San Buenaventura de Potano

San Buenaventura de Potano was a Spanish mission near Orange Lake in southern Alachua County or northern Marion County, Florida, located on the site where the town of Potano had been located when it was visited by Hernando de Soto in 1539. Two sites 12 miles (19 km) apart, the White Ranch site (8MR03538) and the Richardson site (8AL100), have been proposed as the location of the town and mission.

Town of Potano

Potano was the namesake town of the Potano tribe or chiefdom, part of the Timucua people. In the middle of the 16th century the town of Potano was located west of Orange Lake, near Evinston. The Hernando de Soto expedition visited Potano in 1539. In 1564, and again in 1565, the Utina chiefdom on the St. Johns River and the French (from Fort Caroline) raided the town of Potano. Many Potanos were killed, and many others captured. In 1584, in retaliation for raids by the Potano against the Spanish, the principal town of Potano was attacked and burned by Spanish soldiers. The town of Potano was then moved to a site northwest of present-day Gainesville.[1][2][3][4]

Apalo/Apula

A place or mission called Apalo or Apula was associated with the original site of Potano. (Apula is Timucuan for "fort" or "stockade".[5]) De Soto's expedition passed a town called Apalu or Hapaluya, but it appears to have been in what was later called Yustaga, west of the Suwannee River, and not associated with Potano.[6] A town named Apalo is shown on the Jacques le Moyne map, located to the northeast of Potano.[7] In 1597 or later, Fray Baltasár Lopéz established a visita, a mission without a resident priest, called Apalo. Milanich states that the visita may have been at the Richardson site.[8] In 1616 Father Luís Jerónimo de Oré visited a mission called Apalo, two and one-half days walk from San Antonio de Ancape on the St Johns River.[9]

White states that a visita called Apula was founded circa 1580 at the White Ranch site and burned in 1584.[10]

Mission

In 1601, the new leader of the Potano chiefdom asked the Spanish governor for permission to re-settle the original site of the Potano principal town, which was granted by Governor Gonzalo Méndez de Canço. In that same year the Cacique of Apalau traveled to Saint Augustine together with the heir to the Cacique of Potano. In 1608 Mission San Buenaventura de Potano was established in the site of the old town by Fray Francisco Pareja. It initially served about 200 people, all of whom were baptized. The mission, under the name of San Buenaventura, disappeared from Spanish records after 1613, probably because the population was reduced and scattered by epidemics. Worth states that San Buenaventura was probably identical to the Apalo mission visited by Father Oré in 1616.[11][12]

Discovery

Ashley White announced in 2012 that he had found the site of de Soto's Potano and the San Buenaventura mission on Orange Lake (the White Ranch site). This location is disputed by Willet Boyer, who announced in 2013 that he had found the remains of Potano and the mission at the Richardson site, 12 miles (19 km) northwest of the White Ranch site.[13]

Notes

  1. ↑ Worth, John E. (1998). Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida, Volume 1:Assimilation. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0-8130-1574-X.
  2. ↑ Worth, John E. (1998). Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida, Volume 2: Resistance and Destruction. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. p. 167. ISBN 0-8130-1575-8.
  3. ↑ Milanich, Jerald T. (1995). Florida Indians and the Invasion of Europe. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. pp. 152–153, 175, 179–183. ISBN 0-8130-1636-3.
  4. ↑ Milanich, Jerald T. (2006). Laboring in the Fields of the Lord: Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. p. 118. ISBN 0-8130-2966-X.
  5. ↑ Milanich, Jerald T.; Hudson, Charles (1993). Hernando de Soto and the Indians of Florida. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. p. 164. ISBN 0-8130-1170-1.
  6. ↑ Hann, John H. (1996). A History of the Timucua Indians and Missions. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. pp. 31–32. ISBN 0-8130-1424-7.
  7. ↑ Worth, John E. (1992). THE TIMUCUAN MISSIONS OF SPANISH FLORIDA AND THE REBELLION OF 1656 (Thesis). Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida. p. 57. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  8. ↑ Milanich, Jerald T. (1999). Laboring in the Fields of the Lord. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 117, 119. ISBN 1-56098-940-8.
  9. ↑ Hann, John H. (April 1990). "Summary Guide to Spanish Florida Missions and Visitas. With Churches in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries". The Americas 46 (4): 468. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  10. ↑ White, Fred (2010). [file:///C:/Users/donald/Downloads/2010-Hernando-De-Soto-Florida-Site-MR03538.pdf "Hernando de Soto Archaeology and Artifacts"]. The Digital Archaeological Record. p. 32. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  11. ↑ Hann, John H. (1996). A History of the Timucua Indians and Missions. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. p. 166. ISBN 0-8130-1424-7.
  12. ↑ Worth, John E. (1998). Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida: Vol. I. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. pp. 55, 60, 68, 95. ISBN 0-8130-1574-X.
  13. ↑ Hiers, Fred (22 November 2014). "Archeologists clash over which is real De Soto site". The Gainesville Sun. pp. 1A, 6A. On-line as "Dueling views on De Soto: Which site is real deal?". Gainesville.com. 22 November 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2014.