History of La Florida

Introduction & Highlights

St. Augustine was officially founded on September 8, 1565, by Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Florida's first governor. He named the settlement "San Agustín", as his ships bearing settlers, troops, and supplies from Spain had first sighted land in Florida eleven days earlier on August 28, the feast day of St. Augustine.[11] The city served as the capital of Spanish Florida for over 200 years.

...King Philip II of Spain appointed Pedro Menéndez de Avilés Adelantado of Florida, with a commission to drive non-Spanish adventurers from all of the land from Newfoundland to St. Joseph Bay (on the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico).[23] Menéndez de Avilés reached Florida at the same time as Ribault in 1565, and established a base at San Agustín (St. Augustine in English), the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the continental United States.

The 1565 marriage in St. Augustine between Luisa de Abrego, a free black domestic servant from Seville, and Miguel Rodríguez, a white Segovian conquistador, was the first known and recorded Christian marriage anywhere in what is now the continental United States.[26]

In 1566, Martín de Argüelles was born in Saint Augustine, the first birth of a child of European ancestry recorded in what is now the continental United States. This was 21 years before the English settlement at Roanoke Island in Virginia Colony, and 42 years before the successful settlements of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Jamestown, Virginia. In 1606, the first recorded birth of a black child in the continental United States was listed in the Cathedral Parish archives, thirteen years before enslaved Africans were first brought to the English colony at Jamestown in 1619.

Santa Elena (1566–1587) Founded in 1566 on the site of Charlesfort, Santa Elena was the first capital of Spanish Florida. Fort San Salvador, a simple blockhouse, was built first, and then Fort San Felipe was built directly on top of the old French fort in that year, with a new moat (the French one having been filled in). It was occupied until 1570, when it was destroyed by fire. The Spanish then built a second fort, also called Fort San Felipe, at an unknown nearby location. The fort and town were abandoned in 1576 due in part to hostility of the local Native Americans.

In 1577 the Spanish returned, and built Fort San Marcos. It was used until 1582 or 1583, when a second Fort San Marcos was constructed. This fortification had a moat dug around it in 1586, in anticipation of an attack by Sir Francis Drake. Santa Elena and the fortifications were finally abandoned in 1587. At its height, the town had about sixty dwellings, with an estimated population of 400-450.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlesfort-Santa_Elena_Site

History

To protect its Atlantic shipping route from English and French privateers, Spain colonized points along the Southeastern coast, from the Caribbean to the Carolinas. One of these outposts was Santa Elena, the first colonial capital of Spanish Florida. Spanish colonists founded Santa Elena in 1566 on Parris Island in Port Royal Sound in present-day South Carolina. Both French and Spanish colonists occupied the site during the 16th century.

Today, the Charlesfort-Santa Elena site is a National Historic Landmark, important for its associations with the 16th-century conflict between Spain and France for control of the New World and with officers Spaniard Pedro Menendez de Aviles and Frenchman Jean Ribault. The site is also considered archaeologically significant.

Menéndez is best known for founding St. Augustine, the oldest continuously occupied European city in the continental United States. But his first colonial capital was Santa Elena. At the time, “La Florida” was all of the land the Spanish thought to be north of Mexico. Before Menéndez arrived, his French rival, naval officer Jean Ribault, founded Charlesfort on Parris Island in 1562 and claimed the land for France. Ribault’s fort was a blockhouse made of logs and clay, thatched with straw and surrounded by a moat. Ribault’s expedition abandoned Charlesfort within a year and sailed south to found Fort Caroline. Menéndez arrived in the straits in 1565 and fought Ribault’s forces on land and at sea along the Florida coast. He drove the French colonists from the Southeast, destroyed their forts and reclaimed the territory for Spain.

French Mission

In April, 1562, two French vessels commanded by Jean Ribault arrived in Port Royal Sound on the coast of present-day South Carolina. The French Huguenots aboard those ships were searching for a place to establish a colony free of the religious persecution they suffered in France. Ribault built a fort, Charlesfort (located somewhere on Port Royal Sound), and left a garrison of 27 men in it while he returned to France for supplies and additional colonists. Ribault's return was delayed by civil war in France, and soon tiring of the desolation at Port Royal, the men left in Charlesfort mutinied, killed their commander, and returned to France in a boat they constructed. A year later, a second French expediton led by René Goulaine de Laudonnière established a new French outpost, Fort Caroline, on the St. Johns River near present-day Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1562, a group of Huguenots led by Jean Ribault arrived in Spanish Florida to establish a colony in the territory claimed by Spain. They explored the mouth of the St. Johns River, calling it la Rivière de Mai (the River May), then sailed northward and established a settlement called Charlesfort at Port Royal Sound in present-day South Carolina. Spain learned of this French expedition through its spies at ports on the Atlantic coast of France. The Huguenot nobleman René de Laudonnière, who had participated in the expedition, returned to Florida in 1564 with three ships and 300 Huguenot colonists. He arrived at the mouth of the River May on June 22, 1564, sailed up it a few miles, and founded Fort Caroline.

