(Worth SGC) The King Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala, to whom I have granted the reward of the duties of my governor and captain general of the city of St. Augustine of the provinces of Florida, or to the person or persons under whose charge its government might be: by two short [letters] which the Field Master Don Diego de Quiroga y Losada, your predecessor in that government, wrote me on February twenty-fourth and April first of sixteen eighty-eight,(1) NOTE 1. The latter is located in AGI SD 839. and by the papers that he remitted to me with them, it has been on record that the governors and Indians of the town of San Jorge on the coast of those provinces have in the past on different occasions and times made prisoners of some Christian and pagan Indians of the Yguala and Yamas language(2) NOTE 2. The mention of the Yguaja (mistranscribed as Yguala) and Yamas languages refers to Guale and Yamassee Indians under the Spanish domain. of the province of Guale, and likewise [they have made] slaves of those of the [province] of Apalachicole, seizing them and taking them to San Jorge, and although various tasks with those of San Jorge have been performed by the said governor and his predecessor so that they might be returned and delivered amicably to the persons who have gone for them, this has not been possible to accomplish, [the English] excusing themselves from delivering them with frivolous pretexts, giving them to understand that they have been captured by pirates and others not subject to that government, taking them to sell as slaves to the Islands of Barlovento, being Indians who have given me their obedience since their [f. 1, vto.] discovery, from which extremely grave damages follow, since beyond the risk that the Christian Indians should leave the evangelical law and return to their errors, superstitions, and ancient idolatries, the pagans might not reduce themselves to our sacred Catholic faith, the Governors of San Jorge have been failing in this, in view of the peace and good correspondence which has always been observed with them by your predecessors in the execution and fulfillment of the treaties arranged between this crown and that of England, as they are charged; this having been seen in my Junta de Guerra of the Indies, along with what my fiscal of the Consejo has said and alleged, it has seemed [suitable] to advise you that in cases similar to this, you should endeavor to admonish the governor of San Jorge to observe, as is his obligation, the good correspondence that we endeavor to maintain on our part with him and the subjects of his King in consequence of the friendship and alliance that there is between this crown and that of England, and that if amicable means, tasks of courtesy, and reprimands are not enough for the correction of similar offences, you will move on to take reprisals against,and retain as many of their subjects as the Indians they took away from us, and have been captured and taken to their colonies, acting in this task with more or less resolution, according to the force with which you might find yourself in order to maintain that which you take in a manner that you do not remain less attended and successful, not being able to sustain that executed in the matter due to the English governor being superior in forces, in which I hope that you will act with the [f.2] prudence that is suitable and so important in order to conserve in all peace and defense those provinces, and of the receipt of this dispatch, and of what happens and what you execute with regard to its contents, you will give me notice in order to find myself informed about it, since thus is suitable to my service. Signed in Madrid on the twelfth of August, sixteen ninety-three. I, the King By order of the King Our Lord, Don Juan de Larrea [paraph] [paraph] [paraph] [paraph] [paraph] To the governor of Florida preparing him for what he is to execute with the English of San Jorge in cases similar to that which is expressed above. [paraph] Official Registered [f.2] I made a copy of this royal cedula which remains placed in the archive of government at my charge. Florida, August 6, 1739. Castilla(3) NOTE 3. Castilla's note regarding the copy he made to replace this original document was placed on the back of the cedula. From the fourth legajo. Number 23.(4) NOTE 4. This filing note refers to the location of this cedula in the St. Augustine archives.