Spanish Adventurers
For more than
two hundred years after the discovery of America by Columbus in
1492, with perhaps one exception, no European adventurer set
foot upon the soil of Middle Tennessee. This possible exception
we shall now notice.
By reason of the successful voyage of
Columbus, and a few subsequent discoveries by his fellow
countrymen, Spain claimed the whole of North America. Following
the return of these expeditions there were circulated throughout
the Spanish domain the most extravagant stories of the wealth
and beauty of this new found land, and numerous parties were
formed for its exploration and conquest. In 1512 Ponce De Leon,
a Spaniard, crossed the Atlantic at the head of a company and
landed on the southern extremity of the continent. He named the
country Florida, because of the abundance of wild flowers
growing along its shores and also because the discovery was made
on Palm Sunday. For many years thereafter all the country south
of the island of Newfoundland was called Florida. The object of
this expedition led by Ponce De Leon was the discovery of a
fabled fountain of youth said by the mystics to be located
within the interior of the continent. It was confidently
believed by the Spaniards that those who were so fortunate as to
drink from this source would enjoy perpetual youth. Before they
had long pursued their journey, however, they found instead,
death from wounds inflicted by poisoned arrows from the bows of
hostile Indians. At intervals for twenty-six years thereafter
other Spanish explorers visited America for purposes of spoil
and conquest but returned without evidence of success.
Ferdinand De Soto was a renowned
Spanish soldier of fortune who had served with Pizarro in the
conquest of Peru. In 1538, under the patronage of the emperor,
Charles V, this veteran warrior began the organization of a
company for the purpose of exploring Florida. His patron, the
emperor, had but recently ascended the throne of Spain, which
was now the most powerful monarchy in all Europe, uniting as it
did under one scepter ''the infantry of Spain, the looms of
Flanders, and the gold of Peru." Thus with unlimited resources
at his command, De Soto soon found himself leading a company of
nine hundred and fifty adventurers.
Ramsey says that ''the chivalry, rank
and wealth of Spain entered into this army," and Irving declares
that "never had a more gallant and brilliant body of men offered
themselves for the new world." Many of them, though of immense
wealth, had made disposition of all, and in reckless disregard
of the future had invested the proceeds in this enterprise, some
bringing over their wives and children together with a retinue
of servants. On board ship when they sailed from Spain, were
three hundred and fifty horses and mules and a herd of swine,
the latter the first of their kind yet brought to America.
Arriving at Havana, Cuba, during the month of May, 1538, a year
was spent in further preparation for the journey into the
interior of the continent.
Having added here fifty recruits to
their number, they again set sail, landing at Santo Bay on the
west coast of Florida, May 27, 1539. From thence a few days
later they marched bravely into an unknown region. A majority of
these adventurers were yet in the springtime of life, and cared
but little for fountains of youth. Instead, they were searching
for cities of silver and gold, the glittering battlements of
which they fancied now hidden away within the region they were
about to invade. If in the days of our youth over field and fen
we have trudged in fruitless search of a pot of gold at the end
of a fitful rainbow, we have already an idea of the
disappointment which at every turn awaited these credulous
wanderers. For two years they traveled hither and thither
through the Southern States, deluded by savage deceit and beset
by savage foe. However, the latter were not altogether the
aggressors. De Soto and his officers had been trained in a bad
school of warfare, and in turn their treatment of the natives
was in many instances both treacherous and cruel in the extreme.
On the Savannah River at the present site of Silver Bluff,
Georgia, they came upon the village of a beautiful Indian
princess, the ruler of a large domain. When informed of their
approach she ordered no resistance, but going at once to the
camp of the Spaniards, made a peace offering of blankets and
shawls and such other supplies as she possessed. Taking from her
neck a string of pearls, she gave them to De Soto, at the same
time offering to him and his followers the freedom of her realm.
They accepted this invitation, and after remaining at the
village for a month, rewarded the kindness of the princess by
taking her captive and leading her in chains on foot behind them
as they traveled through the surrounding provinces. At length
she escaped and returned to her subjects, remaining forever
thereafter a bitter enemy of the whites. This incident is but an
example of many others of like character.
