  St. Augustine remained the sole European settlement in what is now the continental United States for a period of forty-two years. About the time of its attack by Drake in 1586 it received vague but disturbing reports of the presence of English settlers to the north in a region known to the Spaniards as JacÁn, or the Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia. This was the ill-fated Roanoke colony. It was followed in 1607 by the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, by the English, which represented a further violation of territory claimed by Spain as a part of Florida. Three expeditions, one in 1588 and others in 1609 and 1611, set out from St. Augustine to reconnoiter these rival settlements. The Virginia colony survived and others crept down the coast in defiance of Spain’s claims to the territory. The Spanish governors at St. Augustine repeatedly implored authorities in Spain to strengthen Florida’s garrison and defenses to meet this English threat. But the mother country, almost constantly involved in wars with European rivals, or vexed with internal problems, took no decisive action. In 1665 St. Augustine became one hundred years of age. As if to celebrate its centennial, the English King Charles II, issued a second patent opening up the territory south of Virginia to English settlement. This patent not only disregarded Spanish claims to the area, but even included within its boundaries the very site of St. Augustine itself. A Midnight RaidIn the spring of 1668, during the delightful month of May, the appearance of a vessel off St. Augustine’s inlet caused a ripple of excitement. The settlement was awaiting a shipment of flour from Veracruz, Mexico, and a payment on its subsidy then eight years in arrears. The harbor pilot put out to bring the vessel across the treacherous bar. Soon two cannon shot were heard, a prearranged signal identifying the vessel as the one expected. The people were elated and retired confidently for the night. But the ship was not manned by friends as was assumed. It had been seized by an English pirate, Robert Searles (alias Davis), in the vicinity of Cuba. When the vessel arrived off St. Augustine the Spanish captain and crew were compelled upon threat of death to appear on deck as if nothing were amiss. The unsuspecting harbor pilot was tricked into firing the identifying signal and made prisoner before he could warn the settlement. The boundaries of Florida grew smaller. Around midnight, when the town was peacefully sleeping, the pirate band rowed stealthily ashore undetected, and scattered through the streets. The people emerged from their homes expecting to greet friends, but their joy soon turned to anguished cries of terror. Many were killed by the pirates in attempting to resist or flee half-clad to safety. In the darkness it was difficult to distinguish friend from foe. With shouting pirates at their heels, the governor and part of the garrison managed to reach their fort and beat off attempts to take it. The next morning the pirates systematically looted the homes and churches, and a previously hidden pirate ship appeared in the bay. Unable to take the fort, the invaders left their captives on the beach and sailed away under the cover of darkness. St. Augustine’s residents returned to find sixty of their comrades dead in the blood-stained streets. A Stone Fort at LastThe founding of Charleston, S. C., in 1670 brought the English threat still nearer. An expedition sailed from St. Augustine to attack the new settlement but ran into a severe storm and failed to reach its objective. The success of the pirate raid on St. Augustine in 1668, combined with the growing English encroachment on Spanish territory to the north, finally convinced officials in Spain that something must be done to bolster Florida’s defenses. In the fall of 1669, Queen Regent Marianna of Spain issued a cÉdula directing the Viceroy of Mexico to provide funds for the construction of an impregnable stone fortress at St. Augustine, similar to the bastions guarding Spanish strongholds in the Caribbean. All previous forts in Florida had been of wood and soon rotted in the moist sea air. The new fort would be built of coquina, a shell-rock formation, found in abundance on Anastasia Island across the bay from the capital. Several earlier Florida governors had urged its use without success. Florida’s next governor, Manuel Cendoya, went at once to Mexico to collect the funds appropriated to begin the new defense work. At Havana, Cuba, he engaged the services of a Work on the new structure began during the fall of 1672. Stone masons and other skilled artisans were brought from Cuba. Quarries were opened on Anastasia Island. Gangs of Indian workmen and yokes of oxen dragged the heavy coquina blocks to the water’s edge, where they were loaded on rafts or barges, and ferried across the bay to the fort site. The massive walls rose slowly. After an enthusiastic beginning progress lagged at times for want of funds, lack of vigorous prosecution, or when epidemics thinned the ranks of slaves and Indian workmen. In the spring of 1683 it was interrupted by a threatened