WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA IO9 



with an excellent parish church and a Franciscan convent with some 

 30 friars, who are almost all evangelizing the Indians in their villages. 

 There is a hospital to care for the indigent sick, a shrine of Santa 

 Barbara, and a fort with some 25 excellent bronze cannon. His 

 Majesty appoints a Governor, who is Captain General, and two Royal 

 Officials. 



309. The city lies full 30° N. ; its climate is like that of Spain, 

 with winter and summer ; the country is fertile, level, and wooded, 

 with some swamps. Spanish fruit trees bear with great abundance, 

 as do also cereals, garden truck, and vegetables ; they grow excellent 

 quinces, pomegranates, pears, and other kinds of fruit, and marvelous 

 melons. 



310. There are many districts converted to the Faith; the Indians 

 arc very good Christians, and devout. One league from the city lies 

 the village of San Sebastian, and there are other villages, like Ais, 

 Moloa, Matacumbe, and others, and the Province of Surruque to the 

 S., as one comes from Havana, and many other settlements and 

 provinces. 



311. The Province of Guale is 40 leagues N. of St. Augustine; 

 farther on is the Province of Santa Elena, and in that direction, at 

 120 leagues from St. Augustine, the Sierra de Tama, all rock crystal, 

 where fine diamonds have been found ; beyond which some 40 leagues 

 to the N., lies Virginia, or Xacal, an English settlement. From Florida 

 to the Punta de Bacallaos (Cape Cod), which is at 48°3o', it is 1,260 

 leagues, with settlements of the heathen at many points ; and from 

 Mexico to Florida there are over 500 leagues of extensive provinces 

 with settlements of savages, part of which will be described in the 

 following chapter. 



312. The city and provinces of Florida come under the jurisdiction 

 of the Bishop of Cuba ; and for more than 200 leagues inland there 

 are heathen Indians who wish to become Christians and many of 

 them have churches already built, but they are not converted, for lack 

 of any prelate, minister, or priest ; for the few that there are cannot 

 fill the need, as the Gospel says : "The harvest truly is great but the 

 laborers are few." And Jeremiah, lamenting in spirit over like mis- 

 chance, says : "The poor asked bread, and there was no man to break 

 it unto them." The poor heathen asked for the bread of the Gospel, 

 and there was no one to give it to them ; and there is no remedy for 

 this, through want of a shepherd ; for the Bishop of Cuba does not 

 go to Florida because there are perilous risks of enemy pirates who 

 habitually keep raiding and infesting those coasts, and because also 

 of the dangerous character of the sea in those regions, with so many 



