William W. Dewhurst

RETURN OF MENENDEZ.—ATTEMPT TO CHRISTIANIZE THE INDIANS.—ATTACK UPON ST. AUGUSTINE BY SIR FRANCIS DRAKE.—MURDER OF THE FRIARS.

While these events were transpiring Menendez had completed his equipment, and sailed with a fresh supply of men and means for his colonies in Florida. His first information of the disaster which had overtaken his posts on the St. Johns was received after he arrived at St. Augustine. So humiliating a disaster as the capture of three of his forts well fortified and garrisoned with four hundred trained men, was the occasion of no little mortification and vexation to this gallant knight, especially since the victors were the avengers of the former colonists, and the forces that accomplished the affair were so greatly outnumbered by his soldiers, who were also well defended by strong forts. To add to the discouragement the condition of the colony at St. Augustine was found to be most distressing. The garrison was nearly naked, the colonists half starved, and the attacks of the Indians growing more frequent and reckless as the weakness and despondency of the Spaniards became more apparent. The intrepid and indomitable spirit of Menendez did not bend under these obstacles and reverses which would have crushed a nature of ordinary mold. His extraordinary and comprehensive genius opened a way, in the midst of almost superhuman difficulties, for the maintenance of his colony and the extension of the Catholic faith, the objects to which his life was now devoted. Perceiving the insecurity of the garrisons at a distance from each other and the principal post, he wisely concluded to preserve his forces entire at St. Augustine, and thus maintain the colony and a base of operations. The spread of the Catholic faith he determined to secure by inducing the different tribes of Indians to receive and support one or more missionaries or teachers. At the earnest solicitation of Menendez large numbers of priests, friars, and brothers of the various religious orders of the Catholic Church had been sent to Florida by the King of Spain. Mission-houses were built all over the country from the Florida capes on the south to the Chesapeake on the north and the Mississippi on the west, to which these teachers, being mostly Franciscans, were sent. By the mildness of their manners, the promises of future joys and rewards which their teachings declared, and the interest excited by the introduction of the arts of civilized life, they gained a powerful ascendency over the native tribes, that promised at one period the conversion of the whole North American Indian race to the religion and customs of their Christian teachers. This would have been an achievement that would have amply compensated for all the efforts, treasure, and lives expended by the Europeans in the conquest of the New World. In fact it would have been a wonderful revolution that might well have been considered a miraculous dispensation of Providence.

It is due to the grandly comprehensive conception of Menendez that there was initiated this plan of mission stations through the Floridas, which so nearly accomplished this happy result. That the ultimate success of the efforts to Christianize the Indians was not attained was probably owing to the political changes that occurred in Europe in the eighteenth century. In both France and Spain the Jesuits fell into disgrace, and the most rigorous measures of suppression and banishment were adopted against them. The Jesuit missions in Florida shared the fate of their order in the Old World, and thus was the encouraging prospect of Christianizing the Indians swept away forever.

Under Menendez and his immediate successors whom he named and who followed his counsels were founded those missionary establishments, whose ruins have been at a late period a subject of curious investigation throughout Middle Florida. Romans (“History of Florida,” New York, 1775) states that in his time there was an old bell of one of these mission houses lying in the fields near Alachua. Hon. Wilkinson Call, United States Senator from Florida, who is somewhat of an antiquarian, has informed the writer that near his birthplace in Leon County are to be found the ruins of another of these Spanish missions. The early inhabitants of the region being filled with superstition and a belief that the ruins were the remains of an establishment of the buccaneers, threw the bell into a neighboring pond, from which it has been rescued within a late period.

Menendez, finding that the interests of the colony were neglected at the Spanish Court, and that the maintenance of the colony was daily impoverishing himself, resolved to return permanently to Spain, where he hoped that his influence would be able to accomplish more benefit to the undertaking in Florida than could be expected to accrue from his presence in the territory. Leaving the province under the command of his nephew, Don Pedro Menendez, he sailed for Spain in 1572. Upon his arrival all the honors of the court were lavished upon him, and his counsels were eagerly sought in the various affairs of state. He was not destined to enjoy his honors long, nor to reap new laurels in the European wars of the Spanish crown. In the midst of his glory his career was suddenly ended by his death from a fever, in 1574. His rank and memory are perpetuated in the Church of St. Nicholas, at AvilÈs, by a monument, on which is inscribed the following epitaph:

“Here lies buried the illustrious Captain Pedro Menendez de AvilÈs, a native of this City, Adelantado of the Province of Florida, Knight Commander of Santa Cruz, of the Order of Santiago, and Captain General of the Oceanic Seas, and of the Armada which his Royal Highness collected at Santander in the year 1574, where he died on the 17th of September, of that year, in the fifty-fifth year of his age.”

