New Attempts to Woo the Indians: A Trading Post in Apalache Authorities in Spain were more convinced than Oglethorpe of the value of Indian alliances. They believed that failure to win over the natives had hurt the Spanish war effort and had inhibited Montiano’s quest for a victory over the Georgians. Since the brief flurry of Spanish activity among the Indians after Queen Anne’s War, the king and the Council had witnessed a steady decline in Spanish influence over the Indians of the Southeast. In 1726 close to 1,000 Indians enjoyed Spanish aid and protection; in 1739, 13 years later, fewer than 400 lived in the 10 villages near Saint Augustine and Apalache. By 1743 there was an even further decline as more Indians drifted away during the War of Jenkins’s Ear. In Saint Augustine the number of villages was reduced from nine to four—Tolomato, Palica, Pocotalaca, and Punta. In Pensacola the Spanish garrison and a few Indians huddled apprehensively together in the tiny blockhouse. In Apalache, where the Indian menace was greatest, 14 Lower Creek tribes almost succeeded in destroying Fort San Marcos and forced the Tamasles to take refuge in the fort. (Tepaske GSF)