A very interesting piece of Virginia history was discovered when reading a book “Let Me Lie” by James Branch Cabell (copyright 1947). According to James Cabell, in either 1569 or 1560, a party of Spanish explorers returned to the harbor of Vera Cruz bringing with them the Prince of Ajacan. These Spaniards had entered Chesapeake Bay and sailed some slight distance up the Potomac under the belief that the broad Stream of Swans (Potomac) was also an arm of the ocean. They landed upon its south bank which was inhabited by the Ajacan Indians. The Ajacan Indians entertained them for some two to three weeks and when they were ready to leave, a young chieftain of the Ajacans wished to go with them to become familiar with Christian customs. The Indian Prince was baptized in the Cathedral of the city of Mexico and the Viceroy of New Spain served as godfather and gave him his own name - Luis de Velasco.
Apparently Luis de Velasco was quite a liar and told of twenty noble cities and seventy-two main towns of Ajacan, none of which was built wholly of gold because they found metallic architecture to become monotonous. The buildings were said to be varied with sardonyx, ivory, crystal and jasper. Don Luis convinced others that the northern neck of Virginia was an opulent, vast, pagan earthly paradise which might be persuaded to form an alliance with Spain.
The Prince was next found near Madrid in the King’s private chamber at the Escorial lying to King Phillip II about Ajacan. Don Luis ingratiated himself to such an extent into the good will of Phillip II that he lived at the royal expense during all his stay. The King granted to his cousin of Ajacan the rank of a grandee of Spain with a pension befitting that high estate. He prospered as a well-to-do nobleman in and about the most splendid court in Europe.
Some part of his time was spent in Havana, then to Cuba into Florida, during the same year that Pedro Menendez invaded the peninsula. He is reported to have shared in the founding of St. Augustine as the friend and confidant of Menendez. Through the efforts of Menendez, he was sent back into the northern neck of Virginia in the autumn of 1570 at the head of a Spanish colony consisting of two priests, three brothers and three scholastics of the Society of Jesus, as well as four attendants. By the plan of Menendez, these staunch churchmen during the winter months, would subdue the fierce hearts of the native Indians to the mild tenets of Christianity. Then, when spring returned, Menendez would come with enough soldiers and firearms to take care of their bodies and to put ashore new settlers. The Prince accepted this mission with seeming joy now that he was privileged to go back into his native land as a Paul of the Holy Faith to carry the Gospel to Ajacan.
His expedition reached Don Luis’ former home at the mouth of the Potomac. The caravel left them and returned to Mexico. Don Luis was received with delight and his Spanish friends were greeted with politeness. All Ajacan, after hearing Don Luis’ advice, thronged gladly toward Christian instruction. The Jesuits, for their greater comfort, now that winter approached, were removed yet further up the Coan River and then overland to the shores of the Rappahannock. The Indians aided their spiritual fathers in building a trim chapel so that all offices of the Catholic Church might be conducted suitably. The Ajacans were converted by scores and hundreds.
When winter closed in and there remained no chance of a Spanish ship’s reaching Ajacan until late in the following spring, Don Luis commanded his people to scalp and disembowel the white men. The remnants were buried courteously before Don Luis set fire to the chapel. When the Spaniards sent provisions and reinforcements in the spring of 1571, they could not find any trace of the Jesuits or Don Luis because he had withdrawn his people out of the northern neck going up into the Blue Ridge Mountains beyond reach of the Spaniards’ anger. After hanging the few available Indians, Menendez sailed southward. Spain gave up the notion of settling that territory which is now Virginia and did not renew the attempt after this setback. But for Don Luis de Velasco, the Spanish reinforcements would have landed unopposed in the spring of 1571 and yet further military forces and more settlers would have followed them during the summer as was planned. Virginia and the entire Atlantic seaboard between the Potomac and Florida would have become a Spanish province. (Livingstone Family)
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