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THE SPANISH INVASION OF CAROLINA (Mont 11)-8
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121
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Declaration In the city of St. Augustine, Florida, on the twenty-seventh of the month of September, sixteen eighty-six, the senor Captain and Sergeant Major Don Juan Marquez Cabrera, governor and captain general of this stated city and its provinces for His Majesty, in order to proceed in these declarations, commanded to appear before him Matheo, an Indian native from the town of Santa Catalina of the province of Guale, who said his name thus, and who is native of the said province, who, before me, the notary, and by means of the said interpreter Alonso Garcia, was sworn in before God and a sign of the cross, in legal form, and having done so, aware of it, he promised to tell the truth [f. 14, vto.], and the following questions were asked of him: He was questioned why and for how much time he went away to the town of San Jorje, and he said that his said town having moved to the Island of Santa Maria, he had some [harsh] words with the wife of his cacique, and she struck this witness with a stick on the neck which laid him out on the floor, and getting up, wanting to attack her, her husband the cacique arrived and went to throw him out, and this witness feeling shamed, he attacked the cacique, and after having wanted to capture him, the elders [ancianos] frightened him by saying that they had to bring him before His Grace, the said senor governor, in order to put him in the castillo as a forced laborer. Seeing himself with these fears, he fled, leaving his wife on the said island in the town of Santa Maria, and went away, entering the interior with other countrymen [paisanos] of his from Santa Catalina. Seeming to him that he was not safe there, he went away to San Jorje with some Yamasis in order to spend some [f. 15] time with them, and also in order to see that town of Englishmen. When he arrived there with the said Yamasis, the governor found out that he was Christian and from the province of Guale, and the said governor called this witness and asked him if he was Christian, and he responded that he was, and a vassal of the King [of Spain], but that he had fled from his cacique so that they might not hang him, as the said Yamasis would tell him, and the said governor questioned him if he had come to St. Augustine, to which he responded that he had, and [the governor] asked about the disposition of the castillo, and what artillery it had, and if it was finished, and how tall, and if the moat had much water, and if there were many soldiers and many people in St. Augustine, and if there were many Indians in these provinces, to which this witness responded that he had been [in St. Augustine] three or four times, and the last time he had seen that the castillo was finished and very tall, and that it had much artillery all around it, some higher up, and some lower, and that the moat had water, but he did not know if it was very deep, and that every afternoon he saw people and soldiers enter in order to sleep within, and that with regard to there being many soldiers, he did not understand this, but it seemed to him that there were four times one hundred, and that there were also other Spaniards who were not soldiers, and that he had not traveled through these provinces [f. 15, vto.] in order to know the Indians that there were, beyond having heard it said that there were many Indians. He was asked whether in the time that he was in the said town of San Jorje he had heard it said that they wanted to come to this presidio to take it, and saw some corsair ships enter, or if he heard it said that they had entered, and if he knows that they carried some blacks and mulattos from those of Vera Cruz or Campeche, or other goods of the Spaniards. He said that he heard some Yamasi Indians say that some English had said that when a captain who had gone to England came, then they would try to come and take this presidio, and regarding whether corsair ships have entered or left, [this witness] saw one, and those who came in it were eating and walking about on land, and the said Yamasis told this witness that those [people] said they were from the ships that traveled robbing the Spaniards on the sea, and that they had come with other ships to this presidio and had killed some people. With regard to the black and mulatto slaves of the Spaniards, [this witness] saw them work there, and they asked this witness where he was from and if he was a Christian, and he responded that he was a Christian and was from the province of Guale, of the [f. 16] Spaniards, to where he would return soon, and the said slaves asked him if there were some canoes in which to be able to flee with them and come to St. Augustine, and afterwards he could not speak with them more. This witness tried to come, which he did, and upon coming for his land, he came upon the galliots which were carrying Indians of his town, and he returned with them,(49) NOTE 49. The returning Matheo must have run across Leon's ships on their northward journey from Guale, prior to having arrived at Stuart's Town. He then returned northward with them in one of the galliots. and they went to Santa Elena, where they fought with the Yamasis, because now the English who were settled on the Island of Santa Elena had passed to another island fleeing, and being in some houses of that coast, where they had captured other blacks, a storm struck them, and the said galliots came to land and the one in which the captain was going was lost, and he died there. This witness and the rest of the Indians having heard the Spaniards who remained with the other two galliots say that they [the Indians] did not fit in the galliots, because there were many people, and that they would leave them on land and they would go across [land] to their towns, as they heard this from the said Spaniards, this witness and another five looked for a solution, and they found a war canoe, and five of them embarked,(50) NOTE 50. Based on the formal petition of these Indians dated the same day (see note 51), the names of these Indians were Agustin, Domingo, Baltasar, Ventura, and Matheo. and one remained on land, and [this witness] swears that he will have perished.