Following out the instructions of Menendez, De las Alas, now governor of Florida, assembled a council from the different missions in the province for the purpose of considering methods of extending the Catholic faith. In pursuance of the advice of this council embassies were sent to all the tribes of Indians for several hundred miles around St. Augustine.

Spanish garrisons and many Spanish monks to teach the Indians had already been received into the towns east of the Appalachicola River. In 1583 the Chickasaws, Tocoposcas, Apacas, Tamaicas, Apiscas and Alabamas, received the missionaries. At this period the Catholic faith was recognized as far west as the Mississippi, and as far north as the mountains of Georgia.

The Franciscans and Dominicans had been the first to represent the monks in the New World. Afterward came the Fathers of Mercy, the Augustines, and the Jesuits.

Although Florida was included in the diocese of the Bishop of Cuba, it was decided to establish a convent of the Order of St. Francis at St. Augustine. I find the name originally given this convent was the “Conception of Our Lady,” though it is generally referred to as St. Helena.

This name St. Helena was applied to all the establishments throughout the province, of which the great Franciscan house at St. Augustine was to be the center.

Sailing in September, 1585, there arrived soon after in the West Indies a fleet of twenty-six vessels which had been fitted out by private persons in England to cruise against the Spanish commerce, and placed under the command of Sir Francis Drake, with the vice-admirals Frobisher and Knolles. After sacking St. Jago, raising a contribution of twenty-five thousand ducats on St. Domingo, and doing great injury to the Spanish shipping in the Caribbean Seas, they steered for Florida on their homeward voyage. Passing up the coast when abreast Anastatia Island, on the 8th of May, 1586, they sighted a tower or look-out station on the shore. Satisfied that it was some Spanish station the admiral ordered the boats manned and landed a body of troops on the island. Advancing toward the look-out, they perceived across the bay a fort, and further up a town built of wood.

In defiance of King Philip’s order prohibiting foreigners, on pain of death, from setting foot in the province of Florida, the admiral sent General Carlisle, of the land forces, with a small body of soldiers to enter the town.

The sentinel on the island had probably retreated to the fort, as the Spaniards, without parley, opened fire upon the English boat as soon as it came within range of their guns. Perceiving that the Spaniards intended to oppose his landing, and having too small a force to make an attack upon the fort, General Carlisle withdrew to the vessels which were anchored off the bar. That evening a small boat was observed approaching the fleet from across the bay. As the boat came near, the music of a fife was heard, and the breeze bore to the ears of the English the familiar notes of the Prince of Orange’s march. The fifer proved to be a French musician who had been captured, probably with Ribault’s men, and who had taken advantage of the panic which the presence of the English fleet was then causing, to make his escape. He reported that the fort had been abandoned, and offered to conduct the English to the town. In the morning Sir Francis crossed the bay, and finding the fort deserted, as the Frenchman had reported, he took possession of the same and hoisted the English flag. The fort at that time was called San Juan de Pinos, and was but a rude structure built of logs and earth, and without a ditch. The palisades were built of cabbage palmettoes driven in the ground. The platforms were constructed by laying the bodies of pine trees horizontally on each other, and filling an intervening space with earth well rammed. Upon these platforms were mounted fourteen brass cannon, of what caliber is not mentioned.

The garrison numbered one hundred and fifty soldiers. Their retreat had been so precipitous that they neglected to remove the paymaster’s funds, and a chest containing ten thousand dollars in silver fell into the hands of the English. It is to be hoped that this unsoldierly conduct met with exemplary correction at the hands of the corregidors, after the British sailed away.

