Second Mission Period 1587 - 1616

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36-OLATAYCO or ALATICO

Olotayco was a visita under the jurisdiction of San Pedro Mocama at which Governor Ibarra stopped while passing from San Juan del Puerto to San Pedro on his 1604 visitation. Ibarra did not hold a visitation there, but distributed gifts, visited the church, and summoned the leaders to attend the visitation at San Pedro. Strangely, Fray Lopez did not mention Olatayco in his listing in 1602 of the Christian villages with their churches that exist in the vicarage of San Pedro. Based apparently on Ibarra's visitation record, Deagan stated that He spoke of visiting two towns in the interior which were subject to San Pedro. These towns Alatuc and Olatayco, were probably Cascange towns. There is nothing in the visitation record to indicate that Ibarra went into the interior. In view of Deagan's variant spelling of Alatico, it is possible that she had a second source that she did not cite. It is also not entirely clear from the visitation record that Alatico and Olatayco are separate villages. The record states that the Sé General arrived at the village (pueblo) of Alatico, jurisdiction of San Pedro, and visited the church that was there, and from there he went to the principal council house (buhio principal) of Olatayco, where the cacique and mandador, and the rest of the Indians who were there had repaired to give the salute (salua) to the Señor General. Only one community seems to be involved in this account. Olatayco probably should be read as Holata or Chief Yco, although Alatico and Olatayco are so similar in pronunciation that they could well be variants of the same name. Lanning gave the village's name as Olatayco and placed it on the Bay of Whales (St. Andrews Sound), which is north of Cumberland Island. That seems improbable, as the Gonzalez derrotero of 1609 suggests that the approach to San Pedro was by way of the mouth of the St. Marys River or bar of San Pedro. There does not appear to be any subsequent mention of Alatico.

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REFERENCES Dr. John H. Hann
"Summary Guide to Spanish Florida Missions and Vistas with Churches in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries"


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© Copyright. John P. Walsh. April 26, 2002