Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Third Printing 1971 C. F. Hamblen, Inc. P. O. Box 1568 St. Augustine, Florida
Published By THE ST. AUGUSTINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY _Copyright 1959 by J. T. Van Campen_
I Settlement 3 The Spanish Treasure Fleets 4 The Huguenots Occupy Florida 6 Don Pedro Menéndez 8 The Rival Fleets 10 The Turn of the Tide 12 Capture of Fort Caroline 12 The Victor Returns 14 Fate of the Shipwrecked French 14 Other Difficulties 16 Gunpowder Versus Arrows 16 Menéndez Goes to Spain 18 On the Brink of Failure 18 Death of Menéndez 19 II The Years Accumulate 20 First English Visit 20 Saving of Savage Souls 23 Another Crisis 26 Capital of La Florida 26 III The English Threat 29 A Midnight Raid 29 A Stone Fort at Last 30 Settlement of Pensacola 32 Border Conflict 32 The Shipwrecked Quakers 32 The Castle’s First Test 34 The Capital’s Defenses 35 Palmer’s Raid 36 Oglethorpe’s Siege 37 Further Hostilities 40 IV Under British Rule 43 British Rule Begins 44 The New Smyrna Colony 46 During the Revolution 49 Another Treaty 50 V Spanish Rule Returns 52 The North Florida Republic 55 A Bit of Spain 56 Ceded to the United States 57 VI Under the United States 58 Visitors Begin to Arrive 58 The Freeze of 1835 59 The Seminole War 61 A Peaceful Interlude 62 During the Civil War 64 Tourist Industry Resumed 65 Its Isolation Broken 66 The Flagler Influence 66 The Changing Scene 69 St. Augustine Today 71 PUBLICATIONS 73
[Illustration: _Don Pedro Menéndez de Aviles, the great Spanish admiral, who founded St. Augustine and made Florida a Spanish province._]
It all began at a little bay on the east coast of Florida during September of 1565. Two large galleons rode at anchor outside the harbor entrance, while three smaller craft with sails furled and pennants flying from each masthead were moored within. The ships were a part of the fleet of Don Pedro Menéndez. They brought an expedition from Spain to establish settlements in Florida and drive out the French Huguenots, who had a fort near the mouth of the St. Johns River in this Spanish-claimed territory. The French colony, named Fort Caroline, lay only some thirty-five miles up the coast from the point where the Spanish ships were anchored. There on this very same day Jean Ribault, who had just arrived from France with reinforcements, was preparing to attack the Spaniards before they could finish landing and fortify their position.