Before Menéndez arrived, his French rival, naval officer Jean Ribault, founded Charlesfort on Parris Island in 1562 and claimed the land for France. Ribault’s fort was a blockhouse made of logs and clay, thatched with straw and surrounded by a moat. Ribault’s expedition abandoned Charlesfort within a year and sailed south to found Fort Caroline. Menéndez arrived in the straits in 1565 and fought Ribault’s forces on land and at sea along the Florida coast. He drove the French colonists from the Southeast, destroyed their forts and reclaimed the territory for Spain.

Desiring to protect its claimed territories in North America against such incursions, the Spanish Crown issued an asiento to Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, signed by King Philip II on March 20, 1565, granting him expansive trade privileges, the power to distribute lands, and licenses to sell 500 slaves, as well as various titles, including that of adelantado of Florida.[12] This contract directed Menéndez to sail for La Florida, reconnoitre it from the Florida Keys to present-day Canada, and report on its coastal features, with a view to establishing a permanent settlement for the defense of the Spanish treasure fleet. He was ordered as well to drive away any intruders who were not subjects of the Spanish crown.[13]

The king chose Spanish naval officer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to be the adelantado, or governor, of Spanish Florida in 1565 and ordered him to establish military bases on the mainland. Adelantado was an elite military and administrative position created when the Christian Spaniards took the Iberian Peninsula back from the Muslim Moors. In Europe, the Spanish adelantados built fortified outposts in hostile areas and were responsible for bringing the surrounding region under Spanish control. In return for the adelantado’s work, the Spanish crown granted the individual economic privileges and honors. When it began colonizing the Americas, Spain continued to use this system. Other Spaniards who held the title adelantado of Florida before Menéndez were Ponce de Léon, two men by the name of Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón, Pánfilo de Narváez, Hernando de Soto and Tristan de Luna y Arellano. But Spain failed to establish a permanent settlement in Florida until the Menéndez expedition.

Menéndez de Avilés set sail from Spain with about 2,000 others, including 1,000 soldiers and some 200 sailors, as well as an estimated 100 wives and 150 children. Before he ever landed, there were massive defections; more than 500 left the expedition after a stop in Hispaniola. By the time Menéndez de Avilés reached St. Augustine, he had only 70 men [!].

On July 28, Menéndez set sail from Cádiz with a fleet led by his 600-ton flagship, the San Pelayo, accompanied by several smaller ships, and carrying over 1,000 sailors, soldiers, and settlers.[14] On the feast day of St. Augustine, August 28, the fleet sighted land and anchored off the north inlet of the tidal channel the French called the River of Dolphins.[15] Menéndez then sailed north and confronted Ribault's fleet outside the bar of the River May in a brief skirmish. On September 6, he returned to the site of his first landfall, naming it after the Catholic saint [?], disembarked his troops, and quickly constructed fortifications to protect his people and supplies.

In the meantime, Jean Ribault, Laudonnière's old commander, arrived at Fort Caroline with more settlers for the colony, as well as soldiers and weapons to defend them.[21] Despite Laudonnière's wishes, Ribault put most of these soldiers aboard his ships for an assault on St. Augustine. However, he was surprised at sea by a violent storm[22] that lasted several days and wrecked his ships further south on the coast. This gave Menéndez the opportunity to march his forces overland for a surprise dawn attack on the Fort Caroline garrison, which then numbered several hundred people. Laudonnière and some survivors fled to the woods, and the Spanish killed almost everyone in the fort except for the women and children...

Following the expulsion of the French, the Spanish renamed Fort Caroline Fort San Mateo (Saint Matthew).

Settlement at Seloy's Town

After eliminating the French Protestant presence and taking over their fort in September of 1565, Admiral Menéndez and Chief Seloy of the Florida Timucua Indians met one another at what is today St. Augustine. Menéndez and his group of some 800 colonists (including 26 women and an unknown number of African slaves) made their first settlement at Seloy’s town, and used Seloy’s council house as the first Spanish fort. https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/staugustine/index.asp?unit=1

The location of this early fort has been confirmed through archaeological excavations directed by Kathleen Deagan on the grounds of what is now the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. It is known that the Spanish occupied several Native American structures in Seloy village, whose chief, the cacique Seloy, was allied with the Saturiwa, Laudonnière's allies. It is possible, but not yet demonstrated by any archaeological evidence, that Menéndez fortified one of the occupied Timucua structures to use as his first fort at Seloy.

Anastasia Island and Santa Elena

In May 1566, as relations with the neighboring Timucua Indians deteriorated, Menéndez moved the Spanish settlement to a more defensible position on the north end of the barrier island between the mainland and the sea, and built a wooden fort there. In 1572, the settlement was relocated to the mainland, in the area just south of the future town plaza.

