Pedro Benedit Horruytiner

When governor Benito Ruíz de Salazar Vallecilla was suspended from office in 1646, acting royal contador (accountant or comptroller) Horruytiner and Francisco Menendez Marquez served as co-governors until Salazar Vallecilla was returned to office in 1648.

[2] Pedro Horruytiner joined the Spanish Army as a youth on December 10, 1635. and gained the ranks of sergeant major ("sargento mayor") and lieutenant colonel, which he held when he was appointed interim governor of Florida.

[3] On September 5, 1647, Horruytiner and Francisco Menendez Marquez issued an ultimatum to the Chisca Indians, who had attacked the Christianized Timucuan settlements,[4] forcing them to choose within two months between their annihilation in Florida, or settlement in the towns of the Christian Timucua.

Although the expedition seems to have achieved its goal as the Spanish attempted to repopulate these settlements, their demographic decline continued.

[1] Pedro Benedit Horruytiner married María Ruíz de Cañizares Mexía y Florencia in Saint Augustine, on February 19, 1637.