[Note 2] Juan, after serving as royal treasurer in Spanish Florida for 22 years, was appointed governor of Popayán Province (in present-day Colombia) in 1620.
[1] Francisco went to Mexico City three times to collect the annual situado (the royal subsidy for the presidio of St. Augustine): in 1627, while still acting treasurer, and in 1631 and 1632.
To deal with the duties added to his position in 1628, Francisco appointed his uncle Alonso Menéndez y Posada as steward in 1630.
[4] Francisco Menéndez Márquez was unusual among Spanish officials in the degree to which he pursued close relations with the native peoples of Florida, including compadrazgo.
Francisco Menéndez Márquez went to Guale Province, forced the natives to return to their towns, and took the leaders of the "rebellion" back to St.
[3] While Francisco Menéndez Márquez was acting as co-governor in 1647, non-Christian Apalachees revolted against Spanish authority, killing lieutenant-governor Claudio Luis de Florencia and his family, and three missionaries.
Returning to St. Augustine, he led 21 Spanish soldiers and 60 Timucuas to Apalachee Province and negotiated an end to the revolt.
Bushnell calculates that 6,000 pesos would have purchased about 200 head of cattle, five horses, and two slaves to serve as ranch hands.
[10][11] Francisco Menéndez Márquez died in 1649, in the first year of an epidemic of yellow fever or typhus that eventually killed many of the Spanish in St. Augustine (and large numbers of native peoples in the missions).