Sir: At this hour, being four of the afternoon, I have just received a post from Pupo, in which Don Pedro Lamberto reports his arrival this day at that fort with a loss of two troopers, killed by the Uchee Indians on the way. He further tells me that although he charged upon them, he was unable to reap any advantage as they had retired to a very impenetrable wood. He contemplated awaiting the Indians whom he was bringing back with him from Apalachee, (the same he took out with him) who had fallen behind in the march, so as to join hands with them and attack the enemy. But he found this impossible, giving no reasons. He intimates that he is returning sick, which I take to be the reason why he continued his march without attempting the operation he had at one time contemplated. He also tells me that the English of the neighboring colonies have invited the Uchises to come in, and that these are prepared to cross over to the said colonies. In the same post I received letters from Don Miguel de Ribas and Don Antonio de Arrendondo reporting their uneventful arrival and that of the launch and sloop of Don Pedro Barranco. On this score then I am relieved of anxiety. The movements of those Uchee Indians, and the report of Don Pedro Lamberto that the English are having relations with the Uchises, are matter for thought. For the this reason I am not only sending Your Excellency these reports by Pedro de Alcantara but I am duplicating them by hand, dispatching Luis Gomez to the Keys to give them to the master of the first ship he may meet there, with orders to the latter to proceed at once to Habana and deliver them to Your Excellency. I have nothing more to report at this time. Florida, July 22, 1738. At some point before August 8th, Montiano heard that a tribe of Indians had set up camp next to a stream about four miles from Fort Pupo.* It could be another attack sponsored by the English.* He instructed 29 of his own Indians to go and count how many people were camped there.* He also asked them to try to find the small band who had attacked Lamberto’s caravan from Apalache.* He cautioned them not to expose themselves.* Seven of them withdrew from the assignment, but the remaining 22 set out to get the head count Montiano requested.* All 22 Indians returned from their scouting assignment with reports of all the difficulties they had on the journey.* They said they could not find the encamped tribe or small band, even though they had split up and taken different roads.* All they found were tracks of four Indians who had followed the last courier sent from Apalache.* Montiano was disgusted. Either these 22 Indian scouts were lying, or they were too afraid to get close enough to the tribe to count them.* He could not find anyone to do a thorough surveillance job, even in their own territory. Soon after, a few cattle hunters drove their livestock into St. Augustine.* The men made a living hunting down wild cows; wild cows were scrawny, but they could be corralled and fattened up. Knowing these men chased cows throughout the frontier, Montiano summoned them into his office for questioning.* He asked if they had seen any people out in the territory.* The men said they had seen a small band of Uchee Indians who were out looking for horses.* The Uchees told the cow hunters that the English of New Georgia had recruited several bands of Indians to scout the entire road to Apalache and kill as many Spaniards as possible.* The Uchees invited the cow hunters to return to their village, but the cow hunters ignored the offer and proceeded to drive their cattle back to their own settlement.* However, about 42 miles from Fort Pupo, another band of 10 Indians followed and harassed them.* Luckily, the cow hunters ran into Don Pedro Lamberto’s squad before the Indians took any action against them.* The cow hunters’ news confirmed Montiano’s fears that the deadly Indian attack on Lamberto’s troop was part of a larger campaign by the English. This time, it was news he believed rather than doubted. The evening of August 7th, the two couriers Montiano had sent to Apalache returned with the response from Don Miguel de Ribas.* Ribas said there was nothing new at Apalache, but when they heard Montiano’s news of the attack on Lamberto’s squad, they determined to guard heavily against movement of the Indians.* To help with precautions, Ribas sent a letter to Quilate, asking if he had any information on the matter.* Quilate went to see Ribas in person.* He confirmed that he had attended a junta meeting called by the English, where the English heavily solicited the cooperation of his tribe, as well as the Talpuches, Chicazees, Uchees, Chalaques, Catapas, and other nations.* All of the nations tried to win Quilate’s allegiance, but he declined them all.* Quilate told Ribas that he would send his two most trusted chieftains to St. Augustine to confirm this neutrality with Montiano.* In the letter from Apalache, Ribas also reported that three soldiers and eighteen convicts had deserted his fort.* The convicts were found right away and re-secured at Apalache.* Ribas sent a reconnaissance team to look for the soldiers in Pensacola, where almost all deserters go.* Sure enough, the team came back with all three runaway soldiers.* Meanwhile, the construction on the Apalache fort had slowed down because the foreman Portillo and a few solders and convicts were sick.* That was the same situation in St. Augustine.* The mason Cantillo had taken charge of work on the Castillo when the other foreman left for Apalache.* However, work on the Castillo had all but stopped because Cantillo came down with a venereal disease that had him completely incapacitated.* While waiting for Cantillo to become available again, Montiano sent Don Pedro Ruiz Olano to fortify the fort at Pupo.* All of the construction Montiano was trying to accomplish was painfully slow going.* Workers were unmotivated, getting sick, and running away.* Part of the problem was the heavy carrying of materials that could be rolled on carts if they had them.* Montiano craved more progress, more laborers, and more trustworthy information agents.* Juan Ignacio was his best man, and he was missing.* Montiano dreaded that the Uchees might have killed Ignacio, too.* Early August, Marcos de Torres sailed into St. Augustine harbor with a whole packet of letters for Montiano from Guemes.* Marcos was going to sail right back to Havana, so Montiano quickly read the packet of letters and wrote a quick response to them.*