Date published: 2007-01-01
Source: The Struggle for the Georgia Coast (ID129)
Author: Worth, John (ID94)
Primary doc? 0
Published in:
Race described: Spanish
Full text? 1
Online link:
Content id: 6327
Filename received:
Filename assigned:
1685-01-01 - 1685-12-31

Prosecution of Saturnino for abandoning Guale (Mont 10)-11edit

In the lawsuit and criminal case in the office of Royal justice [-] against Captain Don Juan Saturnino Abaurrea, who was lieutenant of the governor and captain general of the provinces of Guale, about his oversight, carelessness, and negligence in the protection, custody, and defense of the towns of the said province, and also in putting in a safe and secure place the sloop and eleven prisoners who entered in the town of Obadalquini on the pretext of lacking provisions, having seen the autos and the rest, it is suitable that I find, heedful of the autos and merits of the case, that I ought to condemn and do condemn the said Captain Don Juan Saturnino Abaurrea to having his post as soldier, which he has in the entries and royal books, removed, and that for the time of ten years he shall not be able to obtain an office or honorific post in these provinces,(47) NOTE 47. The sentence handed down by Governor Marquez Cabrera against Captain Saturnino de Abaurrea amounted to a dishonorable discharge for the space of 10 years, during which time he was effectively cut off without royal pay, and without any possibility for advancement (or even participation) in the military structure of St. Augustine. Nevertheless, this decision seems to have been reversed by Governor Marquez Cabrera's successor, since in 1701, Royal Accountant Juan de Pueyo certified that although Saturnino de Abaurrea's post was erased on January 17, 1685, he was reinstated on May 10, 1687 as a result of another auto (Pueyo, 1701). More than a decade after his trial, Saturnino de Abaurrea was once again listed as a captain in St. Augustine, requesting a future post for his minor son (Saturnino de Abaurrea, 1696). bearing in mind what is on record in the said case about having been careless and negligent in not having defended the towns of the said province of Guale, and about having been able to place the said sloop and eleven prisoners in a safe and secure place on the mainland as soon as he arrived at the said Island of Guadalquini, for which I order and command the principal accountant of the Royal Hacienda to remove the post of soldier of the said Captain Don Juan Saturnino and place the certification of having done so at the bottom of the page of this sentence,(48) NOTE 48. The requested certification, along with various others, appears below. and [I order] the lieutenant of the royal fort to set him free by virtue of it, and place this my sentence [f.25, vto.] definitively, judging the pronouncement thus, and I sign, with costs. Juan Marquez Cabrera The sentence above was given and pronounced by the senor Captain and Sergeant Major Don Juan Marquez Cabrera, governor and captain general of this city and presidio of St. Augustine, Florida, and its provinces for His Majesty, making a public audience(49) NOTE 49. The sentence was read publicly, perhaps in the plaza of the Castillo, or in the town of St. Augustine itself. today, the day of the date, January seventeenth, sixteen eighty-five. Witnesses Sergeant Bernardo Nieto de Carval and Diego Poldenava, residents in this said city. Before me, Alonso Solana Public and Governmental Notary The post of soldier remains annotated in virtue of this sentence against the aforementioned [Saturnino de Abaurrea], with a note of it in the register of his account and station. St. Augustine, January 17, 1685. Don Francisco de Zigarroa In St. Augustine, Florida, on the seventeenth of [f.26] January, sixteen eighty-five, I, the notary, notified and made known in person the sentence on the previous folio, as is contained in it, to Captain Don Juan de Saturnino Abaurrea, a prisoner in the royal fort of this presidio, who heard and understood it, being witnesses Ensign Sebastian Lopez, Ensign Francisco Aldeco, and Squad Leader Francisco de Pedrosa, and many other infantrymen who found themselves present. Alonso Solana Public and Governmental Notary In St. Augustine, Florida, on the said day, month, and year, I, the said notary, made the said sentence known in person to Captain Francisco de Fuentes, lieutenant of the said royal fort, who heard and understood it. I swear, Alonso Solana Public and Governmental Notary A copy of this sentence and the remaining actions which follow was taken on the second of May, 1689.(50) NOTE 50. The identity of this individual, and the reason for which this copy was made, is not currently known. [paraph] I received ten pesos and six reales in fees from this case from the senor judge and mine. Solana I left a copy of these autos written on sixty folios. Florida, the sixth of August, seventeen thirty-nine. Castilla(51) NOTE 51. The notary Castilla here left his obligatory note stating that he left a transcription archived in St. Augustine.

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