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[[Image:Delunalanding.jpg|thumb|right|280px|Depiction of De Luna's landing.]]The '''Luna expedition''' was a [[1559]] Spanish venture led by [[Tristán de Luna y Arellano]] that established an ephemeral colony on [[Pensacola Bay]], near the [[barrancasFort Barrancas]] on modern-day [[NAS Pensacola]]. With thirteen ships and 1,500 soldiers and settlers, de Luna established the '''Puerta de Santa María''' colony on [[August 15]]. Most of the encampment's supplies were still loaded on the ships a month later when a [[September 19]] [[Hurricane of 1559|hurricane]] wrecked most of the fleet. Without food, the expedition sent a group north to search for food. The survivors were evacuated in [[1561]] and the colony abandoned.
It was the first colonization attempt in what is now the continental United States, leading to the tourism slogan "[[America's First Settlement]]." However, [[Wikipedia:List of North American cities by year of foundation|other North American settlements]] in modern-day Mexico and Canada preceded the 1559 Luna expedition, as did the Spanish presence on Puerto Rico, now a U.S. territory. After the Pensacola colony was abandoned, the French established [[Wikipedia:Fort Caroline|Fort Caroline]] in [[1564]] on Florida's east coast, on the site of latter day [[Wikipedia:Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]]. In [[1565]] the Spanish destroyed Fort Caroline and established [[Wikipedia:St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]], which became the oldest continually inhabited city within the continental United States.
==Aftermath==
With the colony in serious danger, de Luna sought to trade with local Indians for food, but found no native villages in the area. He traveled west and reached the [[Alabama River]] on [[February 6]], [[1560]]. He sent a detachment of 150 men north up the river on [[April 15]], and they eventually found the deserted Indian village of [[Nanipacna]], which they renamed "Santa Cruz" and moved in occupied for several months. Back in Mexico, the Viceroy sent two relief ships in November, promising additional aid in the spring.
The relief got the colony through the winter, but the supplies expected in the spring had not arrived by September. De Luna ordered the remainder of his force to march to the large native town of Coca, but the men mutinied. Bloodshed was averted by the settlement's missionaries.
Meanwhile, Spanish officials had issued orders recalling de Luna on [[January 30]], [[1561]]]. Soon after, [[Wikipedia:Ángel de Villafañe|Ángel de Villafañe]] arrived in Pensacola Bay on [[March 9]] and offered to take all who wished to leave on an expedition to [[Wikipedia:Cuba|Cuba]] and Santa Elena. De Luna relented and agreed to leave. The Pensacola colony was inhabited for several more months by Captain Biedma and a detachment of fifty men who Villafañe had left there, in case further orders arrived from Viceroy Velasco.
When they sailed away, the area was not populated again by Europeans until [[1698]], when [[First Spanish period|Spanish]] forces under [[Andrés de Arriola]] established the [[Presidio de Santa María de Galve]].
==Commemoration==
[[Image:PlazaDeLunaStatue.jpg|thumb|right|120px|Statue at [[Plaza de Luna]]]]
In the mid-20th century, Pensacola residents began to recognize and celebrate the historical significance of the Luna expedition.
