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A Jesuit tried and failed to convert Guale tribes

Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121

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In 1569 the Jesuit missionary Juan Rogel arrived at Santa Elena, and at the same time Antonio Sedeflo and Father Baez proceeded
to Guale. In a letter written by Rogel to Menendez, December 9, 1570, he relates the fortunes, or rather misfortunes, of his work
among the people of the province of Orista.

Rogel's account
In the beginning of my relations with those Indians [he says], they grew very much in my eyes, for seeing them in their customs and order of life far superior to those of Carlos, I lauded God, seeing each Indian married to only one woman, take care of and cultivate his land, maintain his house and educate his children with great care, seeing that they were not contaminated by the most abominable
of sins, not incestuous, not cruel, nor thieves, seeing them speak the truth with each other, and enjoy much peace and righteousness. Thus it seemed to me we were quite sure of them and that probably I would take a longer time in learning their language in order to explain to them the mysteries of our Holy Faith than they would need to accept them and become Christians. Therefore I myself and
three more of the fathers of our company studied with great diligence and haste to learn it and within six months I spoke to them and preached in their tongue.

Swanton:
But after two and a half months the time for gathering acorns arrived, and all left him and "scattered through those forests, each one
to his own place, and came together only at certain feasts, which they held every two months, and this was not always in one place,
but at one time here and at another in another place, etc," In fact they lived scattered in this manner for nine months out of the year.
And there are two reasons for this [he says] :

Rogel:
First because they have been accustomed to live in this manner for many thousands of years, and to try to get them away from it looks to them equal to death; the second, that even if they wished to live thus the land itself does not allow it—for being so very poor and miserable and its strength very soon sapped out—and therefore they themselves state that this is the reason why they are living so disseminated and changing their abode so often.

Swanton:
Rogel endeavored to continue his work, attending the infrequent gatherings mentioned above whenever he was able. At one time he
spoke to the greater part of "the vassals of Orista" who had come together at the Rio Dulce, presumably the Savannah, and in the
spring he proposed that they plant enough ground so that they could remain in one place, where he could approach them more easily.
This was done, but all except two families soon left, and later Vandera, commander of the fort of San Felipe, was compelled to exact several canoe loads of corn from the Indians and to quarter some of his troops among them. This, as Rogel anticipated and as the event
proved, incensed the Indians so much that further missionary efforts on his part were out of the question, and on July 13, 1570, he left
them to return to San Felipe, which he soon afterwards abandoned for Habana. One main cause of Rogel's failure to impress these
people was evidently a misapprehension on his part, for he says that when he began to preach against the devil they were highly offended, declaring that he was good, and afterwards they all left him. Presumably they understood that an attack had been made on one of their own deities, and very likely Rogel was perfectly willing on his side to identify the prince of evil with any or all of them. Among the chiefs upon whom Vandera levied the above-mentioned tribute of corn Rogel mentions Escamacu, Orista, and Hoya, the first of whom is of course the Uscamacu of Vandera and Pardo.
(Swanton)