Florida's Lost Galleon: The Emanuel Point Shipwreck, pp.34-67
University Press of Florida
2018
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Abstract
Excerpt:
On June 11, 1559, the fleet of Tristán de Luna set sail from Veracruz, Mexico, with 1,500 colonists destined for the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Following orders from King Phillip II and Viceroy of New Spain Luís de Velasco, and building on intelligence gathered from previous failed expeditions to southeastern North America, Luna’s expedition had specific objectives. It was to establish a first colony at Pensacola Bay in western Florida, march inland to settle a second colony at the native province of Coosa in what is now northwestern Georgia, and travel to the Atlantic coast to found a third colony at Port Royal Sound, which is in southeastern South Carolina. Not only would these outposts impede anticipated French intrusions along the margins of the Spanish colonial empire, but they also would provide an overland route to the Atlantic from Mexico, avoiding the treacherous Bahama Channel off south Florida. 1 Had the expedition succeeded in annexing Florida as an extension of New Spain (Mexico), the colonial history of southeastern North America would have turned out very differently.