The following article was written by F. P. Fleming and appeared in Publications of the Florida Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Jul., 1908), pp. 42-47. It recounts the true story of a Spaniard named Juan Ortiz who was rescued by a Native American princess named Uleleh Hirrihigua. A modern retelling of this story can be […] 
The Timucua were the Native American tribe living in northeast Florida and southeast Georgia at the time of first contact with Europeans. A few books written in the Timucuan language were created for the Spanish religious authorities as a way to convert the natives to Catholicism in their native language. Now a Florida professor has […] 
Editor’s Note: The Spanish chroniclers of the Hernando de Soto expedition give us the first European eyewitness accounts of the architecture and town planning of Native American villages in Florida in the 1500s. By the time the British arrived two hundred years later, these civilizations were destroyed, their inhabitants dead from warfare and disease, and […] 
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 […] 
In the mid 1700s English naturalist William Bartram described visiting the ruins of an old French or Spanish fort along the Altamaha River in Georgia. He described these ruins as a “tetragon terrace” surrounded by a moat. Could these ruins be the remains of the French Fort Caroline later renamed San Matteo by the Spanish […] 
Nearly 40 years after finding the remains of the 16th-century town of Santa Elena on present-day Parris Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, archaeologists have discovered San Marcos, one of five Spanish forts that operated during the town’s 21-year history. University of South Carolina archaeologist Chester DePratter and anthropologist Victor Thompson of the University of Georgia have conducted research […] 
The University of West Florida archaeology program announced today the discovery of a third shipwreck from the Spanish fleet linked to Tristán de Luna y Arellano’s 16th century expedition to modern-day Pensacola. The discovery comes less than one year after UWF archaeologists identified the terrestrial site of Luna’s colony in a developed neighborhood in Pensacola, marking […] 
Editors Note: I just stumbled across this old New York Times article from 1993 about the possible rediscovery of the original Fort St. Augustine on the grounds of the Fountain of Youth Park. (Since 1993 they’ve built a reconstruction of a Spanish mission here.) The original fort was constructed by Pedro Menendez in an Indian […] 
San Miguel de Gualdape was the first European settlement in what would become the continental United States, founded in 1526 by Spanish explorer Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón. The settlers lasted only through three months of winter before abandoning the site in early 1527. History Records show that in 1521, de Ayllón, a wealthy sugar planter […] 
This eyewitness account from one of the first expeditions into the Southeastern U.S. shows the Spanish were definitely impressed by the military tactics of the Native inhabits of Florida. -Editor From A Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando de Soto Into Florida, by a Gentleman of Elvas The Governor sent the chief constable, Baltasar […] 
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 […] 