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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA MAY 9, 1926 f M. Missionaries Labored in Georgia Generations Before English Made Their First American Settlement Article in The Commonweal Reveals That This State Has History Antedating That of Any State But Florida—Friars Came in 1565—107 0 Indians Confirmed 'Near Savannah in 1606, Year Before Jamestown and Fourteen Years Before Plymouth (Richard Reid in The Commonweal.) The record of the Georgia mis sions is an inspiring story of the Franciscans, the Jesuits, the Domini cans, and the secular clergy. It links us with the days of Saint Ignatius Loyola, Saint Francis Xavier, Saint Francis de Sales. Saint Vin cent de Paul, Saint Philip Neri, Saint Peter Canisius. Indeed, it was the great Saint Francis Borgia himself who sent sons of Loyola to labor “Ad Majorem Gloriam Dei” in the new country. The English settled / Georgia in 1733. Yet one year before the first permanent English settlement, at Jamestown, and 14 years before the Pilgrim Fathers “fell on their knees and then on the aborigines” in the Old Bay Stale, His Lordship, Cabeza de Altamirano, Bishop of Santiago de Cuba, administered the Sacrament of Confirmation in Geor gia to 1,070 neophytes. The early history of Georgia is . closely linked with that of Florida. Both were governed from St. Au gustine; there was 11 o clear line of demarkation between them such as now exists. Indeed, the name Flor ida was applied equally to the pres ent Georgia. It is common knowl edge that the roots of Florida his tory are deeply imbedded in Catholic soil. Ponce de Leon and his Cath olic companions discovered Florida on Easter morn of 1513. but their attempt to found a colony was aban doned eight years later. It was in Florida—at Tampa—that Luis Cancer de Barbastro, Apostle of Guatemala was killed by the savage Catoosas— this a generation before the fiust permanent settlement on ihe North American continent, the Catholic St. , Augustine, colonized in 1565. The Catholic history, of Georgia is hardly less ancient. It is prob able that Ayllon. who in 1526, but a score of years after the death of Co lumbus, planted a short-lived colony on the coast of South Carolina, trod Georgia soil. It is certain that Her nando de Soto crossed the state “from the Savannah to the Chatta hoochee” on his ill-fated march (1539-1542) to his grave of running waters in the Mississippi. DeSoto was accompanied on his historic march by “twelve priests, eight eccle siastics, and four religious.” With this expedition and that of Nar vaez at least fifteen priests lost their lives in the Southwest. Some of them, worn out by the hardships of battling their way through treach erous swamps and dangerous for ests. found their final resting place in Georgia graves. By right of exploration the entire DESIGNS FOR ADVERTISERS If you intend to sret out a circular, folder or advertisement of any kind let us make a good picture or design to liven it up. We will help you get any kind of advertising matter ready for the printer at moderate cost. Write, call or 'phone us. WR1S1EV ENGRAVING COMPANY RHODES BLDG. ~ ATLANTA GARDELLE’S 736 Broad St. AUGUSTA, GA. A Reliable Drug Store PHONES 3668-3669 L. .1. SCIIAUL & COMPANY Diamonds and Jewelry 840 Broad Street, Augusta, Ga. Southeast was Spain’s. For nearly a century and a half after the dis covery of Florida by Ponce de Leon and for a century after Mencndez settled £t. Augustine and colonized Georgia, their Catholic Majesties held practically undisputed sway over it. The Spanish at first, were not partreularly enthusiastic about prospects in this territory. ’Ihe fail ure of de Leon, Ayllon, de Luna, Villafane, Narvaez, de Soto, and other intrepid sons of Aragon and Castile to plant settlements which would lake root, rather discouraged King Philip. He thought there were better lands in South America, and he decided to withdraw from the north country. The French changed his mind for him by settling Port Royal in 1562, and Fort Caroline, on the St. John’s river, two years later. Ihe king dispatched Menendez dc Aviles to eject the intruders and to colonize llie threatened coast. This Menendez dpi in very thorough fash ion, blotting his otherwise admirable record by the massacre of the de fenders of F’ort Caroline. The Set tlement of St. Augustine by Menem dez at this time, 1565, was the be ginning of the continued and heroic effort to evangelize the Indians which ended 200 years later when Georgia, and subsequently Florida, passed by treaty to English sov ereignty. Georgia claims the first Jesuit