A. D. 1605-1608.

Minutes of the Bull or Supplication which the Minister of this Court in Rome should present to the Holy See, asking for the concession of new graces and powers in favor of the Catholic residents in Florida, which precepts have been formulated by the Judge complying with the Royal Decree of your Majesty in consultation with the Council.

As formal instructions they should state that these Minorcan families transmigrated to Florida under the English dominion, but with the free use and privilege of their Catholic Religion. They carried with them as spiritual directors Don Pedro Campos, secular Priest, and Padre Bartolome Casanovas, a Monk, that these, for the legitimate discharge of their Ministerial duties, repair to the Holy See, begging they be constituted Pastor of that flock, dispensing them all the powers necessary, that your Holiness benignantly accede to their urgent petition, to grant them different privileges and powers, among others the administering to that Catholic people all the sacraments, even those not Parochial, except confirmation and Orders, extending this privilege for a term of three years when they shall obtain a new license from the superior Prelates or Bishop nearest to Florida. That is what has been done, because I have received a new Cedula from your Majesty ordering that the proceeds of the duties on wine should not be spent on anything but the bringing of water. I cease, satisfied, that before suspending the execution of this Cedula. I shall take time to inform your Majesty that it was necessary for me to avail myself of this money for these purposes. I do not at present send an account, until I can send it finished, that it may not be a work which the Viceroy may consider impossible to accomplish at so small a cost. I beg of your Majesty to consider it. Otherwise I shall obey to the letter this Cedula and I await your reply. Not receiving a reply, I shall take for granted that your Majesty is satisfied. Being so general and important in this Kingdom the practise of other business, and there being a possibility of misunderstanding in this matter, I resolved to visit some of the vineyards of this kingdom, and so I went to Tasco, some twenty-eight leagues from this city, taking advantage of the Christmas holidays, not to lose any time from my ordinary business, it has been of great advantage as I can state just how these things are conducted. I have stated to your Majesty in other letters, the municipality of this City is not governed as it should be, because the Priests or Monks think more of their own interests, reducing all to their own profit. As this takes place the Royal Officers cannot ordinarily attend the meetings, it would be well that the Viceroy should elect four persons of the best standing and principles upon whom your Majesty should bestow Government offices and that the Viceroy should oblige them to accept, for at least four months in the year, giving them precedence after the Royal Officers, and thus assure their attention to matters which are looked upon indifferently in one of the best Cities you possess, and which is improving each day. If the Council will consider this proposition and your Majesty pleases to execute it.

The Decree sent by me and the Official documents for the high notaries of Government and legislative bodies of this Audience and particularly for the notaries of the Treasury, that they might transact some important business which was taken from the books and have been badly attended to because there is no one to be solicitous about this matter, and it not belonging to the duties of the Judge, it is neglected as are other affairs. It becomes obligatory to find some faithful and trustworthy person of influence to take charge of this Office and assign them a salary of $800.00 a year. Show and make them understand the anxiety which I feel concerning it and how it retards other business. Being new in my Office I have not cared to assign any one until I had a license from your Majesty for doing so. I shall await your decision. It seems to me the salary could be assigned through the Legislature, and if they neglect their duties discharge them.

In New Vera Cruz, Pedro Casco Calderon has been serving as Treasurer of the Royal Chest by nomination of your Majesty, he also occupied other Offices in Spain. He is old, the many years of service at that Post and the conduct of his wife, have disturbed his mind; he is also running a butcher shop and other enterprises not in accordance with the Royal Office. The situation is such that nothing should be concealed from you. In being served you might give him some small Office at home, and I should remove him to some other place, if I did not understand the necessity of his attending to his estate, which is in that neighborhood, and all his other profitable enterprises.

