Moore, no longer governor, was given a chance to retrieve his lost reputation by a new campaign against Apalache—that Apalache which stood in the road to Pensacola and Mobile. In December, 1703, he set forth from Charleston. When he left the Ocmulgee he had in his train fifty Englishmen and a thousand Indian allies. The Apalache missions had served the red men three-quarters of a century; now they were doomed. The first blow was struck at the fortified town of Ayubale. Father Miranda directed the defence. The fight lasted nearly all day, and the Spaniards yielded only when their ammunition gave out. Several Englishmen fell; twenty-five defenders were slain and over one hundred and fifty captured. Of his exploit Moore wrote, "I never see or hear of a stouter or braver thing done." Near Ayubale Moore defeated Lieutenant Mexla and the garrison of San Luis. A number of prisoners taken were tortured; Father Parga was burned at the stake and beheaded while Mexfa looked on from the stocks. Shortly afterward Mexla himself, Father Miranda, and four soldiers met a like fate. One town bought immunity with the church ornaments and ten horses loaded with provisions. Of fourteen missions this was the only one not destroyed.1 [Para.] When Moore withdrew eastward he took with him 1400 mission Indians. Part of them were enslaved; the rest were established on the Savannah River, safely between Charleston and the Apalachicola allies. Moore wrote to Governor Johnson, "We have made Carolina as safe as the conquest of Apalatchia can make it."