INDIANS.
Counties and County-Seats.— The State has 54 counties, which, with their capitals, are as follows: Alachua, Gainesville Levy. Bronson Baker, MacClenny Liberty, Bristol Bay. Panama City Madison, Madison Bradford, Starke Brevard, Titusville Marion. Ocala Broward, Port Lauderdale Monroe. Key West Calhoun, Blountstown Nassau. Fernandina Citrus. Inverness Okeechobee, Okeechobee Clay, Greencove Springs Okaloosa, Milligan Columbia, Lake City Orange, Orlando Dade. Miami Osceola, Kissimmee De Soto, Arcadia Palm Beach, West Palm Beach Duval, Jacksonville Pasco. Dade City Escarnbia, Pensacola Pinellas. Clearwater Plagler, Bunnell Polk. Bartow Franklin, Apalachicola Putnam. Palatka Gadsden. Quincy St. John. St. Augustine Hamilton. Jasper St. Lucie, Fort Pierce Hernando. Brooksville Santa Rosa. Milton Hillsborough, Tampa Seminole, Sanford Holmes, Westville Sumter. Sumterville Jackson, Marianna Suwanee, Live Oak Jefferson. Monticello Taylor, Perry Lafayette, Mayo Volusia, Deland Lake, Tavares Walculla, Cravrfordville Lee. Myers Walton, De Funiak Springs Leon, Tallahassee Washington, Vernon The militia, known officially as the National Guard of Florida, is composed of infantry, artillery and a detachment of sanitary troops. The headquarters are located at Talla hassee. On 30 June 1917 its total strength was 2,842 officers and men. The Federal govern ment maintains naval stations at Key West and Pensacola.
History.—Exploration Period.—The earliest attempted colonization of the North American mainland was in Florida, and the first white settlement was Saint Augustine. The history of the early expeditions is fascinating. It was not the lure of gold that drew thither the Spanish conquistadores from the islands of the Spanish Main, but the search for a mysterious island named Bimini where there was a fountain which banished age and its disabilities. On 23 Feb. 1512 Juan Ponce de Leon received from the Spanish Crown a patent of discovery and permission to proceed to discover and settle the Island of Bimini. With the wealth he had accumulated in his public employments in Porto Rico and elsewhere he proceeded to equip vessels for his expedition. In that day of great discoveries he found no difficulty in securing followers for his chimerical journey in search of the Fountain of Youth. Troubles beset him, however, and after a detention of a year in Porto Rico, where he aided in the subjugation of the aborigines, he set out on his voyage of exploration in March 1513. On the 27th he discovered the coast a little north of Saint Augustine; he cruised along the coast and on 2 April 1513 made a landing in lat. 30° 8' From the appearance of the land, and because he first came upon the coast on Easter Sunday (Sp. Pascua florida), the name Florida was given to the island, as he then supposed it to be. Formal possession was taken in the name of His Most Catholic Majesty, the King of Spain, and all swore allegiance to that monarch. Af ter two months spent in further exploration Ponce de Leon reembarked and proceeded south ward along the coast. His next landing was attempted near an Indian village, but the hostil ity of the latter prevented a landing and the voyage was continued around Cape Corrientes, where a chain of islands was discovered, to hich was given the name of The Martyrs.
Hostility of the natives obliged the explorer to push on and he discovered and named the Tortugas. He returned to Porto Rico without finding the object of his quest, the Fountain of Youth.
His glowing account of the riches of °the island of Florida," on his return to Spain, caused him to be appointed Adelantado of this land and a new patent was granted him. Delay upon delay ensued and it was not until 1521 that he again set forth. Meanwhile other Spaniards had visited Florida and proved it to be a peninsula. Ponce now dreamed of founding a great empire and set 'about the conversion of the aborigines to the Christian faith. The exact place of his debarkation is unknown; he was attacked by hostile Indians; was himself severely wounded; sickness spread among his followers, and he decided to abandon the attempt to colonize Florida. He withdrew to Cuba, where he died soon after. Between 1520 and 1526 Vasquez de Ayllon raided Flor ida for slaves hut made no attempt at settle ment or exploration. The second man to at tempt its exploration was Panfilo de Narvaez, who in 1529 began his fatal expedition west ward from Pensacola Bay. After treading un known wildernesses to the westward, the leader perished at sea, and of his followers only five escaped the fevers and the hostile natives. One of these was Cabeca de Vaca, who after seven or eight years of servitude among the Indians finally reached the Spanish settlements of Mexico. The next expedition was on a more pretentious scale. Its leader was Her nando de Soto, who had been one of the lead ing generals of Pizarro in Peru. Led on to dreams of empire by the returned adventurer, Cabeca de Vaca. De Soto determined to con quer the supposedly rich land of Florida, deter mined to write his name as high as those of Cortez and Pizarro who had conquered whole empires for Spain. On 6 April 1538 he put to sea from Spain in 10 vessels with a great band of followers. He stopped off at Santiago de Cuba and at Havana, and not until 25 June 1539 did his expedition reach Tampa Bay. De Soto explored a great part of the peninsula in 1539 and the following year, but great num bers of his followers were slain by the Indians, all of whom manifested the greatest hostility to thewhite men. After weary months of wandering through the primeval wilderness ,his party reached the Mississippi where De Soto died of fever. In 1559 an expedition on a large scale was prepared to conquer the penin sula, where so much disaster had attended the Spaniards. In that year Don Tristan de Luna set out from Vera Cruz with 1,500 soldiers and a number of priests and monks. On 14 Aug. 1559 he arrived in Pensacola Bay; an expedition was sent into the interior, but disaster after disaster followed, the ships were lost in a hurri cane, food supplies became exhausted; the party became divided in its counsels, and De Luna was recalled in 1561, having accomplished nothing.