In Florida, poblacion usually referred to the proposed planting of a planned and subsidized community of Spaniards or Canary Islanders in some strategic spot-a favorite bureaucratic pipe dream. Reduccion was used more loosely, sometimes referring to the settlement of semi-nomadic people in a proper town where it was hoped that they would tum into farmers, and at other times meaning the return of fugitive native Christians to their deserted towns and responsibilities. During periods of population loss, the three terms reduccion, congregacion, and poblacion - were used more or less interchangeably to indicate the consolidating of two or more small towns of Indians, usually in order to sustain a garrison, operate a ferry, or provide some other public service (Fernandez de Florencia, 1670). (Bushnell SS)