“Whether the massive, iron-bound mahogany chest still (1858) preserved in the old fort is the same which fell into the hands of Drake, is a question for antiquarians to decide; its ancient appearance might well justify the supposition.”[9]

The next day the English marched toward the town; but it is said that they were unable to proceed by land, owing to heavy rains having lately fallen, and therefore returned to the fort and embarked in boats. Proceeding up the sound, as the boats approached the town, the Spaniards made a show of resistance; but, on the first discharge from the British marines, they fled into the country, leaving the town at the mercy of the invader. After pillaging the town and destroying the gardens, Sir Francis Drake made no further delay, but continued on his voyage to England. The Spanish account says he burned the town in revenge for the killing of his sergeant-major. The place and this attack were considered of so much importance, that after the arrival of Sir Francis in England, an engraving of “Drake’s descent upon St. Augustine” was made, which “represents an octagonal fort between two streams; at the distance of half a mile, another stream; beyond that the town with a look-out and two religious houses, one of which is a church and the other probably the house of the Franciscans, who had shortly before established a house of their order there. The town contains three squares lengthwise and four in width, with gardens on the west side.

“Some doubt has been thrown on the actual site of the first settlement by this account; but I think it probably stood considerably to the south of the present public square, between the barracks and the powder-house. Perhaps Maria Sanchez (Santa Maria) Creek may have then communicated with the bay near its present head, in wet weather and at high tides isolating the fort from the town. The present north ditch may have been the bed of a tide creek, and thus would correspond to the appearance presented by the sketch. It is well known that the north end of the city has been built at a much later period than the southern, and that the now vacant space below the barracks was once occupied with buildings. Buildings and fields are shown on Anastatia Island, opposite the town. The relative position of the town, with reference to the entrance of the harbor, is correctly shown on the plan, and there seems no sufficient ground to doubt the identity of the present town with the ancient locality.”[10]

I have thought that the first town may have been built on the more western of the two peninsulas lying between Santa Maria Creek and St. Sebastian River. This would correspond with the plan published by Drake, and if we assume that the town, being built of wood, was entirely destroyed by Drake, and afterward rebuilt on its present site, the statement of Romans finds confirmation, that the first site, having been found ineligible, the location was changed to its present situation. At the time of Drake’s invasion the town was said to be rapidly growing, and to have contained a church, a hall for the judges of Residencia, and other public buildings.

The Spanish governor (Don Pedro Menendez, a nephew of the founder) set himself diligently to work to rebuild the town. In the prosecution of this work, a considerable pecuniary assistance was received from Spain and Cuba, and it is probable that the first stone buildings were erected about this period.

Much attention was at this time devoted to the temporal and spiritual welfare of the Indians. Father Rogel, who had come to Florida with the Adelantado Pedro Menendez, had learned the Indian language, and at least one of the Indians had been taken to Spain, and instructed in the Spanish language and the tenets of the Church. The Indians were considered desirable neighbors, and were encouraged to dwell near the castle, and even within the city. On a map drawn as early as 1638 the spot now occupied by the old Catholic cemetery near the head of Tolomato Street is marked “Hermitage of our Lady of Guadalupe, with the territory occupied by the Indians of the town Tolomato.” Large numbers of Franciscan missionaries continued to arrive at St. Augustine, and adventurous monks, who had pined in their convents in the Old World for more work to do, found room for their energies in Florida, as the adventurous soldiers had done before them.

Early in the seventeenth century one of these Franciscans wrote a book called “La Doctrina Cristiana” in the Yemassee dialect. This volume, which is said to have been the first book written in the language of any of the North American Indians, has received an extended notice at the hands of Buckingham Smith, Esq. The labors of the missionaries were not without difficulties and discouragements, nor free from dangers. Toward the close of the sixteenth and at the beginning of the seventeenth century there were several of the worthy fathers who sacrificed their lives in noble efforts to instruct the Indians.

Padre Martinez, accompanied by two other learned and pious priests, arrived off the coast in a small vessel from Spain. Father Martinez, being blown ashore while reconnoitering the coast in a small boat, was murdered by the Indians of Fort George Island. His companions taking alarm at the fate of their brother returned at once to Cuba.

In 1598 a most cruel and unprovoked assault was made by the Indians upon two pious fathers within sight of the castle at St. Augustine. Besides the Indian village near the gates there was another Indian town about a quarter of a mile north of the castle, situated on the creek called Cano de la Leche. The Spaniards called the place Nombre de Dios, and until after the English possession of Florida (1763-1784) there stood a stone chapel on the spot called “Nostra Senora de la Leche.” This chapel was used by the English as a hospital, and fell into disuse and neglect after the Indian tribes ceased to reside peacefully in the vicinity of the town. As it was neither safe nor convenient for the inhabitants of the city to worship there, the vestments which had been given to the chapel by the King of Spain were removed. The crucifix taken from it is yet preserved in the cathedral at St. Augustine. The ground on which this chapel stood is still owned by the Catholic Church, and a new chapel was built in 1874 by Bishop Verot on the ruins of the old church; but the severe gale of 1878 unroofed this, and at present only two of the coquina walls are standing. The location is immediately adjoining on the east the grounds of General Dent’s cottage and young orange grove on the right, as you go out of the city gates by the shell road. The name of the Indian village here located was called Topiqui.

