Economic Problems of Florida Governors, 1700-1763

Many problems plagued the eighteenth-century Florida governor, but none vexed him more than the economic plight of his settlement. Florida was a poverty-stricken military outpost of the Spanish Empire on the northeastern fringe of New Spain. It was unable to sustain itself with mining or agricultural enterprises and was wholly dependent upon outside aid for its existence. Want, misery, and destitution were the lot of the soldiers and their families living in this unpopular community. Securing money and supplies for them was the governor’s greatest single responsibility; no colonial question received his more devoted attention

Funerals and Fiestas in Early Eighteenth Century St. Augustine

The drab social life of early eighteenth-century St. Augustine contrasted sharply with the glitter and pomp of life in the viceregal centers of New Spain and Peru. Amusements, which gave pleasure to the people of Mexico City and Lima, were unknown in this fringe outpost of the Spanish Empire in America. The soldiers of the Castillo de San Marcos and their wives and children had little opportunity to enjoy plays, operas, tournaments of poetasters, bull fights, cock fights, horse racing, parades, mock jousts, or the joyous recibimiento. Even the dubious pleasures to be obtained from the inquisitorial auto de fe were denied them. Floridians had to be content with the common amusements and pleasures. St. Augustine was a harsh, out-of-the way frontier area, where life was seldom lightened by the amenities or diversions common in the more populous centers of the empire