State

Spanish Traces In 17th Century North Carolina IncliHiiK told stories of the mysterious 4‘loathed* men. ««/ to. рлкклмош: 1 1 is widely known that Spain, up to at least the year 1670. had formal elaim to the lands that now make up North Carolina and that this area constituted part of the Spanish province of la Florida. Spaniards are known to have mapped the Carolina coasts carefully, to have attempted settlement on the Lower Cape Fear River, and to have ex¬ plored as far westward as the Ap¬ palachians. Our history books do not record, however, that Spaniards actually occupied any portion of North Carolina or that their visits here were ever more than brief sojourns. A case can be made, however, that Spanish agents resided, perhaps con¬ tinuously. for about sixty years in the Roanoke-Neuse River region of the Coastal Plain. The case is not conclu¬ sive. for it depends upon scattered frag¬ ments of information, none of which comes from the Spanish archives. On the other hand, it has only in recent years come to be generally accepted that a Spanish mission existed for a time in the late 16th century on the York River in Virginia. Perhaps more thor¬ ough research into the Spanish records may yet uncover confirmation of a Spanish presence in North Carolina as well. The "Rich" Spaniard Doubters must contend, in the first place, with a report by Virginia ex¬ plorers to the Albemarle Sound region in the year 1653. The Virginians, it seems, came upon a Tuscarora Indian chief in the vicinity of the lower Roa¬ noke River and were pressed by him to visit his village, evidently at some point higher up Roanoke River. A principal attraction there, claimed the Indian, was that the English would find one Spaniard residing, who had been seven years with them, a man very rich, having about thirty in family, seven whereof are negroes: and he had one negro, lieger | vassal | with a great nation called the Newxes |Ncu- sioks. on Neuse River). He is some¬ times. they say. gone from thence a pretty while. The story may fall into the moon¬ shine category already wellstocked in 1653 with fountains of youth and golden cities. But it appears to be of a some¬ what different order from these fables, an order offering quick confirmation, little obvious material inducement, and undetectable motives or self-interest on the part of the Tuscarora narrator. It seems, rather, to be a straightforward recounting of an item of local interest proffered as a curiosity that might lead to an agreeable meeting of strangers. The Virginians, owing to the illness of their interpreter, declined to pursue the invitation and nothing further is heard, at least directly, in the early records of the intriguing Spaniard. That he may have been a merchant, who shipped furs and other wares periodically to the West Indies by way of the Neuse River, is hinted by the Tuscarora narration but we are left to wonder at what might be suggested by his having "thirty in fam¬ ily" or w hat sort of prosperity might be implied in styling him "very rich." Another Tuscarora Tale By itself, this curious remnant can¬ not be taken very seriously by the historian. On the other hand, the item does not stand altogether itself and might be evaluated in the light of other such remnants of 17th century documentation. Take the experience, for example, of the Bland Expedition in 1650. three years before the supposed discovery of a Spaniard among the Tuscaroras. Ed¬ ward Bland was a Virginia fur-trader who was sent south from Fort Henry (now Petersburg) in 1650 in the hope of forming a trade agreement with the Roanoke River Tuscaroras. He was also instructed to make inquiries about a mysterious white man said to have dis¬ appeared among the Tuscaroras many years before. On reaching the falls of Roanoke, in the vicinity of modern Roanoke Rapids and Weldon. Bland learned that there was. in fact, a white man resident among the Tuscaroras. Unable to await a proposed opportunity to meet the man. Bland left messages for him in several languages, including Spanish. The man himself may have been an Indian invention, but he may also have been identical w ith the rich Spaniard of 1653. This, at any rate, is a possibility that cannot be easily dis¬ missed. Hernando de Soto visited the mountains ot western North Carolina in two. about «5 years before the En¬ glish landed at Roanoke Island. Other Spaniards fol¬ lowed him in the western piedmont. Clues On The Maps A further hint of a Spanish presence in the general area of the falls of Roa¬ noke is offered by various maps of the 17th century. Among the best-known of these are Mercator's map of 1636 and that of W. J. Blaeu in 1640. Both rep¬ resent the “Mangoak"— Tuscarora— Indians as inhabiting an interior region the state. October 1986