Have you ever heard the tale of David Ingram, the first European to walk across North America?

Well, technically he walked from Florida to Nova Scotia, and even that might not be true.

Allow me to explain.

In 1568, Ingram was an English privateer serving aboard a ship called the Minion,

captained by the notorious English naval commander and slave trader John Hawkins.

The minion, along with a small flotilla of other privateers, were anchored off the coast of Mexico when they were surprised by the arrival of a fleet of Spanish warships.

After some initial wrangling and bad faith negotiations, a battle broke out. The English ships

got the worst of it. Four of their six vessels were sunk by the Spanish. But the heavily

damaged minion just managed to make an escape. The ship limped along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico before eventually being run aground

on the west coast of Florida.

The surviving crew were put ashore and told to fend for themselves.

David Ingram and his two shipmates, Richard Brown and Richard Twyde, or

the two Dickies, as I like to call them, were among these stranded sailors. So they decided

to head north in hopes of finding an English settlement somewhere along the route.

What followed was nothing short of an odyssey.

Ingram would later report to writers back in England that his small entourage traveled through the most amazing countries, encountered many dangers, and saw the most marvelous things.

Somewhere north of Florida, the three men were captured by a group that Ingram called the

Gizica. The English traveler claimed that the Gizica typically wore, quote, rubies being six inches

long and two inches broad, end quote.

The rulers of this kingdom were apparently carried aloft on a, quote, sumptuous chair of

silver and crystal, end quote.

These ruby-clad indigenous people apparently stripped Ingram and his companions naked so that they might better examine their strange pale skin.

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