Here’s a short summary as to why I’m so interested in, and perhaps so miffed about, the older Spanish wrecks on the Ais coast. What’s interesting is that this short summary includes documented accounts as well as information from various archeological summaries. In this information there are three major accounts of documented references in regards to the Ais looting and the enormous amount of treasure they salvaged from these earlier Spanish shipwrecks, also included is archeological references to dated coins and other artifacts from the period having been found on land in this same general area.
The first shipwreck account is from Laudoniere, his voyages would have taken place in the mid-1500's when he wrote, “…the greatest part of these riches, washed, as they say, out of Spanish ships, which were commonly cast away in this straight” Note, that he uses the word “commonly”. Another interesting aspect is that he claims this wealth was “washed to shore” which indicates that the wrecks were not too far off shore.
The second account is from Fontanedo, again, his voyages would have taken place in the mid – 1500’s when he wrote, “The King of Ais and the King of Jeaga are poor Indians as regards the earth, for there are no land of silver or of gold where they are, and to say it at once, they are rich only by the sea from the vessels which have been lost well laden with those metals.” And a bit later Fontanedo concludes, ‘I desire to speak more of the riches found by the Indians of Ais, which perhaps were to be as much as a million of dollars, or over, in bars of silver, in gold and in jewelry made at the hands of Mexican Indians which the passengers were carrying with them.” Again, a second account of large amounts of riches having come from the wrecks near the lands of the Ais.
The third account comes from John Sparks, the chronicler of Hawkins’s voyages that would have also taken place in the mid- 1500’s when Sparks wrote; “…how they came of this gold and silver, the Frenchmen knew not yet, but by guess, who having traveled to the southwest of the cape, having found the same dangers by means of sandy banks, as we also have the same, and there finding mast which were the wrecks of Spaniards coming from Mexico, judged they had gotten treasure from them.”
Now keep in mind that all of these accounts are from the mid -1500’s, now here comes the real bombshell. In the Spanish archives there is an account of the following 1556 Spanish fleet loss, “The Indians of the King of Ais have taken more then a million pesos in gold and silver and much jewelry near Cape Canaveral.” The same can be said of this account, “several ships of the Flota de Tierra Firme (treasure fleet) were lost south of Cape Canaveral.” And there is a 1530 account that claims, “A large number of ships were lost near Cape Canaveral."
Going a step further, there are other richly laden ships that went down near “Ais” between 1530 and 1565, and archeological field reports establish that coins dating from this period (1543 being the earliest) have been uncovered during archeological digs in this same general area, at what is believed to have been the old Ais principle town. How did these coins get there if these documented, richly laden wrecks were not in this same general area? “Gold and silver bars…” so obviously these were not deep water wrecks, but rather they were wrecks that these Indians could easily access. One could assume that these items were carried to shore by survivors, but if so, why are there no accounts of these survivors? If the Spanish had somehow managed to salvage these wrecks, which is highly doubtful, then why no records of that activity? How did those date correct coins and artifacts find there way into the location of what is thought to be the site of the principle Ais village? How would deep-water gold and silver wash upon the shore in such quantity, a quantity that was noticeable enough and “rich” enough to be made mention of by these early explorers? Again, quoting John Sparks,… “finding mast which were the wrecks of Spaniards coming from Mexico, judged they had gotten treasure from them.”
In my mind these simply can’t be deep water wrecks, probably no more then a couple of miles off the coast, if that, perhaps much closer, and some of them have to be within a moderate distance up and down the coast from this suspected principle Ais town. I suspect they lay much like those wrecks of the 1715 fleet, but perhaps with another 150 years of sand, perhaps crustacean, and deterioration. But they clearly have to be there, somewhere. Way too much treasure found its way to the Ais shore for all of these to have been deep-water wrecks. So where are they? Why have no trace of them been found? This is my driving curiosity. Would love to hear your more experienced thoughts.
And who made this page so wide?
