Historical Sketches of Colonial Florida — John Shaqi
Historical Sketches of Colonial FloridaCampbell, Richard L.
History
Historical Sketches of Colonial Florida
Campbell, Richard L.
Florida -- History -- To 1821; Pensacola (Fla.) -- History
There were amongst those composing the expedition two elements which
proved fatal to its success. The gold-greedy soon found that the pine
barrens of Florida, and the fertile valleys of Alabama were not the
eldorado of which they had dreamed. To the friar, the spiritual outlook
was not more promising, the Indians he encountered being more ready to
scalp their would-be spiritual guide than to open their ears to his
teachings.
Ostensibly, to procure supplies for the colony, two friars sailed for
Havana and thence to Vera Cruz, to make known its necessities to the
Viceroy of Mexico, and solicit the required succor. But, as soon as they
could reach his ear they endeavored to persuade him of the futility of
the expedition, and the unpromising character of the country as a field
for colonization.
At first, his heart being in the enterprise, he was loathe to listen to
reports so inconsistent with the glowing accounts which had prompted the
expedition and enlisted his zealous support; but, at last, an impression
was made upon him, and an inquiry resolved upon.
But the viceroyal investigation was forestalled by the visit to Santa
Maria of Don Angel de Villafana, whom the Viceroy of Cuba had appointed
governor of that, at that time undefined region called Florida, who
permitted the dissatisfied colonists to embark in his vessels, and
abandon the, to them, hateful country in which they had passed two
miserable years.
Don Tristram de Luna, with a few followers only, remained, with the
fixed resolution to maintain the settlement, provided he could secure
the approbation and assistance of the Viceroy. But an application for
that purpose, accompanied by representations of the inviting character
of the interior for settlement, was met by a prompt recall of de Luna
and an order for the abandonment of the enterprise.
Don Tristram, against whom history makes no accusations of cruelty or
bloodshed during his expeditions into the interior, or his stay at Santa
Maria, and who, animated by the spirit of legitimate colonization,
sought only to found a new settlement, invites respect, if not
admiration, as a character distinct and apart from the gold-seeking
cut-throat adventurers that Spain sent in shoals to the Gulf shores
during the sixteenth century. Sympathy with him in his trials and regret
at his failure, induce the reflection that, perhaps, had he been
burdened with fewer gold-seekers and only one-twentieth of the
ecclesiastics who encumbered and leavened the colony with discontent,
his settlement might have proved permanent.
The local results of de Luna’s expedition were fixing, for a time, the
name of Santa Maria upon the Bay, and permanently stamping upon its
shores the name Pensacola; and here narration must be suspended to
determine the origin of the latter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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