FIRST COLONY

There is general agreement that the first colony attempted on the North American continent was in the present San Carlos Bay area, though the exact spot is a matter of debate.

The earliest supposition was advanced by Velasco. It is the basis of a claim for Estero Island or Mound Key:

The Bay of Carlos in the Indian tongue is called Escampaba, for a cacique of that name who afterwards was called Carlos in devotion to the Emperor. This seems to be the same which is called Bay of Juan Ponce because he disembarked in it in the year 1515, (actually 1521). There he lost his people; and the Indians wounded him, of which he died.

It is in 26 and 1/2 degrees large. Its entrance is very narrow and full of banks so that only boats can enter. Within is a space about four or five leagues in circuit (13 miles), although all overflowed (shallow wetlands). In the center is a little island which in circuit, to sail around, is about half a league, with other islets around it, in which the cacique Carlos had his seat and now his successors have theirs.

This is an accurate description of Estero Bay and Mound Key -- so accurate that it at once over-turns Velasco's own surmise of a Ponce presence. The shallows, banks and islets admit "only boats." Be it understood by landlubbers that boats are small, oar powered vessels while ships are large and wind driven.

When the adelantado Menendez controlled the Calusa area in 1567-68 he confined the cacique Carlos to a village guarded by the mission-fort St. Anton. The Calusa remained rebellious even after 20 of their leaders, including Carlos, were beheaded. Menendez finally withdrew in defeat. Ponce hardly would have attempted to settle civilians on a tiny, inaccesible island swarming with hostile natives.

The latitude given by Velasco is that of Captiva Island which was the likely place for Ponce's entry into Pine Island Sound on his first voyage.

Also suggested for a colony site is Punta Rassa (Flat Point) which has a deep channel so close to shore that ships can unload over gangways.

Indians maintained a fishing village there from earliest times. Punta Rassa is those days, however, was an island strand about five miles long and less than a mile wide. It was isolated from the mainland by mangrove wetland until a causeway was built in 1868. There was no fresh water, timber or farmland necessary for civilized settlement.

Sanibel islanders perpetuate a legend that Ponce's colony was on their spot -- allegedly called San Ybel for "Saint" Isabella. After her death, the Spanish queen of the Inquisition was sometimes referred to as "Our Lady In Heaven." She died before Ponce's Florida's voyages, but it is supposed he appreciated her sponsorship of Columbus who brought him to the New World.

The word "San" was used more to indicate saint-like or exalted, in contrast to the formal santo and santa or their abbreviation "St." Important mortals often were accorded the respectful salutation "San," as discussed in chapter 15.

If Ponce gave Sanibel Island its name, a more likely inspiration was his daughter, Ysabel. Sanibel is the natural landfall for voyages from Havana and surely was noticed by Soto, whose wife also was named Ysabel.

The first maps name it "S. Nibel" which translates to South Level -- an apt description for an island that sits low and had few trees before Malaysian palms and Australian causarinas were introduced. An undated, 18th century map, which appears to this author to have been drawn about 1755, gives "Rio Sanibel" to what appears to be the Caloosahatchee River, raising the possibility the name Sanibel is of Indian origin.

The most suitable location for a colony would have been on Pine Island. It commands the whole bay and has abundant water, timber and land. It also is large enough for the Calusa to have remained out of sight until Ponce pushed inland.

After prodigious sacrifice, Ponce de Leon left only his name to the scene of his defeat. Even his name shifted south as his deeds dimmed -- to a shallow bay he could not have sailed into.