August 1567: The Andrada Massacre

Two years after the Spaniard’s 1565 rout of the French interlopers at La Caroline and a year after the 1566 mutinies of the Florida garrisons, Florida’s adelantado, Admiral Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, dispatches a force of some 80 soldados under Capt. Pedro de Andrada to assist Outina against allied native and French forces.

Outina was one of the foremost chiefs of the Timucua.

Pedro de Andrada was a captain in the relief and reinforcement expedition that Don Sancho de Archiniega, General de la Armada, led to Florida in 1566. Andrada had raised a company of infantry for the expedition in lower Andalusia.

In August 1567, Capitán Andrada’s troops march deep into the peninsular interior, west of the St. Johns River, to attack the stronghold of the Potano, southwest of what is now Gainesville.

Following this incursion, as the Spanish return to the presidio of San Agustín, a sizeable force of Potano warriors ambush the column from the rear — killing Capitán Andrada and many of his men.

This incident, and continued Potano raids on mission supply trains, will culminate in the Potano War of 1584.

Written by Davis Walker and posted courtesy of Florida Living History, Inc.