Page 530 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

THE FALCON AND THE SERPENT:

LIFE IN THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

AT THE TIME OF COLUMBUS

James A. Brown

A -Z. A the conquest of Mexico and Peru led purpose of establishing colonies to which she cultural landscape of the area had been modified
JLfter
the Spanish to unexpected riches, their atten- might send her sons to reside just as the almost beyond recognition. Where direct Euro-
tion turned to what is now the southeastern ancient Romans did when there was no pean manipulation had been ineffective, Old
United States as the next land of opportunity. longer space in their native land. For Florida World diseases had thinned the population, dis-
Encouraged by his own success in the Andes, is fertile and abundant in all things necessary placed the people, and increased the militancy of
2
Hernando de Soto led a heavily financed expedi- to human life, and with the seed and livestock the surviving population. It was in this
tion in a serious attempt to reveal this new land that can be sent there from Spain and other dramatically different setting that the Euro-
to European eyes. In so doing DeSoto and his places, it can be made much more productive peans were able to undertake new initiatives in
men found a family of complex cultures spread than it is in its natural state. 1 political manipulation, economic subjugation,
over this enormous territory, land inhabited and eventual colonization, initiatives that
by farmers as well as many compact fortified Despite El Inca's plea, the interior of La Florida defined subsequent periods of native American
towns led by exalted rulers. Political units of remained poorly known to the Europeans for history.
considerable size were based upon single towns. centuries. During the sixteenth century both Archaeology and history combine to tell us
Advanced as these cultures were, the conquista- exploration and missionary activity were lim- that the high cultures of the pre-Columbian
dors were nevertheless disappointed by their ited. Colonization proved a disaster. Spanish southeast were significantly different from the
discoveries. Native Americans were not sitting penetration into the land was too expensive an cultural landscape that emerged centuries later.
on the kind of liquid wealth the Spaniards had undertaking. Although the crown retained At the end of the seventeenth century in the
found in Mesoamerica and South America and nominal claim over the vast subcontinent, Memphis region of the Mississippi River Valley,
which they had invested so heavily in locating. actual Spanish control over the destinies of the where populations once were densest, few
By the end of the sixteenth century it was resident peoples extended only to small patches people were to be found. Tribes mighty in
evident that La Florida, as this land was known on promising parts of the coast. The problem Soto's time had been reduced to small towns,
to the Spanish, was too vast for easy domina- was that distances were great and much of the which were forced to merge with others to com-
tion. Many of its populous settlements were far vast interior was unoccupied. Although popula- pensate for their loss of population. Compact
from the coast, making effective control of tions were concentrated in certain regions, urban settlements were abandoned in favor of
some of the more promising areas all the more these areas were not city-size, but towns of only dispersed settlement. Once-powerful rulers
tenuous, particularly in the face of fierce native several thousand inhabitants. Without popula- were succeeded by chiefs holding largely empty
resistance. Both the problems and the opportu- tion of sufficient density, labor-intensive proj- titles. This shift away from the social and poli-
nities were summed up in the Spanish account ects such as mineral exploitation were not tical features associated with large populations
of La Florida completed in 1592 by the Peruvian feasible. And without the political organization has led archaeologists to conclude that signifi-
historian Garcilaso de la Vega, known as "El entailed in city-scale organizations, there was cant parts of the culture became simplified as
Inca" because his mother was an Inka princess: no potential for subjugation of native popula- well, the net result being general depauperiza-
tions, as there had been in Mexico and Peru. tion of native life. After two centuries of
In addition to the brave deeds performed and Thus the land was left on its own until the indirect European impact through disease, the
the hardships suffered by the Christians both end of the seventeenth century, when other residents of the southeastern interior were very
individually and generally, and the notable European powers quickened the tempo of explo- different from their predecessors. New tribal
things discovered among the Indians, we ration and enmeshed the area in the world entities replaced the fallen, and formerly
present in this history a description of the economy. Because of European neglect of this powerful groups shrank to minor tribes. Native
many extensive provinces found throughout area in earlier periods, however, we lack the va- Americans faced Europeans on very different
the great kingdom of Florida by the Governor riety of Spanish chronicles that describe the terms during the eighteenth century.
and Adelantado Hernando de Soto Our culture of the contact period in Mesoamerica This background explains why the early cul-
purpose in offering this description has been and South America, and there is no parallel to ture of the native southeast does not have a
to encourage Spain to make an effort to the encyclopedic texts detailing Mexican culture well-defined image today. Native accom-
acquire and populate this kingdom (now that that were produced by or under the supervision plishments have been reduced to stories about
its unsavory reputation for being sterile and of the early Franciscan missionaries. Moreover, Powhatan and other major figures, bizarre prac-
swampy, as it is along the coast, has been we cannot depend for our knowledge of the pre- tices, and conflicts with settlers on the expand-
erased) even if, without the principal idea of Columbian southeast on the more specific ing American frontier. These stories leave little
augmenting the Holy Catholic Faith, she accounts that began to emerge later, for these room in the imagination for the real triumphs
should carry forward the project for the sole describe a very different land. By this time the of pre-Columbian culture. During the early

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