attack, one of many to which St. Augustine was continually subjected. English pirates landed near Matanzas Inlet, burned the Spanish outpost there, and advanced toward the capital. Warned by alert sentinels, the governor sent out a detachment of musketeers, who waited in ambush and drove the raiders back to their ships. By 1696 the great stone fort was about completed except for some of the outer work, added during later periods. Into its construction went twenty-four long years of sweat and toil beneath the Florida sun, and the lives of an untold number of slaves, Indian, and peon workmen. It was called by the Spaniards Castillo de San Marcos, or castle of St. Mark’s. The grim walls of Castillo de San Marcos look much the same as when the stones were lifted laboriously into place. Settlement of PensacolaWhile the English were occupying the Atlantic Coast north of Florida, hardy French traders and explorers, including the Jesuit, La Salle, came down the Mississippi River building forts at strategic points. This threatened Florida on the west. To meet the French threat to the Gulf coast, the Spaniards under AndrÉs de Arriola established a fort and settlement at Pensacola in 1698, which later was to become the capital of West Florida. A previous Spanish attempt by TristÁn de Luna to establish a settlement near this point in 1559 had failed. Border ConflictStrife between the Spaniards in Florida and their English neighbors to the north did not at first break out into open warfare. English agents and traders began to work quietly among the border Indians, weaning some of them away from Spanish control and influence. These they then armed and encouraged to raid the Spanish Indian towns. Christian Indians captured by the English and their Indian allies were sold into slavery. Florida’s Governor Cabrera (1680-1687) complained that they even seized the “mixed ones,” children of Spanish and Indian parentage. Small bands of Yamassee Indians, then allied with the English, hovered about St. Augustine, occasionally seizing a stray Spaniard, whom they carried back to Carolina. The Carolinians even offered the Indians a reward for captured Spaniards delivered to them upon the pretense that it was to save the victims from torture. By 1686, with its Castillo about completed, St. Augustine felt ready to take the offensive. In the fall of that year its women waved farewell to soldier husbands and sweethearts. They sailed north in three ships, destroyed a Scottish settlement at Port Royal, plundered English coastal plantations, and advanced on San Jorge, as the Spaniards called it, or Charleston. Suddenly a hurricane came up driving two of their vessels hopelessly aground. The third limped sadly back to Matanzas Bay. Soon after this expedition a boat-load of half-starved Negro slaves arrived at St. Augustine, and asked for the Holy Waters of Baptism. They had escaped from Carolina plantations. In response to demands for their return the Spanish governor offered to reimburse the English for their loss. Spanish agents and Indians secretly began to encourage slaves in Carolina to run away, making it known that St. Augustine offered them asylum. These refugees increased in number and were allowed to occupy lands two miles north of the settlement in the vicinity of Mose Creek. The Shipwrecked QuakersJohn Archdale, a Quaker, became governor of Carolina in 1695. He frowned upon the enslavement of Christian Indians and returned four to authorities at St. Augustine, who wrote him a letter of appreciation and agreed to reciprocate by according English subjects safe conduct through Spanish territory. This accounts for the kind treatment accorded a small company of Quakers enroute to Philadelphia, Title page from one of the many editions of Dickinson’s book. GOD’s In the Remarkable Deliverance of Robert Barrow, with divers other Persons, from the Devouring Waves of the Sea; amongst which they Suffered SHIPWRACK: Faithfully Related by one of the Persons concern’d therein, After two months of harrowing captivity the Quakers were rescued by a Captain LÓpez and detail of soldiers from St. Augustine. They were brought to the settlement and later escorted safely to the English border. One of their number, Jonathan Dickinson, wrote and published a book of their adventures, which contains an interesting description of St. Augustine and Florida as these Quakers saw them so many years ago. As the Quakers were brought up the coast they noted the chain of Spanish sentinel posts south of St. Augustine, which were located on high dunes overlooking the sea, beach and river. By means of smoke signals, or Indian runners, they could quickly warn the capital of danger. The little Quaker band was hospitably received at the settlement and quartered among its inhabitants. “This place is a Garrison,” wrote Dickinson, “maintained one-half by the King of Spain and one-half by the Church of Rome. The male inhabitants are all soldiers, everyone receiving his pay according to his post. All of their supply of Bread, Clothing and Money comes from Havana and Porta Vella, and it was going on three years since they had a Vessel from any place whatsoever, which