Ron:

While there were some Portuguese immigrants here in the South the term "Portuguese" appears to have been used for "mixt blood Spanish". The statement is founded by researching some of the local Native American bands/tribes, etc; and of course my own family.

Several of my lines tie into Paul Heinegg's research of FPCs who arrived in the Tidewater by 1700. However, as I have noted several times on this forum we have oral accounts of others who arrived from the West Indies between 1775 and 1800 (or so). Furthermore, we do have accounts of Spanish speakers within some of our lines during the late-1800's.

Louis