Alonso de Mercadillo, he explored southern Zamora in Amazonian Ecuador, part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, and gave the Nambíja (or Lambija) region its name.
[4][5] On 28 August 1603, English pirates seized two Spanish ships from Seville near Cayo Romano, (Cuba), on board one of which was newly appointed governor of La Florida, Pedro de Ibarra, who escaped that night on one of the damaged vessels and arrived in Havana after a perilous voyage of 32 days at sea.
[1] Ibarra, a career soldier with wide military experience, regarded maintaining the presidio's garrison and a vigilant watch for hostile intruders as his most important administrative duties.
[8] In November and December 1604, Ibarra made a visita (official visit) to the Guale towns on the coast of present-day Georgia,[9] where he listened to the native chiefs' complaints and settled disputes among them, as well as exhorting them to practice the Catholicism they had been taught by the missionaries.
[10][11][12] In his official relations with the Indian inhabitants of La Florida, Ibarra employed the diplomacy of gift-giving expected by native chiefs, and even resorted to kidnapping Ais leaders to parley with them.
[13] The Ais were allowing English and French boats to land on their shores, which was considered a territorial violation by Spanish officials in St. Augustine, who believed these actions increased the chances of an enemy attack on the city from the south.