Apalachee Survival

Prior to its demise, Apalachee Province provided sustenance for the Spanish presidios at Pensacola and St. Augustine. The "economic backbone," of Apalachee was a trilogy of corn, cattle and hogs (McEwan, 1993:315). That backbone was supported by Indian labor. The Apalachee Spanish saw labor as the natives' greatest commodity. The Apalachee were porters and carpenters. They constructed the San Luis blockhouse and many other buildings in the complex, including the houses of Spanish settlers. In the summer of 1702, Apalachee carpenters helped to rebuild the Pensacola presidio after a fire damaged the village and fort. In the fall of 1703, Apalachee carpenters also helped rebuild St. Augustine after a British siege left the town heavily damaged (Boyd, et al., 1951:41). The Apalachee, however, were being marginalized economically by the Spanish.

With the arrival of Spanish civilians in the late seventeenth century, most notably Juan and Pedro Fernández de Florencia, trade in the region devolved to a small contingent of newcomers. The Florencias, in particular, came to monopolize the area's trade, to the exclusion of the Apalachee (Hann, 1988:136). With the Florencias leading the effort, the Apalachee Spanish profited from recurring food shortages in Pensacola and St. Augustine. Given the option, however, the Spanish settlers in the province preferred to ship their goods to Havana, where they brought higher prices (McEwan, 1993:359; Hann, 1988 #33:152). However, the livestock trade with the Pensacola presidios remained among the most valuable of commodities, as it was almost totally in the hands of the Spanish settlers.

In February of 1701, Florida Governor Joseph de Zuñiga y Zerda curbed the right of the Apalachee to trade with the Apalachicola. Responding to the growing English threat in the region, a result of the War of Spanish Succession, Zuñiga placed new restrictions on trade between the Apalachee and their Creek neighbors to the east. The pagan Apalachicola could still come to barter with the Christian Apalachee under the new restrictions, but could not introduce English clothing or arms. The governor also extended previous restrictions on the sale of Apalachee horses to the Apalachicola to include a complete moratorium on such transactions (Boyd, 1951:34). The new regulations only worsened an increasingly tense situation. These tensions elevated to violence when in the spring of 1702, the Apalachicola Indians attacked the village of Santa Fe of the Timucua. Later that year the Apalachicola Indians overwhelmed a Spanish and Apalachee force of 800. By the fall of 1702, the defeat of a mixed Spanish Apalachee expedition near the Flint River left only 1,500 men, many without weapons, to defend the widely scattered villages and missions. The Spanish and their Apalachee allies fell back to San Luis to fortify the blockhouse and build additional outworks (Hann, 1988:233-34).

In early November 1702, Governor James Moore of South Carolina captured the town of St. Augustine and laid siege to the fortification there, the Castillo de San Marcos. Word of the siege reached San Luis on November 11, 1702, at 7:00 in the evening (Zuñiga, 1702). Despite the threat to Apalachee, Lieutenant Governor Manuel Solana readied men and supplies at San Luis to relieve St. Augustine. Additional men and supplies came from Pensacola and from Mobile, arriving on or about December 20 (Boyd, 1951:38-40). By the time Solana and his force of about 500 Apalachee and 100 Spaniards reached St. Augustine, however, James Moore and his army had retreated to South Carolina (Zuñiga, 1703). Despite the English failure at St. Augustine in December 1702, the threat that the Anglos and their Creek allies posed to Apalachee Province had never been more ominous.

That threat grew more palpable in 1703. By March of that year, the English-allied Creeks were regularly raiding Apalachee Province. The Anglos and their Indian allies killed and captured Apalachee and burned their towns (Hann, 1988:191). By May 1703, the raids, coupled with years of neglect, had cultivated both rebellion and apathy among the Apalachee. The enemy carried off some 500 Apalachee people. Many more died in battle (Boyd, 1951:48-49).

Figure 9

<<click image for larger view>>

In January 1704, the full-fledged invasion of Apalachee Province began. Colonel James Moore, now former Governor of South Carolina, led an army 50 Englishmen and over 1,500 Creeks into Apalachee Province. On January 25, the combined English and Creek force attacked the mission village of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de Ayubale (Figure 9). They burned the village, took the defenders captive and tortured and killed their prisoners, the overwhelming majority of whom were Apalachee Indians (Boyd, et al., 1951:48-49).

