Mission San Luis was the main Spanish Franciscan Mission of West Florida near present-day Tallahassee. Founded in 1654 it was mainly a mission to the Apalachee Indians, the strongest tribe in this area. In 1704 the British from South Carolina attacked and the village was burned by its own residents to prevent it falling into British hands. The inhabitants scattered. Some of the Indians went west to live with the French in Mobile. Some scattered into the forest. The Spanish also split up. Some went back to St. Augustine and got yellow fever there and died. Others went to Mexico City or Havana. They had lots of contact with Spanish colonies in Mexico. The Apalachee Indians built a meeting house that was a log cone covered with thatch. The one built here was the largest individual Indian building in the American Southeast. The picture above shows the rebuilt size. In the tree shadow you can just barely make out the door, normal size to give a perspective of how big this thing is. The Spanish eventually built a stockade. Since both societies had commons this worked very well with Indian meeting house, stockade, and mission church all built around the commons.I noted that the story of the real first Thanksgiving as told by the people of Florida does not involve Massachusetts but rather St. Augustine, Florida. In the year 1565, the grateful Spanish and their Indian friends of New Spain held a thanksgiving feast together 56 years before those Johnny-come-latelies, the Pilgrims of New England.
New England up-starts, no doubt.
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