(51) NOTE 51. The formal petition by these Indians identifies this Indian as Azencio, who had been the leader of those who originally set out from Guale in Leon's galliots. They came in [the canoe] until arriving at the mouth of a [f. 16, vto.] river which seems to him, according to what he found out afterward, to descend from the provinces of Apalachecoli,(52) NOTE 52. The precise identity of this river is uncertain, but it may have been the Savannah, was one of the primary corridors of trade into the western interior. These traders might have been using the normal route, through Stuart's Town, with Woodward traveling farther over to the east in order to bypass another encounter with Lord Cardross at the Scottish settlement (Woodward had been delayed from entering the interior in April of 1685 by Cardross, who claimed Scottish domain over trade in the lower Savannah River region [Crane, 1956: 29-30]). where five Englishmen with two Indians of the Uchise nation(53) NOTE 53. Referring to the emerging Lower Creek tribal confederacy, the term Uchise seems to descend from the late prehistoric name for the middle Ocmulgee River in central Georgia, Ichisi. were there in a boat [barco], and they captured them and tied this witness and his companions up, and placing them together, they asked them if they were Christians, and they responded yes, and they told them "Well, later on we will kill you," and they placed some skins on top of them. Seeing themselves so afflicted, and that there were four Englishmen sleeping and one awake with the two Indians, one of them, tied up as he was, came across an oyster shell(54) NOTE 54. The phrase mejillon de ostion probably refers to a large oyster shell, since although mejillon is literally mussel, ostion refers to an oyster. Such shells were (and still are) common at campsites frequented by Indians in coastal regions, having been discarded after consumption. Unfortunately for the English traders, they did not consider this before leaving their captives for the night. on the ground, and with all secrecy he cut his bonds, and thus they went giving the oyster shell to one another and untying themselves, and when they finished they got up suddenly, and with the shotguns which they had nearby and a stick, they killed four of them with blows, and the other, with two blows, went away with an Indian, whom they could not finish off nor find in the woods due to the darkness. Afterwards they returned and told the other Indian that he should call to his companion, and that they would not kill them, and the other Indian having come, they told them how those Englishmen had left from San Jorje and gone to the provinces of Apalachecoli where they had been much time, and that farther up one of their captains had gone through a narrow river to leave by another river with another Englishmen who was called Captain Enrique, and in his company went the cacique of Cabeta(55) NOTE 55. Cabeta, or Coweta, was one of the most important Apalachicola, or Lower Creek, towns on the lower Chattahoochee River. This town was one ofthose which had been burned by the Spanish lieutenant ofApalache, Antonio Matheos, the previous December due to their trading alliances with Dr. Woodward and the other Carolina traders (see Swanton, 1922; Bolton, 1925; and Crane, 1956). [f. 17] and a son and two nephews of Niquisaia,(56) NOTE 56. This statement finally clarifies the passage in the 1688 royal cOdula that Niquisaya was "he who passed and conveyed Captain Henrique and his companions." This last passage was used by Antonio de Arredondo (1742: 268) to assert that it was Niquisaya who "sold" Santa Elena to Henry Woodward in 1666 (see Overview). In fact, Niquisaya was only about 30 years old at that date, and could not have been the "old man" who placed Woodward on his "throne" (Sandford, 1666). Indeed, as discussed in the Overview, the earlier cacique of Santa Elena fled to Guale in 1667, probably turning Woodward over to the Spanish, and a cacique of Santa Elena (possibly the same individual) was said to have died there in 1672. The 1688 cddula actually referred to Niquisaya's 1686 assistance in gaining Woodward passage and trading access to the Apalachicola province of the deep western interior. In March of 1685, Niquisaya was identified as a 50-year-old "pagan Indian native of the Yamasi nation," and as their "principal leader" (Marquez Cabrera, 1685b). Although at that time Niquisaya warned the Spanish about the Yamassee chief Altamaha's plans to attack the Timucua province, less than two years later Niquisaya was killed in Governor Marquez Cabrera's follow-up to Leon's raid on Santa Elena (see below). As recounted in the later royal cedula (1688), the governor stated in a March 6, 1687 letter to the crown that "Niquisalla" was a "principal Indian," and that he and his son and nephew were "the leaders [caudillos] of the Yguajas and Colones who had aggregated themselves to the English." Marquez Cabrera further elaborated that "this Niquisalla had sold them the lands with the ceremonies and writings that are done in such cases, uprooting plants and moving earth [arrancar plantas y mover