St. Augustine was intended to be a base for further colonial expansion[28] across what is now the southeastern United States, but such efforts were hampered by apathy and hostility on the part of the Native Americans towards becoming Spanish subjects. The Saturiwa, one of the two principal chiefdoms in the area, remained openly hostile.[29] In 1566, the Saturiwa burned St. Augustine and the settlement was relocated. Traditionally it was thought to have been moved to its present location, though some documentary evidence suggests it was first moved to a location on Anastasia Island. At any rate, it was certainly in its present location by the end of the 16th century.[30]

From September of 1565 to May of 1566 the Spanish colonists under Pedro Men�ndez made their settlement at Seloy’s town. During that time they fought and expelled the French settlers at Fort Caroline, converted Seloy’s council house into a fort, and used St. Augustine as a base for exploration of other parts of Florida. The colonists - most of whom were men - came equipped to establish a Spanish way of life, but quickly turned to their Timucua hosts for food, cooking pottery and wives. Relations between the Spaniards and the Timucua deteriorated quickly, and the Timucua began to make repeated attacks on the Spaniards to drive them away. Just nine months after their arrival, the Spaniards decided to move their town across St. Augustine bay to Anastasia Island, where they felt safer from Indian attack. Although occupied for six years, no trace of that town site has yet been found [but see above]. Men�ndez established another town in 1566, that of Santa Elena, located on what is now Parris Island, South Carolina. This was the new capital of La Florida until 1577, and St. Augustine was a small military garrison. https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/staugustine/index.asp?unit=1

A 1565 marriage in St. Augustine was the first known and recorded Christian marriage anywhere in what is now the continental United States.[26]

In 1566, Martín de Argüelles was born in Saint Augustine, the first birth of a child of European ancestry recorded in what is now the continental United States.

Santa Elena was founded in 1566 on the site of Charlesfort, Santa Elena was the first capital of Spanish Florida. Fort San Salvador, a simple blockhouse, was built first, and then Fort San Felipe was built directly on top of the old French fort in that year, with a new moat (the French one having been filled in). It was occupied until 1570, when it was destroyed by fire. The Spanish then built a second fort, also called Fort San Felipe, at an unknown nearby location.

First Spanish Occupation at Santa Elena (1566-1576)

In January, 1566, Menéndez received a report that the Frenchmen were going to attempt to establish another settlement in Florida, so he gathered a fleet of ships and sailed north from St. Augustine to counter that effort. He did not encounter any sign of French presence on this trip, but he decided to establish an outpost on present-day Parris Island near Beaufort, South Carolina. He chose this spot because Ribault's initial settlement in Florida had been on or near Parris Island in 1562-1563, and he was concerned that the Frenchmen might return to that same area. Thus Santa Elena became the second of the "two or three towns" Menéndez had agreed to establish in Florida under his contract agreement with Phillip II.

Menéndez' outpost at Santa Elena consisted of a small fort, Fort San Salvador (the location of this fort is currently unknown), with a garrison of about 80 men. In late summer, 1566, Captain Juan Pardo arrived at Santa Elena with an additional force of 250 men, necessitating construction of a larger fort, Fort San Felipe. In December, 1566, Captain Pardo and 125 of his men were sent inland on an expedition intended to establish friendly relations with interior Indians and ultimately to find an overland route to Mexico. This was to be the first of two Pardo expeditions inland in 1566-1568; neither of Pardo's expeditions reached beyond the Appalachian Mountains.

While Pardo was involved in the interior, Pedro Menéndez focused on strenghtening his hold on all of Spanish Florida.

Jesuit missionaries worked to convert the Indians around Santa Elena to Catholicism beginning in 1569. These missionaries, including Juan Rogel who had previously served in southwest Florida among the Calusa, soon encountered difficulties in their task because the Indians near Santa Elena were mobile and refused to settle in permanent towns.

Disease epidemics plagued the Santa Elena colonists during their first years, with major outbreaks occurring in 1570 and 1571. Supply ships arrived at irregular intervals, and there were times when both settlers and soldiers suffered greatly as a result. Short supplies caused the residents of Santa Elena to turn to local Indians for help, and before long the Indians were in revolt due to ever increasing demands for food by the Spanish. Part of the garrison of Fort San Felipe was withdrawn by Menéndez in 1570, but it was subsequently reinforced to full strength.

While Menéndez' first settlement was at St. Augustine, he soon made Santa Elena his capital in Florida. When his wife and her attendants arrived in July 1571, they settled at Santa Elena. Santa Elena was a small, struggling community with a total population of 179 settlers and 76 soldiers in August, 1572.

