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Benavides arrested his sergeant major and treasurer
Source: The Governorship of Spanish Florida #122
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Formalization of the Judicial Process: The Ayala-Pedroso Case Spanish veneration for the spirit of the law and the sanctity of the judicial process is not apparent from the methods used to try petty offenders and second-class citizens. Judged arbitrarily and peremptorily, criminals of these types obtained justice in the military style Occasionally, however, the governor had to use traditional civilian legal practices in drawing up a litigation, and for serious offenses involving leading Floridians he had to formalize his case. He had to tread on unfamiliar ground, where his military training and experience did not equip him adequately and where he could get no help from his advisers in Saint Augustine. Sometimes the results were disastrous, both for the governor and those charged by him. In the 18th century Governor Benavides was most active in drawing up formal cases against Floridians. A vigorous, efficient man with dictatorial tendencies, he was eager to bring the colony rigidly under his personal control. To do this, he meant to purge those who, on the surface, seemed certain to oppose his polices as governor. Within ten days after his arrival in Saint Augustine in the summer of 1718, he began the expulsion. On meager evidence obtained from a few soldiers at the garrison at Fort San Marcos, Benavides indicted Joseph Pedroso, his treasurer, and Juan de Ayala Escobar, his sergeant major and the former interim governor, on charges of illicit trade and general misconduct. The governor had both men seized and sent immediately to Cuba, where they were imprisoned while their cases were being determined. [Note: gov to king 8/12/1718] Ayala and Pedroso were both taken by surprise at their sudden removal from Florida. Ayala was almost 90 years old with a long record of distinguished service in the colony. Now within three weeks he had been relegated from the governor’s residence to a damp prison cell in Havana, accused by a new governor who know little about Florida and its personnel. Besides, the indignities of a long imprisonment and trial might be more than a man of his age could bear. Pedroso was also anxious about his situation. After over three decades of military service in Saint Augustine, he had won the treasurer’s post. Now after only four years in that office, he saw the office slipping from him. Angrily both Pedroso and Ayala submitted memorials to the Council of the Indies, charging Benavides with conspiring against them unfairly. [Note: Consejo 9/15/1719] In Spain the case immediately aroused the interest of the Council of the Indies. It appointed a fiscal to investigate the case, and he reported that the governor’s accusations were “vague, general, and irregular,” [Note: fiscal 9/4/1719] prompting the Council to ask the king for a complete probe of the charges. [Note: Consejo 9/15/1719] Unfortunately for the two prisoners impatiently awaiting a decision, Philip V took two years to act, and it was not until December 19, 1721, that he finally ordered Juan Felix Garcia Chicano, a Havana auditor, to go to Florida to investigate the Pedroso-Ayala litigation. [Note: king to gov of Cuba 12/19/1721] (Tepaske GSF)
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