In the early spring of 1541, the army
came by some route to the Chickasaw Bluffs, the present site of
Memphis, and there De Soto discovered the Mississippi River.
Because of the unfamiliar Indian
names used by the historian of this expedition we are now unable
to locate, with certainty, all the mountains, rivers and
villages by, over and through which they passed en route. That
at some period of the journey they visited the Muscle Shoals of
the Tennessee River in Northern Alabama is supposed by reason of
the location there of two ancient forts or camps, more recently
identified as of Spanish construction. The names of some of the
villages and the numerous crossings of streams have led to the
belief that they traveled also through a portion of East
Tennessee, the line of march being from North Georgia through
Polk, McMinn and Monroe Counties to the foot of the Chilhowee
mountains; thence west and south-west, crossing the Tennessee
River near Chattanooga, and from thence into Middle Tennessee.
Canasauga, Talisse, and Sequachie, all mentioned by the Spanish
historian in connection with this part of the journey, are now
familiar names in the locality mentioned. They camped for a
while at the foot of the mountains which are supposed to be the
modern Chilhowee. Around the base of these there flowed a small
but rapid river, which properly describes the Little Tennessee.
Leaving there ''the first day's march westward was through a
country covered with fields of maize of luxuriant growth."
During the next five days they traversed a "chain of easy
mountains covered with oak and mulberry trees, with intervening
valleys, rich in pasturage and irrigated by clear and rapid
streams." When at the rate of ten miles a day they had journeyed
for sixty miles, they came to a village which "stood in a
pleasant spot bordered by small streams which took their rise in
the adjacent mountains." These streams "soon mingled their
waters and thus formed a grand and powerful river," probably the
Tennessee. Turning now from a westerly course they resumed their
journey along the bank of this stream toward the south. Eighty
miles below they discovered a village on the opposite shore to
which they crossed in many rafts and canoes which they prepared
for that purpose. Here their worn out horses were for a season
allowed to enjoy rich and abundant pasturage in the neighboring
meadows. While in this retreat the Indians showed them how to
obtain pearls from oysters or muscles, taken from the river. If
the theory advanced be true, the village mentioned was near the
present site of Chattanooga, and beneath the shadow of the
overhanging cliffs of Lookout Mountain, a locality which for
ages was the haunt of the Aborigines.
The mountains, the rivers, the
distances traveled, and the pearls all tend to establish the
route indicated. From this place they crossed the mountains
westward. Martin's history of Louisiana suggests that from
thence they passed entirely through Middle Tennessee and into
Southern Kentucky, in which event their journey lay through
Maury, Rutherford, Davidson and Sumner Counties.
It is not unreasonable to suppose
that the natives with whom they conversed during the first of
their travels had not failed to lure this band of plumed and
armored pilgrims searching for mystic treasures into a region so
fruitful of legend. By the glens of the far-famed Hiwassee,
under the sheltering coves of the Chilhowees and Lookout, on the
ancient forest covered crest and slopes of the Cumberlands, and
into the darkened ravines and beautiful valleys beyond; on every
hand might be uncovered secret portals to hidden treasures.
These once discovered, they would return in triumph to Spain and
there with sparkling jewels dazzle the eyes of their less hardy
countrymen.
From the top of every mountain range
stretching itself athwart their chosen route, their scouts might
gaze eagerly for a glimpse of silver paved and gold domed cities
with which a vivid imagination had vested an unknown land.
After crossing with his band the
Mississippi at Memphis and traversing a region afterwards called
the "Great American Desert," De Soto died in Louisiana a year
later in a lonely glade near the mouth of Red River. Wrapping
his body in a cloak a few of his officers rowed out at midnight
to the middle of the Mississippi and there buried their gallant
commander in the waters of the mighty river he had discovered.
The hour selected was because of the purpose of the Spaniards to
conceal from the natives among whom they were encamped the
knowledge of De Soto's death. The latter had told the Indians
who came every day to his tent that he was from the land of the
Great Spirit, and therefore would never die.
The expedition now ended in disaster,
having already lost by disease and warfare more than two-thirds
of its original number.
Early History of Middle Tennessee
Early History of Middle Tennessee, BY
Edward Albright, Copyright, 1908, Brandon Printing Company,
Nashville, Tennessee, 1909
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