Date published: 0000-00-00
Source: Amy Notes (ID702)
Author: Howard, Amy (ID633)
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Maybe Montiano learns that the original Yamassee were taken in by the Spanish as refugees but then

Cross references

THE SPANISH INVASION OF CAROLINA (Mont 11)-13

Date Created: 2023-10-12 20:56:17
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors (ID 121)
Author: Swanton, John (ID 85)
Content_id: 6345
[Declaration of Bartholome Rodriguez] In the said city on the said day, month, and year, before Their Graces appeared present for the said investigation Bartholome Rodriguez, who before me, the notary, was sworn in before God and a sign of the cross, in legal form, and having done so, aware of it, he promised to tell the truth, and being questioned according to the tenor of the said auto, he said that having left from the city of San Christobal de la Havana in company of Captain Alejandro Thomas de Leon, coastal guard of the stated city and island, to scour the [coasts] of this jurisdiction and clean them of corsairs, having scoured the [coasts] of this jurisdiction to the north [f.26, vto.] and arrived at Santa Elena, a town of Scotsmen that they found deserted because ofnews they had of their coming, they passed onward in their pursuit, and in the jurisdiction of San Jorje, a town of Englishmen, this witness was in three plantations, those that they found deserted, and only in one of them did they find an English boy who made flight, and some plates of pewter and some old clothes of little value, and some iron tools, the number of which there were he does not know, nor in whose power they ended up,(79) NOTE 79. This passage suggests that there were more goods taken than reported here, although the items of greatest value were probably all included in the manifest. Despite this, Paul Grimball's (1689) list of dozens of household items he claimed to have lost in the Spanish raid must have included items only damaged or destroyed by the pirates, since only a fraction of the items listed would have fit in the surviving vessels. Indeed, there seems good reason to suspect that many of Grimball's losses were a result of the hurricane that struck soon after the arrival of the Spaniards. A contemporaneous English description of the attack noted that "The whole countrey seemes to bee one entire map of Devastation the greatest part of our houses are blowne downe and still lye in their ruine many of us not haveing the least cottage to secure us from the rigour of the weather the long incessant raines have destroyed almost all our goods which lye intombed in the ruines of our houses" (Moore et al., 1686). and in another plantation, although this witness did not go to it, he knows that they found eleven items of slaves, which they brought and manifested in this presidio, and they found out from the prisoners that the said plantation was of the governor of San Jorje, and all that he has said and declared is the truth, aware of his oath, and he is of the age of twenty-five years. Their Graces signed it. Between lines-signed it not valid.(80) NOTE 80. Solana mistakenly wrote that Rodriguez signed the document, but corrected the error within the text. Thomas Menendez Marquez Francisco de la Rocha Before me, Alonso Solana Public and Governmental Notary I left a copy of these autos written on fifty-eight pages. Florida, August sixth, seventeen thirty-nine. Castilla(81) NOTE 81. Castilla squeezed this final note in on the margins of the last page of Document 11. The abrupt ending of this testimony, without any final summary or wrap-up, suggests that one or more last pages may have been omitted by Castilla when he removed the original, although their contents were probably of little historical interest. Postscript Following the disputed seizure of the slaves and other booty by Governor Marquez, Pedro Hortelano refitted the galliot Nuestra Senora de Regla for its return to Havana. In a letter to the King the following year, the governor remarked bitterly that after returning from the Leon expedition, "the [galliot] from Havana was careened and outfitted in order to return to that city, because its leader, outside of not being a person in whom one can trust any duty, insisted upon returning, as he did" (Marquez Cabrera, 1686). Despite the loss of two of the three galliots, in a subsequent plan devised by Governor Marquez Cabrera and the royal officials on September 30, the remaining galliot from St. Augustine along with two war piraguas made for the occasion was armed, and 18 men from Leon's wrecked galliot were enlisted for six months of paid duty in Rorida (Marquez Cabrera, 1686; 1688a).