JOHN H. HANN COLLECTION AT UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA / COPYRIGHT 2003 JOHN H. HANN ABUSES OF ACTING GOVERNOR JUAN DE AYALA AND TREASURER JOSEPH PEDROSA AND ABOUT THE FRENCH AT ST. JOSEPH BAY Antonio de Benavides to the king, St. Augustine, August 12, 1718. AGI, SD 843, SC, 14 pp. Note in the wide left margin of p. 1 . The governor of Florida gives an account to Y.M. about having given fulfillment to four dispatches and two letters from fray Alonso San Puajo and Don vicente Roja in which they explain to Y.M. that various excesses had been committed in this Presidio. And after having established that they were correct, he ordered Don Juan de Ayala and Don Joseph Pedrosa suspended from their employments. And likewise about the new settlement of Apalache. As also about the bay of St. Joseph’s being already occupied by the French. And generally about everything whatsoever that has come to his knowledge that can possibly touch upon or pertain to the Royal Service. Sire I am giving account to Y.M. about four dispatches that I received: the first, of the tenth of November of last year, in which Y.M. orders me not to permit the introduction of foreign goods into the territory of his jurisdiction. And I will see to it with respect to the aforementioned prohibition with the most special care. ...................../ p. 2............... And with respect to the excesses that Don Vicente Raja and fray Alonso San Jurgo Montenegro advised Y.M. about of having been committed in this Presidio by sergeant-major Don Juan de Ayala and by Don Joseph Pedrosa, treasurer, about trading activity and illicit introductions and other abuses in great disservice to Y. M. and harmful for the Indians, officers, and soldiers. And after having established that they were correct, I ordered their suspension from their employments on an interim basis for Don Juan de Ayala and Don Joseph Pedrosa until Y.M. may order that which suits his Royal pleasure, adding to this that the sergeant-major is eighty-five years old and that Don Joseph Pedrosa has been away from this Presidio in Havana for six months, attending to his own conveniences, without leaving a lieutenant to attend to the things that come up in this countinqhouse that pertain to the Royal Service. I have given the command of sergeant-major to Don Francisco Rome s.r, Captain Comandante of this garrison, and the employment as treasurer to the retired captain, Don Joseph Urisa, a very close relative of the Accountant, Don Francisco Menendez. And while keeping the great improprieties in mind that could arise because of this relationship, nevertheless it has been necessary for me to name him because of their being no other person who could serve in this countinghouse..... Sire, from the two attached letters from the cavalry captain, Don Joseph Primo de Rivera, dated the twenty- eighth of April and third of August of this year, sent to the sergeant-major Don Juan de Ayala, Y.M. will see the state of the new settlement of the place of San Marcos in the province of Apalache, which I will go to reconnoiter as soon as I have taken some measures in this Castillo that are very necessary. And until I have seen all of it and experienced what these natives are like, I shall not truly be able to inform Y.M. about anything more that what these two letters speak to. For to increase the expenditures of the Royal treasury without utility nor hope of reducing these barbarians to the Catholic Religion would be levity on my part after the fashion of the reports that those who make up this Junta are making to Y.M. Keeping in mind, Sire, the order that I brought from Y.M., Don Pedro Fullana for constructing a fort of full opposition for the greater protection and security of these provinces, it has appeared very appropriate to me that Don Bruno Cauallero, Head Engineer for the Presidio of Havana, should come over to reconnoiter that province, with its being certain that, under the shadow of a fortification the Indians will fight (contendran) and the settlements that are made there will be secured. And that these should consist for now of families from Galicia or from the Canary Islands because of the application to labor that they have / p. 4 with its being possible to benefit from the fertility of that country by the third year. And I do not doubt that with their good correspondence with the Spanish families the friendly intercourse with the Indians will be so much greater. Keeping in mind, Sire, that a great deal of money is necessary for all of this with little or no benefit for the Royal treasury for some years. May Y.M. order that which meets with his Royal pleasure and service. For I have always desired to have occasions in which to sacrifice my life, as I have done in as many as have come up during the last twenty-five years. I will speak also, Sire, about the letter of Don Joseph Primo de Rivera about the French having occupied the Bay of St. Joseph thirty-five leagues distant from St. Marks. And this report is confirmed by fifteen deserters from the garrison of a wooden redoubt with five cannons which they have built and a warehouse with munitions and provisions and fifty men. And after having examined these fifteen well, who have been in this presidio for forty- 2 four days, they said that the motive for their desertion and that the thirty-five soldiers who remained and the officers feared that the Spaniards would dislodge them from there. That they were awaiting another fifty soldiers as reinforcements. And I do not doubt that they will increase greatly in strength if they are not cast out soon. For their forces will be greater with time. I have given the viceroy of New Spain account about all of this, so that with the knowledge of it, he may take the necessary measures In the other letter with the plan of the fortification, he says, Sire, that he has already finished it. And on asking the officers of this garrison if the land where he has built the redoubt was good, those who had knowledge of it said about it that it was very sick (emfermo) because of the most of its being / p, 5 ano inundated. And that in the Junta that was held for this fortification, it was left up to the choice that Don Joseph de Rivera would make. They also say, Sire, there is no good port in all those surrounding areas except for the one of St. Joseph, which is already occupied and that most or all are bars with very little water and only sloops are able to enter up to the said fort and [only] not loaded very much. There is also a great lack, Sire, of religious doctrineros. Thus, for the ten Indian villages that there are already reduced in the areas surrounding this Presidio and which are being added to from other additional provinces, there are only five friars for instructing them well in the religion. They are few. And for the settlement of Apalachee to have a good outcome, it will be very necessary for them to come from those Kingdoms on the first occasion that there is for a vessel going to Havana or directly to this Presidio with the families accompanying these hundred soldiers. And eight hundred rifles (fuziles), three hundred mattocks and plowshares for ploughing for working the lands. A good quantity of powder and rifle balls. Some red and blue cloths, a great deal of firewater and flour. All this, Sire, is necessary in order to obtain the goodwill of the Indians and for Y. M. to be the one most esteemed in the giving of gifts that the French practice along with the English, for which there are utilized by this means the kissing-stones, beaver-cloth, deerskins and of buffalo (dezibora). May God preserve L. C the Royal Person of Y. M. as Christendom requires. St. Augustine of Florida, 12th of August of 1718. The Gov. Dn Ant.o de Benavides [Ten pages of Autos follow.] John H. Hann February 25, 2003 and revised and retyped, July 28, 2003 Bureau of Archaeological Research 3 Antonio de Benavides, September 24, 1718 Auto p. 1 ...abuses that were committed during the time that Juan de Ayala governed in this Presidio of illicit trades with the English and heathen and Christian Indians and especially of having given permission to all the soldiers whom Don Vicente Raja, Governor of Havana, sent with the Captain Don Juan de Ayala, without considering the grave improprieties that could follow from the scant garrisoning of it and that the company alluded to came because of a petition (representacion) that Juan de Ayala made to that government that he had had notice that the English corsair had made arrangement to come to invade this plaza. [The governor then orders the questioning of all the appropriate persons to establish this]. p. 2 Statement by Don Francisco Romero de Luxita, September 24, 1718. He states that he knows that Governor Don Vicente Raja of Havana told Ayala that he should take care because, in Providence, corsairs were arming, composed of more than 1,000 men and that they did not know where they would strike and that Romero brought word from St. Jorge [Charles Town] that St. Augustine was their target.