The first registered vessel was lost on the coast of Campeachy, and although the Papers for your Majesty were taken out, they had been under water so long that they were useless, scarcely legible. The second vessel of advice was taken by the French on its return from Saona, and they stripped it of everything, leaving vessel and crew in such a ruined condition they could proceed no further than Santo Domingo. Seeing that they were lost they threw the papers for your Majesty overboard. Thus it becomes necessary that one and the other be duplicated. Your Majesty will please see that the person in Sevilla who has charge of these vessels be careful of the person to whom he entrusts these Documents as so far the person in charge does not seem to understand their importance, and so, it is only miraculous that we get them at all. It has been very gratifying to all in this Kingdom the favor shown by your Majesty to Don Francisco. I trust he will serve you well and faithfully. It is prohibited that an Alderman should serve a private individual under penalty of losing his Office. In this city Don Luis Maldona, son of Maldona who was Judge of this Supreme Court, has a regiment. On account of his talent and the good services he can render I have him occupied in my service, and that he may not fall under the penalty of the law I implore your Majesty to send him a permit that he may attend to both, or a license that he may resign his place in the regiment and serve your Majesty otherwise, on a salary that you shall name. I consider the first plan best. Don Luis Valasco has arrived and I thought best to introduce him and have some attention bestowed upon him, on account of his position. I shall show him all respect and visit him, feeling sure you will thus be well served. The case is free of consequences. Having sent you a letter of dispatch through the Supreme Court of Castile stating that Dr. Lievana will go over to that Kingdom and render an account of the expenses of the residence and trip of the first Lieutenant of Assistencia of Sevilla. Dr. Lievana acted as Mayor in the interim between the death of SeÑor Trufillo and your appointing Don Francisco de Onate. He is a person who will render you good service, he can be relied on, is among the noblest here, and could fill any office. I have detained this vessel that I might inform you of the departure of the vessel for the Philippines.

May God preserve you for many years.

The Marquez of Montes Claras.

Mexico, March 31st, 1605.

(There is a Rubrica.)

A. D. 1605.

Sire:

I sent your Majesty one of your royal Cedulas dated in Valladolid, April 3rd, in which I laid before your Majesty the necessity and want these poor married men are in. It is impossible for them to support themselves; there are seven and eight in a family to be fed on the father’s rations. As I have before stated to you, it would be a great charity as well as a service to God to help them that they may not perish. This may be remedied when the other people arrive. I can then give permission to the valetudinarians and sick to return home, your Majesty having sent as a reward for so many years of service the means to defray the cost of the voyage. I can give according to the condition of each one and to the married men who remain here in service please order an extra half ration for each child with some other slight assistance while they serve as soldiers and their daughters are too young to marry. I assure you that aside from being a great charity it will be no more than justice, as they are among the best soldiers I have ever seen on land or sea. Among the necessities your Majesty may see proper to relieve is the suffering of a lady of standing, widow of two captains who served many years in this Province and who had charge of it in the absence of the Governors. Aid given here will be one of the greatest of charities, as before stated. The negroes who were here for over forty years, working in the Havana forces, have died, and it will be well to send about a dozen more and three or four negro women.

Your order that I should not collect from the New Spain more than was necessary I have carried out so far, and I wish to remind you to send a trustworthy accountant as the one at present occupying that office is not fitted for it. During the residence of Gonzalo Menendez Canso, the Treasurer, Juan Menendez, asked and exacted that duty should be paid your Majesty on some amber which Bartolaine Perez and Gaspar Martin, soldiers, had found in a fish’s craw, and with promises which Gonzalo Menendez made the soldiers, he palliated them and said the duty must be paid according to one of the chapters of royal instruction. At that time we could not ascertain if it were true. The said soldiers had already put in a plea to the said Gonzalo Menendez and as interested parties could not be witnesses in these investigations. The other person through whose hands it must pass was Lieutenant Fabeicio Lopez, and he was not here. He has returned now and makes the accompanying declaration, which you can place with the declaration of the soldiers, and you can have your duties and give the soldiers what was taken from them, not allowing them to make a manifestation. The Treasurer has asked me to let him use a permit he has to go to that kingdom on business and solicitations. I have not allowed him to use it, because we are so much in need of men and there are so few I can put my hand on in case of need. God protect your Majesty.

Pedro Ibarra.

Dec. 26th, 1605, St. Augustine, Florida.

