Don Luis

Don Luís (f. 1561-1571), also known as Paquiquino, was a Native American from Tidewater Virginia who in 1561 traveled to Spain, was baptized in Mexico, and in 1571 returned as a missionary to Virginia, where he apparently participated in the killing of the Jesuits who had accompanied him.

Some historians, among them Carl Bridenbaugh, have speculated that Don Luís was the same person as Opechancanough, younger brother (or close relative) of Powhatan (Wahunsonacock), paramount chief of an alliance of Algonquian-speakers in the Tidewater. Opechancanough himself became paramount chief and led two famous attacks on Jamestown settlers, one in 1622 and another in 1644. The Virginia anthropologist Helen C. Rountree has suggested this is unlikely to be true, arguing that the Virginia Indians may have claimed otherwise "in an attempt to disavow their association with Opechancanough, whose memory was still so detested by the English due to the attack of 1622."^[1]

Virginia Indians

During the sixteenth century, the Indians in Tidewater Virginia were Algonquian-speakers. They lived in towns and villages located along the rivers feeding the Chesapeake Bay, and were ruled by chiefs, or weroances. By the 1570s, many of these chiefs were subordinate to a paramount chief, Powhatan, whose alliance, the Powhatan paramount chiefdom, eventually expanded to around thirty Indian groups.^[2]

Spanish exploration

Early in the 16th century, Spanish explorers discovered the Chesapeake Bay while in search of the fabled (and non-existent) Northwest Passage to India. They gave the land now known as Virginia the name "Ajacan."

After several failed attempts at colonization of the portion of the New World now known as the United States, the Spanish succeeded in 1565 with the establishment of St. Augustine, the first city in the United States. Small settlements spread northward along the eastern coast into Georgia and the Carolinas. The northern-most post was Santa Elena (today Port Royal, South Carolina).

A 10-year old Native American boy

Spanish exploration northward in the area of the Chesapeake Bay continued into the late 16th century. During one such trip in 1560, the 7-year old son of an Algonquian chief of the Native Americans in the village of Chiskiack on the Virginia Peninsula (in an area now part of the lands of the U.S. Naval Weapons Station Yorktown) agreed to go with the Spanish to learn their culture. The Spanish called him Paquiquino (little Francis) at first. He was brought to Mexico and was instructed in the Catholic religion and later baptized "Don Luis", in honor of Luis de Velasco, his sponsor, who was the Viceroy of New Spain. The youth was then transported to Madrid, Spain, and had an audience with the Emperor. He received a thorough Jesuit education. Don Luis later returned to the New World.

Ajacan Mission on Virginia's Lower Peninsula

In 1570, Father Juan Bautista de Segura, Jesuit vice provincial of Havana, wanted to establish a mission in Ajacan without a military garrison, which was unusual. One of the chief stumbling blocks to converting the Natives to Christianity at other locations had been the often deplorable conduct of the colonial soldiers. On garrison duty, not challenged by the prospect of fighting, they were apt to seek an outlet for their boredom in drunkenness, thievery, bullying and sexual license. Despite concerns about the plan's feasibility, Father Segura eventually obtained permission from his superiors for the founding of the new Ajacan Mission, which was to be called "St. Mary's Mission."

In August 1570, Father Segura, Father Luis de Quiros, former head of the Jesuit college among the Moors in Spain, and six Jesuit brothers set forth from their base in Havana to establish their new mission in Ajacan. A young Spanish boy, Alonso Olmos, called Aloncito, also accompanied the priests to serve Mass. They were also accompanied by Don Luis as their guide and translator. On September 10, Don Luis and nine Spaniards landed in the region now known as the Virginia Peninsula.^[3]

Exact location: still unknown

It is possible the location they chose was at Queen's Creek on the north side of the Lower Peninsula, near the York River. More recent findings suggest that St. Mary's Mission may have been in the village of Axacam on the New Kent side of Diascund Creek near its confluence with the Chickahominy River.

In either case, Don Luis soon set about attempting to locate his native village of Kiskiack which he had not seen in ten years. There, a small wooden hut was constructed with an adjoining room where Mass could be celebrated. Soon after the ship bringing them had departed, Don Luis left the Jesuits, supposedly to seek his uncle and supplies.

Abandonment, massacre

As time went by, first days, and then months, the small band of Jesuits realized that they had been abandoned. To their added misfortune, it was a time when the mid-Atlantic region was enduring a long period of famine. The food they brought with them was in short supply. Immediately there was a dependence on the Indians for food.

