Bartram’s Fevertree Helps Pinpoint Fort Caroline Location?

Does the discovery of the fevertree along the Altamaha River in Georgia by English naturalist William Bartram in 1775 help in the location of the lost French settlement of La Caroline? In 1564 a young Frenchman living at the new settlement of La Caroline wrote a letter home describing the voyage and establishment of the […]

Letter of Hernando de Soto at Tampa Bay

LETTER OF HERNANDO DE SOTO, in Florida, to the Justice and Board of Magistrates in Santiago de Cuba. VERY NOBLE GENTLEMEN: The being in a new country, not very distant indeed from that where you are, still with some sea between, a thousand years appear to me to have gone by since any thing has […]

Archaeologists find elusive 16th-century Spanish Fort San Marcos

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 […]

UWF archaeology program discovers third shipwreck from Luna fleet

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 […]

Long-Lost Spanish Fort Found in St. Augustine

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 […]

Wreckage found off Cape Canaveral linked to lost French colony of Fort Caroline

Excerpt 1: A private treasure salvage company says it’s found a shipwreck, buried in sand under the ocean off Cape Canaveral, that could be linked to the lost French colony of Fort Caroline. Global Marine Exploration Inc. has discovered scattered evidence of a historic wreck that includes some tantalizing clues: three French bronze cannons, at […]

San Miguel de Gualdape

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 […]

How Natives Conducted Their Warfare Near Tampa

    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 […]

Description of Ucita- 1st Native Town Encountered by De Soto

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 […]

Yamassee War Ends Native Slave Trade

Few American Indian wars were more devastating to colonists and more influential on the development of the south than the Yamasee War of 1715. April 15, 2015 will mark the 300th anniversary of the start of that war, which ended with the death of 400 British. On April 16, the first conference to bring recognition […]

Researchers debate true location of Fort Caroline

On Saturday, September 20, two groups of scholars presented evidence for the true location of Fort Caroline, the first permanent settlement by Europeans in what would later become the United States. First settled 450 years ago, the location of the actual fort has been lost to the ravages of time. Tradition holds that Fort Caroline was located […]
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