Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda (c. 1536 – after 1575, dates uncertain) was a Spanish shipwreck survivor who lived among the Native Americans of Florida for 17 years.
In 1549, when Escalante Fontaneda was thirteen, he and his brother were sailing to Spain, to study in Salamanca, when their ship wrecked on the coast of Florida.
The surviving crew and passengers were captured by the Calusa, who enslaved them and eventually sacrificed most of them, including Escalante Fontaneda's brother.
He served as an interpreter and guide for Menéndez on a number of missions for the next several years, and returned to Spain in 1569 to reclaim his parents' property from the Crown.
In 1575 he wrote his memoir, which proved valuable to historians of the day such as Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, and remains so today.