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1630 Memorial of Fray Francisco Alonso de Jesus on Spanish Florida's Missions and Natives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

John H. Hann
John H. Hann*
Affiliation:
San Luis Archaeological and Historic Site, Tallahassee, Florida
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Extract

For the study of Spanish Florida's missions and natives the 1630 memorial by Fray Francisco Alonso de Jesus is a most important document that, strangely, has been little used to date. It ranks in significance with the 1675 letter of Bishop Gabriel Díaz Vara Calderón covering his pastoral visitation of Florida, published in 1936 by the Smithsonian Institution Press in a translation by Lucy N. Wenhold. Fray Alonso's memorial covers some of the same ground as the bishop's letter, but contains additional information dating from almost a half century earlier just before the beginning of the formal evangelization of the province of Apalachee. Fray Alonso covers topics such as the characteristics of the land, its trees and plants and minerals, its Indians and their customs, appearance, clothing, houses, council house, languages, government, inheritance system, tribute payment to native leaders, games, music, and dance, burial practices in heathen times, heathens who were clamoring for baptism in 1630, the number of doctrinas and villages and places belonging to the doctrinas, the number of Christians and catechumens, and the manner of construction of the churches.

Type
Document
Information
The Americas , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , January 1993 , pp. 85 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1993

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References

1 Mary L. Mitchell of Madrid, Spain provided this information on Juan Díez de la Calle. The information is based on research she has done at Madrid’s Biblioteca Nacional.

2 I consulted the Deagan manuscript at the St. Augustine Historical Society’s research library.

3 Custodio is the Franciscan title for the official whom other religious orders would refer to as vice-provincial. A custodia or vice-province is a district that lacks sufficient houses to justify its being given the status of an independent province. It is strange that the Franciscan superior was still using the title of custodio in 1630, inasmuch as Florida is supposed to have been given provincial status in 1612.

4 The Indians spoken about are Mexican Indians who were to be brought to Florida to teach its mission Indians crafts such as the weaving of cotton. Despite repeated later requests and approval by the King, Mexican authorities never sent such Indians.

5 Rendered literally, this should be “incapable of” or “incompetent for,” but such a rendition is not compatible with Fray Alonso’s having referred to them elsewhere as “clever.”

6 This obscurely worded passage probably refers to the friars’ pushing on to the still non-Christian provinces such as Apalachee, as they were to do shortly.

7 Ramo, rendered literally, is “branch.”

8 Something seems to have been left out here, whether intentionally or not, as the sentence does not flow smoothly and lacks clarity. The (sic) after “la” appears in the Spanish transcription to suggest that the “la” should be “el” to agree with the masculine-ending word that follows the article. I am not familiar with the name Itavico. Possibly it is a variant of Etiwaw. See Swanton, John R., Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors (Washington, D.C., 1922), pp. 21, 38.Google Scholar

9 The Martyrs was the Spanish name for the Keys from Key Largo to Key West.

10 Barriel does not appear in modern dictionaries, but it is obviously derived from barro, which is “clay” or “mud.” It is an apt description of Tallahassee’s red-clay soils and those of the Georgia piedmont. The description should be useful for identifying the general location of Tama.

11 Literally, ruiseñor means “nightingale,” which is an Old World bird. The thrush seems to be its closest American parallel.

12 I am presuming that this was meant to be primavera.

13 I have not found this name in modern dictionaries except in the form baria, a Cuban tree of the family of the borraginaceas. Varia and variales (stands of varias) appear frequently in Florida documents to refer to what is obviously the cypress.

14 By nudo or knot I believe that he means the branches that cause the knots.

15 I have not found sabanis in modern Spanish dictionaries, but it appears in Portuguese ones in the form sabina for the Savin juniper (Juniperus sabina), a relative of the cypress.

16 This is a reference to pau Brasil or logwood, the source of a red dye.

17 Tuna could also be rendered as Indian fig, but I believe that it was cactus that Fray Alonso had in mind here.

18 In the Spanish transcription there is a comma between “real” or “royal” and “dilanio.” The transcriber’s question mark after “dilanio” indicates that he or she was uncertain about the rendition of this word. I believe that it was meant to be “royal Itamo,” mentioned by Alonso Leturiondo in 1700 in his memorial as one of Florida’s two principal medicinal herbs among the natives. See Hann, John H., “Translation of Alonso de Leturiondo’s Memorial to the King of Spain,” Florida Archaeology, 2 (1986), 200.Google Scholar A century earlier the name appeared in the variant form “Royal Guitamo.” See Hann, , “Tama and the Hinterland behind Santa Elena,” 1986,Google Scholar translation on file at the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, Tallahassee, Florida, p. 7.