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Adelantado of Florida, died in 1574 while on a mission to Spain. During Menéndez' absence, Don Diego de Velasco, one of Pedro Menéndez' two sons-in-law and Lieutenant Governor, served as interim governor; he continued in that position following Menéndez' death. Menéndez' daughter, Catalina, inherited the title of Adelantado of Florida, and ultimately her husband, Hernando de Miranda, was appointed Governor. Miranda, however, did not actually arrive at Santa Elena until February, 1576. During the years that Velasco served as interim governor, he had several run-ins with settlers, and he mistreated the Indians residing in the vicinity of Santa Elena. This poor relationship with the Indians led to a series of attacks on Santa Elena. The loss of thirty soldiers in these attacks ultimately forced the temporary abandonment of both the fort and town at Santa Elena in late summer, 1576. As the soldiers and settlers waited to cross the bar in departing Port Royal Sound, they were able to see the town and fort being burned by Indians. https://web.archive.org/web/20120121112346/http://www.cas.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/hstory1.html

Other Early Conflicts

Following the expulsion of the French, the Spanish renamed Fort Caroline Fort San Mateo (Saint Matthew).[25] Two years later, in April 1568 the French soldier Dominique de Gourgues recaptured the fort from the Spanish with the aid of the Saturiwa, Tacatacuru,[31] and other Timucua peoples who had been friendly with Laudonnière. He burned Fort San Mateo, the former Fort Caroline and executed his prisoners in revenge for the 1565 massacre. However, he did not leave a garrison, nor did he approach St. Augustine and France would not attempt to settle in Florida again.[27]

In Santa Elena, Fort San Felipe was occupied until 1570, when it was destroyed by fire. The Spanish then built a second fort, also called Fort San Felipe, at an unknown nearby location. The fort and town were abandoned in 1576 due in part to hostility of the local Native Americans.

In 1577 the Spanish returned, and built Fort San Marcos. It was used until 1582 or 1583, when a second Fort San Marcos was constructed. This fortification had a moat dug around it in 1586, in anticipation of an attack by Sir Francis Drake. Santa Elena and the fortifications were finally abandoned in 1587. At its height, the town had about sixty dwellings, with an estimated population of 400-450.

Challenges

Illustration: A palisaded Timucua village, in an engraving supposedly based on a sketch by Jacques le Moyne - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Timucua2.PNG

The Spaniards brought with them diseases such as smallpox and measles which devastated the local Timucuan Indians. The Spanish did not import many slaves to Florida for labor,[39] since it was primarily a military outpost without a plantation economy like that of the British colonies. wikipedia

St. Augustine struggled. It developed into a cosmopolitan little town, however, and soon its residents included Minorcans, Native Americans (mostly women who married the Spaniards and converted to Catholicism), Africans (both slaves and free people), French, and Germans. St. Augustine was under constant threat from outside enemies, both indigenous and European.

...Excavations under the town conducted by the University of Florida revealed artifacts indicating its emergence as a multi-cultural settlement, with roots in Spanish, Native American, and African culture, a microcosm of what would later develop into the wider culture of the United States. By contrast, Jamestown, despite all its vaulted place in American history, fell on hard times and eventually withered away. https://daily.jstor.org/st-augustine-the-real-first-european-settlement-in-america/

For 21 years following colonization in 1566, Santa Elena’s Spanish leadership struggled to keep the coastal village working. The island’s soil could not support the farming needed to feed everyone, resulting in food shortages. The Spanish were not on friendly terms with the Native Americans in the region – the Orista and Guale tribes – so the colonial farmers could not expand their farms beyond the fort’s protection. To reduce the number of people they had to feed, Menéndez’s lieutenant and kinsman, Esteban de las Alas, sent away all but 46 soldiers. This left the town vulnerable to attacks by the French and Native Americans. When ships from Spain arrived in 1571, carrying supplies and more colonists, they also brought a deadly sickness. At around the same time, a fire at San Felipe destroyed the fort. Menéndez’s son-in-law, Don Diego de Velasco, oversaw the construction of a new fort, also named San Felipe.

Permanent Settlement

The last decades of the sixteenth century were times of administrative changes, natural and military disasters, and social experimentation for St. Augustinians. The colony was not profitable for Spain, but St. Augustine’s economy was subsidized by the crown because of the town’s strategic position in guarding the route of the Spanish treasure fleets, as a safe haven for shipwreck victims and a base from which to salvage wrecked ships’ cargoes. Disaster struck repeatedly during this period.

A garrison mutiny in 1570 destroyed the fort on Anastasia Island.

In Santa Elena, Fort San Felipe was occupied until 1570, when it was destroyed by fire. The Spanish then built a second fort, also called Fort San Felipe, at an unknown nearby location.

By 1572 the rebuilt fort on Anastasia Island was eroding into the sea, and a new town and fort had to be built after the move back to the mainland that year. While the erosion made the move necessary, the pacification of the Timucua in the immediate vicinity of St. Augustine made it possible. About 300 people lived in the town site that was established to the south of the present-day St. Augustine plaza in 1572. Most of the residents were soldiers and their dependants. Many of the new houses were made of wattle and daub.

