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Benavides blamed prior governors for failing to rebuild SA and losing the money sent for it

Source: The Governorship of Spanish Florida #122

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The new building fund dwindled as quickly as the previous one. By the time Benavides assumed the governorship in 1718, all but 6,000 of the 20,000 pesos was gone. Inspection of the town revealed that the church, convent, and other buildings for which the money had been released had not been erected. Indignant over the lack of money in the treasury and eager to put his own efficiency on display, Benavides accused Corcoles, Pedro de Olivera y Fullana, and interim governor Juan de Ayala Escobar of disobedience to the king’s cedulas. [Note: gov to king 9/30/1718]

In Spain Benavides revelations struck like a thunderbolt, not over the failure to comply with the cedulas but over the loss of the 40,000 pesos. The king and the Council realized that the money allocated for poor relief would be spent quickly, but they hardly expected the building funds to be used for projects other than those specified by the king. In an angry letter Philip V commanded Benavides to determine exactly how the 34,000 pesos, then unaccounted for, had been spent.

(Tepaske GSF)