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Chicora was a legendary Native American kingdom or tribe sought during the 16th century by various European explorers in present-day
Chicora was a legendary Native American kingdom or tribe sought during the 16th century by various European explorers in present-day South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
. The legend originated after Spanish slave traders captured an Indian they called Francisco de Chicora in 1521; afterward, they came to treat Francisco's home country as a land of abundant wealth and natural resources. The "Chicora Legend" influenced both the Spanish and the French in their attempts to colonize North America for the next 60 years.
History
In 1521, Spanish slavers Pedro de Quexo and Francisco Gordillo embarked on an expedition from the Caribbean to the little-explored mainland of what is now theSoutheastern United States
The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...
. On June 24, they sighted what is thought to be the area around the mouth of the Santee River
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The Santee River is a river in South Carolina in the United States, and is long. The Santee and its tributaries provide the principal drainage for the coastal areas of southeastern South Carolina and navigation for the central coastal plain of ...
; they named their discovery the Land of St. John the Baptist
John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...
. For the next 22 days they explored the river and nearby Winyah Bay
Winyah Bay is a coastal estuary that is the confluence of the Waccamaw River, the Pee Dee River, the Black River, and the Sampit River in Georgetown County, in eastern South Carolina. Its name comes from the Winyah people, who inhabited th ...
and made contact with the locals, including, they claimed, a town or people called Chicora. Ultimately, the slavers compelled around 60 Indians to board their ships and then sailed off without warning, intending to sell the captives into slavery in Hispaniola
Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...
. Among the captives was an Indian who the Spanish eventually named Francisco de Chicora.
Upon their return, Gordillo's backer Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón
Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón ( – 18 October 1526) was a Spanish magistrate and explorer who in 1526 established the short-lived San Miguel de Gualdape colony, one of the first European attempts at a settlement in what is now the United States. Ayl ...
petitioned the Spanish Real Audiencia
A ''Real Audiencia'' (), or simply an ''Audiencia'' (), was an appellate court in Spain and its empire. The name of the institution literally translates as Royal Audience. The additional designation ''chancillería'' (or ''cancillería'', Catala ...
for the right to conquer and settle the land. The next year he took his case to the crown in Spain, promoting his claim with evidently exaggerated tales about the bounty that awaited in Chicora. By this time Francisco de Chicora (or Francisco Chicorano) had been baptized and learned Spanish, and started working as Ayllón's personal servant. He joined Ayllón in Spain, and contributed to his master's accounts of the wealth of his homeland. Ayllón moved the coordinates of the land from the 33.5 degrees north recorded by Gordillo to 35–37 degrees. Evidently, this was an effort to sell Chicora as a "new Andalusia
Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...
" by giving it parallel coordinates to the famously fertile area of Spain. The Crown granted Ayllón's request. Peter Martyr d'Anghiera
Peter Martyr d'Anghiera ( or ''ab Angleria''; ; ; 2 February 1457 – October 1526), formerly known in English as Peter Martyr of Angleria,D'Anghiera, Peter Martyr. ''De Orbe Novo'' . Trans. Richard Eden a''The decades of the newe wo ...
also met with Ayllón and Francisco and recorded notes about "Chicora", which spread awareness of the territory, particularly after they were published in Martyr's chronicle ''Decade'' in 1530.
See also
* Francisco de Chicora * Cape Fear Indians *Waccamaw
The Waccamaw people were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who lived in villages along the Waccamaw and Pee Dee rivers in North and South Carolina in the 18th century.Lerch 328
Name
The meaning of the name ''Waccamaw'' is ...
Notes
References
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chicora French colonization of the Americas Mythological kingdoms, empires, and countries Native American history of South Carolina Pre-statehood history of South Carolina Spanish colonization of the Americas