The Return Of Ceron And Diaz - Ponce's First Expedition To Florida

1511-1515



Ceron and Diaz returned to San Juan in November, 1511.



Before their departure from Seville they received sundry marks of

royal favor. Among these was permission to Diaz and his wife to wear

silken garments, and to transfer to San Juan the 40 Indians they

possessed in la Espanola.



We have seen that the first article of the king's instructions to them

enjoi s the maintenance of friendly relations with Ponce, and in the

distribution of Indians to favor those who had distinguished

themselves in the suppression of the revolt.



They did nothing of the kind.



Their first proceeding was to show their resentment at the summary

treatment they had received at the captain's hands by depriving him of

the administration of the royal granges, the profits of which he

shared with King Ferdinand, because, as his Highness explained to

Pasamente in June, 1511, "Ponce received no salary as captain of the

island."



They next sent a lengthy exposition to Madrid, accusing the captain of

maladministration of the royal domain, and, to judge by the tenor of

the king's letter to Ponce, dated in Burgos on the 23d of February,

1512, they succeeded in influencing him to some extent against his

favorite, though not enough to deprive him of the royal patronage. "I

am surprised," wrote the king, "at the small number of Indians and the

small quantity of gold from our mines. The fiscal will audit your

accounts, that you may be at liberty for the expedition to Bemini,

which some one else has already proposed to me; but I prefer you, as

I wish to recompense your services and because I believe that you will

serve us better there than in our grange in San Juan, in which you

have proceeded with some negligence."



In the redistribution of Indians which followed, Ceron and Diaz

ignored the orders of the sovereign and openly favored their own

followers to the neglect of the conquerors', whose claims were prior,

and whose wounds and scars certainly entitled them to consideration.

This caused such a storm of protest and complaint against the doings

of his proteges that Diego Columbus was forced to suspend them and

appoint Commander Moscoso in their place.



This personage only made matters worse. The first thing he did was

to practise another redistribution of Indians. This exasperated

everybody to such an extent that the Admiral found it necessary to

come to San Juan himself. He came, accompanied by a numerous suite of

aspirants to different positions, among them Christopher Mendoza, the

successor of Moscoso (1514). After the restoration of Ceron and Diaz

in their offices, Ponce quietly retired to his residence in Caparra.

He was wealthy and could afford to bide his time, but the spirit of

unrest in him chafed under this forced inaction. The idea of

discovering the island, said to exist somewhere in the northwestern

part of these Indies, where wonderful waters flowed that restored old

age to youth and kept youth always young, occupied his mind more and

more persistently, until, having obtained the king's sanction, he

fitted out an expedition of three ships and sailed from the port of

Aguada March 3, 1512.



Strange as it may seem, that men like Ponce, Zuniga, and the other

leading expeditionists should be glad of an opportunity to risk their

lives and fortunes in the pursuit of a chimera, it must be remembered

that the island of Bemini itself was not a chimera.



The followers of Columbus, the majority of them ignorant and

credulous, had seen a mysterious new world rise, as it were, from the

depths of the ocean. As the islands, one after the other, appeared

before their astonished eyes, they discovered real marvels each day.

The air, the land, the sea, were full of them. The natives pointed in

different directions and spoke of other islands, and the adventurers'

imaginations peopled them with fancied wonders. There was, according

to an old legend, a fountain of perennial youth somewhere in the

world, and where was it more likely to be found than in this hitherto

unknown part of it?



Ponce and his companions believed in its existence as firmly as, some

years later, Ferdinand Pizarro believed in the existence of El Dorado

and the golden lake of Parime.



The expedition touched at Guanakani on the 14th of March, and on the

27th discovered what Ponce believed to be the island of which he was

in search. On April 2d Ponce landed and took possession in the king's

name. The native name of the island was Cansio or Cautix, but the

captain named it "la Florida," some say because he found it covered

with the flowers of spring; others, because he had discovered it on

Resurrection day, called "Pascua Florida" by the Spanish Catholics.



The land was inhabited by a branch of the warlike Seminole Indians,

who disputed the Spaniards' advance into the interior. No traces of

gold were found, nor did the invaders feel themselves rejuvenated,

when, after a wearisome march or fierce fight with the natives, they

bathed in, or drank of, the waters of some stream or spring. They had

come to a decidedly inhospitable shore, and Ponce, after exploring the

eastern and southern littoral, and discovering the Cayos group of

small islands, turned back to San Juan, where he arrived in the

beginning of October, "looking much older," says the chronicler, "than

when he went in search of rejuvenation."



Two years later he sailed for the Peninsula and anchored in Bayona in

April, 1514. King Ferdinand received him graciously and conferred on

him the titles of Adelantado of Bemini and la Florida, with civil and

criminal jurisdiction on land and sea. He also made him commander of

the fleet for the destruction of the Caribs, and perpetual "regidor"

(prefect) of San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico. This last surname

for the island began to be used in official documents about this time

(October, 1514).



The fleet for the destruction of the Caribs consisted of three

caravels. With these, Ponce sailed from Betis on May 14, 1515, and

reached the Leeward Islands in due course. In Guadeloupe, one of the

Carib strongholds, he landed a number of men without due precaution.

They were attacked by the natives. Fifteen of them were wounded, four

of whom died. Some women who had been sent ashore to wash the soiled

linen were carried off. Ponce's report of the event was laconic: "I

wrote from San Lucas and from la Palma," he writes to the king (August

7th to 8th). "In Guadeloupe, while taking in water the Indians wounded

some of my men. They shall be chastised." Haro, one of the crown

officers in San Juan, informed the king afterward of all the

circumstances of the affair, and added: "He (Ponce) left the (wounded)

men in a deserted island on this side, which is Santa Cruz, and now he

sends a captain, instead of going himself ..."



Ponce's third landing occurred June 15, 1515. He found the island in a

deplorable condition. Discontent and disorder were rampant. The king

had deprived Diego Columbus of the right to distribute Indians

(January 23, 1513), and had commissioned Pasamonte to make a new

distribution in San Juan. The treasurer had delegated the task to

licentiate Sancho Velasquez, who received at the same time power to

audit the accounts of all the crown officers. The redistribution was

practised in September, 1514, with no better result than the former

ones. It was impossible to satisfy the demands of all. The

discontented were mostly Ponce's old companions, who overwhelmed the

king with protests, while Velasquez defended himself, accusing Ponce

and his friends of turbulence and exaggerated ambition.



As a consequence of all this strife and discord, the Indians were

turned over from one master to another, distributed like cattle over

different parts of the islands, and at each change their lot became

worse.



Still, there were large numbers of them that had never yet been

subjugated. Some, like the caciques of Humacao and Daguao, who

occupied the eastern and southeastern parts of the island, had agreed

to live on a peace footing with the Spaniards, but Ponce's impolitic

proceeding in taking by force ten men from the village of the

first-named chief caused him and his neighbor of Daguao to burn their

villages and take to the mountains in revolt. Many other natives had

found a comparatively safe refuge in the islands along the coast, and

added largely to the precarious situation by pouncing on the Spanish

settlements along the coast when least expected. Governor Mendoza

undertook a punitive expedition to Vieques, in which the cacique

Yaureibo was killed; but the Indians had lost that superstitious dread

of the Spaniards and of their weapons that had made them submit at

first, and they continued their incursions, impeding the island's

progress for more than a century.