The first European visitor Panfilo De Narváez

George M. Cole and John E. Ladson III
Aucilla Research Institute

The first written history of the Aucilla River area is that based on expeditions of the early Spanish explorers. Panfilo de Narváez was the first of thes. He and his expedition members are believed to be the first non-natives to view the Aucilla River area.

In 1526, Narváez was granted license by Carlos I of Spain to claim what is now the U.S. Gulf Coast for Spain and to establish towns and forts along that coast. To insure that the Spanish Crown received its five percent share of any wealth derived from the venture, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was appointed to represent the Crown as treasurer and provost marshal for the expedition. As one of the only four members of the expedition who survived the adventure, his description is the basis for our knowledge of the venture.

After recruiting investors for the venture, Narváez’s fleet departed the port of San Lúcar de Barrameda, Spain on June 17, 1527 with a force that included five ships and 600 men. After disasters associated with stops in Hispaniola and Cuba resulted in the desertion of 140 men and loss of two ships, twenty horses and supplies, Narváez decided to overwinter in Cuba. One day, after leaving Cuba the following Spring, the entire fleet grounded on a shoal, where they remained for two weeks with the keels of the ships often high and dry, until a storm finally blew them free. Then, using a crude map of the Gulf drawn in 1518 by Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, the flotilla headed up the Florida coast searching for the area shown prominently on the map now known as Tampa Bay. Even though he believed Tampa Bay to be further to the north, Narváez dropped anchor in a small bay after several weeks battling storms and losing one of the ships. Ironically, the landing site is now believed to be on the Pinellas peninsula near Tampa Bay.

Narváez explored the local area and after seeing large fields of planted corn, decided that his troops could live off the land. Then, after being told by the local natives that much gold and food could be found to the north in Apalachee, Narváez decided to split his expedition into land and sea components. The ships, with 100 men, were instructed to sail up the coast with instructions to find Tampa Bay and wait there for the ground forces. Meanwhile he began leading 300 troops overland to the north. Each of his men were issued two pounds of biscuit and a half pound of bacon, but after traveling for two weeks, they were near starvation. Then, they discovered a Native American village north of the Withlacoochee River where they spent several days helping themselves to the village’s fields of corn before continuing to the north.

As Narváez and his troops approached the Suwannee River, they were met by a delegation including the chief of the Timucua Nation. Interestingly, the chief was described as being carried on the back of another native and was preceded by others playing cane flutes. When Narváez communicated through hand signs that they were headed to Apalachee, this pleased the Timucuan Chief since the Apalachee were his enemy. The Timucua guided the Spanish across the Suwannee River and into their village. The chief then provided them provisions of corn. But, by morning, it was discovered that the natives had deserted the village, so the troops set out for Apalachee using three or four natives that they managed to capture for guides.

Based on Cabeza de Vaca’s journal, the expedition entered Apalachee territory (which is generally considered to be crossing the Aucilla River which was the boundary between Apalachee and Timucuan territories) on June 25, 1528. The notes do not discuss crossing the Aucilla, and as a result, it is assumed that the crossing was over a so-called natural bridge in one of the sections of the river where the river runs underground.

In Apalachee, the first natives encountered were in a village of about forty low dwellings surrounded by very dense forests. Cabeza de Vaca’s description of the village, based on a 1993 translation by Favata and Fernández, follows:

There we found a large quantity of corn ready to be harvested and a lot of dried corn in storage. We found many of their deer skins and a few small woven blankets of poor quality, which the women use to cover parts of their bodies. They had many vessels for grinding corn. In the village there were forty small low dwellings in sheltered spots to protect them from the great storms that continually occur in that country. The buildings are made of straw and are surrounded by very dense forests, great groves of trees and many swamps.
When the Spanish arrived at the village, they found only women and children. But soon afterwards, the men returned, began to shoot arrows and then fled. Two days later, the Apalachee men returned peacefully, asking for return of their women and children which were released other than one chief who was held as a hostage. The following day, the Apalachee attacked again, setting fire to the lodge in which Narváez was staying. The attacks continued and some of the Spanish troops were wounded in spite of their armor. All of the natives were reported to be expert archers and were able to shoot their arrows from a distance of two hundred paces with great accuracy. They were described as being quite handsome, very lean, very strong and light footed. Since they were tall and naked, from a distance they looked like giants. Their bows were described as being as thick as an arm and eleven or twelve spans long. The Spanish troops swore that they had seen two oak trees that had been pierced by the Apalachee’s arrows even though the trees were as thick as a man’s lower leg.

Cabeza de Vaca’s journey provided the earliest recorded description of the area approaching and around the Aucilla as follows:

… the country is mostly flat, the soil sandy and firm. Throughout there are many large trees and open woodlands in which there are walnut trees and laurels and others called sweet-gums, cedars, junipers, live oaks, pines, oaks and low growing palmettos like those in Castile. Throughout it there are many large and small lakes, some of them very difficult to cross, partly because they are so deep and partly because there are so many fallen trees in them. They have sandy bottoms, and the ones in Apalachee are much larger than any we had encountered on the way. There are many corn fields in this province, and the houses are spread out through the countryside as those of the Gelves.
The animals that we saw in those lands were three kinds of deer, rabbits and hares, bears and lions and other wild animals, among which we saw one which carries its young in a pouch on its belly1… There are many kinds of birds: very many geese, ducks, large ducks, royal ducks, ibises, egrets and herons and quail. We saw many falcons, marsh hawks, sparrow hawks, goshawks and many other birds.

After twenty-five days in the village, Narváez headed towards a village on the coast named Aute, reported by his native captives to have a great deal of corn, beans and squash and where the natives caught a lot of fish since it was near the sea. There, he hoped to find his ships. The journey took nine days and the troops had to cross what was described as lakes and swamps (believed to be the Wacissa River and the Western Sloughs) during which they were attacked while chest deep in the water, resulting in a significant loss of men.

When the Spanish finally reached the village (which is believed to be near the present location of St. Marks) they found it deserted and burnt. Nevertheless, they were able to harvest enough corn, beans and squash from the remaining fields to feed their party. Finding no evidence of his fleet and with the remaining troops being wounded, sick, weak from hunger and constantly being harassed by Apalachee raids, Narváez decided that their only option was to build boats and sail to Mexico.

Creating a forge, they made hammers, saws, axes and nails out of their weapons and armor and in 48 days constructed five boats, each about thirty to forty feet in length, using pine pitch and palmetto leaves for caulking and shirts sewn together for sails. In honor of the horses who sustained them as a source of food during that period, they named the area around the construction site the Bay of Horses.
With 640 bushels of corn taken from the native fields and water stored in bags made of horse skins, the 242 men sailed for Mexico without “anyone with us who knew the art of navigation”. During the following eight years, the explorers struggled with starvation, disease, attacks and capture by Native American tribes with most of the troops, including Narváez, dying on the journey. Only four of the original party, one of which was Cabeza de Vaca whose description of the expedition is the basis for this writing, made it Mexico City.