Nicolás Suárez Ponce de León II

Nicolás Suárez Ponce de León II
Acting Governor of La Florida
In office
2 Nov 1663 – 30 Dec 1664
Preceded by Alonso de Aranguiz y Cortés
Succeeded by Francisco de la Guerra y de la Vega
In office
8 Jul 1673 – 3 May 1675
Preceded by Manuel de Cendoya
Succeeded by Pablo de Hita y Salazar
Personal details
Born 1630-1635
St. Augustine, Florida
Died unknown
Profession Soldier, interim accountant and administrator

Nicolás Suárez Ponce de León II was a Spanish soldier who served as acting governor of Spanish Florida from 1663 to 1664, and from 1673 to 1675. His second term as acting governor was after the death of Manuel de Cendoya, and he continued construction of the fort of Castillo de San Marcos, to block British attacks in Florida.

Biography

Nicolás Suárez Ponce de León II was born in St. Augustine, Florida. He was son of former governor of Florida Nicolás Suárez Ponce de León (1631 - 1633 and 1651).

He was interim accountant of Havana and Florida, due to the absence of counter Santos de la Eras. He joined the Spanish Army in its youth, on 20 December 1648. In May 1651, Ponce de Leon II joined the company of Luis Salazar y Valdecillas, where he was appointed Alferez.

After his death, in this same month, Nicolás Suárez Ponce de León II was appointed acting governor of Florida and his father appointed him captain of an of the company of this province in May 23. He was ascended to alferez, which he only occupied for 16 days. In August 3, he was appointment Sargeant Mayor by his father.[1]

Nicolás Suárez Ponce de León II assumed the office of acting governor of Florida on November 2, 1663, ruling until December 30, 1664, and a second time from July 8, 1673 to May 3, 1675,[2] following the death of Manuel de Cendoya. He continued construction of the new Castillo de San Marcos that Manuel de Cendoya had started.

Under his rule, the construction of the castle of San Marcos was quick but not as much as he expected, because the Native Americans who built the castle did not know their production techniques and they committed many mistakes in the construction, which caused that they had to doing over and over again the parts of Castillo in which they had failed. In addition, epidemics (caused by poor hygiene) and the overcrowding killed many of them. In addition, the excess weight of the loads and little knowledge to manipulate it caused them dislocations in the bones, not counting the scaffolding and towers that falling, delaying the work.[3] All this contributed to the high casualty rate.[4] Lack of funds remained the biggest problem for construction. He sent a lot of pesos (the equivalent to thousands of dollars) that basically served for food and wages.[3]

In addition to many Native Americans, also Spanish and English captive prisoners (who were better treated in alimentation and salaries) and fifty Black slaves (who were the people more valued at working level) worked in the construction of castle.[3]

Nicolas Suárez Ponce de León II resigned as acting governor of Florida in 1674 after the construction of the fort was stopped by many natural disasters and lack of resources of Mexico city, being appointed Pablo de Hita y Salazar as official governor of Florida.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Ayes, John J. Browne (2009). Juan Ponce de Leon His New and Revised Genealogy. pp. 483–485. ISBN 978-0-557-46653-5.
  2. ↑ Worth, John E. "The Governors of Colonial Spanish Florida, 1565-1763". University of West Florida. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 El Fuerte de Piedra y la Villa. Page 95-96.
  4. 1 2 Old City life. St. Augustine: City of Castles (First colonial capital of Florida). Posted by Raphael Cosme on January 15, 2014. Retrieved on July 18, 2014, to 0:50pm.
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