THE SPANISH INSOUTH CAROLINA:UNSETTLED FRONTIER

S.C. Department of Archives & History • Public Programs Document Packet No. 3

Route of the Spanish treasure fleets

BackgroundOctober 12, 1492—as he stepped onto theisland of San Salvador1 in the New Worldthat day, little did Christopher Columbusrealize he had opened a new hemispherefor exploration and settlement, intrigueand conflict. Soon, the nation states ofEurope were competing in this NewWorld for territory and natural resources.The Western hemisphere became a newbattlefield for European conflicts—warsbegun on the European continent, whethereconomic, political, or religious, rapidlycrossed the Atlantic and spilled into thenewly discovered lands where theEuropean nations were attempting tocarve out large empires. South Carolinawould see its share of these Old World,New World conflicts.

Spain and Portugal clashed over theirrights to establish trading outposts andlook for a route to the Orient. The Popein Rome handily arbitrated the dispute,and on June 7, 1494, Spain and Portugalsigned the Treaty of Tordesillas. Thetreaty granted Spain the territories that laymore than 370 leagues to the west of theCape Verde Islands and gave Portugallands east of the line. Thus, Brazilbecame a Portuguese dominion.

Spain, flushed with the reconquest ofits land from the Moors, quickly extendedits explorations outward fromtheCarrribean Islands and soon dominated“Las Indias,” as the new territories wereknown. In over seventy years, theirexplorers and military leaders, known asthe Conquistadores, had planted the crossof Christianity and raised the royalstandard of Spain over an area thatextended from the present southern UnitedStates all the way to Argentina. And, likeall Europeans who sailed west, theConquistadores searched for a passage tothe Orient with its legendary riches ofgold, silver, and spices.

New lands demanded new regulations.In Spain, Queen Isabella laid downpolicies that would endure for centuries.Under the direction of the crown, the“Casa de Contratacion”—the House ofTrade or ministry of commerce—regu-lated the government of Spain’s newdominions. “Las Leyes de Las Indias"—the Laws of the Indies—afforded thenative populations some protection and ameasure of self government, laid out townplans, established rules of trade, andassigned to various individuals areas forexploration and colonization.

According the Spanish law, everythingin the ground belonged to the Crown.Thus, colonists could look for preciousmetals and operate mines provided theyregistered their claims and swore to havethe metals they found taxed and stampedat royal offices. In1504, the Crown fixedthe royal share, or tax, at one quinto (one-fifth) of the ore obtained. Later, this waslowered to one-tenth. Once a year, a fleetof royal ships carried the bullion and otherexports such as cochineal and indigo dyefrom the New World to Spain. Thesesailing ships used the Gulf stream andtrade winds to carry them out of theCaribbean, past the Bahamas, then up thesouthern coast of the United States as faras South Carolina. There, they turnedeastward to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Toprotect the ships from pirates andprivateers, the Crown encouraged explora-tion and established missions and colonieson the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and

South Carolina. Effective occupation ofthis region would buttress the claimsSpain made on the territory because it haddiscovered and explored it.

Ponce de Leon unsucessfullyattempted colonization of the Floridapeninsula in 1521. Five years later, afterhe had sent a ship up the coast of “LaFlorida,” as the land to the north wascalled, Vasquez de Ayllon, an official inHispaniola, tried to explore and settleSouth Carolina. Reports from thatexpedition tell us Ayllon and 500colonists settled on the coast of SouthCarolina in 1526 but a severe winter andattacks from hostile Indians forced themto abandon their settlement one year later.

In 1528, Panfilo de Navarez set outfrom Cuba to explore the west coast ofFlorida. Landing in the Tampa Bayregion, he and his army of five to sixhundred men marched as far north asApalache (Tallahassee) before returningto the Gulf Coast, where he built ships tocarry his men along the rim of the gulf.Ship wrecks and storms reduced the armyto four survivors, who reached Mexicoyears later.

