ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a few of the zones of contact within the Spanish borderlands. In the east, the Spanish province of La Florida included present-day Florida and southern Georgia and the Indian inhabitants of those areas. The Timucuan chiefdoms occupied portions of central and north Florida. The Apalachee native peoples had villages in the northwest panhandle of Florida and portions of southwest Georgia. Franciscan friars renewed their efforts to spread Christianity in La Florida in the 1580s and 1590s. Friars entered the territories of the Guales and Timucuans. The Spanish built missions and presidios south of the Caddoans, hoping to convert local Indians and establish a firm military presence through their presidios. Disease and slave raids greatly reduced the populations, who responded by reorganizing themselves into multilingual confederacies. The Spanish invasion of the Pueblo world came in several stages. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's disastrous exploration of Florida turned into a six-year trek across the Gulf Coast and Texas.
