Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda

Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda (* 1536, † about 1575) was a Spanish survivor of a shipwreck on the coast of Florida. He lived for about 17 years among the Indian tribes of Florida. He became famous for his 1575 written memoirs that are considered best source for the now defunct culture of the Calusa.

Shipwreck 1549

Approximately in 1549, Fontaneda was at that time 13 years old, he and his brother should be sent to study in Salamanca in Spain. On the way there they suffered, probably in a hurricane, shipwreck. The survivors of the crew and passengers were initially rescued by Indians from the tribe of Calusa. Later, they were, with the exception of Fontaneda enslaved or massacred by the Calusa. According to Fontaneda he managed to survive by singing for the Indians and danced.

Life among the Indians of Florida

Fontaneda spent the next 17 years under the Calusa and other tribes. Here he learned their language and traveled to Florida. 1566 Fontaneda was saved by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, first Spanish governor of Florida and founder of St. Augustine. In another presentation, he was rescued by the Huguenots of Fort Caroline in 1565 and was able to return by the Spaniards back to them after annexation of the fort.

More work

The next few years served as a translator and guide Menéndez on his expeditions through Florida. Only in 1569 could Fontaneda return to Spain and get back his father's legacy from the Spanish crown.

Memoirs

Fontaneda is known for his memoirs, written in 1575. Here, he describes his life among the Indians of Florida. Because many Indian tribes in southern Florida are now extinct, its traditions are the first and most detailed eyewitness accounts of these cultures. You already served historians of the Spaniards, such as Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas as a basis.

His reports list the 22 major cities of the Calusa. These geographical names are practically the only thing that is known of the language of the Calusa. For the first time he mentioned Tampa, or a village of the Calusa on Tampa Bay near the mouth of Charlotte Harbor.

In his memoirs Fontaneda wrote of the legend of a mythical fountain of youth in Florida. Although he did not believe in the legend himself, served his reports in later years as the basis for a search for him.