Heritage Lost - A Novel

In eighteenth-century Spain, Joaquim de la Montoya—a young, spoiled, rebellious son of an aristocrat in Madrid is banished to La Florida to serve as a Franciscan friar until his father is convinced he is worthy to inherit the family’s immense fortune. Unknown to Joaquim, after his departure, Isabella—one of his lovers—gives birth to his daughter in a convent.

Meanwhile in a Florida mission near San Agustin, a young Timucua Indian with the Christian name of Alonso Cabale, has reached his tenth year and Joaquim becomes Alonso’s appointed caregiver. The two  experience the ravages of disease, Spanish oppression, and savage English attacks during Spain’s declining influence.

Convinced that Joaquim loves her, the headstrong Isabella leaves the convent and sails with her daughter to La Florida on a quest to find him. Instead, she discovers a new life in a remote Timucua village. In the meantime, Joaquim has formed different opinions about himself, his role in Spanish society, and his country’s despicable treatment of the Timucua.

Years later when Spain cedes her Florida colony to the English in exchange for Cuba, Alonso, with a handful of Timucua and Yamasee Indians, set sail for that island. After settling in a town outside of Havana, Alonso achieves the sorrowful moniker of the last of the Timucua Indians.

Heritage Lost is one account of the tragic extinction of one of America’s indigenous people groups, the Timucua Indians. It’s also love story in the waning days of Spain’s influence in the New World. Written with the freedom of creative, accurate assumption and historical fact, the book highlights the life and heartbreaking truth about one of the continent’s proudest heritages.

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