Sapelo Island during the Spanish Colonial Era

Archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence reveals that at the dawn of the Spanish colonial era in the 16th century, Sapelo Island was home to hundreds of indigenous Guale Indians. When Sapelo was visited in 1687, only burned remnants of a ruined Spanish mission and fort were noted by English travelers. The intervening decades had witnessed Spanish missionaries and soldiers, Guale refugees, English pirates, and immigrant Yamasee Indians. By the 18th century, Sapelo was totally depopulated, and the last descendants of its original residents had fled to St. Augustine and ultimately Cuba, making Sapelo a remarkable microcosm of the traumatic colonial era.