De Luna Expedition - 1559-1561 CE

Portrait of Tristan de Luna.

Creative Commons

In 1559, conquistador Tristan de Luna was tasked with creating a Spanish settlement on the Gulf Coast and to create an overland route to Santa Elena (in today's South Carolina), where another Spanish settlement would be founded. Previous conquistadors had recommended "Filipina Bay" (today's Mobile Bay in Alabama), but de Luna's expedition chose instead "Ochuse Bay" (today's Pensacola Bay in Florida).

After sending one ship back to Vera Cruz, Mexico, to pick up and return with supplies, de Luna sent scouting parties inland while preparing two ships to sail on to Spain and leaving the majority of supplies for the new colony on the remainder of his ships. After three weeks, the scouting parties returned with reports or only finding a single native village (perhaps a sign of the damage diseases did to the native populations in the wake of the Hernando de Soto expedition). On the night of September 19, 1559, before the ships had been unloaded, a hurricane struck, destroying or grounding the fleet and leaving de Luna's men without ships and little supplies.

 

Map of the de Luna expeditions journey for survival.

University of West Florida - John Worth

The stranded explorers made their way inland up the Alabama River to the known village of Nanipacana, which they found deserted. Naming the town Santa Cruz de Nanipacana, they encamped until the resupply ship arrived. Lack of food at Nanipacana and the quick exhaustion of the resupply forced de Luna to send some of his men up the Alabama River to the Coosa River and up to the Coosa chiefdom, passing just south of where Canyon Mouth Park is today at Little River Canyon National Preserve.

The expedition was an overall failure, and de Luna was quickly replaced due to the poor leadership over his men. The settement at modern-day Pensacola was only occupied for a year before being abandoned - the area would not be populated again by the Spanish until 1698.