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Overview of the Spanish governor's Indian policy
Source: The Governorship of Spanish Florida #122
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The Governor’s Indian Policy: A Critique For the governor of Florida maintenance of a consistent, workable Indian policy was a difficult task. Though he attempted to conciliate the Indians with gifts, favors, or baptisms, he found it difficult to compete with English agents or to remain up-to-date on intertribal relationships, both of which kept his Indian program in continuous turmoil. AN401 English traders were particularly effective when war approached and proved more than a match for the Spaniards when the friendship of the Indians was critical. At crucial times well-stocked traders from Georgia and South Carolina moved among the Indians of the Southeast with rum, muskets, powder, and shot, which they offered as gifts or on liberal terms in return for Indian treaties. In the meantime the governor at Saint Augustine groped for ways to meet this competition, but without help from his superiors in the colonies or at home in Spain, he was unable to play the game of power politics among the Indians with any effectiveness, especially during wartime. In peacetime, when the Georgians and Carolinians had less use for Indian allies, the Spaniards achieved more success, but otherwise the governor was at a disadvantage in trying to strengthen his ties with the Indian tribes of the Southeast. It could be argued, however, that it was difficult for any colonial leader—English, French, or Spanish—to secure lasting alliances with the Indians. For the most part they were practical opportunists continually treading a fine line between Spanish, English, and French allegiance. For them no treaty of alliance was permanent. No promise of undying love or everlasting allegiance was irrevocable. They were willing to break solemn pledges in a twinkling of an eye to secure gifts and favors. Whether the governor of Florida could have achieved more with a bountiful supply of presents and a more effective staff of Indian traders is doubtful. The natives realized all too well the advantages of pursuing a policy of shifting, transitory alliances. (Tepaske GSF)
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