These suggestions were received coldly in Spain. Philip V and the Council of the Indies rejected all recommendations submitted by Montiano and Buenaventura, and Spanish officials continued to hold the view that peninsular friars should dominate in Florida. No amount of evidence, even that put forward by truste3d religious or civil officials, could persuade authorities in Madrid that Spanish Franciscans might not be as useful or as dedicated as the Creoles. Philip V, therefore, blamed the chapter split on the Creoles and ordered Montiano to give first preference in mission assignments to Spanish friars. [Note 118: Cedula San Idlefonso 5/5/1739] A short time later the Council of the Indies repeated the king’s views. Its report asserted that Spanish Franciscans were not to blame for the lack of conversions in Florida and that Creole conventual leaders were the real culprits. [Note 119: Consejo 1740] (Tepaske GSF)