AND MORE OF SPAIN... In 1561, when Pedro Menendez de Avila sailed into a broad bay on the coast of Florida and north of his temporary home port of Havana to the south, he named the spacious body of water “Bahia de Santa Maria”.
The bay retained that name for over half a century until in 1607 the English started Jamestown settlement several miles up Powhatan’s River and came to accept the Indian name for the wide waters. They called it the “Chesapeake” meaning “great shellfish bay” which was that to them, has been to us for a time and can be again if we take proper care of that which remains.
During that 1561 trip, Menendez was able to, either from force or persuasion, to convince the seventeen-year-old son of an Indian chief of the Chiskiak tribe on the York River to go back to Spain with him. His name was Paquiquino. . The two visitors were ”exhibited” to the Royal Family of Spain and to the best society of the land. Menendez used the twosome to help raise fund as backing for future exploration trips and the two Indians absorbed a great deal of European culture. They were taken to Mexico,, as well,for additional training and from that point on only Paquiquino/Don Lois is mentioned in the story.
The Spanish made another attempt to establish a footing in the area. They sent in a group of twelve Jesuit priests and one, small boy. They depended on Paquiquino to supply when they had traded away all heir tools and other equipment. It was a famine year and Paquiquino refused He had decided to return to his tribal ways. He had moved to a new village and had, according to local custom, which did not
set well with the needy Jesuits. No one knows, of course what pushed the Indian leader to such an extreme, but he followed those begging food of him and killed them – all except the young boy.
Less than a year later a Spanish ship which happened to pass by learned of the boy being held captive decided to rescue him and avenge the deaths of the twelve priests a year earlier. They attacked the village and killed forty natives including seven whom they hanged from the rigging of their ship in full view of the natives watching from the shore.
As a result of this incident in the York river district natives had a rather warped idea of how Europeans might be expected to act. There can be little doubt it affected he way in which Indians greeted arrivals of 1607 or later.
The Indian lad Paquiquino may well have left another heritage to us. Chief Powhatan had an organized Confederation made up of thirty-two rather weak family-tribe units brought together to be strong and meaningful. One wonder if he had discussed organization with a nearby Virginian who had observed European politics for nine years or so.
A.L.M. August 15,2005. [504wds]
