Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8): Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8): Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
One Dominican went further. Father Luis Cancer de Barbastro, when
the Indians of a province had so steadily defied the Spaniards and
prevented their entrance that it was styled “Tierra de Guerra,”
succeeded by mild and gentle means in winning the whole Indian
population, so that the province obtained the name of “Vera Paz,” or
True Peace. In 1546 this energetic man conceived the idea of attempting
the peaceful conquest of Florida. Father Gregory de Beteta and other
influential members of his Order seconded his views. The next year
he went to Spain and laid his project before the Court, where it was
favorably received. He returned to Mexico with a royal order that all
Floridians held in slavery, carried thither by the survivors of Soto’s
expedition, should be confided to Father Cancer to be taken back to
their own land. The order proved ineffectual. Father Cancer then sailed
from Vera Cruz in 1549 in the “Santa Maria del Enzina,” without arms
or soldiers, taking Father Beteta, Father Diego de Tolosa, Father
John Garcia, and others to conduct the mission. At Havana he obtained
Magdalen, a woman who had been brought from Florida, and who had become
a Christian. The vessel then steered for Florida, and reaching the
coast, at about 28°, on the eve of Ascension Day, ran northward, but
soon sailed back. The missionaries and their interpreter landed, and
found some of the Indians fishing, who proved friendly. Father Diego, a
mission coadjutor, and a sailor, resolved to remain with the natives,
and went off to their cabins. Cancer and his companions awaited their
return; but they never appeared again. For some days the Spaniards on
the ship endeavored to enter into friendly relations with the Indians,
and on Corpus Christi Fathers Cancer and Garcia landed and said Mass
on shore. At last a Spaniard named John Muñoz, who had been a prisoner
among the Indians, managed to reach the ship; and from him they
learned that the missionary and his companions had been killed by the
treacherous natives almost immediately after reaching their cabins.
He had not witnessed their murder, but declared that he had seen the
missionary’s scalp. Magdalen, however, came to the shore and assured
the missionaries that their comrade was alive and well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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