Diego de Velasco
| Diego de Velasco | |
|---|---|
| 2nd Governor of La Florida | |
|
In office September 17, 1574 – February 24, 1576 |
|
| Preceded by | Pedro Menéndez de Avilés |
| Succeeded by | Hernando de Miranda |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1500 |
| Died | 1575 Florida |
| Profession | Military official and Governor of Florida (1574 - 1576) |
Diego de Velasco (?? - 1575) was a career soldier who served as interim Lieutenant Governor of Spanish Florida between 1574 and 1576. His administration ended with his and his treasurer Bertolomeo Martinez's imprisonment by his successor as governor, Hernando de Miranda, following investigations of corruption in his administration, as well as crimes committed against Native Americans and the Spanish settlers of Florida.
De Velasco was the son-in-law of the first governor of Florida, Pedro Menéndez de Aviles. He joined the Spanish army in his youth, achieving the rank of lieutenant.
In 1571, Velasco oversaw the construction of Fort San Felipe on what is now Parris Island, South Carolina, a defensive structure built to protect the Spanish settlers of La Florida after a raid by French settlers and Native Americans allied with them.
On September 17, 1574, after his father become a general in the Nueva Armada Real (New Royal Army), Velasco was appointed temporary Governor of Florida, although this was an interim appointment made upon the death of Menéndez. The colony's capital was the recently founded settlement of Santa Elena in what is now South Carolina.
The cacique of Guale told Alonso de Olmos that the Spaniards "had made him a Christian", but only to enslave him and steal his property. Apparently Velasco and Captain Alonso de Solis had taken several brazas (a braza was a Spanish unit of length equal to the reach of outspread arms) of the native medium of exchange, worth two gold ducats each, as well as several canoes, from the Indians without payment. Velasco denied he had forced the Indians to pay him personal tribute, and said that in fact, he and the Indians had exchanged gifts, and that the Indians had thus obtained Spanish products such as iron farming implements, blankets and clothes. Velasco said that he had established a friendship with the cacique, who had fallen ill on a visit to Santa Elena, and treated him with costly medicines until he recovered. Velasco also maintained that he had given the chief and his wife other gifts, such as clothes, and that in appreciation, they had given him a braza of black pearls, but of low value.
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Wikipedia