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SA's Creole friars persecuted nine new Spanish friars

Source: The Governorship of Spanish Florida #122

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In 1732 the arrival of nine Spanish friars demonstrated just how far the Creoles were prepared to go to retain control of the order. They assigned the nine new friars to hostile or difficult villages, gave the peninsulars no training in Indian languages, and prepared no briefing for them on the difficulties to be encountered among the natives. Heaping one abuse upon another, the Creoles shifted the Spaniards from one mission post to another every few months. This maneuver gave the Spanish friars no time to learn more than just a few simple phrases of the Indian dialects and subjected them to the rigors and dangers of travel in Florida. Between 1732 and 1735 one of the nine new missionaries served in Pocotalaca, Chiquito, Iororo, Apalache, Costa, Rosas, and Costa a second time. A compatriot served in Pocotalaca, Chiquito, Rosas, Costa, and Pensacola within the same period. The story of the seven others was much the same. [Note 102: contador de la Florida to king 2/25/1735. Nine arrived in Saint Augustine out of a group of 15 leaving Spain for service in Santa Elena.] AN345
In such circumstances it is not surprising that the Spanish clergy made such a poor showing among the natives. Treatment like this at the hands of Creole conventual leaders compounded their difficulties and made success among the Indians impossible. Yet the nine had more tenacity than their predecessors in the 1720s. They managed to withstand this abuse and remained in Florida, girding for a struggle against their Creole tormentors. In 1735 the crisis came.

(Tepaske GSF)