A decade after the Navarez expedition,Hernando De Soto set out to explore andcolonize “La Florida.” He landed inTampa Bay in 1539, and with his army of600 men, as well as priests, horses, pigs,and wagons, began a four-year trek thatheld many hardships and adventures andtook the expedition far afield. DeSoto ledhis expedition through Florida andGeorgia, crossed the Savannah River intoSouth Carolina in April of 1540, and thenjourneyed northeastwards to theconfluence of the Broad and SaludaRivers. He reached the Wateree River inlate April, followed it in a northwesterlydirection, crossed into North Carolina, and

Philip II directedthe settlementof Florida

A weakened empire, bankruptcy,and the difficulties of explorationforced Philip II to close “La Florida” tocolonization in 1561. One year later,however, when a small group of FrenchProtestants, or Huguenots, attempted tosettle on Port Royal Sound, his interestrenewed. Indian attacks, disease, andstarvation removed this “foreign”settlement on Spanish territory withoutmilitary action. Then in 1564, theHuguenots set up a second colony, thisone at Fort Caroline at the mouth of theSt. John’s River in “La Florida.” Tocounter this threat to Spanishsovereignty and trade routes, PedroMenendez de Aviles, one of Spain’s topnaval officers, swore to oust the Frenchsettlers and secure Florida for Spain.

Menendez succeeded. He set sailfrom Spain in June of 1565 with overfifteen hundred recruits, seeds,agricultural implements, and breedinganimals and by the fall had establisheda fort at St. Augustine and built a seriesof small garrisons, which ran up thecoast from Santa Lucia (halfwaybetween present day West Palm Beachand Ft. Pierce) to Santa Elena (nearpresent day Beaufort, South Carolina).He annihilated the Protestant Frenchsettlement at Fort Caroline and renamedit San Mateo. He had a vision.“La Florida,” with an economy based

on agriculture, pearl fishing, andmining, would become a flourishingempire center. Unfortunately, theIndians of the Southeast were not asamenable to European civilization andsedentary life as those of Mexico andPeru. The sandy coastal soil furtherfrustrated attempts to grow crops andraise cattle, and the new settlers, farfrom being self-sufficient, had to shipin supplies from Spain, Cuba, andMexico.

Six months after building the fort atSt. Augustine, Menendez moved hiscapital north. Santa Elena, on ParrisIsland, became the first permanentEuropean settlement on SouthCarolina’s shores and served as thecapital city of “La Florida” for manyyears. Menendez chose the spot for itsideal defensive position—it was closeto the point where the treasure fleetsturned east.

Menendez also believed he couldfind an overland route to short cut thedistance to Mexico. He sent one of his

Spanish missions about 1650

then headed west through Tennessee,Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas.De Soto died in 1542 on the banks ofthe Mississippi River. The survivorscontinued into Texas where a shortageof food forced them to retrace theirsteps. Back at the Mississippi, theybuilt barges and used them to floatdown that river to the Gulf. In 1543,these intrepid survivors finally reachedMexico.

Interestingly, while the DeSotoexpedition moved west, anotherexplorer, Francisco Vasquez deCoronado, was scouting present-dayNew Mexico, Texas, and Kansas.DeSoto’s men in Texas heard reportsfrom the Indians of these other Spanishnearby, but the two Spanish forcesnever met.

Wars in Europe, Tunis, and Algiers,and a Lutheran revolt within his empirekept King Charles I of Spain2 and theSpanish military occupied, bankruptedthe Spanish treasury, and interruptedSpain’s attempts to colonize “LaFlorida.” The Casa turned its attentionto the development and defense of theCaribbean basin. Philip II, whosucceeded his father, Charles I, in 1556,concentrated his forty-two year reign onunifying his Old and New Worlddominions both politically andreligiously. But he incurred limitlessexpense warring with France andcoping with a thirty-year Protestantrebellion in the Netherlands, withthreats from the Turks in the East, andwith aggressive English raids on trade,treasure fleets, and Roman Catholicmissions in Las Indias.

