They quickly found the area unsuitable for settlement and relocated to the south, possibly at Sapelo Sound in Georgia, where the colony lasted just two months before it was overwhelmed by disease, hunger, a slave uprising, and a hostile Native American population.

[2] Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón was a wealthy sugar planter on Hispaniola and magistrate of a colonial royal appeals court, the Real Audiencia.

[8] "Chicora" was the Spanish name for Francisco's homeland, Shakori or Waccamaw, one of several Siouan-speaking territories in the region subject to a chief Datha of Duahe.

In Spain they met the court chronicler, Peter Martyr, with whom Francisco spoke at length about his people and homeland, and about neighboring provinces.

Francisco described the people of Duahe as "white" and having "blond hair to the heels", and told of a gigantic Indian king called Datha, who ruled a race of giants.

[9][10] On June 12, 1523, Ayllón obtained a cédula, or royal patent, from Charles V and the Council of the Indies allowing him to establish a settlement on the eastern seaboard and conduct trade with the local natives.

In return for these and numerous other privileges, Ayllón was required to perform a more detailed exploration of the region, establish missions, churches, and a Franciscan monastery to further conversion of the native population, and he was restrained from implementing an encomienda or other means of forcing Indian labor.

The large colonizing group landed in Winyah Bay on August 9, 1526 and encountered their first significant setback when their flagship, the Capitana, struck a sandbar and sank.

In addition, Francisco de Chicora and the other Indians brought along as interpreters and guides, deserted the fleet in the first few days and escaped into the woods.

Ayllón ordered a replacement vessel, La Gavarra, to be built, probably the earliest example of European-style boat building in what is now the United States.

[17] They looked for a suitable site to establish a settlement at nearby Pawleys Island but the soil was poor and a sparse Indian population offered little chance for profitable trade.

Based on their reports, Ayllón decided to move about 200 miles south to a "powerful river", probably the Sapelo Sound in present-day Georgia.

[24] Sixteenth-century sources provide only vague and sometimes contradictory information regarding the location of San Miguel de Gualdape.

[25] In the early nineteenth century, historian Martín Fernández de Navarrete said the expedition first landed at 33°40' and then proceeded north to establish their settlement on a river near Cape Lookout.

Other historians followed his lead and said Ayllón travelled north after the initial landing; in 1861 Johann Kohl placed Gualdape on the Cape Fear River; and in 1886, John Gilmary Shea cited the seventeenth-century Spanish explorer Francisco Fernández de Écija who reported that Ayllón travelled north and settled at the future site of the English colony, Jamestown.

[26][27] In the 1850s, the complete text of Historia general by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo was first published, providing important clues about the location of Gualdape.

[29] In 1990, historian Paul E. Hoffman wrote that Ayllon first landed at the Santee River and afterwards established San Miguel de Gualdape at Sapelo Sound in present-day Georgia.

[33] [34] After the failure at San Miguel de Gualdape, Spaniards concluded that Ayllón had not prepared properly for the colder weather or the more aggressive Indian population.

The next attempt to explore the region was led by Hernando de Soto and his expedition reflected the belief that a more militaristic approach was needed.

Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, a contemporary chronicler of the expedition, says only that "some" enslaved Black people were brought along.

[15] In October, a group of the enslaved people in the settlement set fire to the home of Gines Doncel, the leader of a mutiny against the colony's leadership.

[36] This episode, in which enslaved people supported the established government against the mutineers, is regarded as the first slave rebellion in mainland North America.