“P” is for Pardo, John

“P” is for Pardo, John. Spanish soldier, explorer. Pardo was born in Cuenca, Spain in the first half of the sixteenth century. He travelled to Spanish Florida in 1566 as the captain of one of six military companies sent to reinforce the colony. Pardo’s company was stationed at Santa Elena. In the summer of 1566, the colonial Governor ordered him to explore westward to find a route to the silver mines of Mexico. Pardo never reached Mexico, but his two expeditions—the last major Spanish military explorations of the interior of the Southeast—provide a valuable window to the peoples of these lands in the mid-sixteenth century. He established six forts among the Indians—two of which were in South Carolina. Juan Pardo served as the lieutenant governor at Santa Elena until around April 1569.