They successfully traded with some natives for food, but it was increasingly in short supply as the winter months set in. Around February of 1571, Don Luis returned with other natives and stole all their clothing and supplies. The natives killed both of the priests and all six brothers. Only the young servant boy was spared, perhaps because he was not a Jesuit. Escaping the carnage, the young boy made his way to a rival native chief who lived close to the main coast on the Chesapeake Bay. There he waited until the relief expedition arrived in 1572.

Survivor, retaliation, aftermath

More than a year after the massacre at the Ajacan Mission, a Spanish supply ship found and rescued Alonso, upon which he gave the only survivor's account. In August 1572, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés arrived from Florida to take revenge for the massacre.^[4] The native-convert Don Luis proved ever elusive and was never discovered. However, eight other Indians accused of murdering the missionaries were promptly hanged by the Spaniards.

The disastrous attempt at establishing a mission in Virginia spelled the end of Spanish ventures to colonize the area. Following the death of Father Segura and his companions in the Ajacan Mission venture, the Jesuits were recalled from St. Augustine and sent on to Mexico where the harvest, temporal and spiritual, seemed much more promising.

The story of native-convert Don Luis may end at this point. However, perhaps it doesn't. No one knows for sure.

Possible link between Don Luis and Opechancanough

At the time of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown in 1607, a fierce Native American warrior named Opechancanough was the half-brother of Wahunsonacock, the Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, The name Opechancanough meant "He whose Soul is White" in the Algonquian language.

It is speculated by some historians, but not known with certainty, that the same Native American youth who had also been known as "Don Luis" was either the father of Wahunsonacock or may even have been Opechancanough. What is known is that Opechancanough was violently opposed to the European settlers. A period of relative peace between the Powhatans and the settlers ended not long after the death of his brother, Wahunsonacock, when Opechancanough became the new chief.

Beginning with the Indian massacre of 1622, Chief Opechancanough gave up on diplomacy with the English settlers of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia and tried to force them to abandon the region both then and again in 1644, when he was captured. Opechancanough was later killed by a soldier assigned to guard him. At the time, he was said to be about 90 years old.

The timing makes the possibility that Opechancanough and the Don Luis who sabotaged the Jesuit Ajacan Mission in 1571 were one and the same at least feasible.

Modern times

Descendants of the Powhatan Confederacy live on in Virginia in many places, including two reservations in King William County. The Richmond Diocese of the Catholic Church has designated St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in New Kent County as the new Shrine of the Jesuit Martyrs.

Notes

1. ^ Rountree, Helen C. (December 15, 2010). "Don Luís de Velasco / Paquinquineo (fl. 1561–1571)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
2. ^ Huber, Margaret Williamson (January 12, 2011). "Powhatan (d. 1618)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
3. ^ Loker, Aleck (2010). La Florida: Spanish exploration & settlement of North America, 1500 to 1600. pp. 185. http://books.google.com/books?id=Os5M4Z1kKcsC. Retrieved 2010-07-10. 
4. ^ Parramore, Thomas (2000). Norfolk: The First Four Centuries. pp. 11. http://books.google.com/books/about/Norfolk.html?id=pWiCMTB35mEC. Retrieved 2011-11-05. 

References

• Seattle Catholic article about Virginia's Jesuit Martyrs
• Huber, Margaret Williamson (January 12, 2011). "Powhatan (d. 1618)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
• Martinez, Bartolomé. “Relation,” The Spanish Jesuit Mission in Virginia, 1570-1572. Clifford M. Lewis and Albert J. Loomie, eds. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1953.
• Rountree, Helen C. (December 15, 2010). "Don Luís de Velasco / Paquinquineo (fl. 1561–1571)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
• Rountree, Helen C. Powhatan Foreign Relations: 1500-1722. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. 1993.
• Taylor, Alan. American Colonies. New York: Viking, 2001.
• Anger, Matthew, "Spanish martyrs for Virginia" Tuesday, June 06, 2006
• Jamestown 2007
• "Letter of Luis de Quirós and Juan Baptista de Segura," 1570 This Virtual Jamestown letter describes the settlement at Ajacàn and requests that Juan de Hinistrosa, the Royal Treasurer of Cuba, send a ship of grain to sustain the settlement.
• Letter of Juan Rogel to Francis Borgia 1572 This Virtual Jamestown letter from Juan Rogel describes the rescue of a young boy, the sole survivor of the Indian massacre at Ajacàn. The account details the massacre as related by the boy. The letter also describes the revenge taken by the Spanish forces for the massacre of the settlement.

See also

• History of Virginia
• Spanish colonization of the Americas