19 Cathama is probably a mistranscription of La Thama, a common variant spelling of La Tama.

20 Jacaro may have been meant to be Jacan, the name Florida Spaniards usually employed for the area of the Jamestown settlement. Bay of Madre de Dios was the name usually used for Chesapeake Bay. “Gold, Famalis” could have been meant as a reference to “oro guanin,” a gold alloy that Florida Spaniards spoke of as being used by natives of the Chesapeake Bay region for some of their jewelry.

21 This is obviously a reference to cacina, a tea similar to mate, which was made from the toasted leaves of the yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria). A later source reveals that women of the chiefly class at least were permitted to drink cacina.

22 Literally, en su infelicidad means “in their unhappiness” or “in their time of unhappiness,” an expression used at times to denote the time before the natives had received the “good news” of the Gospel. But, conceivably, it was miscopied and was meant to be “en su infielidad” (in their heathen days).

23 De gentil disposición could be rendered in other ways such as “of a handsome nature.” In view of the context, the latter might be a preferable translation.

24 The Spanish here is “por cuanto el trabajo no es mucho y siempre las ejercitan con ejercicios de labor y honestos.” My free rendition of this muddy passage is tentative.

25 A literal translation of the Spanish here would be “the color and whiteness.”

26 I have not found this expression in any modem dictionary. It is probably derived from justo or justamente. Al juste might be rendered’also as “suitable” or “adequate.”

27 I am presuming that “forma” was meant to be “formadas.” My rendition of this first part of the sentence is tentative. Conceivably “round” or “redondas” could refer to the shape of their houses rather than to the shape of the logs.

28 My rendition here is tentative.

29 In the transcription, the paragraph ends in this fashion. The transcriber obviously was uncertain of the correctness of his rendition of Artzoa. The three dots possibly indicate that the lower right hand corner of the page had crumbled away.

30 In the form bohío, this name originated with the natives of the Caribbean Islands.

31 In view of what follows, the sense of this muddy clause seems to be that the leading men also had specific seats assigned to them in conformity with their place in the pecking order.

32 The Spanish here is y hay para todos. As this statement follows immediately from the description of the seating pattern, it could well mean that there were seats for everyone. However, that would seem to require concentric rings of seats and would rule out the enclosed cabins described by Dickinson in the 1690s for the Guale mission of Santa Maria on Amelia Island and the Mocama mission of Santa Cruz de Guadalquini three leagues north of St. Augustine. See Dickinson, Jonathan, Jonathan Dickinson’s Journal or, God’s Protecting Providence, eds., Andrews, Evangeline Walker and Andrews, Charles McLean (Stuart, FL, 1981), pp. 65–67 Google Scholar; and Shapiro, Gary and Hann, John, “The Documentary Image of the Council Houses of Spanish Florida Tested by Excavations at the Mission of San Luis de Talimali,” in Thomas, David Hurst, ed., Columbian Consequences, vol. 2, Archaeological and Historical Perspec-tives on the Spanish Borderlands East (Washington, D.C., 1990), p. 512.Google Scholar

33 Coastal Timucua was a region where that was true. Jean Ribaut noted that its people did not eat until sundown. See Ribaut, Jean, The Whole & True Discouerye of Terra Florida (Deland, FL, 1927), p. 75.Google Scholar

34 The house Fray Alonso was speaking of was the council house. Other sources also affirm that cacina could be made and served only in the council house.

35 The ceremonies alluded to possibly include the morning salute to the chief.

36 This could be rendered also as “single women” in the sense of unmarried, but soltera is the word used more commonly to designate that state. But the remark about conjugal cohabitation seems to rule that out.

37 In 1630 Timucua and Guale were the two principal languages.

38 This indicates that the Franciscan-authored literature in Spanish Florida’s native tongues is considerably more extensive than what has been discovered to date and that it includes works in the Guale tongue as well as additional ones in the Timucuan language beyond the known ones by Frays Pareja and de Movila. Logic suggests that the Fransciscans used the same approach when the formal evangelization of Apalachee began only three years after Fray Alonso penned this memorial.

39 An example of this may be the suffix -ma that the Timucua added to titles such as utina, holata, and iniha (holatama, utinama, inihama).

40 The Spanish is gobiernas rather than gobiernan.

41 Merced could be rendered as wages, gifts, mercy, grant, or title of honor.

42 Cocoa beans seem an unlikely thing that chiefs would have unless a chief received them as gifts from Spaniards. Inasmuch as cacao beans were used as currency by the Aztecs, it is conceivable that Fray Alonso was thinking of Florida’s shell money (mentioned in the next paragraph) when he wrote “cacaos.”

