Missions in Spanish Florida

Although priests and religious (monks) had traveled with the early conquistadors, the 1549 expedition of Father Luis de Cancer and three other Dominicans to Tampa Bay was the first solely missionary effort attempted in La Florida.

It ended in failure with de Cancer being clubbed to death by the Tocobaga natives soon after landing,[2] which diminished Catholic interest in La Florida for sixteen years.

[6] The mission system functioned for decades, as the Spanish convinced most village leaders to provide food and labor in exchange for tools and protection.

It collapsed in the aftermath of Queen Anne's War, when colonists from the Province of Carolina, along with their Creek allies, killed or kidnapped much of the remaining native population of Spanish Florida except in areas near St. Augustine and Pensacola.

[7] The network of missions was virtually destroyed by Carolina Governor James Moore's incursions into northern Florida between 1702 and 1709, a series of attacks that were later called the Apalachee massacre.

[6] De Avilés had only four priests in his initial company, and three of those ministered to the garrisons at St. Augustine, Santa Elena, and San Mateo (on the site of the captured Fort Caroline).

Jesuit missionaries to the Guale complained that it was difficult to convert the natives to Christianity because they did not remain resident in one place, but moved to be near food resources as they became seasonally available.

[12] Discouraged by the killings at Tacatacuru and a lack of progress in converting the Guale, the Jesuits withdrew from the Georgia coast and, in 1570, established the Ajacán Mission in what is now the state of Virginia.

Due to the hostility of the Native Americans, which resulted in the killing of several of the missionaries, the Jesuits withdrew from the mission field in La Florida in 1572.

Starting in 1606 the Franciscans expanded their mission efforts westward across northern Florida along a primitive but lengthy road known as El Camino Real.

[17][18] The road and the network of missions stretched across the Florida panhandle through the territory of the Timucua and reached the Apalachees in the vicinity of modern Tallahassee by 1633.

The Franciscan missionaries were assigned to native towns, primarily near St. Augustine, but including a mission on Cumberland Island, San Pedro de Mocama, established in 1587.

Gonzalo Méndez de Canço, governor of Florida, proposed establishing a mission in Tama, but was refused permission to do so because the area was considered to be too far from St.

When Franciscan missionaries returned to St. Catherines Island, a church was built at the chief's town in 1604, but Fray Pedro de Ibarra did not take up residence there until the next year.

The English traded firearms and other manufactured goods in exchange for skins to the Muscogee and Yamassee peoples, who in turn began attacking the missions of Spanish Florida.

Following the attacks, the governor of Spanish Florida ordered a withdrawal from the northern part of Guale Province, including the native residents of the mission towns.

[12] Mission San Pedro de Potohiriba (possibly an alternate form of Puturibe) was established in western Timucua Province by 1657, probably serving Yamassee.

Threats from Cabrera led to at least the Christianized residents of the town moving south to a point west of the Flint River just above where it joins the Chattahoochee.

Hann suggests that the inhabitants of the mission were Christianized Guale and pagan Yamassee, with the former Mocaman residents having moved south to what is now Florida.

Some were resettled in missions closer to St. Augustine, some retreated into the woods, some were captured and sold as slaves in Charleston, and some joined the native allies of the English.

[60] The attacks on the missions in 1680 were carried out by about 300 Chichimeco, Uchise, and Chiluque[a] warriors, aided by English instructors (likely helping with the provision and maintenance of firearms).

Learning of the pirates' presence, most of the people of Guadalquini moved to the mainland, taking most of their food stores with them, and left ten men under a sub-chief to defend the town.

The mission was then moved to a site on the north side of the St. Johns River (in present-day Florida), which was named Santa Cruz de Guadalquini.

The fact that the ruins were built after the establishment of the Georgia Colony by Great Britain was not fully accepted by historians until late in the 20th century.

The Spanish established one early mission among the Mayaca people, a non-Timucuan speaking tribe south of the Agua Fresca, and resumed efforts among them, and their relatives, the Jororo, in the late 17th century.

[69][70][71] The Timucua-speakers, most of whom were brought into the mission system in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, were initially seen by the Spanish as living in a dozen or so provinces, with the Acuera, Ibi, Mocama, Potano, Timucua (in its restricted sense, north of the Santa Fe River, and east of the Suwannee River), Utina, Yufera, and Yustaga provinces becoming major components of the mission system.

Most of these areas were eventually considered part of the larger Timucua Province, in some cases because native populations had declined to the point that they could no longer support multiple missions.

A smallpox epidemic in Spanish Florida that year may have largely eliminated the population of the mission, with any survivors relocated closer to St. Augustine.

After the Timucuan Rebellion of 1656, Governor Robelledo order the people of Arapaha be moved to the mission Santa Fé de Potano along the trail connecting Sy.

[93] The excavation was initiated when Marvin Smith, Professor of Anthropology at Valdosta State University, observed Spanish artifacts at the site.