In Montiano’s 2nd letter of January 31st, he sums up the current state of St. Augustine.* Most of the Uchee Indians had become a ruthless gang of bounty hunters, harassing the Spaniards and their Indian allies.* The Uchees often traveled through the area on their way to the southern coasts looking for runaway slaves for the reward the English offered.* On their way back, they passed through either Ayamon or las Rosas, where the Yamases had established themselves after their bout with the English in Carolina.* Both of those villages had an increasing problem with Uchees shooting at them.* The villagers were afraid to leave their forts, which made it impossible to maintain their own sustenance.* The guerrilla behavior of the Uchees caused all the frontier villages to relocate to the safety of St. Augustine.* Even there, they were surrounded by enemies.* Now, all Floridians considered it a death wish to leave the safety of the walled city.* The safety of the city was a double-edged sword for Montiano.* The more Floridians moved into St. Augustine, the less populated Florida was, and the more the English advanced and surrounded the Spaniards.* Without populating the entire territory, none of them could live peacefully.* As a result, Montiano was plagued with residents asking permission to move to Havana.* They had valid reasons.* They were perpetually hungry from food shortages, and they foresaw it getting even worse with the continuing war.* They also pointed out all the other deprivations they suffered from not getting paid in over three years.* Montiano was stuck.* He knew the people were right to want to get out of Florida.* He was certainly tempted to grant that privilege to all the useless mouths he was trying to feed.* But that was not what he was hired to do.* He was hired to protect and help populate La Florida.* He would be a disappointment to the king if he were to allow people to depopulate.* Even if he granted temporary release for people during this time of danger, there was little chance he could get them to come back later.* Yet, keeping them all there was just as much of a problem.* If Oglethorpe brought on his siege, how on earth would all those people fit into the Castillo?* And where would they get enough food, if they were stuck inside the fort?* At some point before January 31st, Montiano had a council meeting with his royal officers to figure out how to answer the people asking to move to Havana.* They weighed all the above considerations, including their blindness as to how the crowns might resolve the territorial differences they were struggling to deal with.* The council decided that until they hear from the king, no one was moving out of La Florida.*