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Pedro Menendez Marquez waged war on the Guale Indians in demand of their French captives

Source: Situado and Sabana #82

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Captain Quiros reestablished Santa Elena. Within two years [after 1577] it had a new church and "more than forty houses of clay and flat roofs" (Niel, [1580]; Quiros, 1584). The governor himself brought lumber and carpenters from St. Augustine in 1579 and rebuilt the fort, naming it San Marcos. It became his stronghold for the war he had come to wage. In one year his troops burned 20 towns and destroyed standing crops, reserves of maize, and canoas for 45 leagues up and down the coast, and inland as far as Potano (Arguelles, 1600; Ybarra, 1605a; Marques, 1606).

The one condition that Menendez Marquez set for peace was for the natives to tum over their French advisors, for, as he told the king, there would be no security for Spaniards while foreigners were among the Indians organizing resistance and disseminating their "evil sect." To stop his scorched-earth tactics, the Guales surrendered to him Prince Nicholas and the rest of their French captives, other than three who were on a journey to the interior. Captain Quiros personally took custody of 16 Frenchmen, including the pilot Felix (Martinez Carvajal, 1579; Quiros, 1584).
(Bushnell SS)