People of La Florida

Native Americans

Timucua Indians

Historic drawing of a Timucuan chief and procession. "They be all naked and of goodly stature, mighty, faire and as well shapen…as any people in all the worlde, very gentill, curtious and of good nature… the men be of tawny color, hawke nosed and of a pleasant countenance…the women be well favored and modest…”

French explorer Jean Ribault was impressed by the first native peoples he encountered in Florida. The Timucuans under Chief Saturiwa, who met the French at the mouth of the River of May in 1562, were one of a number of Timucua-speaking tribes who inhabited central and north Florida and southeastern Georgia. They were the final stage of a culture whose way of life had remained essentially unchanged for more than 1,000 years.

Timucua Society

broken as of 8/2019 https://www.nps.gov/timu/learn/historyculture/timucua_society.htm

Timucua Daily Life

broken as of 8/2019 https://www.nps.gov/timu/learn/historyculture/timucua_dailylife.htm

End of a Culture

Chief speaking with Frenchman The Timucuans helped their new neighbors adapt to conditions in the “new world”—sharing food and even helping them build a village and fort. The French, well aware of their minority status, initially made every effort to avoid alienating local tribes. Only when starvation threatened did this policy unravel. Mistrust turned to armed conflict, and the brief period of harmony between French and Indian came to an end. Yet the Timucuans apparently remained neutral during the attack by the Spanish against the French fort in 1565 and actively assisted De Gourgues’s forces in the successful French recapture of the fort in 1568.

The Florida tribes could not long survive contact with Europeans. After driving out the French, the Spanish imposed tribute on the Timucuans and forced them into missions. Devastated by European disease and attacks by other Indians, the Timucuan culture rapidly disintegrated. From a population possibly numbering tens of thousands at the time of contact, only an estimated 550 Timucuans were still alive in 1698. Today there are no known Native Americans who call themselves Timucuan.

Timucuans hold an early place in the European consciousness of Native Americans. French colonist Jacques le Moyne’s sketches of Timucuan ceremonies and customs provided Europeans with some of their first views of Native Americans. Franciscan priest Francisco Pareja’s translation of a set of catechisms and confessionals from Spanish into Timucuan in 1612 was the first translation involving a Native American language. https://www.nps.gov/timu/learn/historyculture/timucua_end_culture.htm

Guale

Important tribe esp. around Santa Elena...

The following summer of 1576, 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 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.

After the 2nd 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.

In 1577, the Spanish colonists returned to Santa Elena. Philip II appointed Menéndez’s nephew, Pedro Menéndez Márquez, as governor of Florida, which was no longer a private venture but a royal colony. Menéndez Márquez ordered his soldiers to build a new garrison, Fort San Marcos, and brought the Spanish colonists back. Under the new governor’s command, Spanish soldiers invaded the Guale and Orista towns, which were harboring French castaways, and regained control of the island by 1580. The Spaniards’ successes at Santa Elena were short-lived, as the threat of an English empire in North America began to emerge. This changed the Spaniards’ approach to colonizing Florida. In 1586, the Spanish at St. Augustine heard of Sir Walter Raleigh’s Roanoke Island Colony on the coast of North Carolina. Menéndez Márquez also feared Sir Francis Drake’s attacks in the Caribbean. As Drake made his way north, he raided Spanish settlements at Santo Domingo, Cartagena, and St. Augustine. The English intended to take Santa Elena, too, but the fleet overshot it.

(Source: DePratter, Chester B. and South, Stanley, “Discovery at Santa Elena: Boundary Survey” (1995). Research Manuscript Series. Book 223. pg 6)

Europeans

St. Augustine was officially founded on September 8, 1565, by Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. 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.

...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 established a base at San Agustín, the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the continental United States.

French Mission

In 1562, a group of Huguenots led by Jean Ribault arrived in Spanish Florida to establish a colony in the territory claimed by Spain. Spain learned of the French expedition and settlement of Charlesfort at Port Royal Sound in present-day South Carolina 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.

Desiring to protect its territories in North America, 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.

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. Another source specifies that 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. However, before he landed, there were massive defections; more than 500 left the expedition after a stop in Hispaniola. So by the time Menéndez de Avilés reached St. Augustine, he had only 70 men [!?!].

