Santa Elena figured in the Adelantado' s plans as a port for Greater Florida. The king had promised him lands in support of a marquisate, and the new marques meant to lay out those lands near the rich town of Guatari. The new marquesa, dona Maria de Solis, with her ladies and attendants, travelled by easy stages from Asturias to Santa Elena, where she would reside until the estate was ready to occupy. This injection of "noble blood," reinforcing the upper end of the social hierarchy, revealed Menendez's intention to reproduce in America the social gulf that existed in Spain between the upper order of hidalgos and the lower order of soldiers and farmer-settlers -or, some would say, the social gulf between the controlling classes and the laboring classes. Reassured that with royal backing the colony would be permanent, and trusting in the tolerance of the Guales and their neighbors, Spanish settlers arrived in Santa Elena and commenced to farm the land around Fort San Felipe. As Spanish attention shifted to northern Florida, the natives of Guale, between the mouth of the St. Johns and Santa Elena, found themselves on a well-travelled route and asked themselves what advantage could be gained from it. (Bushnell SS)