The following general account of the destruction of the missions, along with some information regarding the last Indian villages in Florida before the arrival of the Seminole, is contained in a letter by Governor Dionisio de la Vega, written August 27, 1728: "Up to the year 1703, when the English made their first invasion from Carolina assisted by the Indians in their interest into the provinces of Apalache and Guale, the Indians thereof lived in perfect peace and tranquility; and from time to time some infidel Indians would come and join them, desirous of pledging their obedience. But the said provinces having been destroyed by virtue of said invasions, and all the towns deserted and many of the Indians, converted as well as infidels, killed or made prisoners, while the majority of them revolted and joined the English, enjoying the freedom under which they were allowed to live. The few who then preferred to remain under the protection of the arms of Y. M., settled down upon other lands where they could consider themselves free and secured from the attacks of the revolted Indians and formed their huts and settlements under the name of towns, where they were assisted by the missionary fathers with that love and zeal which was required of them. "After the destruction of these provinces and their towns, war continued to rage between the converted and infidel Indiana, the latter assisted and fomented by the English. All around their [i. e., the English] towns are settlements, where they have congregated a large number of Caribe Indians, allowing them those liberties to which they are accustomed, and in this manner they have succeeded in annihilating over four-fifths of the number of Indians who had sought refuge. The rest of them remaining in their settlements, the largest of which hardly had a population of sixty souls, males, females, children, and Indians all told. In each of those settlements resided a clergyman, this being indispensable owing to the diversity of languages, which requires their separate instruction in the doctrine, and in some of those settlements it was necessary to have two clergymen because of the population being composed of Indians of distinct nationalities. "In none of these settlements was it ever possible to have a church where the holy sacrament of the Eucharist could be offered, notwithstanding they were distant only seven, five, and three leagues from this city (St. Augustine); so great was the fear they had of the infidels, that for the slightest cause they would move from one place to another without ever having a permanent residence. For this reason, and because the churches dedicated for mass to be said in them, were not decent, it was decided to administer the Viaticum to the sick Indians during the hour of its celebration only. But seeing themselves every day more and more harrassed by the infidel Indians, they sought refuge under the guns of the fort of this city, where they have formed their settlements, the farthest being within gunshot distance, the names of the said settlements or towns being Mores, Nombre de Dios, El Nuevo, Tolemato, I/a Costa, Palica, and Casapuyas. The first one was composed of twenty men, eighteen women, and ten children, and among them there were only one man and one woman infidels. The second was composed of eighteen men, fourteen women, and eight children, all Christians. The third one was composed of twenty-three men, twenty-two women, and twenty children, all Christians, except one of the men who was an infidel. The fourth one has no fixed number; sometimes it has thirty or forty, and at other times only four or six, owing to its inhabitants being fond of moving about, similar to those from the keys. The women who generally reside there are seven, and about twelve children. all [the latter] Christians. The men [of the last town] are mostly infidels, and of the women three. The fifth had fourteen men, ten women, of whom some are infidels, and possibly had alxmt four or five children. Chiqueto, which is also called Nombre de Dios. had about fifteen men. and twenty women, all Christians, and finally Casapuyas hail fourteen men, and as many women, of whom the majority were infidels, and was composed of two different nations."1 There is an evident mistake in the last paragraph quoted, but as it has occurred in the Spanish transcription and possibly was made by the author himself, it can not be entirely rectified here. The principal trouble is that, while the writer professes to give the population of the several towns in the order in which their names appear, one of them, Nomhre de Dios, is second in the list of names and sixth in the statistical list. This leaves it uncertain whether the other names and figures correspond, especially since the word "fifth" in the translation has been substituted for "sixth" in the original on the probable, but not necessarily correct, supposition that the writer had made a mistake. It is also possible that the Spanish text names six towns instead of seven. It runs as follows: "meres nombre de Dios Tolemato el nuevo la costa Palica y Casapuyas," and it is impossible to say whether the name of the third is Tolemato or Tolemato el nuevo. I have assumed the former provisionally in order to make the seven towns which the statistics call for. In the English translation accompanying this text matters have been made worse by the entire omission of Mores, El Nuevo, and La Costa. Nevertheless, with the exception just noted, we have no reason to doubt the correctness of the town names given and the statistical information is borne out by a comparison with that on pages 105-106, although the number of the towns themselves does not precisely correspond. ...As I have pointed out elsewhere, the Yamasee or Guale element was evidently predominant in these villages, and how many of them were occupied by Timucua we do not know, although that called "Pueblo de Timucua"2 probably contained most of them. A few may have emigrated to southern Florida and joined the Indians there, and a few were probably absorbed into the Yamasee. Those who retained their tribal identity withdrew to the Mosquito Lagoon and Halifax River, Volusia County, where Tomoka River keeps their name alive. Ultimately, even these must have been absorbed by the invading Seminole. (Swanton)