Beginnings.

The first mission to the Timuca Indians of St. Augustine took place in 1565 as the Spanish reclaimed Florida from the Huguenots. Spain had first laid claim to the city, which its founder, Juan Ponce de Leon, believed held the Fountain of Youth, in 1513. In 1564, after the French Protestants established Fort Caroline twenty-five miles to the north, the Spanish became alarmed that the French might take control and that the Huguenots would have the chance to convert the Indians. Although the Jesuits had tried to convert the natives, they had been unsuccessful, and by 1572 the last of the Jesuits had left Florida. The Jesuits' goal of converting large numbers of natives was hampered by the fact that several Jesuits were killed by the Indians and by the frequent disagreements between the soldiers and friars distracting the missionaries...