made their needs very great. “The Towne we saw from one end to the other. It is about three-quarters of a mile in Length, not regularly built, nor the Houses very thick (close together), they having large orchards, in which grow plenty of oranges, lemons, pome citrons, limes, figs, and peaches. The Houses are most of them old buildings, and not half of them inhabited, the number of men being around three hundred.” On their way north to Charleston the Quakers stopped overnight at several Spanish Indian towns, where Dickinson noted that “the Indians go as consistently to their devotion, at all times and at all seasons, as do the Spaniards.” He also observed that the Indian women modestly clothed themselves with the moss of trees (Spanish moss), The Castle’s First TestCastillo de San Marcos, completed in 1696, had not yet undergone an attack. It was soon to come. In Europe the War of Spanish Succession (1700-1713) involved England in a conflict with Spain and France that soon spread to their colonies, where it was known as Queen Anne’s War. Governor Moore of Carolina obtained the backing of its colonial assembly for an expedition against Spain’s citadel in Florida. He recruited a force of some 600 Carolina militia and a number of Indian allies. They advanced south in two detachments during the fall of 1702. Florida’s Governor ZÚÑiga learned of the impending attack in time to lay in adequate provisions and put his garrison on a 24-hour alert. Colonel Daniel with one Carolina detachment came up the St. Johns River and thence overland. Moore with the other came down the coast in eight small vessels. Daniel arrived first and advanced upon St. Augustine by land. Governor ZÚÑiga had few experienced soldiers, and did not try to save the town. All of its inhabitants were ordered into the fort, which soon sheltered some 1,500 people. Moore soon arrived by sea with a quantity of trench-digging tools and fifteen long ladders for scaling the fort’s walls. But the English had greatly underestimated the Castillo’s strength and found there was little hope of taking it with their few small calibre guns. Colonel Daniel was sent to Jamaica to secure siege guns and bombs. During the siege the Spaniards made two sallies from the fort to destroy their own houses in its vicinity to prevent them being used as cover by the English. A total of 31 houses were thus destroyed as shown by claims later filed by their Spanish owners. Almost two months of siege passed. Within the overcrowded Castillo inhabitants and garrison prayed for relief. The day after Christmas two heavily armed Spanish ships appeared off the inlet bringing aid. Fearing their retreat would be cut off, the Carolinians burned their transports, abandoned their heavy stores, set fire to the town, and withdrew overland to vessels awaiting them at the mouth of the St. Johns River. The Castillo had triumphed in its first test, but the town of St. Augustine was virtually reduced to ashes. Spanish eyewitnesses testified that not a building was left standing except the Hermitage of Nuestra SeÑora de la Soledad, and some twenty houses of the meaner sort. These were probably scattered dwellings south of the Plaza. Although disgraced by the failure of his expedition, Moore returned to Florida in 1704 with a large number of Indian allies. They overran the weakly garrisoned Indian towns of Apalache and the interior, taking 1,300 Indian prisoners back to Carolina. During this and subsequent invasions practically all of the outlying Franciscan Two stout defense lines protected the capital on the north. The Capital’s DefensesMoore’s siege of St. Augustine in 1702 showed a serious weakness in the capital’s defenses. The enemy were able to occupy and burn the town despite its impregnable Castillo. This led to the gradual construction of a system of outer defenses to protect the town itself from future invasion. First an inner defense line was built extending westward from the Castillo to the San Sebastian River along what is now Orange Street. It eventually consisted of a moat, some fifty or more feet wide and six feet deep. Material from the ditch was used to build a sturdy wall of earth and palm logs. St. Augustine’s City Gate is all that remains of this defense work. Later a fortified line was constructed extending across the peninsula between the bay and the San Sebastian River, “about a cannon shot north of the fort.” It was called the Hornwork because a portion of it resembled in shape the horn of a steer. It consisted of a wide ditch and embankment of earth and sod, at one time further strengthened by a stockade of logs, and a fort at its eastern extremity. Another defense line extended north and south along Maria Sanchez Creek in the vicinity of present Cordova Street, marking the western boundary of the original settlement. Other defense works protected it on the south. The lines were strengthened at intervals by redoubts and angular projections, in some of which cannon were mounted. Sentinels manned the defense lines day and night, once each hour passing the Alerto. When escaped Negro slaves began to find refuge in St. Augustine, a small fort was built for