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The changing locations of Mission Sapala
Source: The Struggle for the Georgia Coast #129
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(Worth SGC) APPENDIX A: LOCATIONAL DATA FOR GUALE AND MOCAMA MISSIONS, 1655-1685 San Joseph de Sapala (through 1684) The general location of the Sapala mission on modern Sapelo Island is easily determined, although the determination of its precise location on the island is somewhat problematic. In 1655, Sapala was described as being some 9 leagues south of the mainland mission of San Phelipe, and 5 leagues north of Santo Domingo de Talaje (Diez de la Calle, 1655). Placing Talaje at the Fort King George site on the northern bank of the Altamaha River (see below), the distance of 5 leagues suggests the Bourbon Field site on the northern end of Sapelo Island (Larson, 1980). Following the 1661 removal of Talaje to its St. Simons Island location under the name of Asajo (see below), subsequent descriptions with reference to the new Asajo mission confirm the location of Sapala on the northern end of the island at Bourbon Field. Using the more securely identified location ofAsajo at Cannons Point on the northern end of St. Simons Island, San Joseph de Sapala is consistently placed at a distance of some 6 or 7 leagues to the north in mission lists dating between 1675 and 1683 (Arcos, 1675; Diaz Vara Calderon, 1675; Fuentes, 1681; Barbosa, 1683). Furthermore, the two lists above predating the 1680 abandonment of Santa Catalina place Sapala only 2 leagues south of Santa Catalina, agreeing with accounts dating to the time ofits abandonment (Hita Salazar, 1680a; Cigarroa, 1681). Sapala was joined by immigrants from Tupiqui between 1673 and 1675 (see above), and as late as 1677 there seems to have been some dispute as to the preeminence of Tupiqui over Sapala (Arguelles, 1678). More refugees arrived in 1680, when the inhabitants of Santa Catalina and its aggregate Satuache fled to Sapala after the English-sponsored assault on Mission Santa Catalina. Consequently, between 1680 and 1683, the site of San Joseph de Sapala was home to no fewer than four separate mission towns on the northern frontier of the Guale province. While Santa Catalina and Satuache removed in 1683 to the southern mission of Santa Maria (see below), Tupiqui remained with Sapala until the fall of 1684, when the planned relocation of both was interrupted by the pirate raids that forced the final abandonment of the Georgia coast. The ruins of Sapala apparently were still standing as late as 1686, when the Yamassee Indians living there were routed by Spanish forces (see Document 11).
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