Death of Menendez

Menéndez passed away in September 1574, and the Florida adelantado title passed on to his daughter Catalina’s husband, Hernando de Miranda. Miranda arrived at Santa Elena from Spain in the winter of 1576. Upon arrival, Miranda had Velasco, who was married to Menéndez’s other daughter, arrested for mismanaging soldiers’ bonuses and took over the local government.

After Menéndez's death in 1574, Florida's administration was turned over to his heirs [his daughter, Catalina, and her husband] who mismanaged the colony's governance and finances [?]. As a consequence, St. Augustine became a crown colony in 1576, and Pedro Menendéz de Aviles' nephew, Pedro Menéndez Marquez, was appointed by the crown as governor, accountable to the King. This was no longer a struggling military outpost, but was by now a Spanish colonial town community with an increasing sense of stability, and a growing number of families who developed their own, uniquely Floridian strategies for surviving in the face of adversity.

1574 Pedro Menendez died while in Europe; son-in-law Don Diego Velesco attained inherited proprietary rights & duties [Santa Elena History 2015]

1576 Pedro Menendez the Younger (nephew) and other officials killed at Guale (vicinity St Catherine’s Island) while delivering payroll to Santa Elena Leadership passed from Don Diego Velesco to an even less capable son-in–law Hernando de Miranda. Miranda allowed Santa Elena to be evacuated and destroyed by regional Indian uprising. Most settlers sent to Havana, government and a few settlers moved to San Agustin Santa Elena converted to a Crown Colony. Pedro Menendez Marques (founder’s nephew) is appointed governor by Philip II and arrives at San Agustin in July 1577 (Pickett, 2011, p. 94) [Santa Elena History 2015]

Destruction of Santa Elena, 1576

The following summer, Adelantado Miranda’s ill treatment of the Native Americans provoked violence, and the Guale and Orista together launched an assault on the settlement and its ships. The colonists fled the town and gathered at Fort San Felipe. When they were able, the surviving colonists and soldiers escaped from the island on small boats left undisturbed by the attackers. Behind them, the Guale and Orista burned the fort and sacked Santa Elena. Catalina and Miranda sailed back to Spain.

In Santa Elena, the town and Fort San Felipe were abandoned in 1576 due in part to hostility of the local Native Americans.

Only a few months after the Spanish settlement of Santa Elena was abandoned in the summer of 1576, a French ship, Le Prince, wrecked in Port Royal Sound. This ship carried a large contingent of Frenchmen who may have been intent on resettling Port Royal Sound. The survivors of the wreck built a fort on high ground, and soon they were viciously attacked by Indians who thought they were Spaniards. Once the Frenchmen were able to establish their identity, the Indians befriended them and took them to their villages.

In 1577 the Spanish returned to Santa Elena, and built Fort San Marcos. It was used until 1582 or 1583, when a second Fort San Marcos was constructed.

In 1577 Indians attacked the settlement at St. Augustine and burned many of the houses.

Succeeding governors of the province maintained a peaceful coexistence with the local Native Americans, allowing the isolated outpost of St. Augustine some stability for a few years.

Second Spanish Occupation at Santa Elena (1577-1587)

..In October, 1577, Santa Elena was reoccupied by a military force commanded by Pedro Menéndez Marqués, who had been appointed Governor of Santa Elena to replace Hernando de Miranda, son-in-law of Menendez de Avilez. Miranda was in Spain facing charges resulting from his abandonment of Santa Elena.

Menéndez Marqués anticipated that the Indians might attack any force that tried to return to Santa Elena, so he took with him from St. Augustine a prefabricated fort that he and his 53 men were able to erect in only six day. At this point, Santa Elena was only a military outpost, and St. Augustine retained its new-found position as Florida's capital. Gutierre de Miranda, brother of former Governor Hernando de Miranda, was appointed to serve as Governor and Captain of the new fort which was called San Marcos. Menéndez Marqúes soon found other duties for Miranda, however, and Captain Tomás Bernaldo de Quirós was appointed interim governor at Santa Elena in August, 1578. Between 1577 and 1580, Santa Elena's Governor Miranda and interim governor, Captain Bernaldo de Quirós, in conjunction with Florida Governor Menéndez Marqués, attacked and subdued the several Indian groups who had been involved in the destruction of the first town of Santa Elena.

1577 Pedro Menendez Marques arrived at San Agustin in July. Spanish military reoccupied rebuilt Santa Elena. Fort San Marcos was built as a pre-fabricated fort in St. Augustine, transported to Santa Elena and assembled on the Santa Elena site. Subsequently augmented in the 1580’s, the enlarged fort was dismantled on 16 August 1587. [Santa Elena History 2015]

In Fall, 1578, Captain Alvaro Flores de Valdés made two visits to Santa Elena on an inspection tour. His written accounts provide an excellent description of Fort San Marcos, its armaments, and its garrison. A plan of that fort presented here depicts it precisely as it was described by Flores; authorship of that plan is not known, but it may well have been drawn by Flores.