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Mission building with walls of woodenboards and a roof of thatch

lieutenants, Juan Pardo, to the interior toobtain corn, find mines, and locate anoverland route. Pardo journeyed twice tothe interior, reached the TennesseeValley, and returned with a muchneeded supply of corn, with claims toseveral mines, but without the short cutto Mexico. Menendez had underesti-mated the distance; the overland routewould wait.

Santa Elena curbed Frenchexploration and settlement in theCarolinas. It also became the departurepoint for Jesuit priests who travelednorth to found a mission on theChesapeake Bay. Spanish missionswere religious edifices and more. Theywere places where the priests couldconvert the “heathens,” they werefrontier settlements that could introducethe Indians to different crops and newmethods of cultivation to bring theminto the Spanish community, and theywere the agencies that the Spanishcrown used to occupy, hold, and settlethe outer boundaries of their vastdomain.

“La Florida,” however, fell short ofthe Menendez vision. The core ofthe empire lay in Mexico and Peru, andSaint Augustine and the chain ofmissions, far from being at the center ofSpain’s New World empire, wereborder outposts that defended the centerand protected the treasure fleets.“La Florida” remained a military andmission outpost.

Philip II’s great enterprises, wars,and the cost of the Spanish Armadaemptied Spain’s coffers and weakenedits empire further. In 1586, Sir FrancisDrake and his powerful English fleetburned and plundered St. Augustineand forced the Spanish to regroup. Thesettlers further north, who were short ofsupplies and facing Indian revolts,moved back to St. Augustine in 1587 tostrengthen its garrison. Early in theseventeenth century, Spain reassertedhegemony over the area by re-establish-ing peaceful relations with Indians andresettling missions along the coast. Thisinfluence would last until 1670.

In 1670, the English settled inCharleston on the coast of SouthCarolina. Drake’s successful raids onSpanish possessions and his rout of theSpanish Armada had increasedEngland’s confidence and heightenedits aggression,which resulted in thefounding of Jamestown, Virginia in1608. The area between the newsettlement of Charles Town and St.Augustine, often called the “debatableland,” soon became the scene ofconflict.

Within thirty years, the Englishsettlement in Carolina had grownappreciably and conflicts with theSpanish occurred frequently. In spite ofthe 1670 Treaty of Madrid (AmericanTreaty), which restricted the English toCharles Town, the Carolina colonyexpanded to enroach on La Florida. Anill-fated Spanish expedition to oust theBritish succeeded only in destroyingPort Royal. The English retaliated byinvading St. Catherine’s Island. By1686, they had pushed the Spanish backto the mouth of the St. Mary’s River.

Carolina Governor James Mooreused the War of Spanish Succession inEurope, or Queen Anne’s War as it wascalled in the colonies, to mount anexpedition against St. Augustine in1702. He laid seige to the Castillo SanMarcos, but the arrival of Spanish reliefships forced his retreat. Unpopular inCarolina because of this costly failure,Moore nonetheless managed topersuade 50 Carolinians and 1500Yamassee Indian allies to mount anexpedition to Apalache. Moore was farmore successful there than in St.Augustine. Although he failed to takethe Spanish garrison at Fort San Luis,he destroyed the flourishing Franciscanmission villages, discredited theSpanish in western Florida, and wonmany Indian allies. Ultimately, heforced the evacuation of the Spanishgarrison, leaving Spain with only St.Augustine and a small block house atSalamototo, just south of present dayJacksonville. Moore’s offensivesreduced Spanish Florida, which had

once encompassed territory from theAtlantic Ocean to the Rio Grande Riverand from the Gulf of Mexico to NovaScotia, to two small and vulnerablefootholds.

