The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-02-12

Eight of them were swtng at the
fiagship's yardarm in what Menendez
termed "good old sailor fashion,; but
Don Luis and his brother chieftain
had escaped to the mountains. Owing
to the press of more urgent affairs,
the frustrated Menendez returned to
Florida. Yet the Governor still brim-
med enterprise and optimism. These
setbacks were only temporary delays
to his wise plan to control the whole
coast for Spain before other nations
should win that advantage. In 1878
he ordered his nephew, chip off the
old block, by name Pedro Marquee, to
explore the bay. Part of his report
is as follows:
The Bay and Port of Santa Maria is
three leagues wide and is entered to-
ward the northwest. In this bay are
many rivers and harbors on both
sides, in which vessels may anchor.
Within it's entrance, on the south, the
depth is from nine to thirteen faith
roms and on the north side from five
to seven fathoms. In the channel
there are from nine to thirteen faith
roms; in the bay, fifteen, ten and six;
and in some places the bottom cannot
be reached with the lead.
Such painstaking soundings argue
we'll that the thought of colonization
had not been dismissed. That the
Spanish vessels had not ignored the
bay in the intervening time is shown
by frequent reference to it through
out Marques report as "the Bay and
Port of Santa Maria" Further evil
dence that the Spaniards were known
in the region is seen when we remem-
Der that the very mention of them by
Capt. Henry Fleete at the time of st.
Mary's settlement caused almost
panic among the Indians. And these
Indians, the Yaocomicos, had been
driven from farther north by their
enemies, the Susquehannocks.
There is also in the Historical
Magazine copy of one of Menendez's
lengthy letters to his King. In it he
relates of having recently sent an ex-
petition to the thirty-ninth parallel,
past the Bay of Santa Maria. (The
thirty-ninth parallel cuts the mouth
of the Delaware.) He also tells,
strangely enough, of trouble with an
English settlement on one of the
islands off Florida. Probably the lat
ter was nothing more than a temper
airy pirate stronghold.
AS has been said before, the exact
location of Don Luis village is not
known. One Virginian history claims
that the party under Segura assembled
the Potomac and marched overland to
the Rappahannock, and encyclopedias
follow this tradition. Yet the asser-
ton is based on little fact. The His
torical Magazine article referred to
was prepared with the Jesuit records
at hand, which in turn were copies of
Menendez's official reports, so its de-
duction that the party sailed toward
the head of the bay is conceivably
more correct. In those days of long
voyages, a considerable distance"
would hardly have meant a trip of
forty or fifty miles up the Potomac.
Wherever the first white mans cab
in in this section was built, it is GER
tain, by such records as we now pos
sess, the Spanish adventures, or mis-
sionaries, were the first Europeans to
sail the Chesapeake. Certainly the
common belief that English mariners
of Raleigh's day discovered the bay
is based on complete ignorance of the
Spanish cruises and the Inflated col
ony.
There is other meager information
indicating that Spanish vessels used
the bay for shelter until as late as
1888. On the heels of Menendez's
death came the disaster to the "In-
vincible Armada" and the beginning
of SPANS rapid decline on land and
sea. There was then neither means
nor need to carry out the dead Gov
ernor's plans, for England and
France soon reigned in North Amer
lea, and eventually Spain had no
treasure fleet to protect.