Jonathan Dickinson - Santa Lucea

Santa Lucea

On September 30 the party encountered Ais Indians from Santa Lucea, who called them "Nickaleer" even though Solomon Cresson was speaking Spanish to them. They forcefully stripped the travelers, including the Dickinson infant, of all their remaining clothing, although one of the Indians afterwards gave a pair of breeches to Dickinson's wife. The Indians tore pages from a Bible the group carried and gave them to the travelers to cover themselves, but other Indians snatched away the pages. The Indians also threatened the travelers with arrows and knives. The party was taken to the town, and the travelers were eventually given local clothing, deer skins for the women and a sort of breechclout-apron for the men. The Indians finally fed the travelers. As Mary Dickinson's milk was failing, several women in the village nursed the Dickinson infant.

The Indians of Santa Lucea were finally convinced that some of the travelers were Spanish. They did not think that the travelers with light-colored hair were Spanish, however. They told the travelers that they would be sent on to the next town. They also told the travelers that some "English off Bristol", six men and a woman, were being held at that town, and that the prisoners would be killed before the Reformation party reached there.

In the middle of the night the travelers were suddenly forced to leave the town, and were escorted four miles up the beach by a crowd throwing rocks at them. At this point they realized that Solomon Cresson, Joseph Kirle's cabin boy, John Hilliard, and his slave, Ben, were not with them. The three remaining escorts kept them moving, repeatedly asking them if they were "Nickaleer". When the travelers said they were not, the escorts hit them. On October 2 the travelers passed the shipwreck they had heard of.