In 1704, to protect the remnants ofhis Southeastern colony, the King ofSpain and his Junta de Guerra (Councilof War) strengthened the St. Augustinegarrison to mount an offensive againstCarolina. Although the Viceroy of NewSpain (the King’s deputy in Mexico)refused to help, the Spanish Floridiansallied with the French to invade CharlesTown in 1706. Governor NathanielJohnson and the Carolina militiarepulsed the attack. New Spain andCuba sent a military engineer to bolsterthe defenses of the Spanish colony, butoffered nothing else. When QueenAnne’s War ended in 1713, little hadchanged.

Between 1713 and 1720, theSpanish continued to reinforce theirdefenses to prevent the colony fromfalling into English hands. Meanwhile,the Yamassee War and fears of Frenchencroachment from the west occupiedthe English in Carolina.

Disagreement over three issues inparticular caused friction. Of concern tothe English was the Spanish policy offreeing runaway slaves. As early as1688, slaves had found their way to St.Augustine. Many of them joined theRoman Catholic Church. Reluctant toreturn them to the Protestant English,the Governors of La Florida bought theconverts from the English for up to 200pesos each, then set them free. Ofconcern to the Spanish were the Englishsponsored Indian raids on Spanishcolonists and, even more alarming, the

Indians to harass the southern Englishsettlements, especially around FortKing George. In 1727, the threat of aCreek Indian war and renewedhostilities between Spain and Englandforced the Carolinians to withdraw theirgarrison from Fort King George to PortRoyal. London, however, disapprovedof this action. It wanted to keep anEnglish foothold in the “debatableland.”

The Carolinians took revenge forthe Indian raids in 1728. Colonel JohnPalmer headed an expedition of 100militia and 200 Indians against theIndian towns near St. Augustine. OnMarch 9, he won a decisive victoryagainst the Yamasee stronghold,Nombre de Dios, just north of St.Augustine. The surviving Yamasseesfled to St. Augustine where they joinedBenavides in safety behind the walls ofCastillo San Marcos. Palmer burnedNombre de Dios, destroyed the chapel,and retreated, carrying off the few altarornaments and statues.

Palmer’s raid marked the end of anera. It exposed Spain’s inability toprotect the villages lying close to St.Augustine and was the last major clashbetween the warring colonials beforethe founding of Georgia in 1733.Ironically, it also showed Caroliniansthat its runaway slaves, who had beenformed into a black militia, would fightto defend their new home. Subse-quently, the Spanish helped the slavesbuild their own town, Gracia Real deSanta Teresa de Mose, and gave themtheir freedom when they joined theRoman Catholic Church.

With the colonization of Georgia,England took control of the “debatableland” and moved English settlementcloser to the capital of Spanish territoryin the Southeast. Spain continued tomaintain the colony and Castillo SanMarcos at St. Augustine, frequentlysacrificing the periphery to protect thecore of the empire in Mexico and Peru.An impoverished Spanish empire couldnot repulse the English challenge to itsexclusive sovereignty to the North

Benavides chose aggression. InApril 1724, he dispatched twenty-sixmen to San Jorge to deliver the King’sultimatum. On their way north, themen stopped at Fort King George,where its commander, Colonel JohnBarnwell, received them rudely. TheCarolinians disarmed the Spanish,seized their longboats, and put them inprison. When Barnwell allowed them toleave three days later, he sent them offin dugout canoes under heavy guard.Their reception in the Carolina capitalwas no better. Governor Nicholsonconfined them to jail and provided onlyscanty rations; the Carolinians refusedto discuss Fort King George withoutinstructions from England andrestricted their diplomatic discussionsto the question of runaway slaves. For atime it looked as though GovernorNicholson planned to house the Spanishpermanently in the San Jorge jail, buteventually he let them go.

Almost on the brink of war,Benavides moderated his stance andfollowed the Casa’s recommendation.In August of 1725, he sent two envoys,Francisco Menendez Marques andCaptain Joseph Primo de Rivera, tonegotiate with Governor Nicholson. Inreturn for the destruction of Fort KingGeorge and the recognition of Spanishclaims to Georgia, he offered tocompensate the English slaveownerswhose slaves had fled to St. Augustine.In addition, he suggested sending a listof all boundary disputes to Europe fordiplomatic settlement.

The envoys accomplished nothing.Without orders from England, said theCarolinians, they could neither adjustboundaries nor destroy the fort. And,added Governor Nicholson, theFloridian’s price for runaway slaveswas too low. The Carolinians dismissedMenendez and Primo curtly, refusingthem even the purchase of a sloop fortheir voyage back to St. Augustine.

The colonials continued to skirmish.The Spanish governor prevented theEnglish from extending their territoryby paying Yamasee and Lower Creek

construction of an English blockhouse,Fort King George, on the banks of theAltamaha River near present dayDarien, Georgia.

To Floridians, construction of FortKing George repudiated Spain’s claimto the area. In the spring of 1722,Governor Benavides of St. Augustinechallenged the action by sending hisaccountant, Menendez, to CharlesTown to demand the fort’s immediatedestruction. Governor Nicholson ofCharles Town, however, paid littleheed. He could do nothing, he said,until he received word from Englandconcerning peace between Spain andEngland. Menendez, frustrated,returned to St. Augustine.

To Philip V of Spain, the Englishfort was an intolerable affront. ThroughPozobueno, their ambassador inLondon, they requested an immediateevacuation. Fort King George, said theEnglish, was on the Florida-Carolinaborder, not in Florida territory. Englandrefused to budge. Philip V respondedwith a cedula, or royal decree, orderingBenavides to wait two months, thendestroy the fort. The Council of theIndies, however, urged the use ofdiplomacy to resolve the controversy.

Spanish on watch at lookout towersight Drake's ship

South Carolina’s colonial governments.The decade (1720-1730) represented bythe documents marks the transitionbetween the proprietary and royalgovernments. You could use them toinitiate a discussion of economics—theCarolina Assembly demonstratedconcern over the expenses incurred tosupport Fort King George. You mightthen move to a comparison of the costsand building plans of of Fort KingGeorge and Castillo San Marcos.

There are no transcriptions of thedocuments in this packet. You couldintroduce a lesson by giving thestudents a document to transcribe.Youcould also read portions of a documentand let your students determine whatcircumstances would create such arecord.

The packet includes a writtendocument analysis sheet, a list ofsuggested activities, a series ofquestions. To evaluate the students,have them write a paragraph on thebuilding of Fort King George and thecontroversy that followed over territo-rial rights. Their answers shouldinclude the Indian raids and runawayslaves.

The packet also holds maps ofDeSoto’s and Pardo’s explorations inSouth Carolina, a map of Fort KingGeorge, and a map analysis sheet.Students can identify the rivers,counties, modern towns, and cities nearthe sites visited by the explorers. Youcould have them locate the site of FortKing George on a modern day map ofGeorgia and discuss the reasonsBarnwell chose this site for an Englishoutpost ■

establish permanent colonies. In thiscontext, you could discuss Menendez’ssupply list of 1565, his vision, and thereasons for the Jamestown's problemsin the early years.

2) The Spanish contributed nothingof lasting value to the New World andAmerica. To rebut this, you coulddiscuss the revival of interest inSpanish architecture in this century andthe Spanish origins of many placenames and words in our vocabulary,especially those concerning ranching.

3) The Spanish were exceptionallycruel and lazy, and they shrank from allmanual labor. Here, you might discussranching. You could also note that theSpanish exported to Charles Towntanned cowhides, oranges, and orangejuice from their groves in Florida.

4) All Spanish were haughty,hypocritical, and bigoted. You couldpoint out that the friars lived andworked with the Indians and ransuccessful farms under frontierconditions.

