Juan Ortiz was a Spanish sailor who was held captive and enslaved by Native Americans

Juan Ortiz was a Spanish sailor who was held captive and enslaved by Native Americans in Florida for eleven years, from 1528 until he was rescued by the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1539. 

Two differing accounts of Ortiz's eleven years as a captive tell of Ortiz being sentenced to death by a Native American chief two or three times, being saved each time by the intervention of the chief's daughter (and possibly other female relatives), and eventually escaping to a neighbouring chiefdom, whose chief sheltered him.

𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲

In 1528, Juan Ortiz was on a ship searching Tampa Bay for any trace of the Narváez expedition, which had landed the previous year. Some people enticed Ortiz and one or more companions on shore with what the Spanish mistook for a message from Narváez. (The fate of the Narváez expedition would not be known to the Spanish for another eight years until Alvar Nez Cabeza de Vaca and three other survivors arrived at a Spanish outpost in northwestern New Spain.) Ortiz and his companions were kidnapped by locals and abandoned by their shipmates. Except for Ortiz, all were killed while resisting capture or shortly after being transported to Uzita. Following Ortiz's example, the chief ordered Ortiz tied to a rack set over a fire after he was taken to the town of Uzita (as told by the Gentleman of Elvas), or sometime after Ortiz was spared from execution by being shot with arrows (as told by the Inca). The chief's daughter pleaded with the chief to release Ortiz, claiming that Ortiz posed no threat to the chief.

After Ortiz's burns were treated, he was assigned to guard bodies placed in the town's charnel house to prevent predators from stealing the bodies during the night. A wolf took the body of a recently deceased young child one night. Ortiz pursued and killed the wolf in the middle of the night, recovering the child's body. After that, the chief Uzita treated Ortiz better.

The chiefdom of Mocoso attacked Uzita and burned it down two or three years after Ortiz was captured. The town of Uzita was then relocated, and the chiefdom's gods demanded that Ortiz be sacrificed. The daughter of Chief Uzita warned Ortiz that he was about to be sacrificed and advised him to go to Mocoso, whose chief had requested that Ortiz be given to him. The daughter led Ortiz out of town at night and showed him the way to Mocoso.

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫

When the de Soto Expedition landed in Tampa Bay in 1539, they discovered Juan Ortiz. Following their arrival at Uzita, de Soto and his men learned of a Christian living in a neighbouring chiefdom. While looking for Ortiz, de Soto's men came across ten or so Native Americans and began attacking them. Ortiz was part of the group being attacked, but he managed to convince the Spanish that he was a Christian (one account says he did so by shouting "Sevilla," his hometown). Ortiz then led the Spanish to Mocoso, whose chief was also named Mocoso. had taken care of him for many years. Mocoso was friendly with de Soto, which caused friction with other chiefdoms in the Tampa Bay area, including Orriygua, Neguarete, Capaloey, and Uzita.

Ortiz was fluent in both Uzita and Mocoso (which were mutually incomprehensible). Mocoso's language was apparently a dialect of Timucua, which made Ortiz extremely useful to de Soto. The expedition passed through chiefdoms that spoke various dialects of the Timucua language as it travelled up the Florida peninsula until it crossed the Aucilla River and entered the Apalachee Province. The expedition then relied on Timucua speakers who could translate from other languages, with Ortiz providing a Spanish translation.

Juan Ortiz died sometime between 1541 and 1542, while the expedition was camped at Autiamque in what is now Arkansas.

𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝

The Incas' version of Juan Ortiz and the daughter of Chief Hirrihigua has become a legend. The daughter of a chief became "Princess Hirrihigua," and in some versions, she was given the name "Uleleh." In 1960, the Daughters of the American Revolution Princess Hirrihigua Chapter erected a marker in St. Petersburg, Florida, commemorating the story of Juan Ortiz and Princess Hirrihigua. 

A historical society published "The Story of Juan Ortiz and Uleleh," a longer version of this legend with the addition of the name "Uleleh" in 1908. Uleyli- The Princess & Pirate: Based on the True Story of Florida's Pocahontas was published in 2018 as a black-and-white illustrated chapter book and a full-color illustrated, abridged junior graphic novel. The chief's daughter's name was changed to "Princess Uleyli of Ucita in Hirrihigua Province" in these versions, and the story is told from her point of view.

𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐬

Some scholars have speculated that John Smith's story of being saved from death at the hands of Powhatan by his daughter Pocahontas was inspired by the story of Juan Ortiz being saved by the daughter of Chief Uzita. Richard Hakluyt's translation into English of A Narrative of the Expedition of Ferdinand de Soto into Florida by the Gentleman of Elvas was published in London in 1609, several years before John Smith published his account of being saved by Pocahontas.

(𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞: 𝐉𝐮𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐳 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐔𝐳𝐢𝐭𝐚 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞)

(𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞: 𝐖𝐢𝐤𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 & 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨 𝐝𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚)

(𝐀𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞'𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬, 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬. 𝐈𝐧 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭, 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠)