2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 95 



Florida Calderon \Yas about to undertake. Dr. Wenhold translates it 

 as follows : 



[The Bishop of Cuba to the Queen] 

 Senora : 



Your Majesty is pleased to command me, in the two royal cedulas of the 

 4th of March of the year "j^,, to visit at this time the provinces of Florida and 

 apply the proper remedy in the matter presented to Your Majesty by the Bishop 

 of the city, Rodrigo, my predecessor here. No bishop has gone there [to Florida] 

 in more than 60 years, and the presence of one is needed, not only to celebrate 

 confirmations and correct the faults and abuses that have come in during so 

 long a time in the case of [a] people so recently converted, and to investigate the 

 state in which the priests of San Francisco have the work of converting the 

 Indians and the instruction of the converts under their care, but also to lend 

 encouragement to the converting of the Indians of the province of Apalachocoli 

 who have for years been asking that missionaries be sent to teach and baptize 

 them; a request never yet granted for lack [of missionaries]. In this field the 

 Bishop believes the Dominican priests of this city would accomplish much. 



Senora, this my predecessor said to me in the city of San Lucar where I was 

 by order, awaiting the first opportunity of passage to this incumbency. I replied 

 to him that I wished first to come to the city of Cuba,* seat of this bishopric, 

 visiting it, and to go then to the mission. Accordingly, as soon as I entered this 

 city, obeying your Majesty I began to plan for the carrying out of that purpose. 

 Having now completed the visitation of this entire island, I have it in such good 

 condition that within 8 days under the favor of God I shall set forth. 



And because (although I recognize the great zeal of the Dominican priests, 

 who have offered themselves to me willingly), to take them now would be to 

 introduce great discord with the Franciscans and jeopardize the conversion 

 of those miserable heathen, it has seemed to me wiser to make use of the latter, 

 both because they are well versed in that language and because they are in con- 

 trol of the entire province of Apalache which borders upon that of Apalachocoli. 

 [I go] to investigate first the condition of that land, and then to enter upon 

 the work of conversion for which I am taking chalices and all the necessary 

 vestments of the Divine Cult. May it please Our Lord that the holy zeal of 

 Your Majesty attain its end for the greater glory of the Divine One and the 

 salvation of those souls. 



May Our Lord keep the Catholic Royal Person of Your Majesty in His holy 

 grace with health and complete felicity to the greatest good of Your vassals. 

 Your Majesty's humble servant and chaplain, 



Gabriel, Bishop of Cuba. 

 Havana, 

 August 14, 1674. 



In the present material, the main narrative, addressed to the Queen 

 of Spain, is vi^ritten, as will be seen, in a clear hand, probably that of 

 some secretary. It was accompanied by a brief note in the far less 

 legible script of the Bishop himself, directed to the secretary of the 



'^ Havana. 



