Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

8 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
Vasquez de Ayllon, dispatched from tlie Island of San Domingo, in 1520,
an expedition which landed upon the coast of what is now South Caro
lina, at a point not far from the present site of Port Royal. Given a
friendly reception by the Indians, Spanish treachery took advantage
of the credulous savages, a number of whom were enticed on ship
board only to find themselves prisoners. It was the purpose of these
cruel captors to sell the Indians into slavery; but when the expedition
returned home De Ayllon promptly released the prisoners and admin
istered to the captain a well merited rebuke. Four years later two other
vessels were dispatched to the newly discovered mainland under com
mand of Pedro de Quexos, who, regaining the confidence of the natives,
explored the coast for a number of miles and probably touched the shores
of Georgia, It is more than likely that, entering the Savannah, he pro
ceeded for some distance up this stream. To confirm such a belief there
are any number of traditions pointing to a European explorer before the
time of DeSoto. As the result of these expeditions, De Ayllon fancied
himself the discoverer of a new continent, wholly distinct from Ponce de
Leon's, which was still supposed to be the great island of Bimini.
In 1524, Yerrazano, an Italian navigator, under a commission from
Francis I, of France, seems to have reached the coast of North Carolina,
near Cape Fear, but he effected no permanent settlement for his royal
patron.
It was .a prevalent belief among the early Spanish navigators that
Florida was a great island, a supposition based not unnaturally upon
the curved shape of the peninsula. Nor was this mistaken impression
removed until Stephen Gomez, on an expedition sent out by the king p
of Spain, probably in 1524 or 1525, discovered proofs to the contrary. f
Touching Labrador, Gomez turned southward. He explored the whole
Atlantic coast, then rounded the peninsula which he found to be not
an island but a part of the same mainland which Ponce de Leon had
discovered in 1513, calling it Florida, as we shall learn with further
particulars in a subsequent chapter. In 1529, from reports made by
Gomez, a map of Florida was constructed under orders from the king
of Spain. Its author was a Spaniard named Ribero. Though a crude
affair, this map is a most precious relic since it records the earliest
attempt to trace on paper the indented outlines of Georgia's coast.
It is not at all unlikely that Narvaez, who, in 1527, rambled blindly
some eight hundred miles through the wilderness of Florida may have
penetrated into what is now the territory of Georgia; but he left behind
him no traces of such a visit. In a work of intense interest to archaeolo
gists an account of this expedition has been preserved by Gabeca de
Vaca, one of his companions.*
From an old tradition preserved by the Yamaeraw Indians, Sir
Walter Raleigh, the renowned explorer and favorite of Queen Eliza
beth, made a visit to Georgia on one of his western voyages and talked
with the Indians. There is no documentary proof to confirm this belief
but taken in connection with a statement recorded elsewhere that Ogle-
thorpe, in ascending the Savannah River, took with him Sir "Walter
Raleigh's journal, the tradition does not wholly lack eorroboration. It
* "Belacion of Alvar ISTunez Cabeca de Vaea."