A. D. 1607.

Sire:

In a letter of the 22nd of January of the present year, which was sent from Havana with a notice of the death of Governor Don Pedro Acuna I have forwarded you, I have also notified you of what I thought of doing with the French and English pirates I held as prisoners. One day after the departure of the boat I sent to have them hanged, using with them such religious treatment as is customary. Ten of them were baptized, the others stated they had already been baptized. It seems that all died as Christians, so that this whole City with their fraternities turned out to lay them out and bury them. I only wish that with these pirates we might put an end to them all on these coasts. There are so many they keep me in great anxiety and I implore you to send me people to destroy them. I have every one on this coast enlisted to aid in their destruction. But my experience is that many have not only sheltered them, saved their lives and estates, but continue to serve them and allow them to come and go at will. They come from a distance of a hundred leagues with all confidence and safety. This week, which is Holy week, I have had here several Casiques and Chiefs who are the lords of the mouth of Miguel Mora, where, I have before told you, we should erect a fort and from there capture the fleet of Charles. I shall tell you the names of these Casiques that you may know who they are and the great achievement I have made in gaining their services. They have returned to their country dressed and very happy and edified with the religious services and processions they have witnessed during this Holy season. They ask for Friars to instruct them. I told them I would come there to visit them. I notify you that this is the time that with more security and less cost a fort could be built there; they themselves would act as peons, and if possible to do so I would myself ask that from Havana they would send me an engineer and eighty men with two launches. Look into this, as I am quite sure they would all lend themselves to serve in the building, as they would feel safe all along that coast from the invasions of the enemy. The other Provinces are very peaceful. With the warriors, silver miners and woodmen I have so long asked your Majesty to send me. I trust in God that we can touch with our hands the great wealth we surely have in the interior of this land. All this I ask of you I am moved to do by the zeal to serve you and enlarge your estate and not for rest or gain. From all these parts I have had here this week over five hundred Indians, and, God knows, to make them understand it, will require more men than I have in our Order to guide them.

In a letter of September 23rd your Majesty commands me to make every possible inquiry to know the origin and source of the River San Mateo and Lake Miami. As I have always tried to make inquiries, about six months ago I discovered on the southern coast a river which I have had examined by three different pilots, and find that it has nine fathoms of water at the entrance of a much wider river. I notified your Majesty of this new river. This garrison is composed of a warlike people and the Friars of San Francisco are thinking of establishing a Manager of the Inquisition to subject them and control their passions. When I came here these warriors were in great want and I have come to an agreement together with the Royal Officers, that we should have Juan Nunez go to Castilla and try to make terms with some merchant to remedy these occurrences. To Fray Pedro Ruiz they have brought an Order from your Majesty in which you command me to let him go to Castilla on account of his age and failing health; that he is of no further use. It seems to me this Friar has not been here so many years and he is perfectly sound and fresh and robust, never having had so much as a headache.

Captain Alonzo de las Alas has presented me a Cedula from your Majesty which gives him permission to go to Castilla for a term of two years and that during that time he is to receive no salary. He claims that it is an oversight in not appointing some one in his place and allowing him to draw his salary as heretofore and which is just, because whoever takes his place is entitled to half of his pay, and for this it will be necessary that your Majesty order Bartolome Arruchas to return to his Post as the permit granted him by your Majesty has expired.

God protect your Majesty.

Pedro Ibarra.

May 16th, 1607, St. Augustine, Fla.

A. D. 1608.

Your Lordship:

Through a letter of September 20th of last year, 1602, and an account rendered the Bishop of Cuba (the past year of 1606) who came to confirm the Spanish Christians not yet confirmed and the native Indians of these Provinces, I told him all that I thought would be most convenient to the service of God our Lord and your Majesty regarding the conversion of this Garrison to which I again refer, it having come to my knowledge that your Royal Council did not repeat it to you, fearing to tire or annoy you. Now, on learning the resolution you have taken of reforming this Garrison and reducing it to one hundred and fifty infantry, I am sure you have listened to the advice of persons who have never seen this coast, nor do they know anything about the interior of the country, nor the great benefits which have been accomplished in the conversion of the natives who are idolaters and savages, hesitating at no crime however horrible.

If Gonzalo Menendez Canso were moved with the true zeal of God and a proper desire to serve your Majesty it would have been no more than just that when he first assumed control of this Government he should have given you a full and detailed account of the existing state of affairs and sought your advice and not waited until he was quite sure that his Office was to be filled by some one else.

