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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 8/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida
well as reports of fig trees in the area indicate that a well-
developed agriculture existed at Santa Catalina.9
The missions of Florida came to a tragic end during the period
of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The basic
cause was the antagonism between Spain and England which
carried over into their colonies in the New World. The founding of
Charleston in 1670 placed English interests in close proximity
with Spanish Florida. The position of the Florida missions was
especially precarious since Spain did not maintain large garrisons
of troops in Florida. The Christian mission Indians fought to save
their homes, but armed mainly with bows and arrows they could
not adequately defend themselves against the firearms of the
English, and their Indian allies.
Agricultural development of Carolina created a demand for
slaves. Initially, Indians were used as slaves on the Carolina rice
plantations, but they were not found suitable and Negro slaves
from Africa replaced them. There was still a market for Indian
slaves in the West Indies, so English slave dealers in Carolina
continued to raid local Indian settlements. After the defeat of the
Yuchi Indians in Carolina in 1680 attention was directed toward
the missions of Florida. In 1684 the Yamassee Indians allied
themselves with the Carolinians. In 1685 a Carolinian-Yamassee
force crossed over into Spanish Timucua and destroyed the mission
of Santa Catalina. The mission building was burned and the
Christian Indians were either murdered or captured and sold as
slaves. Lord Cardoss of Carolina who organized the raid claimed
that runaway Negroes were being given refuge in Florida.10

’Matter, “The Spanish Missions of Florida,” pp. 144-45; Deagan, “Fig Springs,”
pp. 4-41; Oral History Interview with Russell Platt, Ft. White, Florida, July 14,
1977. Platt offered much helpful information concerning the Fig Springs site and
displayed timbers, ceramics, peach pits and other artifacts recovered from the site.
,0Charles H. Fairbanks, Ethnohistorical Report on the Florida Indians (New
York, 1974), pp. 84-96; Matter, “The Spanish Missions of Florida,” p. 119; Gannon,
Cross in the Sand, pp. 70-71.
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