swAN'TMv] l.AIII.Y HISTORY OF THK CREEK INDIANS 87 
strings, and others died wretchedly; and upon that pro"\ ince <!<><l sent a grcal [amine 
of which many perished, as will be related. 
The g 1 success of these Indians caused others to unite with them, ami they 
undertook to attack the island of San Pedro with more than 40 eanoes, in order to put 
an end to the monks who were there, and destroy the chief, who was their enemy. 
They embarked, provided with bows, arrows, and clubs; and, considering the victory 
theirs, they discovered, near the island, a brigantine, which was in the harbor where 
they were to disembark, and they assumed that it had many people and began to 
debate about returning. The brigantine had arrived within sight of the island 30 
daws before with succor of bread and other things, which the monks needed; but 
they had not been able to reach the port, although those who came in it tried it many 
times, nor to pass beyond, on account of a bar (cafio) which formed itself from the 
mainland ? I a thing which had never happened before in that sea. It carried only 
one soldier, and the other people were sailors, and even less than the number needed 
for navigation. 
Finding the Indian rebels in this confusion the chief of the island went out to defend 
himself with a great number of canoes. 1 He attacked them with great resolution; 
and although they tried to defend themselves, their attempt was in vain, they fled, 
and those who were unable to jumped ashore; and the chief, collecting some of his 
enemies' canoes, returned triumphantly to his island, and the friars gave him many 
presents, with which he remained as satisfied as with his victory. 
( )f the others who had sprung to land none escaped, because they had no canoes 
in which they might return; some hung themselves with their bowstrings, and others 
died of hunger in the woods. 
Nor were those exempt who escaped, because the governor of Florida, learning of 
the atrocities of the Indians, went forth to punish the evildoers; but he was only able 
to burn the cornfields, because the aggressors retired to the marshes, and the high- 
lands prevented him from punishing them, except with the famine which followed 
immediately the burning of the harvests, of which many Indians died. . . . 
The Indians kept the friar Francisco de Avila in strict confinement, ill-treating 
him much; afterwards they left him more liberty in order to bring water and wood, 
and watch the fields. They turned him over to the boys so that they might shoot 
arrows at him; and although the wounds were small, they drained him of blood, 
because he was not able tostop the blood; this apostolic man suffering these outrages 
with great patience and serenity. . . . 
Wearied of the sufferings of Father Avila the Indians determined to burn him 
alive. They tied him to a post, and put much wood iinder him. When about to 
burn him, there came to the chief one of the principal Indian women, whose son the 
Spaniards held captive in the city of St. Agustine without her having been able to 
find any way to rescue him although she had tried it. This moved her to beg the 
chief earnestly that he should give friar Francisco to her to exchange him for her son. 
I Ither I in Hans, who desired to see him free, begged the same thing; and although it 
cost them much urging to appease the hatred of the chief for the father, he granted 
what the Indian woman asked, giving him to her so badly treated, that he arrived 
at St. Agustine in such a condition that they did not recognize him; he had endured 
such great and such continuous labors. He accomplished the exchange, and the 
people of the city expressed a great deal of sympathy for friar Francisco. 
God wished to give a greater punishment to the Indians of Florida, who killed the 
missionaries so unjustly; and, refusing water to the earth, upon the burning of the 
crops, there began such a great famine in Florida that the conspirators died mis- 
erably themselves, confessing the cause of their misfortune to have been the barbarity, 
which they exercised against the Franciscan monks. 2 
1 It appears from unpublished Spanish documents that he sent two eanoes against two which the enemy 
had disnatched in advance. 
» Darcia, La Florida, pp. 170-172. 
