Juan Pardo was a Sergeant with De Soto on his expedition in 1539-43. Twenty-five years later he returned to La Florida as a Captain of his own expedition, under the command of Governor Menendez. He had been ordered to take an expedition from the Spanish settlement of Santa Helena (at today's Parris Island, SC) to Cofitachequi and from there follow the route of De Soto across the Blue Ridge, marking a trail as he traveled and building forts along the way to secure the road. He was told to place forts at Xuala (Pardo says Juara) and at Chiaha, among other places. The plan was for him to take his expedition all the way to Mexico and connect this road with the Spanish provinces there. This plan illustrated that even 25 years after De Soto the Spanish authorities still had no conception of the distances involved in the interior of North America.

Pardo went north to the mountains in late 1566 and stopped at Juara, and there he built a fort. Here he left his Sergeant Boyano and 30 men to complete and garrison the outpost. Because of snow in the mountains ahead Pardo turned to the North (Northeast?) and then followed a large river downstream. Some days distant from Juara he left his Chaplin and four men to found a mission, and while there he received word that the French had been seen at sea near Santa Helena, and he was ordered to return at once.

The French threat never materialized, and Pardo remained in Santa Helena for the winter, but his Sergeant Boyano was not idle back at Juara. He had heard rumors of gold across the mountains at Chisca and had taken it on himself to make expeditions across into the Tennessee Valley in search of it. In the process he had started a serious war with the Indians. When Pardo found out he was displeased, but gave Boyano permission for another venture across the mountains, this time to Chiaha. As spring arrived Pardo received a frantic call for help from his wayward Sergeant. He was in Chiaha surrounded and isolated by the Indians there.

Pardo pressed north with his little army and arrived at Juara, now held by 10 men. From here he crossed the Blue Ridge and made his way to Chiaha. Boyano and his men were scared, but safe. From here Pardo decided to continue down the De Soto trail to Coosa. Before he arrived there he was told by friendly Indians that a large ambush was planned just ahead, consisting of thousands of enraged Indians. Pardo decided not to risk battle with such odds and returned to Chiaha.

At Chiaha and surrounding towns he built several small forts and left garrisons to protect them, and then he returned across the mountains to Juara. There he found word from his commander that he was to returned, and so leaving a garrison at Juara he once again marched south to Santa Helena. That was the last visit Pardo made to the interior.

The garrisons at the various outposts spent the summer and into the fall of 1567 searching the areas around their forts for precious metals, and some may have been responsible for the remains of mining operations rumored to have been seen by early settlers. But the Indians were becoming more and more hostile, and as time passed the outposts beyond the mountains were closed and the garrisons called back to Juara. It seems that some of the Spaniards may have remained with the Indians by choice.

With his Indian alliances faltering the commander of the fort at Juara, unable to get re-enforcements from the coast, evacuated the fort before the end of the year and returned to Santa Helena. In the following years the mission was evacuated by the Spanish, and eventually so was Santa Helena itself.

The following accounts of these activities reside in the Spanish Archive at Seville, Spain, and are letters of "official report" to the Spanish Authorities and the King of Spain.
The translation presented here is by C.D. Huneycutt and the page reproductions are from the Appendix of the book

The Pardo Expeditions 1566-1567
by C.D. Huneycutt and Roy Blalock, Jr.
1985

The Account of Juan de la Bandera (John Vandera)