the New World.

While Menendez had secured Spanish Florida from French occupation, his successors in the governorship heard rumors of a new threat coming from the English. While English pirates began to raid Spanish Florida, reports began to arrive of English settlement farther north. Governor Pedro Menendez Marquez repeatedly probed the coast to the north in the 1580s, eager to foil the English like his uncle, Pedro Menendez, had foiled the French. He could find no sign of the English among the barrier islands, though he did encounter unfamiliar Indian peoples. Entering one harbor along the coast, Marquez encountered a tribe allied with the Cusabo called 'Cayagua,' subsequently attached to the KIAWAH River and Island. Reports of English activity intensified in the following decades. In the early 1600s, Francisco de Ecija voyaged north from St Augustine – scouring the coast, and interrogating the coastal Indians, for any evidence of English settlement. Along the Carolina coast, Ecija reported a people called the 'Ostano,' another Cusabo tribe, near the mouth of the STONO River. He also found the 'Sati,' a Catawba tribe, near the mouth of the SANTEE River. These and other coastal tribes provided vexing clues of English activity in the area and Ecija probed further north. He was set to enter the mouth of a large bay in 1609 when an English ship blocked his course, gave pursuit, and compelled him to return south without further investigation. The Spanish would never find any English settlement until it was too late.