[muawiyah]

The old Spanish families in Santa Fe area own some old rocks with carvings on them showing the location of the lost Dutchman mine ~ total fiction ~ of course ~ except if you know what the maps on the rocks are saying that was a place in Virginia up near Harpers Ferry. There was fresh water there, and the initial Spanish surveys of the area later on used Point of Rocks island as a benchmark. punto de rocas or lugar de rocas. local creek is called lost Dutchman creek ~ I think some of the military garrison in Virginia went to Las Lunas or Santa Fe in 1598. That area is right on top the old carolana road ~ which was first an Indian trail, then a Spanish trek, and then used all the way down to our time when it's called US 15. It parallels the Gold Vein along the Fall Line.

There, 450 years of history in a single paragraph.

[livius]

The Spanish actually explored that territory in the late 16th century...in fact, they sailed up the Hudson. But they felt it was too cold and hostile, since they weren’t used to that climate at home, and furthermore, it was the “little ice age” and temperatures were a lot lower than they are now. It warmed up and then there was another severe cold spell in the late 19th-early 20th centuries.

But the Spanish withdrew to areas that were more like home and didn’t bother to drive out the British when they landed in the area around Virginia, even though it had been claimed by Spain. The Spanish then went on to convert thousands of Indians and establish a huge mission chain based in St Augustine, Florida.

The missions were destroyed by the raids of British colonists from South Carolina and Georgia in 1702-1705. Many Indians (not to mention Spanish friars and settlers) were killed and some 11,000 Indians were taken captive and sold as slaves to the sugar plantations in the English Caribbean.