In a period of calm that followed the attack on Ayubale, the Apalachee fled the province en mass. Many fled not to Pensacola or St. Augustine, but to the Carolinas. The entire populations of two Apalachee villages went with James Moore without a fight while a total of 5 villages were destroyed (Hann, 1988:276; Zuñiga, 1705). Colonel James Moore claimed to have taken 325 Apalachee men and 4,000 women and children as slaves, but the true number of captives probably was closer to 1,000 (Hann, 1988:279). All attempts to lure back the fleeing Apalachee failed.

Florida Governor Joseph de Zuñiga appealed to the Viceroy, who sent the Governor of Pensacola, Andrés de Arriola, to Apalachee to investigate (Albuquerque, 1704; Misc., 1704b). Arriola departed Veracruz on April 30 with 180 troops from the garrison of San Juan de Ulúa, arriving at Santa María de Galve on May 16. There he found a presidio full of refugees from Apalachee: Chacatos, Tawasas and Apalachee and four Spanish families. On May 18, a messenger arrived to Pensacola with an urgent request from Manuel Solana, asking for, "twenty-five or thirty muskets, six quintals of powder and six or eight thousand lead balls." More importantly, Solana requested that the refugee Indians living in Pensacola return to Apalachee Province (Arriola, 1704e; Solana, 1704a). Neither the refugee Indians, the Spanish troops arriving with Arriola, nor Arriola himself, were anxious to relieve Apalachee Province. Arriola was discouraged by the extent of English influence in the region. He was also troubled by the great distance separating Santa María de Galve and San Luis and by the formidable swamps, marshes, and forests that stood in between (Arriola, 1704e; Bobrian, 1704). The only feasible route between the two areas was by water.

On June 13, Arriola reached Cape San Blas, off St. Joseph's Bay, but he would go no further, as he was under orders not to risk the lives of his men. He did, however, provide 30 soldiers from Santa María de Galve and departed San Blas for Veracruz, arriving at the Mexican port city on July 11, 1704 (Arriola, 1704a). On June 24, shortly after Arriola's departure from Cape San Blas, Creeks attacked San Pedro y San Pablo de Patali and San Juan de Aspalaga (Solana, 1704c). On June 29, they began their assault on the village of Escambe, within a cannon shot of San Luis (Hann, 1988:50; Solana, 1704b). The day before the Creeks attacked Escambe, relief finally arrived to San Marcos. The 30 men Arriola had previously committed arrived in the felucca under the command of Adjutant Juan Joseph Torres (Boyd, 1951:50-55; Solana, 1704b).

On July 4, 1704 Lt. Governor Solana, Pensacola Adjutant Torres, 43 Spanish soldiers, 93 Apalachee with muskets and 60 Apalachee archers attacked the invaders near the partially destroyed village of San Pedro y San Pablo de Patali in the Battle of Patali. Solana underestimated the size of the enemy, however, and his forces were routed. The Creeks tortured and killed two Spanish soldiers and 15 Apalachee. They severed the ears, noses and tongues of their captives, tied them to crosses and burned them alive. The remnants of the Apalachee-Spanish force retreated to the blockhouse at San Luis (Boyd, 1951:50-55; Guzmán, 1704; Solana, 1704b; Zuñiga, 1704a).

The Spanish defeat in the Battle of Patali marked the final demise of Apalachee province. The Spanish lost faith in the Apalachee, many of whom fled or switched sides in the midst of the battle, and the Apalachee were convinced their overlords could not protect them. Francisco de Florencia explained: "The knowledgeable [Apalachee] Indians therefore, went to the enemies of peace so that they would not see themselves or their families dead or captive. They knew if they remained loyal subjects under the protection of the Spaniards, that they would not be helped" (Florencia, 1704).

By July 13, there were only four populated settlements in Apalachee: three so-called "Spanish" settlements, San Luis, San Lorenzo de Ivitachuco and San Juan de Aspalaga, and a Chacato Indian village. The Spanish presence in Apalachee had become untenable (Milanich, 1999:185). On July 16. Solana burned the fortifications at San Luis and spiked the cannon. A week later, on July 23, Adjutant Torres ferried Spanish women and children to Pensacola aboard the felucca (Boyd, 1951 63). Six men, who had come from Pensacola with Juan Torres, began to drive cattle overland toward Pensacola. Solana and a small contingent of Apalachee headed to St. Augustine, but the Apalachee refugees went to Pensacola (Boyd, 1951 50-55; Cruz de Qui, 1705; Solana, 1704b; Zuñiga, 1704b).

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