The Dominicans

The first – Dominican friars – sailed with Spanish explorer Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526 and established the colony of San Miguel de Gualdape. Although the colony only lasted three months, it was the first European colony in what is now the continental United States, preceding the colonies at Pensacola by 33 years; St. Augustine by 39 years; Roanoke by 61 years; and Jamestown by 81 years. Gualdape was likely situated near Santa Elena Sound or Sapelo Sound, putting it within the boundaries of the Guale (south Georgia) coast.

The Jesuits

Jesuits followed, arriving in Spanish Florida in 1566 and 1568. By 1570 – frustrated by the poor quality of the soil and by the Guale themselves who “live like beasts” – La Florida’s Jesuit superior, Juan Baptista de Segura, determined, "Florida is NOT for the Society of Jesus."

In search of fertile land and better climate, eight Jesuits moved north from Santa Elena to present-day Virginia, building a mission on the York River, not far from where the English would discover the Powhatan. Within months, relations between the Jesuits and the Indigenous people of the region took a violent turn, and in February 1571, a group of Algonquin warriors (led by the Jesuits’ trusted guide) murdered all eight of the of the missionaries, including Jesuit superior Segura. The Jesuits abandoned the Indian missions in 1572, finding their efforts at conversion unsuccessful.

The Franciscans

Franciscan missionaries first arrived in La Florida in 1573, a year after the Jesuits departed. By 1575, both the Guale chief and his wife had been baptized. More Franciscans (including the Georgia Martyrs) arrived in 1584, 1587, 1590, and 1595.

The Franciscans found success where the Jesuits didn’t, largely because of their flexible evangelical style. Functioning like the modern Peace Corps, the Franciscans were granted entry into Indigenous communities to assist in the new order of Spanish–Indian cooperation.

The Franciscans also had nature on their side. While the Jesuits wrote off coastal Georgia as “the most miserable thing ever discovered” and complained of poor harvests, hunger, Native rebellions, and local unrest, the Franciscan friars called this same landscape the “breadbasket” of Spanish Florida just two decades later. The Jesuits had no way of knowing they were experiencing the most severe drought of the 16th century – the worst of it occurring during their time among the Guale.

In 1595, Governor Domingo Martínez de Avendaño and Friar Francisco Marrón (custos, or superior of the Franciscan province), journeyed from St. Augustine to the Guale territory to negotiate the establishment of five new missions. Six friars were placed in the Guale villages of Tolomato, Tupiqui, Guale, Asao/Talaje, and Talapo/Tulufina, and entrusted with the souls of several thousand Guale Indians. Five of these friars were murdered in the 1597 Uprising. The sixth was kidnapped and tortured until St. Augustine’s governor secured his release ten months later.

Missionaries didn't return to the Guale coast until 1603, and in 1605, four new Franciscans were sent to live in the territory. The Bishop of Cuba and La Florida visted, baptizing and comfirming the repentant Guale caciques and their wives, and emphasizing the functions of the Church and state in the “establishment of peace in the wilderness.”

During the 1600s, the Guale coast was marked by migration to the barrier islands and by depopulation due to epidemics, forced labor programs in St. Augustine, attacks from enemy Indians sent by the English at Charles Towne, and the defection of Guale inhabitants to the interior. By 1680, there were reported to be just four settlements north of present-day Cumberland Island, and the entire Indian population of La Florida was served by a mere four missionaries.

The year 1661 marked the beginning of the end for the Guale missions. “A nation of warrior Indians” struck Guale from the mainland, “sacking the churches and convents and killing the Christian Indians.” A direct result of English colonial presence in the north, it was the first step in a series of relocations that would ultimately decimate the native population of the Georgia coast. Retreating into Florida in 1685, the remaining Guale left for Cuba with the Spanish in 1763.