Martyr in the western hemisphere. He was Father Pedro Martinez, one of three missionaries sent to the Southeast by Saint F’rancis Borgia immediately after the settlement oi Florida. This pioneer was mar tyred in 1566 by tile Yamassee on Cumberland Island. Previously Menendez had visited Georgia ar established friendly relations witn the Indians of Guale, now St. Cath erine’s Island, near Savannah. After the death of Father Martinez the province of Florida, including Georgia, became a Jesuit vice-prov ince with F'ather Segura as proviu cial. Ten more Jesuits were assigned to the new field; a school for In dian boys was started at Havana. At Guale, at St. Elena, the Carolina Spanish post among the Oriste, and elsewhere, the Jesuits began their civilizing and Christianizing efforts Brother Baez compiled a dicionary and Brother Domingo a grammar and cathechisin, the first hooks writ ten in an Indian tongue. After con siderable discouraging work among the fickle Indians the Jesuits with drew. Father Segura and his com panions went to martyr’s deaths o Virginia; the others were trans ferred to the more promising fields of Mexico and Cuba. The labors of the Jesuits were not fruitless. The results of their ef forts and of those of the Domin icans, who had established a mis sion on St. Simonjs Island, were merely lying dormant, to blossom after further cultivation by the Franciscans who succeeded them, in the early 1570’s. Under the leader ship of "Father Alonzo Rcynosa, the prototype of the renowed Junipero Serra, the sons of Saint Francis es tablished missions i,n Georgia at Ossabaw, Santa Catalina, San Simon, Sail linenventura and San Pedro Is lands, at Toloinato on the mainland opposite Sane do Island, at Santa Maria, and at other points. The exact location of most of the old Franciscan missions is unknown, hut occasionally ruins of them are revealed. The archives in Cuba, re cently examined indicated the site of the Franciscan establishment on the hanks of the Altamaha. Miss Mary Ross, of the University of Cal ifornia, found the spot and the ruins; the cells of the monks were being used as pigpens. The owners of ihe property regarded the relics of the missions as the remains of slave cabins built before the war. Pictures of the ruin s of the Altamaha mis sion and of Santa Maria mission near St. Mary’s. Georgia appear the recently issued “Debatable Land.” (Debatable Land, by Herbert Bolton and Mary Ross. Berkley: Univer sity of California Press.) What as effect the reconstruction of the original missions would have on the minds of the numerous body in Ihe Southeast which is convinced that this is a Proptestant country, that Catolics are newcomers, and that as newcomers they should know their places and keep it! It would be pleasant to record that the Franciscan missions flourished from the beginning, extending their influence and increasing in prosper ity witli eacli succeeding generation, hut it would not be true, yet there is no more brilliant page in the Catholic history of this continent than that which records the trials, the triumphs, and the reverses of these followers of Saint Francis in Georgia. The difficulties of Christianizing the Indians were many. The natives, wlidn not hostile, were frequently fickle. The king’s officers, soldiers, traders, and adventurers in the new country at times made the work of tli e missionaries harder by had ex ample. a condition warned against in a letter from Pope Pius V to Menendez emphasizing the fact that “nothing is more important in the conversion of these Indians and idol aters than to endeavor by all means to prevent scandal being given by the vices and imorality of such as go to those western parts.” More serious was. the hostility of the English and- the depredations of their buccaneers who repeatedly at tacked and sacked file missions, un doing in a day the expenditure of years of unbelieveable toil. The raids of Drake are an example; in 1586 he and his followers destroyed the Dominican mission at St. Simon’s Island, killed the missionaries, sacked other missions along the coast, and burned St. Augustine. At San Domingo they hanged two Franciscans who came to negotiate. included in a new Franciscan ^mis sionary province, that of Santa Ele na; and Fray Juan de 'Capillos, a Georgia missionary, became first provincial, with' headquarlcrs at St. Augustine. The number of priests working in the Southeast was c»ig- incnled by llie arrival of twenty- four friars. “Thirty, forty, and even fifty was the usual corps of priests in the Florida province” at this period, Professor Bolton writes. It was