After dealing with the French, the Spanish sailed through the inlet into Matanzas Bay and disembarked near the Timucua town of Seloy on September 6. Menéndez's immediate goal was to quickly construct fortifications to protect his people and supplies as they were unloaded from the ships, and then to make a proper survey of the area to determine the best place to erect the fort.

Menéndez then [when?] marched his soldiers overland for a surprise attack on Fort Caroline, where they killed almost everyone in the fort except for the women and children [eventually these were sent to Santo Domingo, and from there to Seville.].

Settlement at Seloy's Town

After eliminating the French 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

Santa Elena and Anastasia Island

In January, 1566, Menéndez 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. 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.

In May 1566, as relations with the neighboring Timucua Indians deteriorated, Menéndez moved the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine 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 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. 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.

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. Menéndez 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, while St. Augustine was just a small military garrison. https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/staugustine/index.asp?unit=1

French Gourgues Raid

In April 1568, French soldier Dominique de Gourgues recaptured Fort San Mateo, the former Fort Caroline, from the Spanish with the aid of the Saturiwa, Tacatacuru, and other Timucua peoples who had been friendly with Laudonnière. He burned the fort and executed the prisoners in revenge for the 1565 massacre, but did not approach St. Augustine. He did not leave a garrison, and France would not attempt to settle in Florida again.

Initial Spanish Settlement

Early St. Augustine Overview

St. Augustine struggled. The Spaniards brought with them diseases such as smallpox and measles which devastated the local Timucuan Indians. Nevertheless, it developed into a cosmopolitan little town, 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/

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 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.

The adelentado conquest of Florida was a family affair with immediate and extended family members of Pedro Menendez all playing key roles, financial and in-person, in the enterprise in hopes of generous financial returns. [The Enterprise of Florida, Eugene Lyon]

The plan was that the Spanish settlers would get land (and appropriate titles), and export hides and sugar, supported by corn from the Indians. The enterprise around Santa Elena collapsed because the Indians could not be made sufficiently cooperative. [The Enterprise of Florida, Eugene Lyon]

1565

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]

1566

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.

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]

• Prosopography of Colonial Florida at The Interactive Digital Archive of the Americas, excellent database of early residents of La Florida, lists 27 women for the 1565, 1566, and 1578 groups. This site is also digitizing primary sources, such as parish documents dating back to 1594 - http://laflorida.org/exhibits/ .

First Spanish Occupation at Santa Elena (1566-1576)

Menéndez' initial outpost at Santa Elena consisted of a small fort, Fort San Salvador, with a garrison of about 80 men, and a few months later, he founded Santa Elena. 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.

Francisco Pelaez was a physician from Seville with the 1565 group, born 1527, married to Ursula de Salazar (in the 1566 Sancho de Archiniega group) per http://laflorida.org/people/

Overview

By mid-July, 1571, Pedro Menendez had arrived at his capital, Santa Elena, with Velasco, Menendez' wife Dona Maria de Solis, their servants, and many luxurious household goods. These included embossed leather wall hangings, whole beds with scarlet fringed canopies and lace and carmine taffeta coverlets. He brought fine bed linen and table linens; carpets, a red satin bed, seven saddles and their tack. In a large barrel came a complete pewter table service for 36, candlesticks, a silver ewer, kitchenware, and a keg of flaxseed and hempseed. The Adelantado also brought a supply of the usual staples plus lentils, salt, garbanzos and rice to make up the typical Spanish cocido stew, and 90,000 nails in three sizes for construction. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

But the ship brought not only supplies; it brought disease, possibly typhus. Many in the fleet had died at sea, and the sickness spread rapidly through the town, until virtually all had fallen ill. No sooner had Santa Elena recovered from the effects of the epidemic when, in the early winter of 1571-1572, careless soldiers accidentally set Fort San Felipe afire, and its stores had to be replenished yet again. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

