Meanwhile, the scene of active conflict shifted to another segment of the Carolina-Florida border. From an early period the Carolinians had been aware of the existence of the great Creek confederation, or at any rate of the two leading towns of the Lower Creeks, Coweta and Kasihta. Several times before 1681 they had established contacts with them. But it was not until the Westo barrier was removed that the Lower Creek trade could develop. In the midst of the Westo War the Lords Proprietors had instructed Percival and Mathews to reopen the trade, if unsafe with the Westos, with the 'Chiscah [Yuchi], Sevanaes, or the Cowitaws.' Soon the Lower Creek country became the centre of the Carolinian trading regime. 50 The Lower Creeks, called Apalachicola by the Spaniards, controlled the whole interior region from the borders of Guale and of Carolina northward to the headwaters of the Savannah, and westward to the Chattahoochee. Several times in the course of the international struggle for the Indian trade in the South they changed their village sites. At this epoch their towns were located on the middle Chattahoochee, near the falls, within easy distance of the Spanish presidio of San Luis and the missions of Apalache. From Apalache, indeed, the Spaniards were now engaged in a series of efforts to convert the Apalachicola to the faith, and thus translate the nominal sovereignty of Spain into a real dominion.