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Gov. Quiroga was slammed for imprisoning people for bad debts
Source: The King?s Coffer #83
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The governor who succeeded him [Cabrera], Quiroga y Losada, was interested in building, not bookkeeping. He asked the crown to relieve him of the chore of taking accounts and give it to a lieutenant auditor. Such an official was eventually appointed, for among the dignitaries in St. Augustine on the day Philip V was acclaimed was an auditor of accounts, but this was long after Quiroga y Losada’s term. [Note 62: Gov. Quiroga y Losada 8/16/1689; Acclamation of Philip V 1/7/1702] Rather than have the accounts be taken in Havana he did them himself, and on the basis of his investigations put the accountant and several others in prison. This action, which had little effect on them, was disastrous for the governor. The influence of Cuba was then at its height. Havana vecino Laureano Torres y Ayala, having spent nearly four years in the powerful position of governor-elect, was about to embark on a six-year term as governor. One of Torres y Ayala’s first acts in office was to release the accountant, who had made him an illegal two-year salary advance out of the money owed to Quiroga y Losada. [Note 63: Thomas Menendez Marquez 4/12/1696 referring to a cedula of 12/14/1693; Gov. Quiroga y Losada 12/12/1691; Gov. Quiroga y Losada as ex-gov., Cadiz, Council summary 10/19/1697] The principal Florida families—Menendez Marquez, Florencia, Hita Salazar, and Horruytiner—united with their man from Havana to ruin his predecessor. Quiroga y Losada’s residencia dragged on for 15 months in St. Augustine, then was moved to Cuba, where Notary Juan de Argote charged the unlucky man 3,500 pesos for the paperwork alone. While the ex-governor was in Mexico City appealing before the audiencia, Argote attached his wife’s gowns and jewels, down to her favorite earrings and the rings from her fingers. Seven years after Quiroga y Losada’s term was over he faced long appeals before the Council, and the chest containing his irreplaceable residencia papers had disappeared between the Canary Islands and Cadiz. [Note 64: Ex-Gov. Quiroga y Losada, Cadiz, Council summary 10/19/1697; Ex-Gov. Quiroga y Losada 12/10/1698; Pedro Diaz de Florencia, Havana, 11/26/1700]
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