Ajacán Mission
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The Ajacán Mission (Spanish pronunciation:
Spanish exploration
Early in the 16th century, Spanish explorers were the first recorded Europeans to see the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, which the Spanish called Bahía de Madre de Dios[3] or Bahía de Santa Maria.[4] They were searching for a Northwest Passage to India, and they named the land Ajacán, "Jacán" in Oré.[5]
The Spanish succeeded in founding a stable settlement in 1565 at
In 1561, an expedition sent by
Mission
In 1570, Father Juan Bautista de Segura was the Jesuit vice provincial of
On September 10, the party landed in Ajacán on the north shore of one of the lower Chesapeake peninsulas.[9] They constructed a small wooden hut with an adjoining room where Mass could be celebrated.[citation needed]
Location undetermined
Historians have tried to determine the Ajacán Mission site, but no archeological evidence has been found to reach a firm conclusion. Some say that the location was at Queen's Creek on the north side of the Virginia Peninsula, near the York River. Recent findings suggest that it may have been in the village of Axacam on the New Kent side of Diascund Creek, near its confluence with the Chickahominy River.[10][11] Another theory places St. Mary's Mission near the Occoquan River and Aquia Creek, in the territory of the Patawomeck tribe in Stafford County, Virginia. On October 27, 1935, a bronze tablet was unveiled at the Aquia Catholic cemetery in memory of the Jesuits, listing the slain's names. This site had a significant nearby Indian village, a navigable stream flowing from the north, and white cliffs.[citation needed] Stratford Hall also has white cliffs looming over the Potomac River near its confluence with the Chesapeake Bay and the Rappahannock River.[12]
Abandonment and massacre
Don Luis tried to locate his native village of
Around February 1571, three missionaries went toward the village where they thought Don Luis was staying. Don Luis murdered them, then took other warriors to the main mission station where they killed the priests[13] and the remaining six brothers, stealing their clothes and liturgical supplies.[citation needed] Only the young servant boy Alonso de Olmos was spared,[13][14] and he was put under the care of a chief.[citation needed]
Aftermath and veneration
A Spanish supply ship went to the mission in 1572. Men came out in canoes dressed in clerical garb and tried to get them to land, then attacked. The Spaniards killed several people, and the captives told them about the young Spanish boy who survived. They exchanged some of their captives for Alonso, who told them about the mission brothers' massacre.[
The Spanish then abandoned plans for further activity in the region. Rogel noted that it was more densely settled than more southern areas of the East Coast and that the people lived in settlements.
The Martyrs have been declared
See also
- History of Virginia
- List of Jesuit sites
- Spanish colonization of the Americas
- Timeline of the colonization of North America
Notes
- ^ William Baptist Hill (1970). The Indians of Axacan and the Spanish Martyrs: The Beginnings of Virginia, 1570. Prestwould House.
- ISBN 978-1-4214-0694-7.
- ^ Oré:20
- ^ Lowery:459
- ^ Oré:21
- ISBN 9781928874201. Retrieved November 5, 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-8139-2038-2
- ^ a b Lowery:360
- ISBN 978-1-174-84782-0Lowery on page 471 lists the "scant evidence" that exists as to the precise location of the 1570 mission, declaring that it could have been on any of the southern Chesapeake tributaries.
- ^ [also designating St. Elizabeth Anne Seton Parish in Quinton, New Kent County as the Shrine of the Jesuit martyrs. Matthew M. Anger, "Spanish Martyrs for Virginia"], Seattle Catholic, August 6, 2003 available at http://www.seattlecatholic.com/article_20030830.html
- ^ Flach, Michael F. (February 9, 2003). "Editor's Desk: Busy Time in Richmond". The Arlington Catholic Herald. Catholicherald.com. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
- ^ "Stratford Cliffs". Stratford Hall. February 27, 2010. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
- ^ a b c "Spanish Martyrs for Virginia". Seattle Catholic. August 30, 2003. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
- ^ "Chesapeake Bay – Colonial Period". Mariners Museum. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
- ^ a b "Letter of Juan Rogel to Francis Borgia" Archived March 4, 2003, at the Wayback Machine, 28 August 1572, Virtual Jamestown Project, University of Virginia Library, accessed January 8, 2015
- ^ ISBN 9780813919881. Retrieved November 5, 2011.
- ISBN 9780813919881. Retrieved November 5, 2011.
- ^ National Catholic Register
References
- Lowery, Woodbury. (1959) The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the United States: Florida 1562–1574. Russell & Russell.
- Oré, Luís Gerónimo de, O. F. M. Translated by Maynard Geiger, O. F. M. "The Martyrs of Florida." In David Hurst Thomas. (1991) Ed. Spanish Borderlands Sourcebooks 23: The Missions of Spanish Florida. Garland Publishing, Inc.
Further reading
- Rountree, Helen C. Powhatan Foreign Relations: 1500–1722. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1993.
- Taylor, Alan. American Colonies, New York: Viking, 2001.
- Jamestown 2007 Archived February 2, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, America's 400th Anniversary
- "Ajacan, The Spanish Jesuit Mission", The Mariners' Museum, 2002
- Lewis, Clifford M. and Albert J. Loomie (1953). The Spanish Jesuit Mission in Virginia 1570–1572. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC.
- "Letter of Juan Rogel to Francis Borgia", 1572. Letter by Floridian Jesuit Missionary Francis Borgia, 4th Duke of Gandíadescribes the rescue of Alonso, the sole survivor of the Indian massacre at Ajacán, and the revenge taken by the Spanish forces. University of Virginia Library.