Mission San Francisco de Potano Alachua Florida United States

News that the War of the Spanish Succession (known in North America as Queen Anne's War) had widened to include England had arrived in Carolina by September 1702, and Governor Moore had persuaded the provincial assembly to fund an expedition against St. Augustine.

The expedition is a failure, and there is rioting in Charles Town over the expenses incurred.

One significant accomplishment of the St. Augustine expedition is the destruction of coastal Spanish mission towns in Guale Province (present-day coastal Georgia).

After the expedition, Zúñiga orders the remaining Spanish missions in Apalachee and Timucua Province to be moved closer together for defensive purposes.

Missions in Mocama Province are consolidated south of the St. Johns River, and those in Timucua are consolidated at San Francisco de Potano.

Creeks attack San Francisco de Potano and ...

Moore continues his march through Apalachee following the battle at Ayubale.

One village, San Lorenzo de Ivitachuco, survives when its leader surrenders his church's gold ornaments and a train of supplies.

Moore moves slowly, since many of the Apalachee apparently want to leave with the English.

According to his report, most of the population of seven villages joined his march voluntarily.

In Moore's report of the expedition, he claimed to have killed more than eleven hundred men, women, and children.

He also stated that he "removed into exile" three hundred and "captured as slaves" more than forty-three hundred people, mostly women and children.

The only major missions to survive in Apalachee are San Luis and San Lorenzo de Ivitachuco.

The Spanish at first attempt to fortify these places, but they are eventually judged to be indefensible and abandoned.

The survivors are consolidated at Abosaya, east of San Francisco de Potano.

Spanish authorities in St. Augustine and Pensacola mobilized their meager forces, but did not return to Ayubale until after Moore's force had clearly left the area.

They bury the Christian dead, many of whom they report as exhibiting evidence of torture.

Despite the losses, they do not immediately abandon or consolidate the missions until further raiding took place, after which the demoralized surviving Apalachee insist they will either retreat to Pensacola or go over to the English.

Creek raiders besiege San Francisco de Potano and attack the La Chua ranch near Abosaya in the spring of 1706; both of these are abandoned, and Timucua is virtually depopulated by May 1706.

According to Apalachee scholar John Hamm, between Moore's raids and these later ones, two thousand natives went into exile, and an unknown number were enslaved.

Bienville wrote that raiding in the Florida area had resulted in the killing of two thousand Apalachees and the capture of thirty-two Spaniards, seventeen of whom were burned alive.

The Spanish presence in Florida by the end of 1706 has been reduced to St. Augustine and Pensacola.