43 Herejías literally is “heresies,” which makes no sense in view of what follows in this paragraph. Herencias is what was intended.

44 Fray Alonso appears to have been in a turbid and distracted mode while composing this lengthy sentence. His expression “those four counsellors” seems to imply that he had mentioned them earlier in the memorial. That is not the case. What he meant by dominio and señorio also is not clear. The four counsellors may be the ynihama, anacotimas, asetama, and yvitano mentioned by Fray Francisco Pareja. See Hann, John H., “Political Leadership among the Natives of Spanish Florida,” Florida Historical Quarterly, 71 (1992), 204.Google Scholar

45 This clause also is not very clear. “En ellas” presumably refers to successions.

46 My rendition here is tentative, as it is not clear what he means by “sin diferencia,” which, rendered literally, would be “without difference.” At times seventeenth-century Spaniards used sin diferencia in the sense of “more or less” when giving their age.

47 My rendition here is tentative. The usual meaning of cabañas is “outbuilding” or “shepherd’s hut,” but it can also mean “a flock of sheep.” For Florida “herds of pigs or cows” would be a more likely possibility.

48 My rendition here is tentative as there is no antecedent for “la” or “it.” Cavar was the expression commonly used in Florida for “digging and planting a field.”

49 Use of shell money has been mentioned specifically for the Guale elsewhere.

50 Labrar is used often in the sense of “ carving “ or other such activity that produces a thing of beauty.

51 I have not found this word in modern dictionaries, but the context suggests that they are the shell bracelets the natives wore on their arms and legs.

52 It is not clear whether these two expressions refer to distinct structures or simply manifest seventeenth-century Spaniards’ love for tautology.

53 Empedrada literally rendered is “paved with stones” or “cobbled.” If that were the case, archaeologists would surely have found one of them by now.

54 My rendition of this turbid passage is tentative. “La formada” does not appear in modern dictionaries. My rendition of sacada is particularly tentative. “En el” which I have rendered as “in it,” with the eagle’s nest of the Apalachee games’ goal post in mind, could be rendered also as “on it” in the sense of striking the post. What Fray Alonso seems to be saying about scoring in the first half of this sentence is not found in Fray Juan Paiva’s account of the scoring system for the Apalachee game (also played in western Timucua), which is the game Fray Alonso seems to be talking about.

55 Fray Alonso is talking about track and field events here, something mentioned also in French accounts from the 1560s.

56 Petates by itself can mean “palm mat.” This probably is a definite example of tautology.

57 In this context, labores could be rendered also as “trimming,” fancy-work,” or “needlework.”

58 He was speaking of a fabric made of fibers extracted by pounding roots. Elsewhere loin-cloths woven from palm straw are mentioned.

59 Here guano stands for Spanish moss. But guano is also used elsewhere for “palm straw.”

60 Trasquilar could be rendered also as “to snip or cut the hair irregularly.”

61 The size of the catechumen population suggests that it may include Apalachee and possibly others who had received religious instruction after journeying to a neighboring province such as Yustaga (in the case of the Apalachee) or from friars who made flying visits to the provinces where they lived.

62 This probably alludes to a feat of Fray Martín Prieto in 1608 that ended chronic warfare between the western Timucua and the Apalachee. See Oré, Luis Gerónimo, The Martyrs of Florida (1513–1616), trans, by Geiger, Maynard (New York, 1936), pp. 114–17.Google Scholar

63 The Spanish concept of policía humana is difficult to express concisely in English. It amounts to living a civilized urban life, one that is productive, in contrast to that of the “savage” concerned only with subsistence.

64 The Spanish text here in this transcription is “que los ministros evangélicos no podríamos extender.” In view of the context the “no” (not) should be “nos” (we) I believe.

65 This statement reflects a view prevalent at this time, and as far back as the 1560s, that places such as Apalachee were relatively close to New Mexico, as the knowledge gained from earlier sixteenth-century explorations of much of the Gulf Coast had faded from the collective consciousness.

66 The remainder of this sentence is written in a rather decadent Latin. A few of its words do not appear in the dictionaries to which I have access.

67 The following is a rough literal translation of the Latin. “Through the bowels of our merciful God, who wishes (?) and desires that, rejoicing, I exalt how he rescues, frees, and redeems us from the power of the prince of darkness, shedding the fullness of his most precious blood, which gives life, necessary and salutory for the salvation and good of their souls lest the whole world perish on account of too great parsimony they make ineffectual and in vain to plough in.”

68 Advitrio probably was meant to be arbitrio, which can mean “free will, expedient, or arbitration” among other things. In law it means “discretionary judgment.”