swanton] EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 337 
It is said in one account that Ais Indians were among those slain, 
and this province and Ais are certainly frequently spoken of 
together, yet it is probable that they belonged to different linguistic 
groups and were associated only geographically as also in their 
manner of living. 1 Don Juan, the chief of San Pedro and intimate 
friend of (lie Spaniards, died June 16, 1600. He was succeeded by 
his niece (his sister's daughter), in accordance with the custom of 
the country. 1 During the same year, or shortly before, the Indian 
town of San Sebastian, which lay on an arm of the sea back of 
St. Augustine, was overwhelmed by an unusual high water and many 
of its inhabitants drowned. 1 In 1601 the Potano Indians asked to 
be allowed to return to their town which they had vacated in the 
war of 1584. 2 In 1602 valuable letters from the missionaries Fray 
Baltazar Lopez, who was stationed at San Pedro, and Fray Francisco 
de Pareja, at San Juan del Puerto, at the mouth of the St. Johns 
River, give us minute information regarding the mission stations 
within their districts and the number of Christianized Indians in each. 
In the former there were 8 settlements and nearly 800 Christians. 
In the latter Pareja mentions 10 settlements and about 500 Chris- 
tians, "big and little." 
These friars also speak of several other provinces which they 
visited or where there were Christians, including Ybi with 5 towns 
and more than 1,000 Indians, Cascangui or Ycafui with 7 or 8 towns 
and 700-800 Indians, Timucua with 1 ,500 Indians, Potano with 5 towns 
and where as many as 1,100 Indians were being catechised, and the 
Fresh Water province where were said to be six or more towns of 
Christian Indians, besides the Mayaca Indians, who had not been 
visited by monks. 2 Pareja is the well-known author of Timucua 
catechisms and manuals and a grammar of the language. A letter 
from a third friar written the same month states that there were 
about 200 Cliristians in the Fresh Water towns and in Mayaca 
perhaps 100 more to be baptized. 2 Governor Canco estimates about 
1,200 Christians in the four visitas of San Pedro, San Antonio, 
San Juan, and Nombre de Dios. 2 Pedro Ruiz seems to have been 
the missionary at San Pedro in 1604. 2 In 1606 these various missions, 
along with those in the province of Guale, were visited by the Bishop 
of Cuba, who eoniirmed 2,075 Indians and 370 Spaniards. 2 Letters 
of Alonso de Peiiaranda and Francisco Pareja, of November 20, 1607, 
complain of attacks made by wild Indians on those who had been 
Christianized. They state that between November, 1606, and Octo- 
ber, 1607, 1,000 Indians had been Christianized, and that in all 
there were over 6,000 Christian Indians. 2 In 1608 Governor Ibarra 
i I.owery and Brooks, MSS. » Lowery, MSS. 
1 IS()(J1°— 22 22 
