120 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 73 
they had nine missions to serve. In the memorial of a missionary- 
named Fray Alonso de Moral, dated November 5, 1676, it is said that 
there had been 16,000 Apalachee Indians in 1638, and that at the 
date of writing they were reduced to 5,000/ but it may be con- 
sidered doubtful whether they ever numbered more than the 
latter figure. In 1677 a body of Apalachee undertook a successful 
expedition against some Chisca (Yuchi) Indians living to the west- 
ward who had committed depredations upon their settlements. 
The full account of it is given elsewhere. 2 In 1681 Gov. Cabrera 
notes that he had stopped the ball game among the Apalachee 
Indians as a heathenish practice inimical to their well being. Jan- 
uary 21, 1688, is noteworthy as the date on which a letter in the 
Spanish and Apalachee languages was written for transmission to 
King Charles II. This has fortunately been preserved, and it con- 
tains practically all of the Apalachee language known to be in exist- 
ence. 3 The chiefs of the Apalachee express their pleasure at having 
missionaries among them and at being relieved from the former 
burdensome labors they were compelled to undergo in St. Augustine. 
That this relief was only temporary, however, is shown by an appeal, 
dated Vitaohuco, February 28, 1701, made by " Nanhula Chuba, 
Don 'Patricio, chief of the [Apalachee] Indians" to Gov. Qiroga y 
Losada, in the name of all of the Apalachee chiefs, begging to be 
relieved from work on the fortifications of St. Augustine. 4 From 
an entry in Barcia's history it would seem that final relief was not 
granted before 1703, 5 and as the Apalachee Nation was nearly de- 
stroyed at about the same period, few were benefited by it. The 
attacks of northern Indians, instigated by English in Carolina, 
were increasing in frequency and violence. March 20, 1702, Gov. 
Zufiiga writes that infidel Indians had attacked the town of 
Santa Fe in the Apalachee province and, though driven off, had 
burned the church. 4 
The first encounter on a large scale between the English and their 
allies on the one hand and the Apalachee and Spaniards took place 
in the following manner, as related by an English chronicler: 
In 1702, before Queen Anne's Declaration of War was known in these Parts, the 
Spaniards formed another Design to fall upon our Settlements by Land, at the Head 
of Nine Hundred Apalachee Indians from thence. The Creek Indians, in Friendship 
with this Province, coming at a Knowledge of it, and sensible of the Dangers approach- 
ing, acquainted our Traders, then in the Nation with it, when this Army was actually 
on their March coming down that way. The Traders having thereupon encourag'd 
the Creeks to get together an Army of Five Hundred Men, headed the same, and went 
out to meet the other. Both Armies met in an Evening on the Side of Flint-River, a 
i Lowery, MSS. < Brooks, MSS., Lib. Cong. 
2 See pp. 299-304. 6 Barcia, La Florida, p. 323. 
'See p. 12. 
