Chronology of American Indian History

improve their working conditions. One provision,
for instance, stipulates that Indian miners be given
40 days of rest after every five months of labor. The
encomienda owners’ most important obligation,
however, is to instruct the Indians in Catholicism
and encourage their conversion.

1513

Juan Ponce de León arrives in Florida.
Juan Ponce de León, the Spanish governor of Puerto
Rico, leads three ships to the coast of present-day
Florida near what is now the city of St. Augustine.
He and his men thus become the first Europeans to
travel to the area. While traveling along the coast of
the Florida peninsula, the Spanish expedition meets,
near present-day Fort Myers, a force of Calusa war-
riors, who chase the invaders out of their territory.
The Spaniards continue on, in search of both gold

and a fountain that, according to Indian tales, can

restore a person’s health and youth. Ponce de León

finds neither, and he returns to Spain the following

year. (See also entry for 1521.)

1519

Spaniards led by Hernán Cortés attack the

Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán.

Diego Velásquez, the Spanish governor of Cuba,

appoints Hernán Cortés to lead a company of sol-

diers to the eastern coast of what is now Mexico,

where Indians are said to have amassed a huge store

of gold and other treasures. Before Cortés sets sail,

Velásquez has second thoughts about the appoint-

ment and places another officer in charge of the

expedition. Cortés ignores Velásquez’s change in

plans and heads west with approximately 600 men

in 11 ships.

A 20th-century drawing of Tenochtitlán, based on Spanish descriptions of the Aztec capital. The tallest pyramid is

the Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli, the god who was said to have led the Aztec to their homeland.

(Neg. no. 326597, Photo by Rota, courtesy the Library, American Museum of Natural History)