Editor’s Note: While writing my new book Uleyli- The Princess & Pirate: The True Story of Florida’s Pocahontas I did a lot of research about her origins. One question I always had was where did the name “Ulele” come from. In reading the original Spanish source materials I never found that name mentioned anywhere. This […] 
Editor’s Note: The Spanish chroniclers of the first European expeditions in Florida and the southeast made constant mention of the skill and accuracy of Native American archers. It’s clear from their writings that they both feared and greatly respected these expert marksmen and warriors. The following account comes from Florida of the Inca by Garcilaso […] 
Editor’s Note: This Spanish eyewitness account from Garcilaso de la Vega’s Florida of the Inca reveals two different types of Native American traders that existed in Florida in 1539. The first was a more localized merchant who traded for everyday goods. The second was a more long-distance merchant who traded in high-value goods including precious […] 
Uleyli: The Princess & Pirate is a new book about Ulele (respelled Uleyli) known as Florida’s Pocahontas because of her rescue of a Spanish captive, Juan Ortiz, from execution by her father, Chief Ucita of Hirrihigua province in modern-day Tampa Bay, Florida. Juan Ortiz was captured in 1528 and eventually rescued by the Hernando de […] 
The following two narratives, one written by the Gentleman of Elvas and another by Garcillasso de la Vega (aka, The Inca), both members of the De Soto expedition, give a great description of a Native American town in Florida at the time of European contact. It describes its location, layout and architecture as well as the […] 
Does a newspaper account from 1817, rediscovered in 2010, reveal the location of the original Fort St. Augustine as being in Georgia not Florida? As I noted in my article “Quest for Fort Caroline,” all of the written eyewitness accounts of the location of Fort Caroline suggested it was on the Altamaha River in Georgia […] 
If the true location of the French Fort Caroline is on the Altamaha River near Darien, Georgia and not the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, Florida (as I argued here and here) then this presents a question: where was the original Fort St. Augustine? According to the Spanish general Pedro Menendez, it required two days […] 
“Digression on the Nature of the Country of the Apalachites, their Manners, their Ancient and Their New Religion” from Histoire Naturelle and Morale des Antilles de l’Amerique by Rochefort. The Caribbians were originally Inhabitants of the Septentrional part of America, of that Country which is now called Florida: They, came to Inhabit the islands after […] 
Current academic consensus holds that the French settlement of Fort Caroline was located on the St. Johns River in modern-day Jacksonville, Florida. Yet details in both French and Spanish written accounts as well as details in drawings left behind by the colony’s resident artist, Jacques Le Moyne, have always contradicted this location. These accounts suggest […] 
On the Country and Ancient Indian Tribes Of FLORIDA 1575 TRANSLATED FROM TERNAUX COMPAN’S FRENCH TRANSLATION FROM THE ORIGINAL MEMOIR IN SPANISH CHAPTER I. MONSEIGNEUR: I HAVE the honor to inform you that Florida and the Lucayan Islands are situate on one side of the Bahama (old) Channel, which passes between Havanna (Cuba) and Florida. But nearer the […] 
