Identity Paper Rosa Banderas

This first entry is describing a game the native tribes play and the second entry is a description of the attack on Fort St. Marks, my woman was mulatto Spanish nun who lived in San Luis a mission in the panhandle:

The first is you may not sleep the night before, those who play say falling asleep means a loss during the game the next day. ⁸ So with this the people here stay up howling with the dogs all night long. ⁸ The second is they need order 4 to 5 elderly men to go to sleep. ⁸ They then repeat their dreams to the man whom is leading. ⁸ Depending on the dream was where you set up your benches if someone who entered from a side was good then you set it up in that area and bad you avoid that side. ⁸ Thirdly a new fire is made and is only used for the game. ⁸ The fourth rule is not all the players may enter the plaza only after they are commanded to allow them entrance are they to take it to mean they will win the game. ⁸ Fifth they all entered the plaza and called upon the spirit of eslafiayupi who is son of Nicotaijulo, who killed an eagle and tricked snakes. ⁸ Then it is those who reach seven that win. ⁸ There is also a rule of a pole and an eagle of which I have yet to interpret, but warriors and women must dance around it before it is set up and they must also have a ball made of deer skin from the area around the feet. ⁸

Dear Diary, April 1, 1682

We had grave news from the south that the fort at St. Marks was destroyed by pirates. ⁹ The attack was due to a supply ship visiting and the fort was overtaken because of only a few soldiers being present. ⁹ A few friars I had met before were still there during the attack and were sent here to San Luis, for ransom for the others left at the fort.⁹ After a fortnight the pirates abandoned it and left it in ruins, taking one soldier and the commandant with them. Because of this and threat from the north we have suddenly find ourselves with 45 soldiers in our midst.3

[3] John H. Hann, Apalachee (University of Florida Press, 1988), 199-200, 331-353.

[8] Irving A. Leonard, Spanish Approach to Pensacola: 1689-1693.(The Quivira Society Publications,1939) 13-14.

[9] Diario y derrottero del Viaxe q. hico la fragata nra s^ra de la Conp^on al descubrim^to de la Vaia del Espirutu Santo, op. crit. Translated in Irving A. Leonard, “The Spanish Re-exploration of the Gulf Coast in 1686,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. XXII, No. 4 (March, 1936), pp. 547-557.