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Gov Zuniga sent Ayala to Spain with a wish list for SA

Source: The Governorship of Spanish Florida #122

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Since Zuniga believed there was little chance that he could get help from Mexico, he decided upon a direct appeal to authorities in the mother country. In the spring of 1702, shortly before the outbreak of Queen Anne’s War, he sent his personal emissary to Spain to explain the plight of the Florida settlement ant to seek aid. This agent, Juan de Ayala Escobar, carried with him a long list of requests. For colonial defenses he asked for 28 cannon—sixteen 4-pounders, six 12-pounders, and six 18-pounders. For the garrison he requested 200 muskets, 200 arquebuses, 200 pikes, 200 lances, and 1,000 grenades. [Note: gov to king 3/25/1702] Ayala also requested reinforcements amounting to 150 additional men and an appropriation of 7,000 to 8,000 ducats in vellon [Note: Copper coins or coins of copper-silver alloys used in place of gold and silver coins.] to undertake public works projects such as the reconstruction of the sea walls at Saint Augustine. As a further protection for Spanish ships and crews plying the Bahama Channel, Ayala asked funds for the erection of a new blockhouse at Ais (near present-day Cape Canaveral), to be garrisoned by Spanish soldiers and at least two friars. His most radical request, however, was for remission of the subsidy to Florida entirely in hard money rather than in food and supplies.

Initially Ayala could not get help in Spain, but when news of the English siege of Saint Augustine reached Madrid late in 1702, his pleas took on a new significance. AN281 In January, 1703…

(Tepaske GSF)