In 1637, the same governor [Horruytiner] sent two presidio pilots to chart and mark the channel of the St. Marks River, below present-day Tallahassee. He gave the Crown two reasons for opening this new port: it would offer Christian asylum to vessels fleeing from corsairs and storms, and it would spare mission Indians from the necessity of burdening, for once navigation was opened between San Marcos and Havana, the king's alms could go directly to the friars of the western doctrinas without having to pass through St. Augustine. Guided by his own chart, one of the pilots had already made his way from Havana to San Marcos in just eight days with a frigate laden with supplies for the western missions. The Indians reportedly were jubilant "when they saw a ship in their ports," and "many asked for baptism" (Horruytiner, 1637). The governor did not mention it, but he had already stationed a detachment of soldiers at the port of San Marcos under a teniente de gobernador, or deputy governor, to collect and ship Indian corn to St. Augustine (Junta de Guerra, 1660). Comisario Gomez de Palma, spokesman for the Franciscan Province of Santa Elena, gave the new port his qualified approval. The situado for the 18 or 20 western friars might well be channeled through the Cuban treasury instead of the Florida one, he thought, but the port of San Marcos was still leagues from the doctrinas, and the natives would still be subject to burdening, to which they strongly objected. Gomez de Palma wanted the supplies brought up from the port and distributed on pack animals. This could be done, he said, if the governor would import horses from Havana and improve the roads (Gomez de Palma, [1637?]). With the Dutch West India Company waging an all-out naval war on Spanish Hapsburg holdings, however, evangelization, like the Indian fund, had to take a back seat to imperial defense. In 1638... (Bushnell SS)