In 1607 several Apalachee Indians sought help from Spanish missionaries, but 25 years were
to pass before the Franciscan chain of missions would be constructed.
The Spanish mission period began in 1633 when the first priests reached
the Apalachee. Spanish documents of 1655 and 1675 record that there were between nine and
eleven missions in Apalachee country. These missions stretched in a line from St Augustine
(1565) on the Atlantic Coast to St. Louis, near the present city of Tallahassee.
The missions were built twenty miles apart or one day's ride by horse. St.
Louis, or San Luis, was the administrative center for a number of smaller missions built
westward toward the Apalachicola River.
The chain of missions crossed the Apalachicola River near Bloody Bluff and
went on to Port St. Joe. It must be kept in mind that the entire Spanish Empire was laid
out on a military pattern. The Castle of San Marco at St. Augustine and the Moro Castle at
Havana, Cuba, protected on two sides the Straits of Florida. Through this passage
travelled the annual treasure fleet from the New World with gold from Colombia and silver
from Potosi, Bolivia.
The area around St. Augustine was expected to act as a granary for the
city and castle in the manner of a Castilian armed city. The missions were a buffer zone
or area of "pacification," both to serve as an extension of the granary and as
an early warning system of any dangers from the English operating out of Charleston, S.C.
(1670-1672) or Georgia.
The fort at St. Marks, Florida (1677), was intended to protect the mission
chain from attacks by sea. This military arrangement had emerged not only from the victory
by the Christian Spanish over the Moors in 1492, but also because it was Queen Isabella of
an autocratic and militaristic Castile and not King Ferdinand of an easy-going Aragon who
had financed Christopher Columbus.
The Spanish Empire was a Castilian Empire and tightly administered.
