Brothers in Arms
Dire Straits
((( MUCOZO )))
dave hogerty
2015 — Mucozo and Ortiz still live in the archway between Thomas and Sledd Halls, looking down at the college life passing below them, as they have since 1905, when UF’s first (Murphree Area) dormitory was built.
THE
MURPHREE STONES
story and pictures by Dave Hogerty
Stained, pitted, and worn by more than 75 years of North Florida weather, the concrete faces on the walls of the Murphree Area dormitories continue to silently watch over the college life passing below them.
On the archway between Thomas and Sledd halls, two faces out of Florida’s violent past are preserved. Juan Ortiz, a Spanish sailor, and Mucozo, an Indian chief, weren’t much older than most UF students when they lived near Gainesville more than 440 years ago. But filled with torture, starvation, and war, their lives were much difterent than those who live there today.
When the dormitory was being built in 1905, architect William A. Edwards asked an artist to fill the arch looking onto the Murphree Area courtyard with scenes of Florida history. The artist chose to represent the bloody years when Ortiz and Mucozo became unexpected friends, and whose relationship helped bring a long-awaited peace to Florida.
Juan Ortiz was 18 years old in 1529 when his ship landed near Tampa Bay in search of a lost Spanish expedition which had landed two years earlier.
The leader of the expedition, a ruthless man named Naravez, had terrorized the Indians as had the Spanish in Mexico and Peru in their quest for gold.
But three months later, when Naravez missed his supply ship, he was friendless in a hostile. land.
In a hopeless eftort to reach safety, Naravez sailed his 600-man crew north along the gulf coast on barges they had made. But storms, starvation, and Indians killed Naravez and all but four members of his crew before the survivors were found in Mexico.
Now on the west coast of Florida, Ortiz and the search expedition found only an angry Indian chiet named Hirrihgua, whose face was horribly scarred.
Two years earleir, Hirrihua had encountered Naravez, and was quickly overpowered by his soldiers. Naravez claimed Hirrihgua’s land, cut off his nose, and forced him to watch as his mother was fed to a pack of Spanish war dogs.
Ortiz and the soldiers in the harbor were the first Spaniards Hirrihgua had seen since the brutal attack, and he angrily vowed to capture and burn every man on the ship.
Sensing the Indians’ hostility, the Spanish captain sent only four men ashore – Ortiz and three others. Watching through a telescope, Naravez saw his suspicion was justified, when Ortiz and the others were made prisoners, instead of guests.
Not wanting to risk the rest of his crew, Naravez put to sea, leaving Ortiz and the others to Hirrihgua’s mercy.
But of course, Hirrihgua was without mercy for the Spaniards, and made them a human sacrifice in his New World gladiator games.
On the morning after the next full moon, the entire village gathered on a nearby field where Hirrihgua had the Spaniards unshackled, stripped naked, and left standing fifty yards across from a line of twelve tribal hunters, each with seven -foot hard-oak bows. All attention then went to the elder, whose conch shell growl broke the anticipatory silence.
One-by one, Ortiz and the others were forced to run back and forth across the field, until they were struck and killed by any of the hundreds of arrows that were raining down upon them.
Ortiz was the last sailor standing, and he prepared himself for death as he looked at his three shipmates scattered dead on the blood moistened field, arrows sticking out of their lifeless bodies.
Just before, what Ortiz thought would be his final run, Hirrihgua’s wife and two daughters protested. His wife pitied Ortiz, and argued that he shouldn’t be held responsible for Naravez’ brutality.
Hirrihgua reluctantly complied with his female family’s wish.
Ortiz was spared, but many times during the next year and a half, he’d envy his dead sea-mates.
Ortiz was Hirringua’s slave, and the chief took pleasure in seeing the young boy suffer. He was beaten, starved, and forced to run continuously, from sunrise to sunset, on the same field where he had watched his friends die.
Ortiz endured Hirrihgua’s wrath, and that only angered the chief further. He resented Ortiz’ strength, will, and most of all, his youth.
Frustrated by his inability to break Ortiz, he announced impulsively that Ortiz was to be roasted alive at the next village feast.
On the coming of that day, Ortiz was stretched out and tied to a wooden grill called a barbacoa (barbeque) which stood 3 feet above thick layer of glowing-red coals.
The entire village watched as Ortiz screamed in agony, while the heat slowly rose and his skin began to sear. Again the chief’s wite and daughters protested, but this time more strongly. They scolded Hitrihgua for his cruelty and pleaded with him to have mercy.
Ortiz was once again spared by the womens concern, but not before he was half-baked, and his body covered with orange-sized, blood-filled blisters. Now, like the chief’s face, Ortiz would wear the permanent scars of the hatred between the Spanish and the Native Floridians.
But Ortiz had actually won the respect of much of the Indian village with his extraordinary exhibition of strength and survival.
Later, he was nearly worshipped atter killing a lion and saving the remains of an Indian child who had died recently.
Indian legend told that the killing of a lion brought a person closer to the gods and gave him superhuman power.
With the image of his mother and the dogs still vivid in his mind, there was no way Hirrihgua could bear to see Ortiz gain so much respect in his own village. He brought his family together and explained that despite his love for them and respect for their strong wish to see Ortiz live, his painful memories were stronger and would continue to be as long as the Spaniard was alive. He then demanded his family’s silence at the next feast, when Ortiz was to be executed, the same as his friends had been more than a year earlier.