the golden age of the Franciscan missions in the Old Southeast. Ply mouth Rock was yet untouched by English feet! The number of these Catholic In dians in the Southeast is variously estimated. One authoriiy declares that in 1634 the province of St. Ele na, with the motherhouse at St. Au gustine, contained forty-four Indian missions, thirty-five missionaries, and 30,000 Catholic Indians. A more conservative, although not necessa rily more accurate estimate, states that in 1655 there were thirty-five Franciscan missions in Georgia and Florida with a Catholic Indian pop ulation of 26,000. It is estimated that more than twenty stations were established along the Georgia coast and up into South Carolina by 1650, and in 1655 Georgia is credited with five main missions, San Pedro oil Cumberland Island. San Buenaven tura on Jekyl Island, Santo Domin-4 go at Talaje on the mainland, San Jose on Sapelo Island, and Santa Catalina on St. Catherine’s Island. In South Carolina there was San Felipe on Parris Island, and Cliatu- cache further north. “To us was the good God most merciful and gracious,” Drake wrote in 1593 to Queen Elizabeth, “in that He permitted us to kill eighteen Spanish, bitter enemies of your sweet Majesty. We. further wasted the country and brought it to utter ruin. We burned their homes and killed their few mules and cattle, eating what we could of the fresh beef and carrying the rest aboard our ships. Having in mind the mer ciful disposition of your gracious Majesty, we did not kill the women and children, but having destroyed their provisions and property and taken away all their weapons, we left them to starve.” The world does grow better. What a wave of re sentment such an act of “mercy” would arouse throughout tlieChris- tian world were it prepetrated today 1 Twelve additional Franciscans came to Georgia in 1593 to suplement their predecessors. One was founded on Jekyl Island, the present site of an ultra-exclusive club. Another mission is believed to have been es tablished on the mainland north of the Altamaha river. The great ex pan je of swamp land between the island and coast-fringe and the Georgia back country did not prevent the zealous Franciscans from pene trating to the interior. The Brown Robes soon came in contact with the powerful Apalaclie Indians, whose territory extended through south western Georgia from the banks of the Suwance in F'lorida to the Al abama Apalachicola. The friars worked among the Apa- laclie whose territory centered around the site of modern Valdosta, Georgia. This tribe was superior to its neighbors; evidence never has been discovered to show that it of fered human sacrifice, a practice of even the intelligent Timuqua. After repeatedly petitioning for missionaries, their requests were answered in 1633 and in a few years the entire tribe from northwest F'lor ida to eastern Alabama was Chris tianized. A flourishing trade Wiyi St. Augustine was developed. Unjust exactions of the governor created such discontent that in 1657 it be came, necessary to abandon eight prospering missions in the Apalaclie territory, hut they were restored later by Bishop Gabriel Diaz Vara Calderon of Santiago de Cuba who, on a visitation of the Southeast, es tablished several new foundations. In the meantime the English had settled Charleston. The Spanish set tlements in Georgia barred thir way to Alabama,'and conflict was inev itable. The Spanish kept firearms away from their Indians; the Caro- lians armed and incited theirs. An attack on Santa Catalina in 1680 by 300 Indians headed by the English was the first of a scries of such troubles; a troop of Christian In dians was carried off to be sold as slaves. Spain, already dissipating her energies, was not in a position to give her colonies the assistance and defense they needed. The Span ish frontier fell back from Santa Catalina to Sapelo and the Altamaha. stone age. The Ynnimassce changed their allegiance and with English buccaneers wrecked the Guale mis sions. The frontier again receded, this time to Santa Maria, San .Tuan, and Santa Cruz now Amelia Island. The Spanish retaliated hr attacking Port ltoyal. England refused t« sanction a counter-attack, saying that. Charleston had harbored pirates and that the Scotch in the Carohnas had abetted the Yamassee. In the meatime Carolina and Flor ida contended for the posession.ot inland Georgia, peaceably occupied by the Snanish for Over a century, llie Spanish, on the whole, fought a los ing fight. At the dawn of the eigh teenth e'entury, Moore, a former gov ernor of Carolina, leading fifty Eng lish and 1,000 or more