A. D. 1655-1657.
An anonymous letter to his Majesty recounts the death of Governor Benito Ruid Salazer by a contagious sickness during the absence of the Sergeant Major—The office is held by two others pro tem.—They also died suddenly after serving a short term—Certain officials of the Garrison who are related meet at night and elect as Governor Don Pedro Ruitinez—Who intimidates the people and squanders the money sent for their support—The Treasurer a partner in the illegality, and the Judge receives hush money—This Governor maltreated an official who is also a soldier and a conveyor of monies and goods for this port from Havana, for his Majesty—Traffic in amber from the Indians—Taking the iron and implements sent to be used in repairing the Fort as money to purchase this amber—Declares he will consult his own pleasure concerning the laws of the Church, taking communion once in one and one-half years—A distressing condition of mismanagement—No name signed to the letter—A report from Diego Rebolledo, 1657, concerning the necessity of having an officer to guard the port for incoming and outgoing vessels as pirates had frequently entered and landed before notice could be given—Also the appointment of an officer and twelve infantrymen to guard other ports of the coast—He desists from building more fortifications because of the opposition of the Friars, who protested that the proximity of the Spaniards would retard the conversion of the Indians—The Governor feels that the danger is far greater to the development of his Majesty’s Provinces to allow the enemy a foothold in a Province as rich as Apalachicola—The great distance of some of the Provinces—Indians dying with smallpox—The burden of carrying food such a distance on the shoulders of men—Fray Juan Gomez reports (1657) of the uprising of some of the Indian Chiefs who march to St. Augustine and hang the Governor because of his insistance on their carrying heavy loads of corn into the settlement, when they, the Indians, had vassals to perform such labors—Reports that the Island of Jamaica is heavily fortified by the English who intend taking Cuba—These reports causing much uneasiness in these Provinces.
A. D. 1655.
My Lord:
Moved by piety, and a desire for peace and quietude, it has seemed to me timely to notify you regarding the Government of this Province and Garrison of St. Augustine, Fla., being as you are so high and compassionate a Minister, who is always thinking and caring for the welfare of his people. My Lord, Governor Benito Ruid Salazar, former Governor of this Province, died at the time the Sergeant-Major was absent. God, it seems, took him by a contageous sickness, and although two others have been nominated pro tem., by the death of Benito Ruiz, the reins of government were left in charge of the Auditor Nicolas Ponce de Leon, who governed for six months more or less, when he died suddenly. For this reason, a few of the Officials of this Garrison, who are related, met at night in different parts of the City, and with sufficient defamatory speech elected as Governor Don Pedro Ruitinez, with flattering promises to those who would give their vote. When he had been Governor one year and a half, he had given twenty-three patents of captain, the most of them to two companies of this Garrison, four positions as wardens of the Fort, three Sergeant-Majors said to be andantes—three Auditors, one Treasurer—calling himself Governor and Captain-General. In granting these patents, and other things he has done, he has thrown down the flags, and had the artillery at the Fort salute. He arrived here on the seventeenth of July, with the Auditor, Treasurer, Sergeant-Major and the two captains of infantry who all left that court at the same time. The Sergeant-Major brought a Cedula from your Majesty, for the Governor, which he presented to Don Pedro Ruitinez, and it was not possible to comply with it, it being a military promotion, placing the Sergeant-Major as Governor. Don Pedro Ruitinez had received notice that Don Diego de Rolallado had been appointed Governor and Captain-General of this Port—he sent some friends over to Havana to meet and entertain him during his stay in that City, and thus Don Pedro has maintained his friendly relations with the Governor, although he has not said a word of how he intimidated the people to elect him Governor—nor his other doings—nor how he refused to turn over the Government to the Sergeant-Major. But he did demand his pay. Your Lordship, the Governor and Captain-General arrived at this Garrison on the 18th of June, 1654, having received in Havana $20,000 sent by the Auditor and placed to the credit of this Garrison. This money he used in Havana as follows: Goods—$7,000, gaining in this purchase more than 200 per cent. He sent Don Alonzo Menendez with $8,000 to relieve the suffering and need of the infantry and others who are in your service, and he sold to advantage the remaining goods. In the month of February of this present year there arrived a vessel laden with flour, iron implements and other goods, and although it is true that the person in whose charge they came, brought over $40,000 to be delivered to this treasury, he only delivered $15,000, because in Havana the duties were so heavy and they demanded the pay. The soldier in whose care this money and goods came, is Domingo Nunez. He spent in Havana $2,000 on clothing, filling an order received from the Governor, and another $2,000 in clothing he was to bring from New Spain. The Governor after ordering this became infuriated with Domingo Nunez, cursing him, beating and slapping him in the most unheard of manner—accusing him of not bringing all the clothing ordered, and finally he had him placed in the stockade on the beach. He then had the boxes and packages taken to a neighbor’s and soldier, and opened them—finding after pricing them and adding one-fourth