Once the Indians had been subdued, settlers returned to Santa Elena. Bernaldo de Quirós rebuilt the town during his tenure, and when he departed in November, 1580, the town contained more than thirty houses. By 1580, the population of Santa Elena had grown to about 400 people; there were no settlers at St. Augustine at this time [just soldiers and their dependents?].

1580 Civilian settlers returned to Santa Elena; “La Florida” government remained in San Agustin, but Santa Elena expanded to 60 houses [Santa Elena History 2015]

Gutierre de Miranda resumed his command at Santa Elena in November, 1580, and he built a sizable estate nearby. Following the defeat of local Indian populations, existence in Santa Elena was relatively peaceful, and it is easy to imagine that the people residing there must have had great optimism concerning their future in this new land.

This optimism may have been shaken by word of an English settlement to the north. In 1584, the English made their first effort to claim part of Spanish Florida by settling a colony at Roanoke on the North Carolina coast.

1585 Transition to mobile “guarda costa” mobile defense diminished strategic importance of Santa Elena (Rowland, 1990, p. 27) Sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Richard Grenville leaves Ralph Lane and ~100 men to found a colony at Roanoke (Hoffman, 1990, pp295-298)

1586 Enroute to his primary target of Santa Elena, St. Augustine (population ~280 = 205 civilians + 75 soldiers) sacked by Sir Francis Drake (Manucy, 2009, p. 32 & AGI Contratacion 4802, Stetson Collection) and stripped of all iron, doors, and other useful items (Hoffman, 1990, p301). Santa Elena spared by navigational chance as Drake may have sailed past La Punta de Santa Elena at night [Santa Elena History 2015]

Two years after that first attempted settlement at Roanoke, word arrived in Florida that Francis Drake and a large expeditionary force had attacked several major Spanish settlements in the Caribbean, and that he might be intent on an attack against Florida. As a result of this warning, an effort was made to strengthen fortifications at both St. Augustine and Santa Elena. Gutierre de Miranda undertook the work at Santa Elena, and soon Fort San Marcos was surrounded by a newly excavated moat, reinforced curtain walls, and new casemates and gun platforms. A contemporary diagram detailing the work accomplished by Miranda at Fort San Marcos. In June, 1586, an English fleet commanded by Francis Drake attacked and destroyed the town of St. Augustine. Santa Elena was not subjected to attack by Drake. The destruction of St. Augustine forced the Spaniards to consolidate their limited supplies and personnel in a single Florida outpost, and St. Augustine was chosen due to its proximity to Cuba. Santa Elena was abandoned in the summer of 1587; the town and fort were dismantled, and materials not worthy of salvage were burned.

Following this second abandonment, Santa Elena was never reoccupied. In the subsequent decades, the Spanish maintained a series of missions extending along the Georgia coast with priests occasionally visiting the Indians in the vicinity of Santa Elena, but the town of Santa Elena was never reestablished. https://web.archive.org/web/20120123160435/http://www.cas.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/hstory2.html

1587 Pedro Menendez Marques ordered to find and destroy the English incursion at Roanoke in June (Rowland 1990, p.29 & Hoffman, 1990, pp304-306) Against settler protests, Santa Elena abandoned in August, consolidating La Florida settlement around St. Augustine. Spanish missionaries continued to visit the Sea Islands until 1684 Mary, Queen of Scotts (Catholic who intended to give throne to Spain’s Philip II) executed by Elizabeth I

1588 Spanish Armada invasion fleet defeated by England and nature; significant change in the European naval balance of power [Santa Elena History 2015]

1586 Drake Attack

The fortification at Santa Elena, Fort San Marcos, had a moat dug around it in 1586, in anticipation of an attack by Sir Francis Drake which never came.

The entire town of St. Augustine and the fort were destroyed again in 1586, when the English privateer Francis Drake burned St. Augustine to the ground (fortunately making a map of the town before he did so).

Peace with the local Indians allowed St. Augustine to slowly develop into a small and prosperous town. However, in 1586, England and Spain were at war and the English corsair Sir Francis Drake was likely to attack on his way home. St. Augustine was fired upon on June 6. The English fleet was huge, forcing Governor Marquez and his people to flee. Immediately, Indians looted the town. When the English arrived, they took what the Indians left behind, and it is said the killing of an English soldier by the Spanish rearguard prompted Drake to issue his dreadful orders- "burn the town!"

