The peninsula had already been ravaged by the expeditions of Pánfilo Narváez and Hernando de Soto and was regarded as very hostile to the Spanish, and Cáncer argued that further violence would never bring about its conversion to Catholicism and submission.
Perceiving the possibility of goodwill, the expedition split, with Magdalena, Diego de Tolosa, Brother Fuentes, and an unknown sailor joining the Indians on the half-day's land route, and Cáncer returning to the caravel to meet them at the bay.
Magdalena, now "much changed" and wearing Indian attire, told Cáncer that she had convinced the local chief that the friars were peaceful, and that the other Spaniards were now his guests.
Cáncer and the others returned to the caravel that evening, and on board they found Juan Munos, a sailor who had been enslaved by the Indians years before but now escaped.
Beteta and García wanted to flee immediately and sail for the east coast of Florida, but Cáncer refused to leave a land "hallowed by the life blood" of his compatriots.
Likewise, in 1918 Cáncer's likeness was installed as part of a large stained glass window at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer (New York) run by the Order of Preachers.
[7] In 2015, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints bestowed the title Servant of God on Cáncer and 85 other Native American and Spanish martyrs of Florida,;[8][9] the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has endorsed the cause.