126 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 73 
Their chief, or their principal chief, was a certain Juan Marcos, and 
Barcia says that in 1718 — 
He began to form a town of Apalachee Indians, the people of his own nation, in the 
place wliich they call the Rio de los Chiscas, 5 leagues from Santa Maria de Galve[Pensa- 
cola], which was named Nuestra Seiiora de la Soledad, and San Luis; for its peopling he 
sent the Apalache Indians who were in Santa Maria de Galve with the same rations that 
they had in the presidio; there came together in it more than a hundred persons; 
the number was increased every day; with many of the Apalache subject to Movila, 
who abandoned their lands and came to the new town, causing the post great expense, 
because, as they did not have crops, it was necessary to give them daily rations of 
maize until the following year when they could gather fruits; Juan Marcos assured his 
governor that others would come who were waiting to harvest their crops to return to the 
authority of the king, from which the French had drawn them. . . . Friar Joseph del 
Castillo, one of the chaplains of the post, counseled Don Juan Pedro that he should 
ask the Provincial of Santa Elena for two curates who understood the language of 
Apalache well in order to teach the Indians in the new town of la Soledad. 1 
Farther on we find the following among the items for the same year: 
July 13 two Topocapa Indians came to Santa Maria de Galve, who had fled from 
Movila on account of the bad treatment of the French. Don Juan Pedro sent them to 
the new town of the Indians of their nation, which had been formed near the port of 
San Marcos de Apalache, because they were of a nation subject to the king, who had 
in their towns curates of the order of St. Francis of the province of Santa Elena, 
and all those who came in this manner he sent to the people of their own nation, enter- 
tained in accordance with their quality, from which they experienced great satisfac- 
tion. 2 
It would seem from this that Topocapa was an Apalachee town or 
else a tribe supposed to be connected with the Apalachee. The new 
settlement near the port of San Marcos de Apalache seems to have 
been founded after La Soledad, partly in order to cover a new Span- 
ish post. It was close to Apalachee Bay and therefore on the skirts 
of the old Apalachee country. Further information regarding the 
settlement of this place is given in the following words: 
April 10 [1719] there arrived at Santa Maria de Galve the chief, Juan Marcos, gov- 
ernor of the new town of la Soledad, who returned from the city of St. Augustine, stating 
that he had come from founding another town of Apalaches, near the port of San 
Marcos. Don Juan Pedro gave him a garment and [he gave] another to the captain 
of the Yamaces, who arrived at the same time with some of his nation; the Indians left 
very well satisfied, and on the 17th the chief, Juan Marcos, took away to the new town 
many of the Indians of the town of la Soledad. Those who remained there, seeing that 
their governor was going, although he assured them he would soon return, discussed 
the election of a chief, but they did not agree further, and in order to avoid disturb- 
ances came to Don Juan Pedro that he might pacify them, and he commended them 
to their guardian Father that he should persuade them and that they should cease 
these disputes, cautioning them that he would not entrust to them ornaments of the 
church until a curate should be named for that particular town. 3 
The new Apalachee settlements in Florida show their influence in 
the baptismal records of the old church at Mobile, for while there are 
» Barcia, La Florida, pp. 341-342. » Ibid., p. 344. 3 Ibid., pp. 347-34S. 