Following the failure of the Roanoke colony in Virginia, where no survivors were discovered by an overdue supply expedition, the English blamed the Spaniards of St. Augustine for its disappearance. Consequently, on June 6, 1586, English privateer Sir Francis Drake raided St. Augustine, burning it[ and driving surviving Spanish settlers into the wilderness. However, lacking sufficient forces or authority to establish an English settlement, Drake left the area. wikipedia

On May 28 and 29, 1586, soon after the Anglo-Spanish War began between England and Spain, the English privateer Sir Francis Drake sacked and burned St. Augustine.[21] The approach of his large fleet obliged Governor Pedro Menéndez Márquez and the townspeople to flee for their safety. When the English got ashore, they seized some artillery pieces and a royal strongbox containing gold ducats, the garrison payroll.[22] The killing of their sergeant major by the Spanish rearguard caused Drake to order the town burnt.

The Spanish viceroy was responsible for sending the annual "subsidy" or payment to the St. Augustine garrison, but in 1586, Sir Francis Drake helped himself to the town's finances [or maybe just got a chest full of lead per the Secrets of the Dead show - the real reason he burned the town?].

Map depicting Sir Francis Drake's 1586 attack on St. Augustine - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Mapstaug.jpg

After Drake

Even though Drake passed them by, his threat resulted in the final abandonment of Santa Elena and the fortifications in 1587 with the relocation of all its population to St. Augustine. At its height, Santa Elena had about sixty dwellings, with an estimated population of 400-450.

As soon as Drake and his fleet set sail, Governor Marquez summoned help from Cuba. News of the disaster led to increased support in Spain for the struggling colony. St. Augustine was given the status of a “presidio” – a city that served as an official military fortress of the Spanish Empire. Soon after the residents of the abandoned Santa Elena arrived, the town of St. Augustine fulfilled one of its major roles – serving as a haven for the treasure fleets on their way home to Spain. Several ships loaded with treasure were wrecked on the Florida coast and the sailors were able to survive thanks to the food provided by the Indians.

St. Augustine was rebuilt yet again, after Drake’s attack, this time mostly of board and thatch construction.

Phillip II's failed Spanish Armada against England was in 1688. Sir Francis Drake was finally defeated in an attack on Puerto Rico by Cansio [sic] and died of fever at sea. Cansio [sic] was rewarded by being made governor of St. Augustine.

In March of 1599 a disastrous fire swept through the town, igniting the wood and thatch. And in September of the same year, the rebuilt and still-damaged buildings suffered severe flood damage from a major hurricane.

It wasn’t long after Drake’s devastating raid that the residents of St. Augustine learned that other Englishmen had arrived in La Florida and this time they weren’t just conducting a raid, they were building a town. In 1607, the English returned and christened their new Virginia colony “Jamestown," after the inhabitants of their first settlement Roanoke (in present-day North Carolina) mysteriously disappeared (1585). https://www.visitstaugustine.com/history/drake.php

Final End of Santa Elena

In response to the English threat, Spain decided to shrink the scope of its Florida colony and consolidate its colonial towns to strengthen them. Menéndez Márquez returned to Santa Elena in 1587 and ordered his men to destroy the town infrastructure and the second Fort San Marcos. The Parris Island colonists moved to St. Augustine, and the Spanish abandoned Santa Elena for good. For two centuries after the Spanish left, Scottish and then English colonists occupied Port Royal Sound. The coastal region was a trading ground for American Indians and Europeans before plantations developed in the coastal Lowcountry in the early 1700s. South Carolina became part of the United States of America at the end of the 18th century, and the plantations thrived until the American Civil War.

In 1915, the United States Marine Corps created the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island. Little was known about the Spanish at Parris Island when the Marines arrived and most of the written history focused on the French presence. While the Marines settled on the island, Major George Osterhout oversaw archaeological excavations at the site of one of the forts, which he believed was French, and Congress erected a monument to Jean Ribault in 1926. At the same time, a scholar of Spanish colonial studies, Hubert Eugene Bolton, began to publish articles about Spain’s presence on the island. In the 1950s, National Park Service historians re-examined artifacts recovered from Parris Island. They determined the artifacts were Spanish in origin and the “French” fort was likely Spain’s first Fort San Marcos.

Since the late 1970s, archaeologists have continued to investigate the site of Charlesfort-Santa Elena for clues about its past inhabitants and the way they lived. In addition to revealing evidence of early European colonization in America, the site is valuable for what it can reveal about adelantado town planning. The site of Santa Elena was never reoccupied fully after the Spanish left in 1587. Archaeologists today are able to explore the site to find information about what the town looked like in the 16th century. Excavations at Santa Elena reveal that the town had a central plaza with colonial buildings uniformly built around it. Visitors to Parris Island can learn about the island’s history at the nearby USMC Parris Island Museum.

https://santa-elena.org/history/

Virtual Ft. San Marcos project - https://santa-elena.org/current-projects/

Locations

Nombre de Dios Mission

The mission traces its origins to September 8, 1565, when Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed with a band of settlers to found St. Augustine. Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, who was the chaplain of the expedition, celebrated the first Thanksgiving Mass on the grounds.[2] A formal Franciscan mission was founded near the city in 1587, perhaps the first mission in the continental United States.[3] The mission served nearby villages of the Mocama, a Timucua group, and was at the center of an important chiefdom in the late 16th and 17th century.

