The Second Spanish Period

1784-1821

Part One

In 1783, the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War. Because Spain was an indirect ally of the United States, the treaty returned both West and East Florida to Spain. Regarding the inhabitants of Florida, the Second Spanish period was vastly different than the first. The original Apalachee occupants of the Wakulla area were long gone, being replaced by sparsely populated Seminole and Creek villages.

Vicente Manuel de Zespedes, appointed governor of East Florida in St. Augustine, knew that the colony needed to keep a sizeable population in order to be successful. He did not care about nationality so he invited the British subjects to stay and new Americans to move in. He offered large land grants and cash for any settler who moved to Florida and started a farm. He even allowed them to stay for ten years without paying taxes. Even though this was very generous, many of the British residents left and moved to British colonies in the Caribbean, such as the Bahamas. In 1786, Governor Zespedes allowed American slaveholders into Florida for the very first time. The Second Spanish Period of Florida lasted less than forty years, during which time the Spanish had to deal with Creek/Seminole uprisings, and British traders encroaching on Spanish soil and jeopardizing the relationship between the Indians and the Spanish in Florida.

               

Regarrisoning San Marcos de Apalache

The Spanish commandant of Pensacola, Colonel Arturo O’Neill, hated the British and the Spanish policy of allowing British trade firms to remain in Florida. O’Neill was well aware of the dangers ex-British traders posed on the Spanish/Creek relationship. He wrote to Governor of West Florida Bernardo de Galvez regarding British commerce with the Indians in Florida. He then traveled to Havana, Cuba to meet with the governor. During their meeting, O’Neill expressed to Galvez his concern with halting illegal British merchants, and pirates, in the Bahamas from trading with the Indians in Florida. He was especially concerned with the old Apalachee region, and suggested that they ought to be more involved with the Panton, Leslie and Company store on the Wakulla River, which was allowed to continue doing business even after the British left.

Governor of West Florida Bernardo de Galvez

 Compelled by O’Neill, Galvez officially announced his decision to reoccupy the fort at San Marcos on April 30, 1785. He also transferred power over San Marcos from East Florida to West Florida, making it Pensacola’s responsibility to supply and man the fort which was much easier to do by water from Pensacola than it was from St. Augustine.[1] After long delays, the governor, who was fearful that the Seminoles, Creeks, and Miccosukees would reject the Spanish moving back in, suggested that a new fort be constructed if the old one was beyond repair. Spain, unlike England or the United States, recognized Indian ownership of lands within their territory, and O’Neill wanted to get permission from their chiefs before they reestablished themselves at San Marcos. The needed supplies and personnel were gathered under the command of army Captain Luis Bertucat who was to be San Marcos’s first commandant of the Second Spanish Period. Bertucat had a forty-ton schooner called the San Marcos de Apalache, as well as two smaller schooners. O’Neill ordered the minute flotilla first to sail to and anchor off of Dog Island so they could ascertain whether or not the Indians in the area were going to be violent or peaceful.

On June 20, 1787, Bertucat spotted Cape San Blas, and for the next few days explored St. Vincent, St. George, and Dog Islands. On June 23, the tiny fleet entered Apalachee Bay and the mouth of the St. Marks River. Once he was about five miles upriver, Bertucat spotted the tiny peninsula that stuck out into the confluence of the St. Marks and Wakulla Rivers and arrived at the old fort San Marcos. He found the structure overgrown with a canopy of palm fronds, covering much of it. He noted that the bombproof was in good condition and that the northwestern side of the fort, or the bastion on the Wakulla River side, was completed but its mirror image that was supposed to be built on the St. Marks River side had never been started. The moat that once protected the north side of the fort was now clogged full of debris. The limestone that formed the bastion was in good shape, but the merlons, entrenchments, wooden structures, and the inner structures required a lot of repair.[2]

Bertucat decided to repair the old fort over building a new one because the limestone wall was in good condition, but a lot of work was required to make it formidable. On June 25, the soldiers began clearing the fort of trees, bushes, and other debris, and some soldiers managed to discover an old British cannon and several cannonballs. Bertucat had the men clean the bombproof, and that is where he quartered them for the time being. Over the next several days, they built a kiln and cut wood to fix the roofs of the warehouses inside the fort.

On June 29, the Panton, Leslie and Company Wakulla store factor, Charles McLatchy, traveled downriver to the fort to witness the formal ceremony of the Spanish re-garrisoning Fort San Marcos. A few weeks later in early July, Bertucat visited the Panton store on the Wakulla River, which consisted of McLatchy’s house, the store itself, warehouses for animal skins, quarters for employees, quarters for slaves, a few gardens, and a pasture for livestock. Bertucat assured McLatchy that his presence in the area would not disrupt his business, and McLatchy promised to help persuade neighboring Indians to welcome the Spanish back.[3]

Bertucat wrote frequently to his superiors, requesting more men and supplies but rarely ever got any. Trouble arose when some Americans from Georgia crossed the Florida border and descended on a Creek village, about five days away from San Marcos, and killed many Indians as well as some American traders they deemed to be turncoats. The Americans were angry because they believed the Spanish had been supplying the Indians with muskets, ball, and powder and allowed them to raid American homesteads. Bertucat dispelled these allegations by stating the Spanish simply helped provide weapons for the Indians so they have a way to attain animal furs to sell. Aggravated by Bertucat because he was constantly writing and complaining about the condition of the fort, his superiors replaced him in 1788. With not a lot of improvement done on the fort, Captain Diego de Vegas became the new commandant. But he was soon replaced as well, by Captain Jose Monroy, who died during service in 1790. After his death, Bertucat returned briefly, but after once again constantly requesting more repairs and supplies than Pensacola was willing to give, he was again replaced, this time by Captain Francisco Guesy. Soon, the pirate William Augustus Bowles entered the stage.

The Spanish granted trading privileges to Panton and Leslie because there were no Spanish merchants established in trade with the regions Indians. They continued doing business at their Wakulla store, and was allowed to establish a company depot in Pensacola. The Spanish granted Panton, Leslie & Company a monopoly on this trade in East Florida, and eventually in West Florida. For many years Panton, Leslie & Company dominated trade with the Creeks, Miccosukees, and Seminoles. After a while, the Indians needed more goods than they had hides to trade with, so many of them became deeply indebted to the company. The business had established a friendship with a Creek chief named Alexander McGillivray, a highly educated half-Creek, half-Scottish man who pledged loyalty to Spain. McGillivray’s pledge to the Spanish led other Creek chiefs to do the same. Like it was during the British period, San Marcos de Apalache continued to be a lonely isolated post, but it was still a central meeting grounds between Indian leaders and Europeans. Panton, Leslie and Company maintained a store, just a few miles north of San Marcos on the banks of the Wakulla River. Not knowing what was about to happen them, the store operated as usual.

Din, G. C. (2012). War on the Gulf Coast: The Spanish Fight Against William Augustus Bowles. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

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[1] Din, p.11

[2] Ibid. p.18

[3] Ibid. p.19