Zuniga's disillusionment with Florida Indians extended to the Guales. On the whole island of Santa Maria, he wrote to the Crown in the summer of 1701, there could not be more than 200 natives. They were "a miserable, low-spirited people, very poor and humble, maintaining themselves by the maize, beans and other seeds that they raise and by fishing and hunting and the shellfish that the women gather, all with excessive labors" (Zuniga y Cerda, 1701d). The Guales had consistently rejected Spanish values. Their leaders had refused to raise livestock or to prize horses; they had neglected to build a stockade for the garrison and themselves; and they had continued to fight and distinguish themselves by Indian, not Spanish, rules. Governor Zuniga did not understand the Guales, but he did understand that their province had ceased to be a buffer zone. Three small pueblos of part-time peasants would not deter nor long delay an invasion from the north. Suspended in harm's way like a cage of canaries in a mine, the Guales could give early warning to the presidio only by being the first casualties of war. (Bushnell SS)