[1] In that year he led an expedition to the north of Apalachee Province, along the lower Chattahoochee River into southwestern Georgia and eastern Alabama.
[2] Ruíz established a farm near the mission San Miguel de Asile that raised wheat, maize and hogs.
[1][4] In 1646, Ruíz devised a plan to relocate the Indian converts who lived at the interior mission of Santiago de Oconi within the Okeefenokee Swamp (in what is now southeastern Georgia), to the lightly populated mission of San Diego de Helaca on the east bank of the St. Johns River, founded by the Spanish between 1624 and 1627.
[5] This town was regarded as the entryway to the Timucua and Apalachee provinces, and the Indians there were tasked with providing ferry service on the Camino Real (Royal Road).
Consequently, in April, Ruíz sent a soldier from the garrison in St. Augustine, Juan Dominguez, southward to find the town's people and their chief.