The Spanish invasion of what is now Florida began in 1513. At this time, there were at least 200,000 Native Americans living in the area. Even before the first Spanish explorers set foot in Florida, European diseases had begun to impact the Native population. Smallpox had been carried to the Calusa by Native people from Cuba. The Native people of south Florida were well aware of the Spanish from the reports from the Natives of the Caribbean islands with whom they had regularly traded for centuries.
With regard to the Spanish explorers, Dennis Reinhartz and Oakah Jones, in their chapter in North American Exploration. Volume 1: A New World Disclosed, write:
“Spanish explorers of the present-day southeastern United States were motivated largely by the search for mythical kingdoms and rich civilizations, as well as the quest to find a strait through the North American continent.”
The Spanish explorers had little interest in American Indian cultures. In their book The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast, Theda Perdue and Michael Green report:
“Early Spanish interest in Indians was limited to their usefulness as laborers, hostages, porters, sexual partners, purveyors of food, interpreters, and guides.”
Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon (the conqueror of Puerto Rico) explored the coast of Florida in 1513. It was Easter Week – Pasqua Florida in Spanish— when he landed and so the land was called Florida. The primary goal of the expedition was to obtain slaves. At this time, the Spanish were interested in Americans as laborers, sexual partners, guides, porters, and suppliers of food. While one of the common misconceptions repeated in history is that Ponce de Leon was looking for a fountain of youth, he was really looking for slaves who would add to his wealth. According to Bill Lawrence, in his book The Early American Wilderness as the Explorers Saw It:
“But Ponce de Leon was not an old man searching for a means of rejuvenation, as he is often portrayed. He was in the prime of midlife, looking for worlds to conquer and probably slaves to take.”
The Spanish under Ponce de Leon landed just north of present-day Cape Canaveral which was the northern end of Ais territory. Sailing south of Cape Canaveral they sailed into Biscayne Bay and landed at a Tequesta town.
The Spanish ships then sailed into San Carlos Bay where they intended to clean and recaulk one of the ships. Eighty Calusa canoes filled with archers with shields approached the Spanish ships. The Spanish attacked, drove the Calusa to shore, broke up some of the canoes, and captured some women. The Calusa warriors, however, forced the Spanish to withdraw. With regard to the hostility exhibited by the Indians, William Marquardt of the Florida Museum of Natural History writes in his chapter in Societies in Eclipse: Archaeology of the Eastern Woodland Indians, A.D. 1400-1700 :
“This suggests that native south Floridians were aware of the Spaniards long before the arrival of Ponce de León, in part because they had salvaged Spanish wrecks in the Florida Keys.”
In 1517, three Spanish ships under the command of Hernández de Córdoba stopped for water at San Carlos Bay. The well-armed Spanish landing party was driven off by the Calusa. In his chapter in North American Exploration. Volume 1: A New World Disclosed, Robert Weddle reports:
“In the fight, thirty-five Indians were slain. Half a dozen soldiers were injured, and a Spanish sentry was carried off alive.”
In 1519, Spanish sea captain Alonso de Piñada sailed along the Florida coast and then up the Mississippi River for about 20 miles. He reported seeing about 40 towns along the river.
That same year, a series of smallpox episodes began to strike the Native American population with a mortality rate of 50-75%.
In 1521, Juan Ponce de Leon attempted to establish a colony for the Spanish Crown. With a force of 200 men, including Catholic priests, 50 horses, and livestock (cows, sheep, goats), the Spanish landed at San Carlos Bay. They were met by Calusa warriors who inflicted a number of casualties and wounded Ponce de Leon in the thigh with a reed arrow. In the close combat conditions, the European weapons proved less than effective. The Spanish returned to Cuba where Ponce de Leon died.
The Spanish soldier Pánfilio de Narváez, with a reputation for brutality and a strong desire to find gold and wealth, invaded Florida in 1527 with a force of 600. Dennis Reinhartz and Oakah Jones report:
“Narváez was motivated primarily by the search for gold and for a passage to the Pacific Ocean.”
