Juan Rodger
ROGER, Juan, Spanish missionary, born in Pamplona, Spain, about 1540; died in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1618. He was a Jesuit, and sailed from San Lucar for this country in 1566. The vessel on which he had embarked was driven on the coast of Florida and several of his companions were killed by the natives, but he escaped and went to Havana, where he spent several months in studying the language of the part of Florida near Cape Canaveral. With the aid of natives that were then in Havana, whom he converted, he drew up vocabularies and then returned to the province. The Indians among whom he labored were a branch of the Creeks and of a very degraded type, and, not meeting with much success, he went to Havana, where he established an Indian school. In 1569 he sailed again for Florida, landing at the post of Santa Helena, on Port Royal harbor, and he was the first resident priest in South Carolina. Here he attended to the religious wants of the garrison for some time, and then advanced about forty miles into the interior, finding a race of Indians that were superior to any he had previously encountered, probably the Cherokees. He entered their town of Orista and was well received ; but, although he persuaded the natives to plant corn, which he distributed among them, and to build houses, he did not make many converts. His visits to other tribes were equally fruitless, and he returned to Santa Helena in 1570. He then went to Havana to obtain relief for the colony, which was suffering from hunger, taking with him Indian boys from the various tribes to educate. He was again in Florida in 1572, and his last missionary act in the country was to convert eight Indians that had been condemned to death for murder. He then returned with the other missionaries of his order to Havana, and afterward went to Mexico, where he labored for many years with great success.
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia Copyright © 2001
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