P
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“[W]ee caused a faire high
Crosse to be made of the
height of thirty foot.... So
soon as it was up, we alto-
gether kneeled down before
them, with our hands toward
Heaven, yielding God thanks:
and we made signs unto [the
Indians], showing them the
Heavens.... [T]heir Captain clad
with an old Bear’s skin... came
unto us.... [T]here he
made... a cross with two fin-
gers, then did he show us all
the Country about us, as if he
would say that all was his, and
that wee should not set up any
cross without his leave.”
—Jacques Cartier on introducing
the Indians to Christianity1536Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca tells the
Spanish of the Seven Cities of Cibola.
Eight years after being stranded on the Gulf of
Mexico, Spanish explorer Alvar Núñez Cabeza de
Vaca, a Moorish slave named Esteban, and two
companions reach Spanish-held lands in what is
now western Mexico (see entry for 1528). They
tell the Spaniards they meet of their years of liv-
ing among Indians and their 6,000-mile trek across
western North America. Cabeza de Vaca will pub-
lish these tales in 1555 in Naufagios (Shipwrecks),
one of the earliest works to provide information
about the region’s Indian groups, geography, and
animal and plant life.
The Spanish are particularly entranced by
one of the survivors’ stories—the tale told by some
Indians of seven cities full of fabulous riches located
north of Mexico. The rumors will help convince
New Spain to send the Coronado expedition (see
entry for 1540) to find and conquer the fabled cit-
ies, which become known as the Seven Cities of
Cibola. (See also entry for MARCH 1539.)1539Hernando de Soto begins exploring the
American Southeast.
Charles I of Spain (Holy Roman Emperor Charles
V) grants Hernando de Soto, the governor of Cuba,
the right to conquer and colonize “La Florida,” a re-
gion then defined by the Spanish as all lands north
of Cuba. Hoping to find riches as he had as a con-
quistador in Peru several years earlier, de Soto leads
an ambitious expedition into the area. Sailing on nine
ships, his crew of 600 men, with 200 horses, lands on
the west coast of present-day Florida. Over the next“I am king in my land, and it
is unnecessary for me to be-
come the subject of a person
who has no more vassals than
I. I regard those men as vile
and contemptible who sub-
ject them-selves to the yoke
of someone else when they
can live as free men. Accord-
ingly, I and all my people
have vowed to die a hundred
deaths to maintain the free-
dom of our land. This is our
answer, both the present and
forevermore.”
—Timucua leader Acuera in a
message to Spanish conquistador
Hernando de Soto