(82) NOTE 82. In the residencia of Governor Marquez Cabrera, the 1073 pesos and 5 reales paid to these 18 men were imposed as a debt on the governor himself (Marquez Cabrera, 1688) The free pardos and morenos (those of mixed African descent) in St. Augustine, along with several Indians and a few Spanish soldiers, were to comprise the rest of the expedition (Marquez Cabrera, 1686). The corsairs remained inactive for three months, but in December they were finally dispatched northward on a second raid (Marquez Cabrera, 1688a). In October the governor wrote to the King of his plans to recruit for this expedition some 200 Apalachee Indians armed with firearms, along with 100 from Timucua, in order to make a land assault in concert with that from the sea. Later evidence indicates that this dual attack was indeed carried out, as accounts of expenses to Indians during 1687 include a reference to thousands of pounds of corn and some 1650 pounds of salted beef (taken from Captain Joachin de Florencias cattle ranch in Apalachee) given to "three hundred fifty Timucua and Apalachee Indians who descended from the provinces of Timucua and Apalachee by order and command of the said Governor Don Juan Marquez Cabrera in order to go in the galliots and piraguas with Captain Francisco de Fuentes to the province of Santa Elena... .and in order to return to their lands" (Reyes, 1687).(83) NOTE 83. The exact quantity of corn is not readable on the microfilm copy of this document from Governor Marquez Cabrera's residencia, but it was either 150 or 250 (more likely the latter) arrobas (25 pounds each) of corn drawn from a total of 300 arrobas taken on the trip. The supplies were given to the force of 350 Indians in the village of Santa Maria (at that time on Amelia Island) by Captain Francisco de la Rocha (Reyes, 1687). Accompanied by this force, the lieutenant of the castillo in St. Augustine, Captain Francisco de Fuentes, sailed northward in December in charge of the presidio's galliot and two war piraguas on an expedition to make a strike against the Yamassee Indians who had again settled in the abandoned zone between Florida and Carolina (Marquez Cabrera, 1686; 1688a).(84) NOTE 84. Fuentes's second in command was Captain Francisco Romo de Uriza, who led one of the piraguas during the expedition (Cabrera, 1687). Governor Hita Salazar (1692) later certified that Romo de Uriza fought "in the encounters that were offered with the rebellious Indians of the said settlement [of Sancta Helena]." The governor himself remained as the lieutenant of the castillo while Fuentes was away from his post (Mafrquez Cabrera, 1686, 1688). Fuentes certainly made another assault against Santa Elena, newly resettled by the Yamassee, during which the Indian leader Niquisaya and his son and nephew were killed (Royal cedula, 1688). During his return, several further attacks seem to have occurred, including a raid near the mouth of the Savannah River. The following spring, William Dunlop journeyed south from Carolina into the abandoned lands south of Stuart's Town on a reconnaissance mission, and viewed a bluff on the south bank of the Savannah River near another bluff called Lower Amaira (probably the Yamacraw bluff of the early 18th century) where his Indian informants said "the Spaniard had in their Last returning from port Royall killed & taken away 22 Yamassie women" (Dunlop, 1687). Farther to the south, on Sapelo Island, Dunlop passed by very large plantations where we see the ruins of houses burned by the Spaniards themselves We see the Vestiges of a ffort; many great Orange Trees cut down by the Spaniards in septr last There was great plenty of ffigs peaches; Artechocks onions etc. growing in the preists garden his house had been of Brick & his small chappell, but all had been burned to Ashes last harvest by themselves; we see the remains & rags of old clothes wch some of our people know to have belonged to the Inhabitants of port Royall (Dunlop, 1687). Based on the reference to the "remains" and clothes of the inhabitants of Port Royal (known by the Spaniards as Santa Elena) discovered by Dunlop at what may be presumed to be the former site of the Sapala mission, these were almost certainly Yamassee Indians who had once lived in the Santa Elena/Port Royal area, but who had resettled the abandoned town of Sapala as early as 1685 (see Overview). Since there is not even a single reference to raids on Yamassee towns during the August-September Leon raid the previous year (as was implied by Dunlop's Yamassee informants), the destruction of the Yamassee settlement on Sapelo Island was probably carried out during Francisco de Fuentes's expedition later that winter.