San Miguel de Gualdape was the first European settlement in what is now the United States. Lucas Vasquez de Ayllón, a Spanish official, established the colony in 1526. The settlement, which most experts believe was on the coast of what is now Georgia, existed only for a short time. Poor weather, disease, and conflicts with local Indigenous (native) people caused it to be abandoned within a few months.
In the early 1500’s, Ayllón was working as an official and planter on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. In 1521, he sent an expedition that reached the coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia. His agents captured a number of local people and took them back to Hispaniola as enslaved workers.
One of the Indigenous people was a man who became known as Francisco de Chicora. Francisco learned Spanish, became a Roman Catholic, and traveled with Ayllón to Spain. In Spain, he told tales of his Carolinian homeland, which the Spaniards called Chicora. Impressed by these stories, Spain’s King Charles granted Ayllón a contract to explore and settle the northern part of an area called La Florida. At that time, La Florida included most of the present-day Southeast.
During the summer of 1526, Ayllón led an expedition to begin a colony on the Atlantic Coast. The expedition numbered about 600 people, including several Roman Catholic missionaries and a number of enslaved Africans. The group also brought livestock.
The colonists first landed in the area of Winyah Bay, near what is now Georgetown, South Carolina. One of the ships wrecked, and many supplies were lost. The leaders decided that the area did not have the resources they needed for a colony. They sent ships to scout the coast for another location. Many scholars believe that the expedition then moved to a location on or near Sapelo Island, Georgia. Ayllón founded a town that he called San Miguel de Gualdape.
The settlement fared badly from its first days. Francisco de Chicora, who had accompanied Ayllón on the voyage, had deserted the expedition soon after its first landing. Ayllón became ill and died of a fever in October 1526. After Ayllón’s death, some colonists mutinied against the colony’s new leader. Poor relations developed with the local Indigenous people, and the enslaved people in the colony revolted. The settlement’s food supplies ran low. Many colonists died from disease, attacks by Indigenous raiders, or starvation.
Soon, the remaining settlers at San Miguel de Gualdape decided to return to Hispaniola. However, many of them starved or froze to death on the voyage. Only about 150 of the original settlers returned from the expedition alive.
The Spanish would not establish another colony in North America for more than 30 years. Tristán de Luna y Arellano founded a short-lived colony at present-day Pensacola, Florida, in 1559. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés established St. Augustine in 1565 in what is now northeastern Florida. St. Augustine is the oldest continually occupied town in the United States.
See also Ayllón, Lucas Vasquez de; Colonial life in Spanish America.
