APALACHEE, or APALA CHI, a tribe of Indians of the Muskhogean stock, first mentioned in 1526 as occupying the territory about Apalachee Bay and Saint Mark's River in northwestern Florida and northward to the mountains to which they have given their name. Near the end of the 16th century Spanish Franciscan friars founded missions among them, till the war of the Span ish Succession, a century later, when the Span ish attempted to use the Indians as allies against the English Carolinas. Twice before the Spaniards had invaded Carolina from Saint Augustine; and now, in 1702, they headed a party of 900 Apalachees and marched into Georgia. The Creeks, who were friendly to the English, not only warned them, but a party of 500 ambushed the Apalachees and routed them with great slaughter. The Caro linians determined to take the offensive and after a fruitless expedition to Saint Augustine in December 1703 one was undertaken into the Apalachian territory, which supplied that city with provisions and contained many Spanish forts. With 50 white men and 1,000 Creeks its
leader stormed one fortified town and won a sharp battle, capturing several hundred Indians with women and children. Five other towns surrendered unconditionally, while a powerful cacique capitulated for his own safety. The expedition returned in March 1704 with 100 Indian slaves and 1,300 free Indians, who were settled among the Creeks. Twice more within the next four years Carolina invaded this ter ritory with such results that in 1708 it held 850 Indian slaves in addition to what had been given to the Creeks. The Apalachees were thus prac tically obliterated; and though for a time they maintained their individual existence they finally became merged with the Creeks. Consult McCready, 'History of South Carolina under the Proprietary Government' (1897).