News of Woodward's doings caused a stir at Apalache. Antonio Matheos, commander there, now assumed the character of defender of the Chattahoochee border. Governor Cabrera sent soldiers to reinforce the Apalache garrison. Without awaiting them Matheos hurried west and north with a force of Spaniards and two hundred and fifty mission Indians. His primary aim was to capture Woodward and his men and to punish the vassals of Spain who had admitted these foreigners. On his way up the Chattahoochee to the falls, where Columbus now stands, he passed through eight or more of the villages which later were known to the English as the Lower Creeks. Their location was very much the same as that which they occupied a century later.