[4] They were searching for a Northwest Passage to India, and they named the land Ajacán, also called "Jacán" by Luis Jerónimo de Oré.
In 1566, they established a military outpost and the first Jesuit mission in Florida on an island near Mound Key, called San Antonio de Carlos.
[6][7] The boy was instructed in the Catholic religion and baptized Don Luis, in honor of Luís de Velasco, the Viceroy of New Spain.
[citation needed] Historians have tried to determine the Ajacán Mission site, but no archeological evidence has been found to reach a firm conclusion.
Recent findings suggest that it may have been in the village of Axacam on the New Kent side of Diascund Creek, near its confluence with the Chickahominy River.
[10][11] Another theory places St. Mary's Mission near the Occoquan River and Aquia Creek, in the territory of the Patawomeck tribe in Stafford County, Virginia.
Don Luis murdered them, then took other warriors to the main mission station where they killed the priests[13] and the remaining six brothers, stealing their clothes and liturgical supplies.
[citation needed] Floridian Jesuit Missionary Father Juan Rogel wrote an account to his superior Francis Borgia, dated August 28, 1572.
[15] That month, Floridian Governor Pedro Menéndez de Avilés arrived with armed forces from Florida to avenge the massacre of the Spanish and hoping to capture Don Luis.
In 1573, Spanish Florida's governor Pedro Menéndez de Márquez conducted further exploration of the Chesapeake Bay[17] but did not attempt further colonization.
Relief supplies were delayed for nearly three years when Philip II of Spain attempted to invade England, and all available ships were pressed into service to repel the Spanish Armada.