Second Mission Period 1587 - 1616

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22. SAN ANTONIO DE ENECAPE or ANTONTCO

The mission is undoubtedly the site of the convent listed by Geiger for 1587, was a mission among the Fresh Water Timucua. This mission may well date from 1587, as Juan Menéndez Marquez indicated briefly that there was missionary activity among the Fresh Water Timucua in 1588.81 In 1602 seven Fresh Water Timucua settlements together contained about 200 Christians and one (Mayaca) had one hundred yet to be baptized. Four years later the bishop confirmed 225 Indians and the chiefs of Antonico, where the ceremony was held, and of four nearby villages. No friar was mentioned in the bishop's report, but Enacape was mentioned as having an unidentified friar in 1605. It was mentioned again in 1616 as having a friar and a church. This mission is doubtless the San Antonio de Nacape of the 1655 list but Antonico does not appear on either of the 1675 lists. The mission reappeared on the 1680 list as San Antonio de Anacape described as a new conversion inhabited by twenty-two heathen Yamasee. The Mount Royal site in the vicinity of Palatka has been identified as the site of this mission. Moore explored its prehistoric mound. Goggin speculated that this site might be Enacape. And B. Calvin Jones confirmed that it was during several weeks of exploration there in 1983. Jones found much Spanish material scattered over, about forty acres and believes it belongs to the early 1600s rather than to the post-i680 Spanish presence there.

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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 24, 2002