well-armed Greeks, Catawbas, and other un- Christianized savages, destroyed ten of the eleven Apalache missions, slaughtered hundreds of Christian . Indians and Spaniards, four PJiests, including F'ather Pareja and Father Mirando—who were among the many burned at the stake—and carried oil 1,400 Christian Indians to be Sold as slaves in Carolina or to be dis tributed for adoption or torture. Of the 7,000 Christian Apalclie only 400 escaped. Everything on the peaceful flourishing missions was destroyed. Undaunted, the Franciscan mis sionaries soon were directing their energies to the task of restoring the ruins of their .generations of work. The Yamassee, dissatisfied with their treatment at the hands of the Carolinans, made .peace with the Spanish. By 1720 there were again six towns and seven missions of Catholic Indians in the devasted area inland; six years later there were still 1,000 Catholic Indians in Georgia. In 1733 Georgia was founded as a buffer colony between Carolina and the Spanish settlements; Ihe grant ended at Une Altamaha river. The English desired the territory be tween the Altamaha and the St. John’s to he regarded, as ai kind of no man’s land. Despite the efforts of the English government to main tain peace by forbidding the Geor gians to- settle below the Altamaha, the colonists often ignored the boundary. . England was engaged in a war with F'rance at the time, and desired Spain’s neutrality. The task of .re maining neutral became too great for Spain; she entered the war, in 1761, on the side of the French. Tlie subsequent victory of the Eng lish sealed tlie doom of the Geor gia missions; the neutral territory being practically all of what is now known as South Georgia, was lost to Florida. The history of the Francis can missions in Georgia was a close;} book. No longer arc tile Christians of Georgia Catholic, but that does not dim the lustre of the priestly am bassadors who first preached Christ Crucified along the placid Savannah, the historic Altamaha. and the storied Suwance. No other American, state is more generously sowed with __ that priceless seed of Hie Church, St. Augustine, disturbed, entered its' the blood of martyr’s! ’Tlie missions were also victims of fickleness on the part of the In dians along the coast in the dying days of the sixteenth century, long before Jamestown and Plymouth, when the friars were recovering from the raids of Drake and llie other buccaneers. A young Yamas see chief, a cacique’s son, after a short period of fervor plunged into scandalous excesses and was private ly and later publicly reproved by Father Corpa of the Tolomala mis sion. EniHged, the young brave gathered some kindred spirits around him, found Father Corpa in his chapel in the darkness of the night, stretching him lifeless with one blow and then, cowering the peo ple, started out on a bloody expe dition that gave the Church four other martyrs. Father Corps's companions in death were Father Rodriquez of Tor- piqui, whom the murderers allowed to say Mass before execution; F'ath er Aunon ant),. Father de Badajoz of Santa Catalena, also killed at the cnd_ of Mass, and whom a friendly Indian chief tried in vain to save; and Father Velascola of Asao, now St. Simon’s Island, the most learned and most humble of the missionar ies, struck down with clubs and axes by the murderous band which met him in an apparently friendly man ner on his return from a visit to St Augustine. At the present Jekyl Island the assassins found F'ather de Avila who. instead of being sent to eternity after his brother friars, was sold into slavery and a year later was rescued. In 1602 there were 1,200 Christian Indians among the Timuqua, who numbered perhaps 20,000. Three years later seven more friars came and the Yamassee missions, de stroyed by the young chief’s band, were reestablished. The Potano tribe along the Suwance was al most entirely Christianized; efforts among tlie lower Creeks were fruit ful; Bishop Cabeza made the con firmation tour previously referred to, administering the Sacrament to 1,070 at four Georgia missions. F'ather Pareja published a Timuqua catechism in Mexico in 1612 and a grammar two years later. In the former year the Atlantic coast was Morrison-Sullivan Dry Goods Company Dry Goods and Notions 23 BROUGHTON ST., W. SAVANNAH, GA. CHALKER & RUSSELL Authorized Dealers Lincoln Fordson THE UNIVERSAL CAR CARS, TRUCKS, TRACTORS 9 North Jefferson, on the Bay. Savannah, Ga. JOHN LYONS CO. Pioneer Family Grocers — of — SAVANNAH Specialty Our Service Is All You Need CENTRAL U-DkiVE-IT CORP. 648 BROAD ST.—Next to Whaley Bros. AUGUSTA, GA.