their protection two miles north of the town. It was called Fort Mosa, or the Negro Fort, and served as an anchor for another defense line running east and west. Practically no evidence of this fort and defense work has survived. Palmer’s RaidThe Yamassee Indians of Carolina, once allied with the English, turned against them and in 1715 were decisively defeated. The Spaniards in Florida were accused of fomenting this revolt. A remnant of the tribe took refuge in the St. Augustine area where, according to English reports, they were welcomed by the ringing of bells. For some reason the Yamassees were banished for a time south of the city. They were later recalled, given weapons, and encouraged to make raids on the Carolina border plantations, bringing back bloody scalps and an occasional prisoner. A gun emplacement in the defense lines. The platform sloped forward to absorb the gun’s recoil. To put an end to these raids a Colonel Palmer swept south from Carolina in 1728 with a small force of militia and Indians. They surprised The settlement of Georgia in 1733 by General James Oglethorpe brought the English still closer. Spanish authorities sensed an impending crisis and sent Antonio Arredondo, a competent military engineer and diplomat, to St. Augustine to negotiate with Oglethorpe and survey Florida’s defenses. While Arredondo failed to persuade the English to withdraw from Georgia, under his able supervision St. Augustine’s fortifications were carefully strengthened. Rooms inside the Castillo were rebuilt with arched ceilings of thick masonry to make them bombproof. Backed by Arredondo’s recommendations, Florida’s Governor Montiano secured substantial reinforcements from Cuba, increasing the garrison to around 750 men. Oglethorpe’s SiegeSpanish regulations allowed her colonies only limited trading privileges with rival England, which had become a great mercantile nation. To prevent the prevalent smuggling of illicit English goods into their ports, Spanish ships were ordered to stop and search English vessels off their coasts. One of the English merchantmen overhauled off the coast of Florida or Cuba was commanded by a Robert Jenkins. He reported that the Spanish captain, Juan de LeÓn FandiÑo, cut off his ear and handed it back to him saying, “Carry this to your king and tell him I would treat him in like manner.” Incidents such as this caused rising indignation in both countries. The severed ear, or a substitute, was later displayed by Jenkins before the English Parliament, and gave its name to the war that England declared against Spain in 1739, the War of Jenkins’ Ear. General Oglethorpe of Georgia was ordered to harass the Spaniards in Florida, and proceeded to organize an expedition designed to capture St. Augustine. During the winter be probed Spanish defenses, seizing Fort Picolata on the St. Johns River west of the capital, and a companion fort across the river from it. In early May of 1740 he moved south with 400 of his Georgia regiment and took Fort Diego, a Spanish plantation post fifteen miles north of St. Augustine, in the vicinity of present Palm Valley. Leaving troops to hold it, he then retired back to the mouth of the St. Johns River to await the arrival of his other military contingents. During early April six half galleys from Cuba slipped into St. Augustine’s Matanzas Bay in response to Governor Montiano’s frantic pleas for assistance. They were commanded by the same Juan de LeÓn FandiÑo, who is reputed to have cut off Jenkins’ ear, and proved an important factor in saving the city. Map showing disposition of Oglethorpe’s forces, and batteries shelling the town from what is now Davis Shores.
Oglethorpe’s other military units finally arrived and he moved south over the land route from the St. Johns River, and occupied Fort Mosa, two miles north of the capital. In addition to his Georgia regiment, he now had a detachment of Carolina militia, a company of Highlanders, some Indian allies, and the assistance of an English naval unit of four twenty-gun ships and two sloops, a total force of about 900. His original plan of making a concerted attack on the city from its land approaches and waterfront was thwarted. The inlet proved too shallow for the English ships to enter and provide a covering fire for the landing of marines. The Spanish half galleys received from Cuba effectively controlled the bay. They were a small maneuverable type of boat, propelled by oars and sail, and mounted long brass nine-pounders. To attack from the north, the English would be exposed to a murderous fire from the Castillo and Cubo Line. The only alternative was a siege that might starve St. Augustine into submission. Colonel Palmer, who had raided the city in 1728, was assigned to hold Fort Mosa with a hundred Highlanders and a few Indians, and prevent supplies from reaching St. Augustine from the north. Colonel Vanderdusen, with the Carolina detachment, was stationed on Point Quartel, north of the inlet. Guns were landed on Anastasia Island and dragged into position as near the fort and town as the swampy terrain would permit. The English naval unit tightly blockaded the coast and inlets to prevent