Paquinquineo

There are many who have written about Don Luis de Valasco or Paquinquineo (his native name). Paquinquineo was a youth in 1559/1560 (age 9?) when he was captured in the Carolina Sounds. He was named after the Spanish viceroy in Mexico (after his baptism into Christianity). The Spanish liked young children to learn Spanish. In 1525, a Spaniard, named Esteban Gomez, arrived on Powhatan soil to claim land for Spain (Thwaites, 251-52). Don Luis de Valasco, thought to be the son of a werowance or chief, was captured in the 1560's by the Spanish and educated in Mexico, Madrid, and Havana, Cuba. He was taken to meet King Philip II of Spain, and lived the life of a Spanish grandee (Woodward, 430). Powhatan "Don Luis" was a Kiskiack of Virginia, and a member of the family that ruled over the native towns of that area. In 1570, with eight missionaries and Father Juan Baptista de Segura, the native they now called Don Luis de Valasco, was brought back to his homeland. Upon his return, he took back his position as head of an eminent family and chief of his tribe, which he inherited from his father. He took several wives, which outraged the priests. They shamed him with verbal attacks and he (Don Luis) wiped out the mission. Only one boy survived (Alonzo de Olmos).


"After they arrived there, Don Luis abandoned them ... he was living with his brothers [his tribe] a journey of a day and a half away".
This quote was from a letter written by Juan Rogel to Francis Borgia from the Bay of the Mother of God on AUGUST 28, 1572, to Rome, Italy.


The letter, from Juan Rogel, goes on to say that Father Master Baptista of the Jesuits, sent a message to Don Luis, but the Don refused to come back. The letter pleaded that they were abandoned and had no way to communicate with the natives, without Don Luis. The only thing they could do was barter their possessions for food.

Since Don Luis did not answer their pleas, Father Baptista sent Father Quiros with two other brothers to bring back Don Luis. The Native was now back with his family, and sent the Jesuits back saying he would follow later. Don Luis came back on Sunday, during the Feast of the Purification, and killed all the priests with arrows. Each account is slightly different but all agree on the main points.

This legend was well-known among the natives. Later on, when a supply ship came from Spain, they discovered the death of their priest, so they sailed into Chesapeake Bay and killed thirty [30] tribesmen. However, since Don Luis had learned from the Spanish, he made sure that most of his braves escaped before the ship landed, as they saw it off on the horizon well before it could land.

Chief Powhatan was about twenty-five(25)years of age when this incident occured, in 1570. Tribal oral history, of the time, says that Don Luis was well-known to the Powhatan people. Chief Powhatan knew about the white man from neighboring branches of their confederacy. It was then that Chief Powhatan decided to protect his people from further invasions from the sea. He filled his warehouses with corn, venison, precious shells, pearls, and furs.

Chief Powhatan had many wives and they bore him twenty [20] sons and ten [10] daughters. His favorite daughter was wise beyond her years and she also knew of the world across the sea. It is thought that Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan's favorite wife who died giving birth. Pocahontas was thought to have reminded her of her mother.

The Spanish made the mistake of thinking that because Don Luis was educated in Spanish society, that he would remain loyal to them, but even though it was interesting to learn about Europe, Don Luis was first and foremost loyal to his own people.

When the first English colonists came in 1607, the natives were well aware of the ways of white men.

Many Kiskiasks were hung by the whites for minor crimes, which reminded the Natives of why they distained them. It is actually a miracle that they allowed them to land on shore at all. Remember other Native American Indians had been taken to Europe, not just Don Luis.

It is possible that Don Luis was Chief Powhatan's father or Don Luis' sister was Powhatan's mother, or that he was Powhatan's half-brother, Opechancanough. Mainly this is because the name, Openchancanough meant "he whose soul is white" in the Algonkian tongue. In 1622, fifty years after Mendendez hung the Kiskiacks, the aged Opechancanough almost wiped out the white men's colony at Jamestown, Virginia. Powhatan's half-brother, Opechancanough, was said to be 99 years old when he was shot in 1644, and some claim he was even older.