(85) NOTE 85. The fact that the mud-plastered friar's house and chapel had been recently burned in 1687 suggests that Mission San Joseph Sapala was not burned in the pirate raids of 1684, and remained standing until it was occupied by Yamassee Indiansin 1685. Both of these attacks-one near Yamacraw bluff on the Savannah River and one on Sapelo Island seem to have comprised part of Fuentes' effort to rid the coast of English-allied Yamassee Indians. AN498 It is also probable that St. Catherines Island, also settled by the Yamassee in 1685, was struck as well during Fuentes's return. In his letter of October 1686, Governor Marquez Cabrera indicated plans to "depopulate the said Island of Santa Elena and Santa Catalina, and the island of the Yamazes" (Marquez Cabrera, 1686), presumably referring to modern Parris [Santa Elena] Island, its neighbor Hilton Head Island, as well as St. Catherines Island to the south. Although the majority of later references refer to Santa Elena as the primary target (Marquez Cabrera, 1687; Rocha, 1687), during his residencia the governor himself related that the mission was sent to the vicinity of Santa Catalina, "having certain news that the Scottish and the greater part of the Yamaze Indians had returned to settle the said Island of Santa Catalina and its neighbor," presumably referring to Sapala (Marquez Cabrera, 1688a). That same year, the governor certified regarding the military service of Francisco de Fuentes that he was sent "to dislocate the English from the said Island of Santa Elena and the Yamaze Indians, their friends, who inhabited the [island] of Santa Catalina, which he executed, without having news that they have returned to it up to the cited day of August 8, 1688" (Marquez Cabrera, 1688b). Evidently, although the Yamassee had indeed settled on both Santa Catalina and Sapala Islands in 1685 following the final retreat of Guale and Mocama (Gomez, 1685; also see Overview), the Fuentes raid of 1686 resulted in the depopulation of these islands for at least the next two years. In a later letter to the governor of Carolina, Governor Marquez's successor recounted that the goals of the Fuentes expedition were different from those of the Leon expedition, and that more strict controls were imposed on the participants. The second voyage of one galliot and piraguas that my predecessor sent went only to the borders of this government in order to punish some Indians who were vassals of my King and Lord, having lacked in their obedience. They went to Santa Elena, an island of this presidio, and there [the Indians] gave resistance to the Spaniards, fighting with them… and an order was given to this galliot that it should not go as far as that jurisdiction and border [Carolina], only to that which pertains solely to this presidio in order to punish within its boundaries its own vassals who have denied obedience to my King and Lord and who have done damage in its lands, without passing to the contravention of the treaties (Quiroga y Losada, 1687). As related above, the Fuentes expedition was explicitly ordered to remain south of the legal bounds of Carolina, avoiding the type of controversy raised by Leon's plundering of Edisto Island that summer. This order, evidently followed to the letter by Captain Fuentes, may indeed have avoided direct retaliation by the Carolinans, who at the time considered the Spaniards to be "a cruell and inveterate Enemy" (Moore et al., 1686).(86) NOTE 86. The two governors (Quiroga y Losada and Colleton) who inherited the dispute between their predecessors (Marquez and Morton) effectively managed to avoid further escalation of hostilities, each denying responsibility for the earlier excesses of individuals under their government (see Bolton, 1925; Crane, 1956; and Bushnell, 1994). Colleton's predecessor Governor Morton was indeed on the verge of launching an assault against St. Augustine, apparently offering to add 300 men to pirate Captain Yankey's force of 200 (distributed on three vessels) for such an expedition (Torre, 1687). One major catalyst for this planned assault was the escaped slave Thomas de la Torre, who not only provided detailed information on the best route for such an attack, but also indicated a burning desire to personally strangle Governor Marquez Cabrera. As recounted by a former prisoner of the pirate Captain Yankey, the said governor of San Jore found out that they had burned his brother in the said galliot that was lost in that coast, and that likewise the said mulatto [Thomas de la Torre] had insisted to the said governor that he should dispatch vessels in order to take the post of St. Augustine, Florida, facilitating him greatly and promising him to place them within the place without being noticed, carrying them through a river that he said was to the