A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient by Paul E. Hoffman

Author:Paul E. Hoffman [Hoffman, Paul E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, General, Colonial Period (1600-1775), State & Local
ISBN: 9780807164747
Google: xp9hCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2015-12-15T00:39:47+00:00

Even before Manrique de Rojas returned to Havana, the Spaniards had their first reports that a new French expedition was on its way to the Point of Santa Elena. In late May, French ships operating west of Havana under the command of Francisco Díaz Mimoso captured both a ship sailing from Honduras to Spain and a Cuban coastal trading ship. The Spaniards whom Díaz Mimoso briefly held reported the new French expedition.

Caribbean authorities were already familiar with Díaz Mimoso, because it was his two-ship squadron that in March, 1561, had captured four out of seven Spanish ships trying to work their way to the east around Saona Island in order to enter the Mona Channel and exit the Caribbean. That was one of the first French raids on Spanish shipping after the signing of the peace treaties of 1559. The testimony of Spaniards whom Mimoso briefly held captive in 1561 clearly showed that Admiral Coligny had a half-interest in the venture, which had resulted in Spanish losses said to total twenty-five thousand pesos de oro. At least part of the later Spanish case against Coligny derived from these reports. Moreover, the French capture of the four ships led the Consulado of Seville to demand, and enabled it to obtain, the reinstitution of the convoy system, which had been abolished at the conclusion of the war.22 Mimoso’s reappearance in the Caribbean in the spring of 1564 was considered a bad sign. As the governor of Puerto Rico observed, the commander of the French ships was dangerous and knew every corner of that island as well as other parts of the Caribbean.23

The information that Mimoso’s prisoners of 1564 had was that his three ships were part of a larger group of seven. According to one Spaniard who had had contact with Mimoso, the seven ships had gone to the Point of Santa Elena and set up a colony, and one ship had gone back to France for supplies and reinforcements, before Mimoso sailed to the Antilles with three ships, leaving three at the Point of Santa Elena. All other witnesses spoke, more accurately, of a plan for three French ships and a patache to go to Santa Elena while Mimoso cruised in the Caribbean. The Caribbean authorities relaying this news to the court agreed that the Point of Santa Elena was a place from which the French might strike at shipping in the Bahama Channel and that the Spaniards ought to take action to remove them while the colony was still weak.24

The accounts from the Caribbean confirmed dispatches to Madrid from the Spanish diplomatic service in 1563 and early 1564. In late 1563, the Spanish ambassador in France had written that Mimoso was fitting ships for new ventures, some in La Florida and in “other conquests” of the Spanish king. In March and June, 1564, he mentioned a fleet sailing for La Florida. The communication of March spoke of Jacques de Sores and four ships bound for La Florida, although the ambassador said that the destination sounded like what the English were said to be aiming for under Stukeley.

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