Apalachee and St

APALACHEE AND ST. AUGUSTINE IN THE MID-1680s

Complaints about friars treatment of Indians and other topics.

(From hand-written notes and excerpts I made from documents at some time--apparently a xerox copy I made of those notes).

Governor Juan Márques Cabrera to the King, February 28, 1687. AI 54-5-13/2 (SD 228 in the modern system), 32 pp. (On the Visitor’s solution for Franciscans’ abuse of the Indians). p. 1

(regarding) “fray Miguel Martorel pe predicador deste presidio premio indigno al castigo que hiço a los dos

Indios de Tomoli, tan sin piedad ni caridad.....”

Fray Miguel Martorel, father preacher belonging to this presidio, prize (?) undeserving of the punishment he inflicted on the two Indians from Tomoli, so without pity nor charity....” p. 3 [note by me] “Martorel had two Indians severely whipped and also continued the sowing of milpas

(maize-fields) or savanas under the pretext that they were destined for the churches and for the relief of

Indians in need and that he spoke harshly to chiefs, leading men, and Indians in general.”

[Most of those 32 pages are made up of enclosures, consisting of the decrees instructing the official visitor to deal with the complaints about the missionaries’ mistreatment of the Indians]. p. 26, line 3 “mano esta el poner el remedio que convenga y para que V. Rnd lo via con sus ojos Remito al sargto Gerónimo de Ribera con esos dos indios del lugar de San Martín de Thomole, ellos quales el uno lleba abiertas todas las espaldas con haver ciencia del Le y nte dr (?) as q. lo castigaron y el otro aun que no tanto...has his thumb (dedo pulga) lastimado”

(My translation of the above 5 lines) censure is the handing out of the remedy that is appropriate and so that

Your Reverence (? V. Rnd) may see it with his own eyes, I am sending those two Indians from the place of

San Martín de Thomole to the sergeant Gerónimo de Ribera, of the which has all his back open from having knowledge of the twenty (??) days that they punished him and the other one, although not so much, nonetheless...he has his thumb injured.....”

(presumably from the same source) page 15 mid-page

Ibj (?) Son para el adorno y las yGlesias yso isso (?) correnles en las necessidadeslabraen en continuos y

YnPerfuos (superfluous) travajos haciendo les lleban a cuestas------pay Vinos q------Pon

1 JOHN H. HANN COLLECTION AT UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA / COPYRIGHT 2005 JOHN H. HANN alleba costreado y esse presso sin pagarles cosa aguna y quepro PuLis teis al Provincial que en los pueblo- que ay de dpce hasta quarenta yndios q distan unos de otros ---- legua hasta tres y quatro le podrá Ex eu sard henen cada pueblo un religioso pudiendo administrar indoctrinixp quatro o cinco pueblos como lo hacen en la nueba españa mayormente sendo los Indios tan himildes y q no se avia a de (?) cansado ninguna reducción...... pp. 22-23 Seems to be ordering that all the Indians be taught Spanish [Thus in

English.]

[My translation of the above].

Ibj (?) They are for the adornment and the churches. This keeps them in need of working in continuous and superfluous labors, making them carry on their backs------pay wines that------they are put to carry on their backs (?? costreado) and that presidio without paying them anything at all and that he should propose to the provincial that in the villages where there are [only] from twelve up to forty Indians that are

league distant one from the others up to three and four they will be able to forego each village’s having a religious in it with its being possible that one religious would administer and indoctrinate four or five villages as they do in New Spain especially in view of the Indians being so humble and that there will be no need de (?) cansado any reduction......

[The following is a second distinct piece].

AI 58-2-2/38 Gov. Juan Márques de Cabrera to the King, March 20, 1686, St. Augustine, 24 pp. [Santo

Domingo 852 in the modern system].

On p. 2 the governor comments on the Indians’ acquisition of arms from ships in the port of St. Augustine.

He remarks that he does not intend to try to take away the Indians’ existing guns but that he will see to it that they do not get any more.

The enclosures begin on page 4. The first one apparently is a list of the arms in the fort of St.

Augustine. pp. 4-16.

Pages 17-20 contained instructions for the care of the arms cache. I made a note that I did not copy anything from it because it did not satisfy the instructions I had been given as to what I should copy

------

[The following is from a third distinct piece].

AI 54-5-15/33 [Santo Domingo 230 in the modern system].

The Royal Officials to the King, St. Augustine, October 2, 1686.

On p. 2 (bottom) They note that since the Indians have no one to speak for them [A line or 2 was cut off when I xeroxed my notes from this piece.. The next and last page from my notes from it begins as follows]: obliga a dar quenta a V. Sr. de como los casiques nobles y principales de la provincia de Apalache / p. 3 la mas numerossa de Jentio que ay que consta de 15 lugares populosas hallandose disgustados y sentidos con el Lt Antonio Matheos placed in that province by the Governor, Cabrera, por razon del mal trato que les da y hay afieles asi de obra como de palabra, afrentandolos com ellos, poniendoles los manos, imprisioning them, removing them,....they have appealed to the governor in vain, so they now appeal to you to move the said lieutenant governor..... p. 4 They accuse the governor of making “poco caso” i.e. giving little attention

[to the chiefs who came to see him]. I stopped copying from this piece at this point, noting that it had

“Nothing more than this for me here.”

[On a separate sheet I made some notes from a document by Diego de Florencia without identifying the source of that document,] as follows: pp. 25-26

When Lieutenant Ruíz Mejía was wounded at Ayubale, he named Diego Florencia as his second-in- command and ordered him to return to the blockhouse with the soldiers that he was able to round up by ordering a withdrawal. p. 71

In 1689 he petitioned the crown for a futura (an acquired right to an office before the position became vacant) on either of the proprietary positions in the royal treasury at St. Augustine for his son Matheo Luis de Florencia. Diego Florencia was sufficiently wealthy to be able to pay 1300 pesos escudos of 10 reales de silver each to the crown in order to purchase that position for his son. Under that arrangement Matheo

Luis would begin to work in the treasury at half salary and, upon the death of either the incumbent treasurer or accountant he would succeed to that person’ position with full salary.