aid from reaching St. Augustine by sea. General Oglethorpe then boldly called upon Governor Montiano to surrender. The latter replied that he would be glad to shake hands with his Excellency within the castle’s walls. From their batteries across the bay, the English began an intermittent bombardment of the fort and town that continued for some twenty-seven days. The terrified inhabitants withdrew out of range, greeting each enemy shot with a chorus of Ave Marias. On the night of June 26th, during a lull in the bombardment, Spanish and Negro troops crept out of the defense lines, and at dawn fell upon the English at Fort Mosa. Palmer and fifty of his men were killed, and some taken prisoner. Within the city supplies were fast diminishing. Governor Montiano sent messengers to Cuba, stating that if aid was not sent all at St. Augustine would soon perish. On July 7th he received encouraging word that two vessels from Cuba had eluded the English blockade and slipped into Mosquito Inlet, eighty miles to the south. Pursued by the English patrol, they managed to reach Matanzas Inlet, and from that point supplies were brought up the inland waterway to relieve the beleaguered city. The hot summer sun beat down on the English camps across the bay. Swarms of sandflies and mosquitoes tortured the besiegers. Due to brackish water from shallow wells and improper food, many were ill. Groups of the Carolina militia were daily deserting. The commander of the English naval unit informed Oglethorpe that he would soon be forced to withdraw his support, because of limited supplies and the danger of storms. Faced by these unfavorable circumstances, General Oglethorpe raised the siege, crossed over to the mainland, and began the long trek back to Georgia. The people of St. Augustine returned jubilantly to their homes, which had suffered little or no damage in the bombardment. Chapels and churches rang with Te Deums of thanksgiving. Further HostilitiesSt. Augustine had successfully stemmed the English advance. Spain further strengthened its garrison and defenses. Spanish privateers, some of them based at St. Augustine, preyed upon English commerce and plantations along the coast to the north. During 1741 no less than thirty English prizes were brought into Matanzas Bay. Oglethorpe momentarily expected the Spanish to launch a return attack upon Georgia. During June of 1742 a Georgia scout boat discovered fifteen sail in St. Augustine’s harbor. Soon more arrived, and a strong expedition composed of units from St. Augustine and Cuba set out for Georgia, with Florida’s Governor Montiano in command. The attack was directed toward Fort Frederica, which guarded the approaches to Savannah. Landing on St. Simon’s Island, this superior Spanish force was ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bloody Marsh, and withdrew to its camp. Soon afterward a Frenchman deserted the English and went over to the Spaniards. Oglethorpe contrived to send the Frenchman a letter, in which he directed him to lead the Spaniards to believe that the English were weak, and to persuade them to attack. As expected, the letter fell into the hands of the Spanish commanders, who were at a loss as to how to interpret it. Much to Oglethorpe’s relief they decided to withdraw. Encouraged by his success, Oglethorpe returned to Florida next year. Marching ninety-six miles in four days, he appeared before St. Augustine with a small detachment, keeping his main force hidden in ambush. His ruse might have succeeded, had he not captured in his advance a small company of Spaniards guarding some workmen. Their failure to return alerted the garrison. After a few days he withdrew, remarking that “the Spaniards are so meek there is no provoking them.” Frederica, which Oglethorpe had established as a Georgia military stronghold against the Spaniards, gradually became a ghost town after peace was restored in 1748. In the meantime Oglethorpe returned to England and never threatened St. Augustine or Florida again. In England he became an intimate of the great literary figures of the day, and lived to the ripe old age of 96. The next twenty years might be called St. Augustine’s Golden Age under Spain. Substantial coquina houses and tastefully decorated chapels lined its narrow streets. The inhabitants lived in relative ease and comfort. Social life was gay with colorful carnivals and religious celebrations rivaling those of Havana, Cuba. The capital was now a city of three thousand souls, and would soon be two centuries old. Florida seemed held firmly in the grip of Spain. But English colonists to the north now numbered almost one million and one hundred thousand Frenchmen had settled in Canada. The struggle for power among European nations was to decide St. Augustine’s fate. St. Augustine’s Spanish colonial origin is reflected in its architecture and narrow streets. Photo courtesy National Galleries of Scotland; from portrait by Allan Ramsay, circa 1750, reproduced with permission of its owner, the Duke of Sutherland. Colonel James Grant, St. Augustine’s first British governor, served from 1764 to 1771. |
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