José de Zúñiga y la Cerda (1654–1725) was a Spanish nobleman, field marshal and governor of Spanish Florida (1699–1706) and Cartagena de Indias in present-day Colombia (1712–18). He served twenty-seven years in the

Spanish Netherlands Spanish Netherlands (Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles; Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden; French: Pays-Bas espagnols; German: Spanische Niederlande.) (historically in Spanish: ''Flandes'', the name "Flanders" was used as a ''pars pro toto'') was the H ...

, rising to the rank of field marshal. He participated in the defense of the town of Melilla when it was besieged by the Moors.

Political career

Governor of Florida

King

Carlos II of Spain Charles II of Spain (''Spanish: Carlos II,'' 6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700), known as the Bewitched (''Spanish: El Hechizado''), was the last Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire. Best remembered for his physical disabilities and the War of ...

named Zúñiga Governor and

Captain General Captain general (and its literal equivalent in several languages) is a high military rank of general officer grade, and a gubernatorial title. History The term "Captain General" started to appear in the 14th century, with the meaning of Comma ...

of Spanish Florida on January 30, 1699. The oath of office with instructions concerning the responsibilities of his appointment was administered by the court of the

Casa de Contratación The ''Casa de Contratación'' (, House of Trade) or ''Casa de la Contratación de las Indias'' ("House of Trade of the Indies") was established by the Crown of Castile, in 1503 in the port of Seville (and transferred to Cádiz in 1717) as a cr ...

(in English: House of Trade) in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

, on May 20, 1699. He was given a license to carry four slaves, and he sailed to New Spain in the fleet commanded by General Manuel de Velasco y Tejada on May 23, 1699. Zúñiga was governor of Florida from 1699 until 1706. In 1701, he appointed Juan de Ayala y Escobar as "visitador general" of Apalachee to investigate the terms of the peace that the native tribes there had made with other peoples, such as the

Apalachicola people Apalachicola (sometimes Palachacola) was the name of a Native American town and chiefdom, and of the people living in it, and of a group of towns associated with it, located along the lower part of the Chattahoochee River in present-day Alabama ...

.Grady, p. 110. During his administration he improved the castle (''castillo'') or fortress and the town defenses of St. Augustine, the capital of the province. In 1702 St. Augustine was besieged by English troops under Colonel Moore, who lacked heavy artillery to capture the fort. The siege resulted in the burning of the town outside the fort. Zúñiga y la Cerda ordered the remaining Spanish missions in Apalachee and

Timucua Province Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Spain established a number of missions throughout ''La Florida'' in order to convert the Native Americans to Christianity, to facilitate control of the area, and to prevent its ...

to be moved closer together for defensive purposes. The English and their Indian allies fled with the arrival of a relief

flotilla A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' ( fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. Composition A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same clas ...

commanded by Esteban de Berroa and Capt. Lope de Solloso, leading a team of Galician recruits and militia troops from

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. Zúñiga's term as governor of Florida ended on April 9, 1706.Cahoon, Ben
U.S. States F-K

Governor of Cartagena de Indias

Zúñiga was appointed governor of Cartagena de Indias in 1706 (or 1712) to replace Juan Diaz Pimienta. He served until 1710 (or 1718), and returned to Spain in the only boat of the fleet of Admiral

Antonio de Ulloa Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Giralt, FRS, FRSA, KOS (12 January 1716 – 3 July 1795) was a Spanish naval officer, scientist, and administrator. At the age of nineteen, he joined the French Geodesic Mission to what is now the country o ...

that survived a storm in the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

. He died in 1725.

References

Sources

* Alcedo, Antonio de (1812). The Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies. Vol. 1. London: G.A. Thomson Esq. * Alcedo, Antonio de (1812). The Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies. Vol. 2. London: G.A. Thomson Esq.. * http://pares.mcu.es «AER (Archivos Españoles en Red)». * . Nº 14. Page 110. * * . {{DEFAULTSORT:Cerda, Jose de Zuniga y la Royal Governors of La Florida 1654 births 1725 deaths