Feeling for her father, but also seeing the injustice in killing Ortiz, who she had grown fond of, Hirrihigua’s eldest daughter helped Ortiz escape, and seek refuge at a nearby village led by a young chief named Mucozo.
Mucozo, a strong man himself, wasn’t threatened, and welcomed Ortiz to his village. Mucozo was shocked by his stories of the pain and torture Hirrihigua had inflicted upon him. After listening compassionately, Mucozo embraced Ortiz and kissed him on the face as a sign of peace and brotherhood.
Hirrihigua was made aware of his daughter having helped Ortiz, and sent a message north to Mucozo, demanding that Ortiz be returned. Mucozo refused, unwilling to leave his friend to suffer at Hirrihigua’s hand.
Ortiz lived in Mucozo’s village for nearly eight years, until Hernando DeSoto landed near Tampa Bay.
Desoto had heard rumors that there might be a Spaniard living with the Indians, and sent soldiers ashore to search for him. Mistaken for a native, and almost lanced, Ortiz was finally recognized as a European by a horseman who pulled him onto his mount and delivered him to DeSoto.
Atter hearing Ortiz’ moving story, DeSoto met with Mucozo and initiated a peace, ending the years of bloody conflict between the Spanish and the Indians.
Ortiz and Mucozo were then taken on the DeSoto expedition as interpreters and guides. They traveled north to Tallahassee, into Georgia, Carolina and west to the Mississippi River.
It’s not known exactly where or how, but Ortiz was said to have died four years later, somewhere between Carolina and the Mississippi. No record of Mucozo’s fate is known to exist.
Their stone faces, however, will continue to live with today’s UF students who live in the Murphree Area dormitories, the same North Florida area where Mucozo and Ortiz had become friends more than 400 years before.
MYSTERIOUS MURPHREE STONES (PAGE 1.)
MYSTERIOUS MURPHREE STONES (PAGE 2.)
MYSTERIOUS MURPHREE STONES (PAGE 3.) RAW
The Mysterious Murphree Stones
Two Florida Brothers & The Native Princess*
Fleetwood Mac
1973 — Heroes Are Hard to Find
((( “Bermuda Triangle” )))
dave
Subtitle goes in this space
Story and Pictures by Dave Hogerty
Alligator Staff
Juan Ortiz, was an 18-year-old Spanish sailor (explorer) whose first Florida encounter was his being taken hostage, and almost roasted alive by the Natives he met in the jungle northeast of Tampa Bay. Born in Seville, Spain, and the son of a nobleman, Ortiz had first traveled to Florida with the ill-fated conquistador Panfilo de Narvaez. Commander of an expedition that landed in or near present-day St. Petersbug in 1528, Narvaez quickly proved himself a brutal enemy of the Tocobaga Indians living in the area. He cut off the nose of a chief named Hirrihigua and literally fed one of the chief’s family members to the expeditions war dogs. As might be expected, the chief (called Ucita by one of the De Soto chroniclers and Hirrihigua by another) developed a fierce hatred for Europeans. He thirsted for revenge and the opportunity finally came when the
unfortunate Juan Ortiz fell into his hands. Ortiz had been a member of the Narvaez expedition, but had gone back to Cuba with
the ships as the ill-fated soldiers marched away into the interior of Florida. When she heard nothing of her husband, Narvaez’ wife sent Ortiz and 20 or 30 others back to Florida in a small ship to search for him. Ortiz was among those on board the vessel. When the ship arrived at Tampa Bay, the sailors spotted what appeared to be a note attached to a stick or reed and left on a beach. Indians could be seen there and two actually paddled out to the Spanish ship where they were taken as hostages. Ortiz and three others then set out for shore in a small boat to investigate the apparent note, but no sooner did they arrive than were they surrounded by a large crowd of warriors and taken prisoner. At the same time the two hostages aboard the ship broke free and jumped overboard, swimming away to safety. Three of the prisoners were killed with arrows in the plaza of Hirrihigua’s (or Ucita’s) village, but a more gruesome fate was
reserved for Ortiz. After being spared for some time and used as a slave to bring firewood and perform other menial tasks, the 18-year-old Ortiz was tied to a large grill and placed over a bed of hot coals. It was the plan of the chief to roast him alive there in slow agony. Ortiz’s screams soon filled the air and several female relatives of the chief rushed forward to plea for his life. Among these was said to be a daughter of the chief, long remembered in Florida tradition as Princess Hirrihigua.
Ortiz survived but was severely burned and bore the scars of the ordeal for the rest of his life. He eventually went on to live with another area chief named Mococo, who was an enemy of the warriors who had captured him.
In 1539, Mococo unexpectedly informed him that Spanish ships had arrived in the bay and that he was free to go. He set out with several companions to find the explorers, but when he did so the Spanish unexpectedly attacked his little party. Barely still able to speak his native language, Ortiz called out a religious phrase and the stunned soldiers halted their attack. The told him they were from Hernando de Soto’s army and carried him back to their leader. De Soto used Ortiz as an interpreter and he joined the disastrous expedition. The eventual fate of Princess Hirrihigua is not known. Although claims have been advanced on behalf of several communities, the oldest known legend associates the rescue of Ortiz with the Pinellas Point Temple Mound in St. Petersburg. This ancient Tocobaca site is said to have been the village of Hirrihigua (or Ucita, depending on the sorce), the chief who captured Ortiz.
Carlos Santana
((( “all the love of the universe” )))
MYSTERIOUS MURPHREE STONES
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