tierras]." Referred to by the Spaniards as an untrustworthy, malicious liar (cabiloso), this enigmatic leader of the Indians of the Carolina/Florida frontier may well have periodically shifted allegiances in response to changing circumstances. and that the said Niquisaia had been with the said Englishmen and helped the said Captain Enrique get through. This witness and the rest seeing what had happened, they took the shotguns and stripped the dead Englishmen and returned in the boat, in which they found one hundred twenty-six buckskins [gamusas], two hundred pelts of beavers and otters, and twenty skins of bears and bison [sibolas], and navigating now near to their towns, they caught up with the said galliots, and their leaders took the boat, the shotguns, and the rest away from them, and treated them badly, and burned the said boat because it seemed to them who knows what, and thus this witness and the rest have come to ask for justice,(57) NOTE 57. The petition of these Guale Indians, dated on the same day as this testimony, appears in other correspondence of Governor Marquez Cabrera (1686) to the King, and contains largely the same details described here. The formal petition indicates that Pedro Hortelano intended to hang the Indian Matheo upon their return to the Guale towns (perhaps as a former fugitive to the English), but was prevented from doing so by the tunaque Alonso (probably the Alonso Espinosa, tunaque of Tupiqui, listed in the 1685 Leturiondo visitation). Both Alonso, who remained sick in Guale, and his nephew Bernave (probably the Bernabe Espinosa, elesache of Tupiqui, listed in the same visitation, and who later became the mico of Tupiqui), were listed as petitioners along with the earlier five Indians. The Indians were eventually granted all the spoils of their encounter with the English traders by the Governor. and what he has said and declared is the truth, and what he knows, aware of the oath which he has made, in which he affirms and ratifies, and he is of the age of twenty-two years, a little more or less. He did not sign, not knowing how to. His Grace the said senor governor and the said interpreter signed it. Alonso Garcia de la Vera Juan Marquez Cabrera Before me, Alonso Solana Public and Governmental Notary [f.17, vto.] Auto(58) NOTE 58. The following auto effectively summarizes the evidence presented above, and sets forth the governor's decision regarding the disposition of the spoils. In the city of St. Augustine, Florida, on the twenty-seventh of the month of September, sixteen eighty-six, the senor Captain and Sergeant Major Don Juan Marquez Cabrera, governor and captain general of this stated city and its provinces for His Majesty, having seen these autos and declarations made by the three English prisoners, and that of the Indian from Santa Catalina who came from San Jorge, and what is contained in them, His Grace said that regardless of the damage which these provinces have received and are receiving by sea and land from the town of San Jorxe, by housing and helping the corsairs, they have come to consider and be threatened they should do so [again], as is more fully on record from the news which His Grace has had, and from disturbing the provinces of Apalachicoli and Caveta, who have rendered obedience to His Majesty, sending this past year Englishmen and Yamaze Indians; and likewise in the said year sixty Yamazes of the jurisdiction of San Jorxe having entered in the province of Timucua and burned one of its towns and killed some people, and having taken twenty-one persons, including men and women, to San Jorxe, from where they embarked for other places, there remaining [f. 18] there three women and one man;(59) NOTE 59. The governor's source for this statement is unclear, for although the Scottish youth John Livingston testified that an Englishman had come from Charles Town to buy some of the Timucuan Indian slaves, he did not know how many. Governor Marquez Cabrera must have had other information, perhaps from other earlier depositions (which have yet to come to light). and likewise having seized the boat [barco] of this presidio in the province of Guale, and having made good this seizure and bought it, making use of it for such that it came loaded with corn for the aid of this presidio in the past year of sixteen eightythree, when the English and French enemies came to invade this post; and likewise having armed two ships [navios] with people and leaders for the sack of the city of Campeche, as is on record from the declaration of the Captain of the galliot which was seized in this port at the sandbar of Matanzas;(60) NOTE 60. The location of this declaration, apparently taken from the pirate captain whose galliot was captured at Matanzas and used by Governor Marquez Cabrera on the Leon expedition, was not discovered for this volume. The fact that two Carolina ships were outfitted for this expedition was additionally confirmed by the testimony of Juan Clar (above). and likewise having had news that during the end of this past August two English captains were to come to the Island of Santa Catalina to depopulate them, and that they were bringing people in order to populate them, as is verified by what happened and the declarations made,(61) NOTE 61. This passage may refer to the planned visit by Lord Cardross and William Dunlop to the Island of Santa Catalina in the summer of 1685 (Cardross and Dunlop, 1685). How Governor Marquez Cabrera knew about this is unknown. and by having populated the Island of Santa Elena and another town on the mainland with English governors subordinate to that of San Jorxe; and that for this reason the seizure made by the said galliots should be approved; and by having found in it a chasuble and some