"THEY HAD COME 20 LEAGUES THIS WAY": THE MID-SIXTEENTH CENTURY SPANISH GARRISON AT PUERTO DEL SOCORRO AND FORT SANTA LUCIA AMONG THE AIS AND JEAGA.

This article focuses on locating the mid-16th-century Spanish garrisons of Puerto del Socorro and Fort Santa Lucía along Florida's central east coast and examining their interactions with the Indigenous Ais and Jeaga peoples. By analyzing 16th- and 17th-century Spanish primary sources, including league-based distance measurements and comparative ratios, the study identifies Puerto del Socorro near South Beach on North Hutchinson Island in Ais territory and Fort Santa Lucía just north of Jupiter Inlet in Jeaga territory. The article also highlights the garrison's history of starvation, mutinies, Native American attacks, and documented cannibalism at Fort Santa Lucía, as well as clarifies that the lime-plastered ruins seen by later English castaways were likely Indigenous buildings rather than Spanish structures. Establishing these locations provides a mid-16th-century baseline for understanding the shifting Indigenous social geography among the Ais, Jeaga, Guacata, Santa Lucía, and Jobe peoples in the region.