Date published: 1994-01-01
Source: Situado and Sabana (ID82)
Author: Bushnell, Amy (ID32)
Primary doc? 0
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Race described: Spanish
Full text? 1
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Content id: 224
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Filename assigned:
1566-01-01 - 1566-12-31

The Casa de Contratacion paid missionaries' travel expenses to Floridaedit

TRAVEL GRANTS Travel costs were covered not merely port to port, but door to door. By royal order, the Casa de Contratacion handled travel for the six Jesuits who went to Florida in 1566, "according to the usual procedure in providing for religious enroute to our Indies": passage and provisions for every leg of the journey and every delay in transit. Each religioso arranged his own transportation and that of his books and other belongings from his monastery to Seville; the Casa paid the muleteers. While the Jesuits were in Seville conducting their business at the Casa and while they waited to embark from San Lucar de Barrameda they received 1-1/2 reales a day for their sustenance, either directly or through their agent. For shipboard use each religioso was issued ''a cloak, a cassock, a biretta, a mattress, a blanket, and a pillow" (Spanish Crown, 1566). The same procedure was followed for a Franciscan missionary. For his journey on foot from his own convent to Seville, each Franciscan, whether a priest of the mass or a lay brother, received 7 reales a day for travel, based on an 8-league dieta, or day's journey. As it had for Jesuits, the Crown paid for his personal belongings of books and clothing to be brought to the point of embarkation. While waiting in Seville for the party to gather and the ship to sail, the missionary received a daily ration worth first 1-1/2, then 2 reales. Again, the Casa issued him a mattress, a blanket, and a pillow for the voyage (Moral, 1677; Ayeta, 1688). (Bushnell SS)

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