By 1597 there were five Franciscan missions in the Guale territory of coastal Georgia: Tolomato (Friar Pedro de Corpa), Tupiqui (Friar Blas Rodríguez), Guale (Friars Miguel de Añon and Antonio de Badajóz), Asao (Friar Francisco de Veráscola), and Talapo/Tulufina (Friar Francisco de Ávila).
For two years, the friars lived peacefully among their hosts and received many of them into the Catholic faith. Peace was broken in Tolomato, however, when Friar Pedro de Corpa didn't permit don Juanillo, a baptized Christian and heir to the office of mico mayor – head of the chiefdom – to follow Guale custom by taking a second wife. With his leadership and possibly his inheritance in jeopardy, Juanillo decided to eliminate the friar, killing him on September 14, 1597. Juanillo then assembled a war party and continued to the other Guale missions, killing all of the friars except Francisco de Ávila, who was kidnapped and tortured until St. Augustine’s governor secured his release ten months later. In the ensuing trial, he refused to testify against his attackers, knowing it would mean their deaths.
Several weeks after the murders, the governor of Spanish Florida received a letter from a friar stationed at the mission of San Pedro de Mocama (Cumberland Island), reporting an unsuccessful Guale-led attack there. The attacking Indians claimed that they killed all the Franciscans in the Guale territory, and the letter included proof: a Franciscan habit.
The governor obtained witness statements from the two resident friars and the Indians involved in the assault, and then sent his soldiers out to the five Guale missions. The soldiers attacked any Indians they found, burned to the ground whatever buildings remained, and collected what items they could to confirm the deaths of the friars. The bodies of Friars Blas Rodríguez, Miguel de Añon, and Antonio de Badajoz were found in shallow graves, but they weren't transported to St. Augustine because of their state of decay. Friar Miguel’s head and some small bones were recovered, along with the tonsured scalp of an unidentified friar. A breviary, missal, vestments, and a chalice were also located.
In May 1598, the governor met with the chief of Escamacu (in present-day South Carolina), where he learned that Friar Francisco de Ávila was still alive. Two months later, after negotiations with the Guale at Tolomato, the governor returned to St. Augustine with Friar Ávila and seven Indian captives who had been brought in for questioning, including Lucas, the son of Tupiqui’s cacique. Under threat of torture, Lucas testified that a primary motive for the friars’ murders was their insistence on monogamous marriages, and confessed to being present at the murder of Friar Blas. Four other witnesses testified to the same motive. Lucas was sentenced to death, and was hanged on July 29, 1598. The other Indian witnesses were distributed as personal servants among Spanish officials.
In October 1601, the governor convinced don Domingo, the cacique of Asao, to assemble a war party of 500 Indians, including the caciques of Tulufina, Guale, La Tama, Espogache, and Talapo, to kill don Francisco and don Juanillo, who were in hiding at the interior village of Yfusinique. The war party was successful and returned to St. Augustine with don Juanillo’s scalp.