altar candlesticks ofsilver with the names of the person who gave them as alms to the Santo Christo de San Roman, and clothing from the last sack of Campeche or from Vera Cruz, by being the wardrobe [vestuario] of the said lands, the said seizure made in the plantation ten leagues distant from the town of San Jorxe contravening the capitulations and royal cedulas; therefore, [the governor] was commanding and commanded that the royal officials ask for and get censures from the ecclesiastical judge of these provinces so that all those persons who might have taken whatever articles of silver and gold and other relevant and pertinent things of value in the said plantation ten leagues from the town of San Jorxe should present and declare them, and also the residents, occupants, and inhabitants who might have held or bought them, and for this the said royal officials should join in accord,(62) NOTE 62. This accord appears below. and so that the slaves and whatever other goods that might have been taken and captured from the said plantation and have ended up in the power of Pedro Hortelano, leader of the galliot Nuestra Seniora de Regla, should be placed in deposit and secured,(63) NOTE 63. Here Governor Marquez Cabrera made a very controversial decision, ordering the seizure of all the goods taken illegally by the Leon expedition within the bounds of Carolina. Although Marquez Cabrera provided for a full inventory to be made, and for copies to be given to Leon's surviving Lieutenant Pedro Hortelano, and also forwarded to Spain for a decision on the final disposition of the goods, the following documents reveal that this was a disputed command. and an inventory made so that it is on record for all time, leaving [a copy] for the said Pedro Ortelano and the [f. 19] rest of his companions, and for Captian Alexandro Thomas, leader of the said galliots, who by order of the governor of Havana came as aid to this post, and to scour the northern coasts and clean them of corsairs, as he was doing when he lost his life and his galliot with the rest of the deceased [?], and an account of everything should be given to His Majesty with copies of these autos so that he might order what he wishes to do, and for this his auto he provided and signed. Juan Marquez Cabrera Before me, Alonso Solana Public and Governmental Notary [f. 19, vto.] Accord In the city of St. Augustine, Florida, on the twenty-eighth of the month of September, sixteen eighty-six, the senores Captain and Sergeant Major Don Juan Marquez Cabrera, governor and captain general of this stated city and its provinces for His Majesty, and the Captains Don Thomas Menendez Marquez, accountant for His Majesty, and Francisco de la Rocha, treasurer and quartermaster, official judges of the Royal Hacienda and Coffer of these provinces, having met by virtue of the auto on the other side of this in the houses of the residence of His Grace the said senor governor, they were of the opinion and declared that in the interim that His Majesty might determine [the case], the said slaves should be applied to the construction of the castillo, where they should work, and their sustenance should be charged to the account of His Majesty, and all the remaining goods that appear to pertain to the said haciendas of San Jorxe, being held and declared, they should be deposited and secured in the same manner, and this was what Their Graces agreed to and signed, and they commanded that Pedro Ortelano, leader of the galliot, should be notified for this accord to deliver the said slaves to the lieutenant of the royal fort.(64) NOTE 64. The accord signed by the royal officials effectively put the governor's decision into action, providing for the housing, feeding, and employment of the captured slaves, and for the notification of Pedro Hortelano. Juan Marquez Cabrera Thomas Menendez Marquez Francisco de la Rocha Before me, Alonso Solana Public and Governmental Notary [f.20] Notification In the city of St. Augustine, Florida, on the twenty-eighth of the month of September, sixteen eighty-six, I, the notary, notified and made known in person the auto and accord of His Grace the senor governor and captain general and the judges royal officials of these provinces, both that of yesterday, the twenty-seventh of the current [month], and also that of today, the said day, as is contained in them, to Pedro Ortelano, leader of the galliot Nuestra senora de Regla, who understood its tenor. He said that he heard it and that [something] occurred to him to say and allege about the contents of the said autos, and he said this as his reply.(65) NOTE 65. This last passage of the formal notification is something ofa departure from the normal course of events, inasmuch as Pedro Hortelano intended to dispute the Governor's decision (as was done in his letter below). I swear, Alonso Solana Public and Governmental Notary In St. Augustine, Florida, on the said day, month, and year, I, the said notary, swear and give true testimony where appropriate how Pedro Hortelano, resident in this city, leader of the galliot named Nuestra Seniora de Regla, in fulfillment of the auto contained on the three folios before this one, delivered to Captain Francisco de Fuentes, lieutenant of the royal fort of this presidio, the eleven slaves contained in the said auto, which are eight black men [f.20, vto.] and three black women, and he took them and placed them within the royal fort, to which I swear.(66) NOTE 66. Although planning to dispute the seizure of the slaves and other goods, Hortelano nevertheless was obligated to turn them over while his complaint was being prepared and examined. Alonso Solana Public and Governmental Notary [f.21]
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