At this crucial point Don Pedro Menéndez Marqués assumed command. He was a nephew of the founder and had served with him in the treasure fleets. In a letter written from San Mateo, he pleaded with the mutineers at St. Augustine to remain at their post, promising to transport them to Cuba if supplies failed to arrive by a specified time. His arguments prevailed and St. Augustine lived on.
Events in Europe continued to keep Menéndez occupied in Spain, or on voyages to the Caribbean, during which he again visited his Florida posts. The Low Countries, Holland and Belgium, which had long been under Spanish domination, were in revolt.
In 1574 Menéndez received the crowning honor of his career. He was chosen by Philip II of Spain to take command of a great armada of ships and men being assembled in the harbor of Santander, presumably for operation against the Low Countries, and possibly the English coast. On the day he assumed this important command he fell ill with a raging fever. The usual remedies of purging and blood-letting proved of no avail, and he died on September 17, 1574, at the age of 55.
The day before the beginning of his fatal illness he wrote a letter to his nephew, Marqués, expressing his desire to return to Florida, and stating that he hoped to do so in the spring, when he was confident the affair in Flanders would be settled.
“Then,” he wrote, “I shall be at liberty to go at once to Florida, never to leave it as long as I live, for that is my longing and my happiness.”
Storms prevented burial in his native Avilés, to which his remains were later removed. There an inscription on his tomb eulogizes him as “the illustrious Adelantado of the Province of Florida ... and Captain-General of the Oceanic Seas.”
His death was a blow to Spain. No outstanding naval figure arose to take his place, and the great armada he was to have commanded never sailed.
[Illustration: _The outer case of Menéndez’ coffin is on display at St. Augustine’s Mission of Nombre de Dios._]
It was the following spring of 1575 before the news of Menéndez’ death reached Florida. St. Augustine, now ten years old, had lost not only its founder and a resourceful leader, but was left without his financial support. As he had spent his entire fortune in establishing the Florida posts, his heirs were in no position to assume the obligation of sustaining them.