Again, I decided to write this to implore you to consider and look closely into the matters upon which I have advised you and which I have done in all truth and fidelity as I am obliged to for my King. Knowing also that the King of glorious memory, your father, had more trouble and combats than at present on account of economy and the abandoning of this Garrison, he never listened to such things; on the contrary, in the time of Governor General Pedro Menendez Marquez, my first cousin, he increased the force to one hundred and fifty soldiers of Infantry and by thus assigning them to this Post their aid and succor succeeded in subjugating the Indians and in bringing and attracting them to hear the Holy Gospel, and listen to the words of the Friars who preached. This is a public truth. And since that time no Governor has made any conquests or discoveries, nor gone in person to treat with the Indians nor draw them towards civilization by gifts or other means. And if you would at least grant us a Garrison of defense of three hundred Infantry and thirty marines besides the Friars, Governor and Royal officials, with orders that they proceed to ferret out the secrets of the interior of the country, where Lieutenant Mocana entered, and in which latitude there can no doubt be found an excellent port, particularly at Cayagua, where any Armada could with safety enter in an altitude of thirty-three and one-fourth degrees, and where I have myself been in the past year of 1588. Should it prove advantageous and convenient in the Bay of the Mother of God, of Macan, at a height of thirty-seven degrees at its mouth, and which terminates at the foot of the mountain range where I was also, in the same year, in search of the English settlement. It is a more sheltered harbor than this one and nearer for obtaining aid, and an entrance could be made through the Province of Guale in the land of Tulufino, which corresponds with that called Tama, on the skirts of the mountain range. It might be a very advantageous move which would result in the glory of God and your Majesty’s interest; for if we could bring these people to honor the Governor of the garrison and when they found that he was working for their good and not the contrary, there would naturally result a reform among the enemies and we might aspire to carry out your designs in a satisfactory manner. Under existing circumstances it is impossible for this Garrison, composed of so few men, to march out or in any way try to defend themselves against the enemy, and nothing remains but to die bravely defending the Garrison as best they can, and when there remains no one else to defend it, it leaves the Friars and converted Indians to the mercy of God, for it is the only help they can look to, the Forts and Castles of Flanders being so far away they would be slow to respond. If there is to be no more infantry sent I think it would be well to agree upon making this Fort a ravelin and build a good trench of defense along the coast to prevent the enemy from jumping over and in every possible way attend to the preservation of all the above mentioned regarding the Friars and converted natives. Put a stop to all these ambushes and skirmishes and other nuisances which oblige them (the natives) to leave their settlements and fortify themselves upon your domains and do great damage to vessels coming in and going out at the mouth of the Bahama channel, making it unsafe all along the coast of this part of the Indies, possessed by your Majesty and which you will possess for many years for the glory of God and the welfare of the souls of these poor natives, and may His Divine Majesty not permit these arbitrations and troubles caused by a few men who are incited by their passions and own selfish interests and with the pretext of saving you some twenty or thirty thousand dollars cause such great trouble that your expenses will be more than doubled in repairing the damage. You support and maintain the Garrisons of Havana and Porto Rico from rents and taxes of New Spain and it is not just nor proper to put difficulties in your way to prevent you from preserving and sustaining in the same way this one which should be well defended as it is a Port from whence you can pass through those same inland regions to Mexico, and, in my opinion, it is very important to preserve it for this purpose. Havana is of importance, being the key to the Indias and a place where the Armadas and fleets can replenish and repair to continue their voyages through these Kingdoms. With all humility I beg you receive my zeal and good wishes which is to always serve you with fidelity and truth as has been done by my parents, and if on this occasion I did not call your attention to these matters, which are of vast import, I should be committing a crime, and in all this I subject myself to better judgment and implore your Majesty with all humility that as I can be of no other use in this Post, but to serve as Treasurer of these Provinces, which I am at present doing, you will consider my application and give me permission to go to Spain and render an account of the Royal finances intrusted to my care since June of the past year of 1602, hereafter and for this purpose that I be given receipts of my charge, and that during my absence from this Port the employment be at the risk and account of the person left in my place, and who must give bond as is customary in vacations of similar Posts and offices and at the same time that the Governor provide that he be given one half of the salary and that I receive the other half as a means of helping me to defray my expenses, and if my mind does not deceive me my services are deserving of it for the care and anxiety I have suffered in this Garrison by wishing to defend the cause of the profit of the Royal finance of your Majesty and the desire that I have of settling my accounts, not only those I have of my own, but also those of Pedro Redondo which will seem to have been given with pay, which will be the case with those I render if God will give me life for it to employ in your Royal Service. May God grant you many and happy years for the mercy and defense of the faith, the preservation of peace and tranquility of many more kingdoms, and the conversion of as many idolaters as are in these parts.

Juan Menendez Marquez.

St. Augustine, Fla., January 5th, 1608.