leeward of it, leaving the ships at the mouth of the river, and entering with the piraguas that had to navegate three days upriver, and at the end of [the three days] leave the piraguas in the said river and march across land another three days until falling upon [amanecer] the port of St. Augustine, Florida, and that if they did not achieve the said enterprise, he [Torre] would pay him [Governor Morton] with his head, and that he had to grasp the governor [Mirquez Cabrera] and with his own hands he had to kill him, because he had held him fourteen years as a prisoner [?]being native to the island of Martinica, and he had his father in the same prison, and he was going to take him from it, all of which was public in the said port of San Jorje (Penate, 1688). A later correspondence from Governor Colleton to Governor Quiroga y Losada of Florida confirmed that this fugitive slave had made formal depositions to the English (Colleton, 1688). Despite such restrictions, the Fuentes expedition was judged to be an unequivocal success by the Spaniards, inasmuch as the Yamassee seem to have been effectively (if only temporarily in the long term) pushed back from Spanish territory. In his later defense during his residencia, Governor Marquez Cabrera described the expedition, noting that Fuentes was sent "to dislodge the said enemies from the Island of Santa Catalina and its neighbor, as they did, killing the cattle, burning the houses and milpas [cornfields]" (Marquez Cabrera, 1688a). A later account mentioned killing both "cattle and pigs" (Royal cedula, 1688). Not everything was destroyed, however, for upon the return of Fuentes' vessels in January of 1687, nearly 12,000 pounds of corn and 400 pounds of beans were delivered as spoils of the expedition to the landing at the mouth of the St. Johns River, suggesting that the Yamassee had been quite successful in their land settlements.(87) NOTE 87. An entry in the books of the Royal Contaduria dated May 9, 1687, related that 466 arrobas (25 pounds each) and 12 pounds of corn and 15 arrobas and 15 pounds of beans had been remitted by Adjutant Joseph Rodriguez from the embarcadero of San Pablo, at the mouth of the St. Johns River (Rocha, 1687). These provisions were described as "those that Captain Francisco de Fuentes brought in the galliot of His Majesty from the province of Santa Elena from the settlement of the Yamazes." At six reales per arroba of corn and eight per arroba of beans, the total spoils amounted to nearly 3000 reales, or some 365 pesos. Rice was even mentioned as spoils in one of the governor's letters, although this may have been looted from Stuart's Town (Royal cedula, 1688). Intriguingly, during the Fuentes raid 37 fugitive Christian Indians were brought back, "and some gentile [pagan] Yamases who wanted to come and settle" (Royal cedula, 1688). Very soon after the Fuentes raid a quantity of some 75 pounds of corn were given to "the Christian Indians that Captain Francisco de Fuentes brought from the provinces of Santa Elena, who went to settle at Tolomato," and later another 200 pounds were given to this same group of Indians brought back by Fuentes, described as "Christians settled in the village of Tolomato," for use as seed in planting their spring crops (Reyes, 1687). Some of this group may have been members of the group of Yamassees who fled northward from Guale and Mocama after the 1683 pirate raid, settling on Hilton Head Island before the establishment of Stuart's Town in late 1684 (see Overview). How long these new settlements remained in Tolomato after 1687 is unclear. In retrospect, the Spanish raids of 1686 effectively defined the extent of the vacant coastal buffer zone between Florida and Carolina, and ultimately set the stage for the Yamassee War of 1715. With the destruction of Stuart's Town by the Leon expedition, and the effective campaign against the coastal Yamassee towns by the Fuentes expedition, the early 18th-century social geography of lower Carolina was established. The Carolinans largely abandoned their rush to push settlement southward into debated lands, and the Yamassee settled en masse on the mainland north of the Savannah River mouth. This relationship was formalized in the early 1700s, but within a few short years the Yamassee would once again shift allegiances, rising up against the English and continuing their role as major players in the international struggle for the Georgia coast (Swanton, 1922; Crane, 1956).(88) NOTE 88. The Yamassee War of 1715 resulted in a flood of refugees to St. Augustine, once again significantly altering the demographic profile of Florida's remaining mission communities (Hann, 1989).

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