Apalachee Settlers
Spanish civilians were arriving in Apalachee in
the three decades prior to 1705. Several of these new arrivals were Florencias,
a family with deep roots in the region, dating back to 1645. The Florencias
harbored equally deep resentment for the natives of the region, as rebel Apalachee
almost annihilated the family in 1647. From the 1670s onward, the Florencias
reigned over the province, and ruthlessly abused the Indians therein (Hann,
1988). Apalachee men accused their Florencia counterparts of failing to compensate
them for their labor and of abusing their women. The Florencia women were also
known to have mistreated the Apalachee. Juana Cathalina de Florencia forced
"six Indian women [to grind flour or cornmeal for her] every day without
payment for their work" and on one occasion slapped a cacique of San Luis
who failed to bring her fish one Friday (Boyd, 1951:24; Patricio, 1699). While
the Florencias and other Spanish settlers were the most egregious culprits,
others mistreated the Apalachee as well; soldiers routinely abused Apalachee
women and priests outlawed traditional Apalachee rituals (Boyd, 1951:24-25,
26-27).
The Apalachee and their defenders looked with disdain on the Spanish settlers,
but they detested the Florencias. In February 1699 two Indian caciques, Patricio
of Ivitachuco, and Andrés of San Luis, wrote to the King of Spain complaining
of abuses at the hands of the Spanish settlers. Spanish cattle were trampling
their crops. Spanish men were enslaving their people (Boyd, 1951:26; Patricio,
1699). Three years later, on January 29, 1702, the priest Antonio Ponce de Leon
wrote to the king reiterating the complaints of the caciques and placing much
of the blame on the Florencias. He asked that the Florencias be put before an
ecclesiastical tribunal, as the family controlled the civil bureaucracy, were
related to almost everyone of consequence in Florida and, thereby, were virtually
immune to civil prosecution (Boyd, et al., 1951:28).
The ecclesiastical investigations, which followed were similarly unjust, as
the visitadores (Spanish officials who investigated misdeeds) that were sent
to Apalachee province were often under the influence of the Florencia family
as well. In February 1698, Governor Joseph de Zuñiga chose Captain Juan
de Ayala y Escobar as visitador. Ayala was a relative of Zuñiga with
business ties to the Florencia family. In 1699, the Governor chose Joachim de
Florencia, the first cousin of settler Pedro de Florencia (Hann, 1998:59). In
November 1700, Zuñiga ordered Jacinto Roque Pérez, the deputy
governor of Apalachee and brother-in-law of the Florencias, to investigate abuses
against the Indians. The cousin of the accused was ordered to remedy any injustices
found, to restore those in involuntary servitude to their homes and to protect
those former personal servants against further abuses (Boyd, 1951:30-32). Not
surprisingly, Pérez did nothing to correct the injustices.
In December 1700, Zuñiga once again sought Juan de Ayala y Escobar as
visitador. Accompanying Ayala was his secretary, Manuel de Quiñones,
also the ecclesiastical notary in St. Augustine. Ayala and Quiñones entered
a province ripe for rebellion. Quiñones recorded the testimony of a member
of the Indian gentry who was married to a Spanish soldier:
She told us that all the Indians of that Province were found with evil in their hearts…it was the greatest Lord in the Province who was Don Patricio Ygnachua, the Cacique of Vitachuco who had been the one who had been preventing them from carrying out their intentions…that they should rise up in rebellion and kill all the Spaniards, men, women and children (Quiñones, 1719).
Meeting with Ayala and Quiñones in private,
outside the watchful eye of the Florencias, the Apalachee gave testimony amounting
to 72 pages. In the course of the testimony, the Apalachee made a pledge: remove
the Florencias from the province or they would take matters into their own hands
and kill the family. Quiñones frustrated Ayala's overtures to turn over
the complaints to the Florencia family and the two departed for St. Augustine
where they reported to the governor that Apalachee Province, the breadbasket
of Spanish Florida, was on the verge of rebellion (Quiñones, 1719).
Almost a year later, the governor chose Bernardo Nieto de Carbajal to go to
Apalachee, without Quiñones, to settle those matters that had been left
unfinished or ignored by Ayala. Nieto de Carbajal took bribes from the Apalachee
Province and left everything as it was before, with Roque Pérez and the
Florencias further entrenched in power. Later, many of the citizens of St. Augustine
held Nieto de Carbajal directly responsible for the destruction of that province
(Quiñones, 1719).