more than the cost to them, that they amounted to more than the $2,000. He then went several times to Domingo Nunez, demanded his papers, searched them, kept him in prison, and then without cause or reason turned him out. It is true he becomes enraged for the slightest cause. It is a positive fact, that he and another spendthrift named Fanfan, have sent out from his (the Governor’s) house, chocolate to be sold on the streets by his body guards. At the time there was such great distress and scarcity, he sent out wine to be sold at such exorbitant prices that only those compelled to have it could buy. In this tavern of his, the people sell cutlasses for bread, chocolate and tobacco. In the large store, run now by Lorenzo Josi, they sell rum and clothing—a bottle of rum costs eight dollars which is an outrage. According to Manuel Barrios, the tavern keeper, he makes thirty-one dollars on a cask. Since there is no more money left to buy these commodities for cash he has adopted another method of selling them in exchange for labor, and makes out checks for this amount. My Lord, in the month of July of last year, there came to this Garrison a party of Indians, who live on the coast near the Bahama Channel with a large quantity of amber, some of which they presented to the Governor, the rest they gave in exchange for goods, and because a few of the soldiers bought some in exchange for clothing he was exceedingly angry. When these Indians left the land he had them followed by two rowboats with soldiers. He finally sent Don Alonzo Menendez with goods that he should bring him all the amber he could obtain, he also sent out others. The Lieutenants were Don Alonzo Menendez and Juan Dominguez and Alonzo Garcia. This trading for amber was carried on for six months. They used up all the iron implements. At first we thought that these implements were broken and thrust aside as worthless, soon, however, we discovered they were used to trade for amber, as well as five hundred tons more of iron which was brought from New Spain. All this was paid for from your Treasury. The amber was sold in Havana for the sum of forty thousand dollars. In the meantime the Fort has been allowed to suffer, it is falling to pieces in many places, the timber that was cut in the forest has rotted and the troops’ time and iron implements are all used in the trade for amber. The infantry and other persons drawing a salary from your Highness have been on several occasions in a great rage with the Treasurer who abuses them and threatens them that Don Diego Rovellado will have them killed in the field—the guards, for the slightest offense, are beaten through the streets, and even imprisoned in the Church of San Francisco, and at times when he can catch them in his own house he slaps and beats them unmercifully. In a year and a half that he has been Governor he has only once complied with the laws of the Church, confessing and receiving the communion publicly. He says that every one can do as he pleases; that he does as he pleases. At the Fort he does not have the flag hoisted, only two guards at night and their round is an easy one, but he takes the men to guard his house every night, paying them a few dimes, and in the day he takes others to whom he pays two or three dimes, notwithstanding that your Majesty sends money each year to pay these men, but I am told that Don Diego Rovellado has paid the judge some five or six thousand dollars and he can escape free from any charge made against him. All that I state to your Highness in this letter, you may be quite sure is the truth, and I hope you will deem it proper to relieve your vassals from this unnecessary suffering. May God guard you and make you happy for many years.
No Signature.
St. Augustine, Fla., November 20th, 1655.
A. D. 1657.
His Lordship:
Having begun the conversion of the Indians in the Province of Apalache at the close of the administration of Governor Louis Harristenir, who was immediately succeeded by Dannian de las Vegas. He placed a few soldiers in this Province to guard the going out and incoming of vessels. Having been informed that they entered and left the Port, and there was no one to give any report of them. This guard was kept there during the assumption of power by Benito Ruiz Salazar and the Auditor Nicolas Ponce de Leon, until the Sergeant-Major Don Pedro Harristenir entered as Governor. This latter, to please the Friar, he not only dismantled the estates of your Majesty in those parts, but he also retired the Lieutenant and soldiers who assisted him, having no one to administer justice to the Natives, nor to give information concerning the Post, and so, immediately upon my taking the place of Governor, having been informed by the General Governors and other notables who were convened in Havana, and notified further by all the principal people of this Garrison who demonstrated how necessary it was to have a Lieutenant in said Province to guard and advise, as there had entered a vessel of the enemy, and the natives had aided them and supplied them in exchange for furs, hatchets, knives and other goods, without its being known in this Garrison. For this reason I named to the position Captain Antonio Sartucha and two soldiers with the instructions which I send enclosed—so that justice might be administered to the Natives, it being too laborious and the distance too great for them to come to this Garrison to adjust their quarrels and differences and to guard the Port and advise me. In a few days after his arrival he notified me of another vessel of the enemy (pirates) who had entered the Port. He asked for aid for infantrymen, which I sent him, to the number of forty, in command of Captain Gregorio Bravo. Before this aid reached him, the enemy was able to procure what they wanted. By pushing into service the natives, he was however able to prevent them from