Ajacán – variants include Xacan, Jacan, Iacan, Axaca and Axacam – was a short-lived Spanish settlement, between 1570 and 1571, near the Chesapeake Bay, in what would later become Virginia.
The settlement was intended to be the capital of a larger Spanish colony, named the Province of Axacan, straddling the future Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. In his 1842 Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en Nueva España, Alegre said Father Juan Bautista de Segura and his companions called the province Axacan.W. Lowery, 1905La Florida: Spanish Exploration and Settlement in North America, 1500 To 1600 by Aleck Loker The term Ajacán was coined by the crew of the Santa Catalina, seemingly overhearing it being named as such by two indigenous Algonquians onboard the vessel.Brickhouse, Anna, The Unsettlement of America: Translation, Interpretation, and the Story of Don Luis de Velasco, 1560-1945 (Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 48. Ajacán was later named La Tierre de Don Luis, or 'the homeland of Don Luis.'.Brickhouse, Anna, The Unsettlement of America: Translation, Interpretation, and the Story of Don Luis de Velasco, 1560-1945 (Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 48.
Some early 20th-century historians promoted the idea that the early Spanish explorers who made voyages into the Chesapeake Bay between 1565 and 1570 sailed up the Potomac River as far as Occoquan, Virginia, based on the similarity between "Axacan" of the Spanish missionary chronicles and the name of the Indian town and creek on the Potomac. The chronicles describe the failed Axacan mission in 1570, which included abandonment by their guide, and massacre of the party. Paul Wilstach, Potomac Landings, New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1921, p. 13
Spanish explorers Francisco Fernández de Écija, chief pilot of Spaniards searching the Chesapeake Bay for English activities in 1609, asserted that Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón's failed colony of 1526–27, San Miguel de Gualdape, had been located on the James River somewhere near Jamestown.Magri, F.J. (1912), "Diocese of Richmond", in The Catholic Encyclopedia, New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved July 20, 2008 from New Advent: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13050a.htm (July 20, 2008) While some historians accepted Écija's claim, more recent scholars believe Ayllón instead went southwest, and that the "River Guandalpe" was in Georgia.Swanton, 1922, Early History of the Creek Indians and their Neighbors pp. 32-48
Esteban Gómez named what may have been the Chesapeake Bay, "Immaculate Conception Bay", on his 1525 expedition. No record of the Spanish reaching a place called Axacan was made until 1559–60, the year Sacchini (Hist.Sec.Fesa. Pars tertia, Romae, 1650, p. 323) says Dominican missionaries took the Indian they named Don Luis from there. Don Luis was recorded in Viceroyalty of New Spain-Mexico in 1565.according to Aviles' letter to the King, dated October 15, 1565 (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 94) "and it seems probable that from him the existence of the Bay of Santa Maria of Axacan (Xacan, Jacan, Iacan, Axaca, Axacam) was learned. (Lowery, 1905, Appendix DD p. 459)...Lowery states, "There can be of little doubt as to its identity with Chesapeake Bay. Velasco in his "Deografio de las Indiaa" 1571-1574 (p. 172) says| Babo de Santiago: [esra] al norte del cabo de Arenas [the Cabo de Arenas was in 37* 30'], cera del. Bahia de San Cristobal; mas al norte. Bahia ce Santa Maria: mas al norte. Rio de San Anton: en 42 grados y 1/2 como ochenta leguas al norte del cabo de las Arenas." The Spanish Settlements Within the Present Limits of the United States, Woodbury Lowery, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1905
In 1561, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés also believed he could find the Northwest Passage by way of the tributaries flowing east from the Allegheny Mountains' gaps and the rivers flowing west on the other side to the Pacific, as told them by the Native Americans at the range of Axacan."The Spanish in the Chesapeake Bay", Charles A. Grymes
Vincente Gonzalez described a bay he visited in 1588 where natives told him of an English settlement to the north on a river flowing into it, but did not give a name to the bay. However, Governor of Florida Juan Menéndez Márquez in 1606 asserted that this expedition had been to the Bay of Jacan, and Lowery (1905) also thought the Chesapeake was meant.("Relacion qye dio el Capitan Vizente Gonzales", 1588, MS. Dirc. de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. Nararrete, tomo xiv., Doc. 54, fol. 8.) Juan Menendez Marques in his "Relacion esxrita en el fuerte de San Agustin . . . al P. Comesario General de Indias Fr. Miguel Avengocar", June 7, 1606 (Ruidiaz, too ii., p. 498) in The Spanish Settlements Within the Present Limits of the United States by Woodbury Lowery, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, The Knickerbocker Press, 1905.
Province of Axacan The Chesapeake Bay was in the Province of Axacan which included the Allegheny Mountains. Virginia was not called thus at this time, before Sir Walter Raleigh and the "Virgin Queen".
