192 BUREAU OF AMEIRICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 187 



present Miami. Relations between them and the much more power- 

 ful Calusa w^ere very intimate and it had been their habit, as with 

 the Calusa, to kill the Spaniards cast away upon their coast. But 

 w^hen Menendez made peace with the Calusa Tribe, the Tekesta 

 adopted a more lenient attitude. In 1566 when a vessel filled with 

 Spanish mutineers was forced to enter a harbor near the Tekesta 

 town, they were well received. Later the same year, Menendez sent 

 home some Tekesta Indians who had been held captive by the Calusa, 

 and shortly afterward visited the town himself, where he left Fray 

 Francisco de Villareal as missionary and received from the chief 

 the chief's brother and two other Indians to take to Spain. During 

 the 4 days of his stay a cross was erected, a blockhouse built, and 

 a company of soldiers left in charge. For a time the missionary 

 work prospered, but the new faith took no deep root in the minds 

 of the natives and when, for some trifling offence, the soldiers killed 

 an uncle of the chief, they tore down the crosses, burned their huts, 

 and withdrew into the forest. They also lay in wait for the Span- 

 iards when they went for water and killed so many of them that 

 the survivors were driven to seek refuge at Santa Lucia in the 

 Guacata province (q. v.). In 1569 Father Juan Bautista de Segura, 

 accompanied by that brother of the chief whom Menendez had taken 

 to Spain and whom the natives believed to be dead, went to Tekesta. 

 The presence of the Indian secured a peaceful reception, and the 

 Indians renewed their alliances with the Spaniards and restored the 

 crosses. But the difficulties between the two peoples revived soon 

 afterward, and in 1570 the Spanish garrison was withdrawn. In 

 1573 Pedro Menendez Marques, left as Lieutenant Governor of 

 Florida, made an extended reconnaissance of the entire Atlantic 

 coast from the head of the Florida Keys to Chesapeake Bay, and 

 to this we probably owe the note on a Spanish map to the effect 

 that the Indians in the neighborhood of Tekesta had been converted 

 by him. It is very likely that this statement confuses his expedition 

 with the earlier missionary effort. In 1597 Governor Mendez de 

 Cango passed from the head of the Florida Keys to St. Augustine, 

 and so directly through the Tekesta country. In 1607 we hear of a 

 chief Don Luis who was perhaps head of this tribe, but the wording 

 renders the matter somewhat uncertain. In a document dated 1697, 

 it is said that the Indians of Matacumbe Island were "Catholics," 

 and the tribe under discussion may here be indicated. It is the 

 opinion of the writer that the 80 "Calusa" families mentioned by 

 Romans as having gone to Cuba in 1763 — including the "30 men" of 

 Adair — were rather the inhabitants of the southeast coast than the 

 Calusa proper. At any rate we hear nothing more regarding these 

 Indians as a separate tribe. (See Ais.) 



