Part Four: The Four Sons War and a New Beginning
With the arrival of de Urruita, the last major partner of the Carolina expedition, (as well as two hundred and fifty additional settlers) the three partners, de Ayllon, de Urruita, and Cavallero had to themselves less a little more than a year before all three would return to Spain for a review of their colonial venture in the latter part of 1528. They would have to make their case to the Emperor, the House of Trade, and the Council of the West Indies as well as their numerous investing partners for why they should be granted their charter for an additional term AND why more money should be invested in the promise of profit all three had supported.
For de Urruita arriving in La Bahia and seeing that there were no mounds of gold stored and ready for export was bittersweet but he had expected as much, waiting in Santo Domingo for over two years for shipments of gold from the first and second expeditions. While his compatriots had done their best to survive he had worked on ways the venture could still make (at least him) less of a profit loss.
De Urruita along with Rivilla took stock of what there was in the Carolina colony that they could sell back in Spain or Santo Domingo. There were the natural resources, not entirely the ones they had been after mind you, but for the most part the land of La Bahia was nearly virginial. Timber was always a good product, especially for the expanding shipyards of Lisbon or Havana. There was also the fur to consider, as many of the expedition had in the course of one or two winters, the pelts of beaver and mink which could be traded to northern markets in Europe. The tobacco brought from the West Indies had through some trial and error taken root in the more northern climes as the settlers adapted to the new seasons and soil. It could fetch a fair place in Europe, places like Italy and England had yet to encounter this New World vice. There also of course the human profit, slaves traded or taken from the Bahian natives were useful and could still be sold in Cuba, Hispaniola, or one of the other islands opened up for settlement. Rice could also be planted and there was some rumors circulating of native indigo on western coasts south of Mexico.
For most of 1528 the Spanish halted their search for gold to a few minor parties as instead they worked on developing the land. Though it would not be far from anyone’s mind. In particular they expanded the small forts that had been established across La Bahia, in particular across the southern peninsulas that bordered the Powhatan, at the mouth of the major rivers they squatted over their new territories and in many cases forced the local natives to pay some form of tax or tribute to use portions of the rivers. In particular, this angered the Powhatan but events had already progressed enough to push them over the edge.
What had angered the Powhatan in particular was the beginning of what would be the spread of dangerous microbes and bacteria that affected the Bahian natives in far more fatal ways than the Spanish who had been used to it. It did not at first start out with a deadly disease such as smallpox, no it began as simple sicknesses such as the flu that weakened the immune systems of many neighbors of the Spanish before hard hitting diseases came with the spread of more Spanish settlers in the second and third years. While the Powhatan did not make the immediate correlation between these new diseases and the Spanish, the growing dire situation of their people as they died and were attacked by neighbors was one factor that forced their Powhatan Confederacies hand. There were also external factors such as increased attacks from their neighbors, the threat of growing power among the Piscataway and Chesepioco, and even internal dissent as tribes such as the Rappahannock refused to stop trading with the Spanish. The tipping point was the death of the former Powhatan chieftain in the Summer of 1528 and the taking of power by his son, Makkapitew.
In the Fall of 1528 de Ayllon, de Urruita, and Cavallero left Santa Maria for Hispaniola taking four caravels stuffed with trade goods they hoped to sell in Santo Domingo and later in Spain once they returned for their review. In the meantime, their positions of governance within the colony was to be taken by each of their sons, Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon the Younger, Santiago Felipe de Urruita, and Felipe Cavallero. All young men, Luis Rivilla and the cabildo or council which includes senior figures of the community such as Antonio de Montesinos who commanded respect among the natives and many settlers. It was in late October that the Powhatan stuck.
Raiders struck at many of the forts and encampments settled by the Spanish on the San Juan, San Leon, and San Martin rivers. Laying siege to the Spanish behind the palisades while they caught any who was outside. Attacks even occurred on the eastern shore of La Bahia where the Accomaico, allies of the Powhatan slaughtered ten Spanish settlers by burning them alive. Luis Rivilla went to take command of the Spanish, but he was stopped by the three sons. Santiago de Urruita made a public speech to Rivilla to bind his actions to the will of all three sons as they were the ones put in charge of the lives of the colony by their fathers and by the Emperor. In this they wished Rivilla a military conquistador to submit to the political authority of the local government. More symbolically than anything he agreed to do so, immediately afterward the three sons charged him with defending their people against the attacks.