The Chesapeake Bay was called "Bahia de Santa Maria" after the time of Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón. Axacan had been called "Land of The Saints" earlier. The Spanish considered this land to be in their domain. Later, Avilés apparently thought the Portuguese were in the vicinity of the mountains eighty leagues (~240 miles) to the north of the Chesapeake Bay and not a great distance from the channel connecting the bay from the "South Sea", Gulf of Mexico.March 28, 1568; British Library Add MS 33983, fol.324
Greater Axacan and adjoining Allegheny Mountains' western slopes, Mocosa, to Ajacal (Avacal) was thought to have rivers connecting to the south and west seas at that time. It was due to what the Spanish viewed as trespassing that had brought about the order for the monks to support the Virginia mining efforts. Hernando Moyano and Juan Pardo prospected through the Cherokee range in 1566-67 and barely sufficient reports suggest mining continued into the 1690s along the Appalachian Mountain range. These had routed by land. The explorers had discovered the curiosity of interior oil springs, copper outcrops, iron ore and coal for forging. All of which were located towards the Allegheny Mountains and Unaka Range also in the province of Axacan and the northern areas of "La Floridia" as spelled on 16th-century Spanish maps. North of "The Florida" at today's Virginia was called "Land of Don Luis" by later half 16th-century Spanish.
Paquiquineo/ Don Luis and Dominican Friars
Paquiquineo, or later Don Luis, was an indigenous Algonquian/Powhatan man who was the son to an Algonquian chief.Mallios, Seth, The Deadly Politics of Giving: Exchange and Violence at Ajacan, Roanoke, and Jamestown (University of Alabama Press, 2006),p. 39; Sakas, Karliana, ‘The Indigenous Authorship of the Narratives of the Spanish Jesuit Mission of Ajacan’, EHumanista, 19 (2011), pp. 511-24 (p. 511) - Please note that accounts diverge surrounding the identity and tribal affiliation of Paquiquineo. The Spanish first encountered Paquiquineo in 1561 with the sailing of the Santa Catalina into the Chesapeake Bay region or Bahia de Santa María.Brickhouse, Anna, The Unsettlement of America: Translation, Interpretation, and the Story of Don Luis de Velasco, 1560-1945 (Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 47. He was part of a secondary gift exchange that took place between the Spanish and the indigenous Algonquians of the Chesapeake Bay region. Mallios, Seth, The Deadly Politics of Giving: Exchange and Violence at Ajacan, Roanoke and Jamestown (University of Alabama Press, 2006), pp. 38-39. The first recorded interactions of the Spanish with the indigenous population in the Chesapeake region were gift-exchanges, exchanging food and raw materials.Mallios, Seth, The Deadly Politics of Giving: Exchange and Violence at Ajacan, Roanoke and Jamestown (University of Alabama Press, 2006), p. 39. The second exchange focussed on the giving of Paquiquineo to the Spanish, to aid them in further exploration of the Americas and around the world.Mallios, Seth, The Deadly Politics of Giving: Exchange and Violence at Ajacan, Roanoke and Jamestown (University of Alabama Press, 2006), p. 39; Beck, Lauren, ‘Beads and Ceremony: The Collision of Pan-America, European, African, and Asian Bead Networks in the Sixteenth-Century Spanish Empire’, Religions, 14.10 (2023), pp. 1-19 (p. 15). Accounts diverge on the exact conditions which Paquiquineo joined the Spanish, with missionary accounts suggesting the exchange was voluntary and most recent scholarship finding this grounds for debate.Mallios, Seth, The Deadly Politics of Giving: Exchange and Violence at Ajacan, Roanoke, and Jamestown (University of Alabama Press, 2006), p. 39.
In 1559 or 1560, a Spanish vessel, perhaps, with some Dominican friars caused Paquiquineo to go with them to Mexico as a guide where Aviles meets Paquiquineo and thought to have learnt of the Axacan passage.Hist. Soc. Fesu. Pars tertia, Romae, 1650, p.323, Appendix DD, "The Spanish Settlements Within the Present Limits of the United States" by Woodbury Lowery Historians generally believe it was Juan Menendez Marquez who picked up Don Luis and left another Spanish boy with one of Luis' brothers the chief, a hostage in exchange. The Viceroy of New Spain had Paquiquineo baptised with the name Don Luis de Velasco (Lowery 1905). Ángel de Villafañe had been in the Chesapeake Bay area in 1561. He reported the chief of the Chesapeake area Indians was called Regulus according to Francisco Sacchini.Historia Societatis Fesu, Pars tertia, Romae, MDCIL., p.323, "The Spanish Settlements Within the Present Limits of the United States" by Woodbury Lowery At San Mateo, Avilés sent a Captain with 32 soldiers and two Dominican friars to settle the believed route to the mountain pass and rivers that was thought to lead to the Pacific Ocean. This was supposed to have returned Luis to his Chesapeake home and develop a colony at Ajacán landing. But the two friars who had already worked in South America and the military Captain convinced the pilot to navigate back to Europe claiming bad weather for the deviation. Some accounts declare they actually made land-fall, but, were blown off point as they tried to enter the bay. This is how Luis had arrived at Seville, Spain instead of returning to the "Bay of Santa Maria". Gone for about eleven years, Don Luis had spent the past six years with Aviles. They had returned to winter at Havana by 1570. But, now the concern was about trespassers on his Pacific Ocean passage theory to the China Spice Trade. Meanwhile, it would seem that Luis harboured resentment through the years, although, the reports declare he was eager to help evangelize his kindred.
Segura Mission (1570)