The Spanish landed somewhere near present-day Tampa. On a beach empty of any Indians, a monk reads the requerimiento and with this the Spanish feel that they have met the legal and religious obligation to take possession of the land and wage war against the natives. The requerimiento was a recitation of the Christian history of the world followed by the requirement that the Natives come forward of their own free will to convert to Catholicism or
“with the help of God we shall use force against you, declaring war upon you from all sides and with all possible means, and we shall bind you to the yoke of the Church and Their Highnesses; we shall enslave your persons, wives, and sons, sell you or dispose of you as the King sees fit; we shall seize your possessions and harm you as much as we can as disobedient and resisting vassals.”
Furthermore, the Natives who resisted were to be held guilty of all resulting deaths and injuries. The requerimiento was read in either Spanish or Latin with little concern for any possible Native comprehension of the words.
With regard to contact with the Indians, historians Robert Utley and Wilcomb Washburn, in their book Indian Wars, report:
“He opened negotiations with the natives around Tampa Bay by luring their chief and his family into the Spanish camp, cutting off the chief’s nose, and ordering the mother torn apart by dogs.”
The Spanish entered a Timucua village which included one dwelling that could hold 300 people. The village was deserted as the Timucua planned to encourage the Spanish to leave by offering no hospitality. However, the Spanish found a gold rattle that ignited their gold-lust.
Next, the Spanish marched north to Tampa Bay. At one village the Franciscan priests ordered that the revered remains of the Timucua ancestors be burned. The Spanish continued their march northward without seeing any natives. The Timucua considered their policy of avoidance to be successful.
Near the Apalachicola River, the Spanish were met by the Timucua chief Dulchanchellin who was carried on a man’s back and was accompanied by a group that included musicians playing reed flutes. The two groups exchanged gifts and the chief led them to his village where he fed them. In the morning, the Spanish find that they are alone.
The Timucua warriors attacked Spanish soldiers as they were attempting to cross through a lake. The Timucua warriors fired arrows at a range of more than 200 paces with great precision. Spanish armor proved nearly worthless as the arrows, tipped with snake-teeth, bone, or flint, penetrated the steel. In spite of this, most of the Spanish soldiers survived.
Farther north, the Spanish carried out an unprovoked surprise attack against the Apalachee village of Apalachen. Even though this was one of the largest Apalachee villages, the Spanish did not find the treasure they were seeking. According to historian Ian K. Steele, in his book Warpaths: Invasions of North America:
“The only treasures had been corn, deerskins, roughly woven cloth, and corn-grinding bowls.”
The Spanish continued their march north into Aute country. They found that the Aute had burned and abandoned their village before the Spanish arrival.
The Narváez attempt was a failure. The Spanish found out that their crossbows were no match to the Indian longbows. The Indian bows, 6-7 feet long, were accurate to about 200 yards. Furthermore, the arrows, tipped with flint, bone, snake teeth, and fish scales, penetrated the Spanish armor. Spanish horses proved worthless as war machines in the Florida swamps and brush.
Only four members of the expedition survived: Narváez, Alvar Núnez Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes, and a black slave Esteván (also called Estévanico and Esteban). They finally managed to return to Mexico City in 1536.
More 16th century American Indian histories
Indians 101: The Zuni and the Spanish in the 16th Century
Indians 101: Acoma Pueblo and the Spanish, 1539-1599
Indians 101: 16th Spanish Religious Views of Indians
Indians 101: The Spanish and the Southeastern Indian nations 500 years ago, 1521
Indians 101: Disease and Indians in the 16th Century
Indians 201: Huron History, 1535 to 1648
Indians 101: Sixteenth Century European Laws About Indians
Indians 101: Early French Encounters With Indians
Note: Indians 201 is an expansion and revision of an earlier essay