Colonist; born in
Spain; removed to
Santo Domingo, and acquired extensive mines there.
Cruelty had almost exterminated the natives, and Vasquez sailed northward in two ships, in 1520, in search of men on some island, to work his mines.
Entering St. Helen's Sound, on the coast of
South Carolina, by accident, he saw with delight the shores swarming with wonder-struck natives, who believed his vessels to be seamonsters.
When the Spaniards landed, the natives fled to the woods.
Two of them were caught, carried on board of the ships, feasted, dressed in gay Spanish costume, and sent back.
The sachem was so pleased that he sent fifty of his subjects to the vessels with fruits, and furnished guides to the Spaniards in their long excursions through the woods.
When Vasquez was ready to leave, he invited a large number of native men to a feast on board his ships.
They were lured below, made stupidly drunk, and were carried away to be made slaves.
Many of them died from starvation, for they refused to eat, and one of the ships foundered, and all on board perished.
The remainder were made slaves in the mines.
Vasquez was rewarded as a discoverer of new lands (see
America, discoverers of), and made governor of
Chicora, as the natives called the region of
South Carolina.
With three ships he proceeded to take possession of the territory and plant a colony.
On
Beaufort Island,
Port Royal Sound, they began to build a town.
The natives seemed friendly, and very soon the sachem invited the Spaniards to a great feast near the mouth of the
Combahee River.
About 200 of them went.
It lasted three days. When all the Spaniards were asleep, the Indians fell upon and murdered the whole of them.
Then they attacked the builders on
Beaufort.
Some of the Spaniards escaped to their ships, and among them was Vasquez, mortally wounded.
The treachery taught the Indians by the Spaniards was repeated in full measure.
