SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNHTED STATES 101 



CALUSA 



A large tribe, or confederation of tribes, on the west coast of the 

 Florida Peninsula south of Tampa Bay and occupying the Florida 

 Keys and most of the interior. Knowing as we do that the Bahama 

 Islands were being raided for slaves when Ponce de Leon landed in the 

 Calusa country in 1513, the fact that he was met by the natives in a hos- 

 tile manner and the report that he found gold among them make it 

 highly probable that white men had touched upon the Calusa coast 

 already. The impression these earlier navigators made can hardly have 

 been flattering, and the subsequent landings of Miruelo in 1516 and Cor- 

 dova in 1517 do not seem to have improved relations, so that the death of 

 Ponce de Leon at the hands of the Calusa in 1521 receives sufficient ex- 

 planation. Whether or not the Calusa had obtained gold as early as 

 1513, it is certain that soon afterward quantities of it came to them as 

 the Spaniards conquered Darien, Mexico, and Peru, and galleons bound 

 for Spain with the precious metal were thrown upon their coast. The 

 Calusa in particular were noted for their ill treatment of shipwrecked 

 sailors and passengers, some of whom were sacrificed to the native 

 deities. From about 1551 to 1566, if we are to trust his own statements, 

 Hernando Escalante de Fontaneda, one of these castaways, lived in this 

 tribe and, unlike most of the other white men who had been ship- 

 wrecked there, escaped and left a memoir of his adventures and an 

 account of the people. In 1566, the year after he drove the French 

 from Florida, Menendez visited the Calusa country, rescued 12 men 

 and women who had been cast away in the manner above indicated, 

 and attempted to establish friendly relations with the Indians, going 

 so far, indeed, as to marry the sister of the Calusa chief. The same 

 year he sent Francisco de Eeynoso with 30 soldiers to erect a fort at 

 the main Calusa village, but in January 1567, receiving alarming 

 reports of friction between the soldiers and natives, he went in person 

 to that post, which had been named San Antonio, with a considerable 

 reinforcement and accompanied by a Jesuit missionary. Father Eogel. 

 Some time after Menendez' departure, the Calusa chief was killed on 

 the ground that he was plotting against the Spaniards. His successor, 

 Don Felipe, at first comported himself in a more friendly manner, but 

 he was later detected in a similar plot and put to death along with 14 

 of his principal men. In consequence of this, the Calusa Indians 

 burned their village and retreated into the forest. As the Spaniards 

 were largely dependent upon them for supplies, the mission was with- 

 drawn, the fort destroyed, and the garrison transferred to Havana. 

 The date of this has been variously given as 1568, 1569, and 1571. But 

 Father Rogel had already left for Havana in 1567 or during the first 

 half of 1568, and he never returned. In 1612 an expedition sent from 