landing. It being urgent that I should go in person to pacify and punish the natives of the Province of Timagua, testimony of which decrees were made. I remit them to your Majesty. I passed on to visit the other Provinces and investigate the condition of the harbors. I did this with the consent of all the Casiques, and the approved judgment of Fray Francisco de San Antonio and other Friars, with the advice also of the Treasurer of the Royal Hacienda, and many of the reformed natives. I left in command the Sergeant-Major Don Adrian de Canizares, being a person of experience and trustworthy, giving him twelve infantrymen with which to defend the Port and coast of these Ports, and that he should administer justice to the Natives for which purpose I elected a syndicate of Friars who work in said Province, and some of their friends. Having determined upon this at the time you ordered me to be vigilant and careful, since the English enemy had attempted to occupy one of the Ports of this Province, according to information given your Majesty by Don Diego Cardenas, ambassador to England, and had been sent to me by Field Marshal Don Juan Montiano, Governor who was of Havana—information he gained from some prisoners, which confirms the information you had. There has been a fleet of the enemy on these coasts of Florida and the Bahama Channel. Although I had intended to increase the force of soldiers, build a Fort and found a settlement of Spaniards as I reported was agreed upon in the visit, which testimony, and that of the taxes and good government I remit with the decrees. I have desisted from this on account of the many contradictions and opposition of some of the Friars, who with the pretext that the vicinity of the Spaniards would be dangerous to the conversion, and who do not consider that this danger has a remedy, and it would be much more dangerous that the enemy should occupy that Port and plant foot on your territory and fortify themselves in a province so rich and abundant as those of Apalachicola, the knowledge of which the enemy is sure to be fully aware, and the danger would be irreparable and would lose in totem the conversions of these Provinces, and this Garrison would be unable to dislodge the enemy, from the distance at which we are, and that we could not scatter our forces, being too few of them, besides the consequences and damage which would accrue from pirates on the coast of Havana and the Bahama Channel—and there is no way of reaching us under five or six days of sailing. Finally your Lordship, the greater part of these conversions are reduced to three Provinces where Friars officiate—they are the Provinces of Guale, Tunnuqua and Apalache. In the two first there are few Indians, because for some time they have been diminishing, many having died out from the plague and small-pox which has been raging. The same is the case in Apalache, and in a few years very few will be left, and even now the condition they are in, it is unnecessary to assign as many Friars as you have. Besides their conversion would long be delayed owing to the great distance from this Garrison, the impassable roads and untold difficulties in sending relief, even should your Majesty send the wherewith to do so. Food must be carried eighty leagues from this garrison to the Province of Apalache and Chacata, on the shoulders of men—the burden is often more than they can carry. Although I have been admonished to relieve the twelve soldiers and Lieutenant for the good of the natives and the benefit they receive. I have sent persons there to remedy the evil, and seeing all I have herein stated that you may order things as you deem most advantageous and I shall carry out your orders regardless of the petitions of the Friars, who only base their objections in not wanting the Spaniards about them, as in their present condition they are absolute masters of the Indians.
May God preserve your Catholic Majesty.
Diego Rebolledo.
St. Augustine, Fla., October 18th, 1657.
A. D. 1657.
Things are in a most disastrous condition in Florida, there will soon be no government left, if God does not help us. The Casique of Tarihila refused to send some of his principal Indians to St. Augustine with heavy loads of corn. I don’t know why the Governor insisted on this labor, but the Casique gathering together the other Casiques insisted that their principal Indians should not be made to do this work that they had vassals to perform their labor. The Governor took the refusal much to heart, and as a man of so little experience insisted until he caused them to rise. They said they were not slaves; that to obey God they had become Christians—they had never been conquered, but had listened to the word of God the Priest had taught them. So the Casique of San Martin at the head and all the Casiques who would follow him, which were the Casiques of Santa Fe, Potano and San Pedro, who marched from San Francisco and San Mateo with the others, making in all eleven Casiques, entered and hung the Governor. Think, your Fatherly Majesty, of such happenings. In a land where such war is carried on, I cannot tell you of the atrocities perpetuated by these poor Florida Indians. Nor do you understand how the Island of Jamaica is settled by the English, who have it well fortified with three strong Forts, and all the harbors are guarded. All prisoners from there tell us, and all who come from there tell us that now, in this month of May forty store ships arrived for them, and it is their intention to take Cuba. This has been known here and in Havana by mail, which has come. It is very important to notify you of all this, for soon it will be impossible to travel from here to Spain nor from there here. By giving this information I feel that I fulfill my duty, and you can act towards your vassals in a fatherly manner.
Fray Juan Gomez.
St. Augustine, Fla., April 4th, 1657.
