FLORIDA AND THE FLORIDA MISSIONS 



Senora : 



What has been discovered, up to today, concerning the entire 

 district of Florida, both along the seacoast and inland, is as follows : 



On the coast of the northern border, 30 leagues from Cape 

 Canaveral, [where] the canal of Bahama disembogues, is located, on 

 the 30th parallel of latitude, the city of Saint Augustine which was 

 founded about 1559' by the Adelantado Pedro Menendes Aviles. It 

 is the capital of the provinces of Florida and has more than 300 

 Spanish inhabitants, soldiers and married people. Its harbor is very 

 secure by reason of a very dangerous sand bar which it has at its 

 entrance, which shifts its position in storms and at high tide has 20 

 spans " of water. The city is built lengthwise from north to south. 

 It is almost cut oflf by an arm of the sea which surrounds it and buffets 

 it, leaving it half submerged from hurricanes as it lies at sea level. 

 Its climate is somewhat unhealthful, being very cold in winter, with 

 freezes, and excessively hot in summer, both of which extremes are 

 felt the more as there is no protection nor defence in the houses, they 

 being of wood with board walls. The soil is sand and therefore un- 

 productive ; no wheat grows, and corn only sparsely and at the cost of 

 much labor. Thus the inhabitants are compelled regularly to depend 

 for their sustenance upon the products of the province of Apalache. 

 The section does not produce any sort of raw material which could 

 attract trade, and has no resources other than the government allow- 

 ance which it awaits each year from the city of Mexico, and by which 

 the infantry is fed and clothed. 



As regards its spiritual welfare, it has a parish church dedicated to 

 Saint Augustine, served by a priest, a sacristan and acolytes, and a 

 Franciscan convent, headquarters for the province, called Saint 

 Helena, with three monks, a superior, a preacher, a lay brother, and 

 with authority by a royal decree of Your Majesty to have three 

 curates for the three principal languages of these provinces, Guale, 

 Timuqua and Apalache, for the teaching of Christian doctrine and 

 the administering of the sacraments to the Indians who usually attend 



' The city of Saint Augustine was actually founded in 1565. 

 "About 15 feet. One hundred years later the estimated depth of the water 

 on the bar at low tide was 9 feet. 



