HISTORY
Two decades after Christopher Columbus
discovered the new world, Juan Ponce de Leon
became the first European to visit the mainland
of the current United States. On his 1513 voyage
of discovery he skirted both coasts of the
peninsula he called La Florida. During the voyage
he sailed at least as far north along the Gulf
Coast as Charlotte Harbor, which received the
name Bay of Juan Ponce.
It was on the shores of Charlotte Harbor that
Ponce de Leon’s expedition encountered the
Calusa Indians, a people whose society and
culture has proven to be unique within mainland
North America. Later Spanish explorers including
Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the founder of St.
Augustine, also visited the Calusa. Menendez
established a short lived garrison and mission
among the Calusa on Mound Key in Estero Bay
near Fort Myers Beach, a hub of activity for
indigenous Florida people. That location was one
of the most important seats of power for the
Calusa.
There were dozens of smaller villages centered
on this all-important site (possibly as many as 50),
but one Calusa Chief named Carlos who ruled
them all. In research done by Sanibel
archaeologist Charles Wilson he describes a
“Calusa hegemony extending over most of South
Florida, even to the East Coast.” There are stories
that when Menendez first met Chief Carlos,
Carlos gave him his own sister as a wife (this was
a common practice among the south Florida
indigenous people). Menendez readily agreed to
the union even though he already had a wife. He
renamed his Calusa bride Antonia and set off to
Cuba. The Jesuit priests were so aghast at his
This is an artist’s rendering of Chief Carlos’
home, based on information from the Jesuit
priests.
actions that the incident cost him their support.
It is documented that Chief Carlos’ home was large
enough to fit 2,000 people inside without crowding,
and public rituals in his honor included masked
priests, synchronized singing and dancers.
An early Calusa
tool made from a
conch shell.
May/June 2018 GASPARILLA ISLAND 83