First the Jesuits and later the Franciscans ministered to the resident Spanish colonists, and made some efforts to evangelize the local Mocama and Agua Dulce peoples near St. Augustine. They were particularly successful in the Mocama village known as Nombre de Dios, converting the chief and her daughter. In 1587, at the beginning of the Franciscans' first major missionization push, a mission was founded at Nombre de Dios, served by a resident friar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nombre_de_Dios_(mission)

St. Francis Barracks

When Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine for the Spanish Crown, Jesuit priests were among the initial colonists to provide for the spiritual needs of the settlers and to help convert the native Timucua Indians to Christianity. In the 1570s the Jesuits were replaced by friars of the Order of St. Francis who were allocated land in 1588 at the southern end of the city for their monastery and church, Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion (Our Lady of the Conception).

The original structures on the site were built of logs and palm thatch roofs. Throughout the years a succession of buildings were constructed as replacements. The structures were susceptible to rotting in the humid sub-tropical climate and were highly flammable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_Barracks

Llambias House

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/St_Aug_NHL_Llambias01.jpg/800px-St_Aug_NHL_Llambias01.jpg

The Llambias House is located in a residential area south of downtown St. Augustine, on the south side of Saint Francis Street between Charlotte and St. George Streets. It is a two-story structure, built mainly out of plastered coquina limestone and covered by a dormered hip roof. The street-facing facade has two windows on the ground floor, and an overhanging wood-frame balcony on the second floor, with symmetrically placed entrances at the center flanked by windows on the outside. The property includes a kitchen located in an outbuilding, which is also built of coquina.[3]

The house's initial construction date is not known. When Florida was turned over the Great Britain by the Spanish in 1763, this house, then a single-story structure, was already standing. That structure's plan is a common variant of the so-called "St. Augustine plan", a house design that the Spanish developed to deal with Florida's heat and humidity. A typical house of this plan has an open loggia chamber at one end, whereas this house has a wood-frame veranda instead. The building was enlarged in 1777-78 Juan Andreu, who added the second floor, and installed windows into previously unglazed window openings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llambias_House

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Tolomato

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Tolomato (also called simply Mission Tolomato; in Spanish: Our Lady of Guadalupe - or Guadeloupe - of Tolomato) was a Spanish Catholic mission[1] founded in 1595 in what is now the state of Georgia, located north of the lands of the southernmost Native American Guale chiefdom, Asao-Talaxe.[2][3] According to historian John Tate Lanning, it was located originally at Pease Creek in McIntosh County, in an area later called "The Thicket" or "Mansfield Place", five miles northeast of Darien.[4] Between the 17th and 18th centuries, the mission was re-established in several places. It was first destroyed in 1597 during the Native American uprising known as Juanillo's Revolt, and rebuilt in 1605 at the Native American village, Espogache. In the mid-1620s a new Tolomato mission was built at Guana near the capital of Florida, St. Augustine.[5][6] After the destruction of the Guana mission in 1702 by James Moore, the Governor of South Carolina,[7] and Colonel Robert Daniels, another mission was established in Guale.[1]

The Tolomato mission became one of the centers of the Guale chiefdom in Georgia. Although the Guale Indians had had regular contact with the Franciscans since 1573, the mission was not founded, according to Lanning, until 1595 by the Spanish friar Pedro Ruiz, but more recent scholarship indicates that Friar Pedro Corpa was the founder of the mission, having arrived at the village of Tolomato in 1587, accompanied by Governor Hugo de Avendaño .[6]

This mission acquired notoriety in 1597, when Juanillo, a Guale mico, or chieftain, led a revolt against the missionary presence in Spanish Florida and the cultural subjugation suffered by the indigenous population under the domination of the Spanish and Criollo authorities. This revolt, sometimes called the Gualean Revolt, was the first and longest-lasting Guale revolt to arise in Florida. The revolt began with the slaying of Friar Pedro Corpa,[8] after which the tribe killed four more Franciscans and enslaved Friar Francisco Dávila,[9][10] who was later liberated by the Spanish governor of Florida, Gonzalo Mendez de Cancio. The Indians attacked and burned the missions and churches in the area, but the revolt ended when an expedition led by the chieftain Asao, an ally of the Spanish, assaulted Juanillo's camp, killing him with 24 of his main supporters. The deaths of the principal actors in the uprising brought a temporary peace to Florida.[11] The Tolomato people settled in St. Catherines Island, Georgia, where they lived until the middle 1600s.[1]

The mission was not reestablished until 1605, when it was rebuilt in the Native American village of Espogache under the direction of Friar Diego Delgado.[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuestra_Se%C3%B1ora_de_Guadalupe_de_Tolomato