The two paragraphs included in theinserts demonstrate opposing historicalviewpoints. Have the students read theparagraphs and determine the author’spoint of view. The students will seehow the use of adjectives and verbs caninfluence opinion. Questions for classconsideration could be:

Which author is pro-Spanish, andwhich one pro-English?

Why did the authors write this way?Would the use of primary docu-

ments from the Spanish or EnglishArchives change the author’s view?

The documents in this packagereflect the English viewpoint. Theycome from the Council Journals, theUpper House Journals, and LowerHouse Journals. To counteract thisslant, the package also includes a list ofSpanish documents with a briefsynopsis to show students whattranspired between the Governor ofFlorida and the Casa de Contracion.The South Carolina documents could beused in a variety of ways. They couldintroduce your class to the structure of

American continent with a full-scalewar. Both sides conducted campaignsof harrassment that reflected theirstruggles in Europe and kept the area inconstant turmoil. Their conflictcontinued unresolved until 1819, whenFlorida became part of the UnitedStates under the Adams-Onis Treaty.

Notes:1San Salvador (Holy Savior) is in theBahamas in the eastern Carribean Sea.2King Charles I of Spain was better knownas Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor ■

Suggested teachingprocedureThe Quincentenary Celebration ofColumbus’s Discovery of America, andthe Four Hundredth Anniversary ofDeSoto’s explorations provide teacherswith a golden opportunity to presentstudents with materials on our earlyhistory. With materials in-hand thatconsider the long-neglected contribu-tions of Spain to our modern Americancivilization, classes will be able tore-examine their cultural roots.

Many historians believe that the richSpanish heritage the United Statesenjoys has been inadequately presented.For generations, American history waswritten from the standpoint of theEnglish colonies, a bias fostered by thefour-hundred year old leyenda negra, or“Black Legend,” which portrayed theSpanish as inherently evil. The legendtook root in the reign of Elizabeth I ofEngland, at a time when Spain andEngland were bitter rivals, and justifiedraids on Spanish territory and shipping.As religious wars and the race forcolonial empires intensified in Europe,anti-Spanish propanganda increased. Itpainted the Spanish as greedy, second-rate foils to the more noble English andSpain’s language, law, and religion asinferior.

Four faulty premises supported thedistortions:

1) Spain’s interest in the New Worldlay in “gold, glory, and gospel.”England, on the other hand, wished to

Partially funded by a grant from theSouth Carolina Humanities Council.

Copyright © 1989SC Department of Archives and History

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DOCUMENT I: UPPER HOUSE JOURNALS. C. Department of Archives and History • The spanish in South Carolina: unsettled frontier

DOCUMENT II:COUNCIL JOURNALS. C. Department of Archives and History • The spanish in South Carolina: unsettled frontier

DOCUMENT II:COUNCIL JOURNALS. C. Department of Archives and History • The spanish in South Carolina: unsettled frontier

DOCUMENT II:COUNCIL JOURNALS. C. Department of Archives and History • The spanish in South Carolina: unsettled frontier

DOCUMENT II:COUNCIL JOURNALS. C. Department of Archives and History • The spanish in South Carolina: unsettled frontier

DOCUMENT III: JOURNAL OF THE COMMONS HOUSE OF ASSEMBLYS. C. Department of Archives and History • The spanish in South Carolina: unsettled frontier

– for teacher reference

S. C. Department of Archives and History • The spanish in South Carolina: unsettled frontier

MAP OF DESOTO’S EXPEDITIONS. C. Department of Archives and History • The spanish in South Carolina: unsettled frontier

MAP OF PARDO’S SECOND EXPEDITIONS. C. Department of Archives and History • The spanish in South Carolina: unsettled frontier

THE ICHNOGRAPHY OR PLAN OF FORT KING GEORGE Approximate scale: 32 feet to 1 inchS. C. Department of Archives and History • The spanish in South Carolina: unsettled frontier