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Nieto threatened Philip V's visitador

Source: The Governorship of Spanish Florida #122

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Specific Checks on the Governor: The Visita and the Pesquisa
Royal law and the privilege of Spanish colonists to air their grievances before the crown were natural restrains on the governor implicit in the colonial system. There were, however, explicit checks designed to prevent misgovernment and to insure honest, efficient colonial administration. One of these was the visitation (visita). Although historians have failed to agree on its character, the visita generally took two forms—the formal inspection of a given province and the investigation of a specific official whose activities had come under suspicion. Procedures varied, but usually the king or one of his colonial subordinates chose a visitador del juzgado to conduct an investigation of a province or official. Occasionally the visitador had authority to correct abuses he uncovered or to remove and offending official, but ordinarily he only made recommendations to his superiors. [Note: Although formal visitations were unusual in Florida, the king determined conditions in the colony in other ways. Periodically the king requested the governor of Cuba to report on problems and personnel in Florida. Usually it was left to the Cuban governor to obtain his information in any way he saw fit. Ordinarily he got such reports from residents of the colony—a soldier on detached duty in Saint Augustine, a friar visiting Cuba for a chapter meeting, the auxiliary bishop, or a sea captain calling at the Florida capital. [Note: See Gov of Cuba to king 12/23/1726 and bishop of Cuba to king 12/30/1726.]

Formal visitations in Florida were rare. Far from the centers of Empire, sparsely inhabited, and unproductive, the colony was not worth a visita. A visitor might devise ways to make more efficient use of the subsidy or prevent peculation, but strict records of receipts and disbursals and period auditing of subsidy accounts reduced opportunity of graft from this source. He might uncover an illicit trade venture or a morals scandal, but his findings would hardly be significant enough to warrant the expense to the crown. It was far simpler and cheaper for the king to secure information in other ways, and only once during the 18th century did the monarch call for an official visitation. Soon after the end of Queen Anne’s War, Philip V appointed the Cuban licentiate Antonio Ponce de Leon as visitador del juzgado for Florida. He was to make a complete report on conditions in Florida for the crown. [Note: Council for the Indians 11/28/1721]

When he arrived in Saint Augustine in 1720, Ponce received a rude reception. Like any visitor he must have known that he would be unwelcome to at least some segments of the population. He was, for these people, a royal busybody prying into colonial matters that he as an outsider could neither understand nor interpret, but he was surely not prepared for the greeting that awaited him in Florida. When he reached Saint Augustine, he found rudely inscribed handbills posted inconspicuous spots about the town threatening him with death if he did not leave at once. [Note: Council for the Indians 11/28/1721, Autos efectuados por don Antonio de Benavides, Gobernador de la Florida, contra don Ignacio Rodriguez Roso y don Bernardo Nieto de Carbajal sobre sus procedimientos.]

The appearance of the handbills worried Governor Benavides. Although he too may have wished for the visitor’s departure, he saw that the posting of the leaflets reflected his lack of control over the colony, and a visitation was an occasion to put his administrative talents on display. Immediately, therefore, he offered 1,000 pesos to anyone naming the person who had posted the threatening notices. In this way he hoped to bring the culprit quickly to justice and to impress the visitor with his abilities.

It was an effective move. One nameless soldier evidently needed the money badly enough to turn informer and accused Bernardo Nieto Carbajal, a long-time soldier of the Florida garrison. Nieto feared that Ponce would revive charges against him for abusing the Apalache Indians in 1702. By threatening the visitor’s life, he hoped to intimidate Ponce into leaving. But if Nieto meant to avoid trouble, he only asked for more. Acting on the informer’s testimony, Governor Benavides seized the infantry captain, confronted him with the charge of the anonymous accuser, forced a confession, and dispatched the prisoner to Cadiz for sentence. The informer, in turn, obtained 500 of the 1,000 pesos originally promised by the governor. [Note: Gov to king 8/23/1721] Benavides had demonstrated his competence to the visitor, and the case seemed closed.

(Tepaske GSF)