Father Pedro de Corpa had established a chapel and mission at Tolomato, and Father Bias Rodriguez another at Topiqui. Among the pupils at Tolomato was the son of the chief of Guale, a province embraced by what is now called Amelia Island. This young chief was too full of animal spirits and the wild Indian nature to readily adopt habits required by the Franciscans. Having repeatedly offended against the proprieties of the mission, Father Corpa was compelled to publicly censure his conduct. The high spirit of the young chief rebelled at this reproof, and he at once withdrew from the mission. The good priest anticipated no evil and sought no protection. Not so the young chief. His heart was full of bitterness. Gathering a band of warriors from his own nation, he returned to St. Augustine determined on revenge. Approaching Tolomato in the dusk of evening, he burst into the chapel, and murdered Father Corpa at the altar. The Indians then cut off the worthy father’s head and set it upon a pole, while his body was cast into the woods and never found. The young chief urged that an end should be made of all the missionaries in the province, saying that the friars had heaped upon the Indians injuries, and robbed them of their liberty and customs, while promising them all manner of good things, of which none were as yet received; and thus they were compelled to labor and be deprived of all the pleasures which their ancestors enjoyed, in the hopes of receiving heaven.

The Indians of Tolomato were grieved at the death of their teacher, and urged the young chief to fly from the punishment which the Spanish governor would surely inflict. He replied that the Spaniards desired to make them all slaves, and that the penalty for the death of one priest was as severe as for the destruction of the whole body. Thus urged, they followed their leader to the village of Topiqui, where they seized Father Rodriguez, and informing him of the death of Father Corpa, declared that the same fate awaited him. In vain did the pious friar reason, in vain did he supplicate them not to commit so foolish a sin. The arguments and tears of the priest were of no avail. Finding the Indians determined to take his life, he begged the privilege of saying a last mass. “The permission was given, and there for the last time the worthy father put on his robes, which might well be termed his robes of sacrifice. The wild and savage crowd, thirsting for his blood, reclined upon the floor, and looked on in sullen silence, awaiting the conclusion of the rites. The priest alone, standing before the altar, proceeded with this most sad and solemn mass, then cast his eyes to heaven and knelt in private supplication, where the next moment he fell under the blows of his cruel foes, bespattering the altar at which he ministered with his own life’s blood. His crushed remains were thrown into the fields, that they might serve for the fowls of the air or the beasts of the forests; but not one would approach them except a dog, which, rushing forward to lay hold upon the body, fell dead upon the spot, says the ancient chronicle; and an old Christian Indian, recognizing it, gave it sepulture in the forest.”[11]

Other missions also were destroyed by this mad band of savages, but the zeal of the Franciscans was unabated, and they continued for several years to make many converts among the Indians.

In 1611 the prelate St. Francisco Marroz, “custodio from the convent of St. Francisco of the Havanna, together with the St. Helena,” Fr. Miguel de Annon, and Fr. Pedro de Chocas, fell martyrs by the hands of the Indians, who are said to have pillaged the town after having driven the inhabitants to seek protection under the guns of the fort or stockade.

The now-apparent danger of a total destruction of the settlement by the Indians, who had begun to learn their own strength and the weakness of the Spaniards, opened the eyes of the governor to the necessity of more effective defense of the town. The plan of defense, embracing the castle and lines of stockades at both ends of the town with stone bastions, was initiated in the early part of the seventeenth century, though not completed for many years.

In 1640 many Apalachian Indians were brought to St. Augustine, and compelled to labor on the fort and at other works of defense. These Indians were nominally hostages for the allegiance of a very numerous tribe who lived in Middle Florida, and had made numerous ravages on the Spanish missions between 1635 and 1638. Finding peaceful measures of no avail, the Spaniards marched against them, and, after several victories, brought away a large number of captives. These were kept steadily at work until 1702, when they were released through the efforts of the Franciscan friars. This remission, however, was granted by the Spanish crown only during the peaceful conduct of their tribe, and until their services should again be required. It does not appear that the Apalachians ever again labored on the fort.