Rivilla organized the defenses of the Spanish, spearheading a force of soldiers from Santa Maria along with the caravels to patrol and respond to Powhatan raids. No sooner had they begun they stopped, Makkapitew having made his challenge to the Spanish, “Stay away from what is not yours”, and the Powhatan retired for the winter. It was during the winter when many of the tribes of the Powhatan traveled from their summer tribal homes closer to the shores of La Bahia where they harvesting oysters, fish and local plants for the winter. Rivilla who had observed this for the last two years decided the settlers would take advantage of this. Instead of retiring they struck at tribes loyal to Makkapitew, chasing them from the shore and burning their winter villages and supplies for the winter forcing hundreds of Powhatan into starvation and death.
Eventually, Makkapitew sued for peace with the Spanish, returning the settlers they had captured so that both sides could settle in for the winter. While this ended, what would be called the Four Sons War (Makkapitew, de Ayllon the Younger, Santiago Felipe, and Felipe Caravello) it would not end conflict between the Spanish and Powhatan, but it was a major blow to the native confederacy. In 1531 the Spanish would follow up with the expulsion of the Accomaico from the lower, eastern shore of La Bahia who were forces north along the Delaware bay.
In the Summer of 1529 de Ayllon and his partners returned from Spain triumphant. De Ayllon had convinced many of the investors in Spain to continue to support the Carolina colony in Bahia de Todos los Santos and the Emperor and Audiencia as well as they continued to deal with warfare with the French and Ottomans. The grant was extended for six more years, with de Ayllon and his partners having to return in 1536. Only Diego Caravello would live long enough to do so.
Returning to Santa Maria de Ayllon and his partners were relived at the successful defense of Santa Maria and its smaller colonies throughout La Bahia. Invigorated by their successes all three would embolden the expansion of the colony’s territory in La Bahia in the upcoming years. Primarily at the expense of the Powhattan who were forced to give ground on the peninsula’s but not the interior of Senacoma. The Spanish looked to their allies among the Pazaticans and Chesepioco with thanks but increasingly less dependence which would continue in the coming years. It was leading up to 1533 that the Spanish slowly put together the picture of what the interior of Carolina looked like. Through description of La Bahia natives and finally an expedition up the Rio Santa Maria by Rivilla. It was eventually reasoned by many within the colony and in Hispaniola that the gold of the continent must be undiscovered by the Bahian natives. None of them seemed to have it worked into wondrous treasures like the Mexicans had, and certainly not like the fabled Peru.
This was to an extent proven in 1533 when traveling up the course of the Rio San Martin Spanish traders discovered very small gold flakes in the sands of the upper reaches of the river. Nowhere near large enough to be worth anything, nothing like the nuggets or pounds of gold, this still seemed to prove that there was gold in Carolina! This was for the colony the source of a small surge of new settlers in La Bahia, but it was greatly overshadowed in the next year by word of the conquest of the Inca Empire by Pizzaro where there were rooms filled with gold. Unfortunately, this set off a gold rush that triggered renewed levels of conflict with the Powhattan, in particular the Rappahannock who lived on the Rio San Martin and were attacked by the new arrivals.
By 1534 for the most part, the population growth of the Spanish in La Bahia was characterized in two ways. First, the main population growth of the colony was due to the arrival of settlers attracted by de Ayllon’s agents in Spain and Santo Domingo. Many were men of various ages with women making an extremely small percentage, particularly being the wives of aristocrats and merchants. Second, the main outcome of birth rates among the Spanish was mestizo children born from wives taken from the Bahian natives. As the children grew, some being as old as eight, would eventually come to play an important role in the development of Carolina.
As with life, there is also death. The first of the original investing partners to die was de Urruita who died of an infection from a severe case of gout in 1533 at the age of 58. He was followed a year later by de Ayllon himself in 1534. He was found by the fence of his estate, unconscious with no external signs of bruising or that an attack had occurred. He was carried to his home where he died the next morning. Both de Ayllon and de Urruita were returned to Spain for burial. De Ayllon was buried in his home city of Toledo. Both of their roles in Carolina were taken over by their sons. So were their debts.
While Carolina had slowly become profitable in many different ways it did not come close to paying off the 100,000 ducat expenditure. All three had to sell properties in Hispaniola to make most of their payment. Diego Cavallero along with de Ayllon the Younger and Santiago Felipe de Urruita traveled to Spain in 1536 and this time de Ayllon the Elder was not there to convince the Audiencia and the Emperor of an extension on the grant. Instead, what Charles V declared was an alternative.
Into the meeting, Charles V introduced all three grant holders to a man recently returned from conquests in Peru. Charles V declared that moving forward Carolina was declared an official Viceroyalty of the crown of Castile, that Cavallero and the other grant holders would be members of the first Audiencia of Carolina, and that the man would be the Viceroy.
Viceroy Hernando de Soto.
