SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTElRN UNIITED STATES 59 



departure, the boats were attacked by numbers of war canoes under 

 the chief of Quigualtam, in whom it is easy to recognize the chief 

 of the great Natchez tribe. An attempt to beat these pursuers off 

 by Juan de Guzman and a body of Spaniards in small canoes resulted 

 disastrously, all of the attacking party but two or three being 

 drowned. The Indians of Quigualtam and their allies followed them 

 until July 8, and from that time until they were almost at the Gulf 

 they traveled in peace. Half a league above the Gulf they stopped 

 for 2 days to rest, and there they were attacked by Indians of a 

 different tribe having spears and atlatls. On the 18th they got 

 under way for Mexico. They seem to have stopped the first night 

 at the Timbalier Islands, again at a point near Galveston Harbor, 

 and at Aransas Pass or Corpus Christi Pass. On September 10, 1543, 

 the survivors, 311 in number according to Elvas, reached Panuco, 

 where they were received with rejoicings and sent on in details to 

 Mexico City. Part then returned to Spain, while others went to 

 Peru, and a few remained in Mexico. Two or three, indeed, returned 

 with the Luna Expedition of 1559-60 to the territory they had 

 traversed with so much labor. 



THE POST-DE SOTO PERIOD 

 (See map 11) 



Involuntary communication was kept up between the Spaniards 

 and the Indians of southern Florida, particularly the Calusa, through 

 the numbers of vessels cast away upon the Florida coast. It would be 

 interesting to know just when these disasters began because we should 

 then be in a better position to determine the sources of the gold for 

 which that part of Florida came to be noted. There were wrecks 

 upon the coast in 1545, 1553, and 1554, and Narvaez in 1528 found evi- 

 dences of one yet earlier, and even the discoverer of Florida is 

 said to have found gold there. Most of those Spaniards who escaped 

 the sea were killed by the natives, but a few survived, and the nar- 

 rative of one of these, Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, who claims 

 to have been cast away in 1551 and to have lived many years in 

 captivity, is a chief source of information regarding the Calusa 

 Indians and almost our only means of knowing anything of their 

 language (Fontaneda, 1866). 



In 1558 Philip II determined to plant 2 colonies in these northern 

 territories, one at Santa Elena and the other at an undetermined 

 spot, and the execution of these projects was entrusted to Don Luis 

 de Velasco, the Viceroy of Mexico. The same year Velasco sent 3 

 vessels under Guido de Bazares to reconnoiter the country and pick 

 out a suitable harbor. He explored part of the coast of Texas and a 

 section of shore east of the mouth of the Mississippi, finding what 