Now Santa Elena began to assume the identity of its climax period. As a microcosm of the life and society of peninsular Spain, its material culture was determined by the regions from which its people had come--the Meseta, Andalusia, Vizcaya, Santander, Asturias. There were now "old" and "new" soldiers and settlers; 76 officers and soldiers, and 179 settlers by 1572. Although the military vocation dominated in the town, many of the trades and crafts of Castile were also present: mason, a tailor, seamen, a carpenter, notary, barber-surgeon, and smith. By now, the farmers had settled upon corn and hogs as primary crops, although squash and melons grew fairly well in the light soils of Parris Island, and grapes and barley had been introduced. The settlers had signed new 10-year agreements with Pedro Menendez in which he cancelled their debts to him in return for renewal and the promise to build stockades to contain the livestock. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

Santa Elena was a stratified community, a society mirroring that of the peninsula, presenting every class except that of grandee, from nobleman to servant. The town was dominated by an Asturian control-group comprised of interrelated families whose members held most of the important offices. Thus the Adelantado had named his nephews Pedro Menéndez the Younger and Pedro Menéndez Marquez Treasurer and Accountant of Florida, and Hernando de Miranda, Factor. When Miranda could not take up his duties, his relative Diego de Londono was appointed. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

See settlers' list, Santa Elena, August 2, 1572, AGI EC 1024-A. The soldiers' list at the same time was itemized in AGI CD 548, No.8, No.5, data. Father Juan Rogel described the planting of grain and vineyards in Santa Elena in his letter to Francisco Borgia of July 25, 1568, from Zubillaga, Monumenta. ., 317-329. Don Diego de Velasco described Menendez' new ten-year agreement with the Santa Elena settlers in AGI EC 154-A, fol. 948 (question 44). [footnotes to S.E. A Brief Hx]

Although the subsidy became the financial motor of Santa Elena, there was considerable other economic activity. Pedro Menendez had planned sugar, silk, wine and naval stores industries in Florida. Much of this would not be realized; some would await coming centuries, but some products did arise. Sarsaparilla root, gathered like cochineal with Indian labor, was shipped out to Spain by Captain Pardo, Pedro Menendez, and others. Oak and cedar were also shipped. Indian trade, supposed to be official, often became rescate done by private persons or for officials not reporting it, even though they used royal goods in the trade. [From Santa Elena: A Brief History]

There were moneylenders in Santa Elena, and some of its citizens invested modest sums in trading ventures in Havana or Vera Cruz. Small partnerships were formed to hunt for game or to fish. Carpenter Martln de Lezcano made wheels and carriages for the fort artillery, but also fashioned beds, tables, and writing desks. Chief smith Anton Martln forged locks, keys, and knives. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

By far the largest financial activity in Santa Elena was the illegal trade conducted for the Adelantado, Don Diego de Velasco, and Pedro Menendez the Younger through surrogates. Juan de Soto had acted for Pedro Menendez; beginning as an ordinary soldier, he became a wealthy merchant. Diego Ruiz, also representing the Adelantado, brought swords, clothing and majolica to sell at Santa Elena. Menendez also sent ordinary earthenware, axes, mill equipment and slop jars. Velasco and Menendez the Younger greatly enlarged the trade. They became partners in using royal money from the subsidy to invest in goods to sell the Florida soldiers, against their pay. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

Women of the town took in boarders from among the bachelor soldiers or settlers; thus Barolome Martin, whose house adjoined the Olmos', took his meals there until his marriage. The Olmos house was a busy one indeed: father and son were tailors and did work on cotton escupiles (padded cotton armor) for the soldiery. Olmos also raised hogs, planted corn, loaned money, sold drygoods, and operated a tavern. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

The ruling families continued to live in some style. When the lady-in-waiting of the Adelantado's wife was married in Santa Elena to Captain Juan de Junco, her dowry included a trousseau of fine suits, skirts and dresses of white English wool, yellow satin, and taffeta trimmed with velvet. 29. Dona Maria de Pomar's clothing and bedding is described in AGI EC 154-A, fol. 616vo-619. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

Of more lasting import was Governor Velasco's dealing with the Florida Indians. It reflected the two faces of Spanish policy. On the one hand, the rhetoric of evangelization and good treatment was based upon decades of religious pressure culminating in the New Laws and recently recodified in 1571. The other side was an increasingly hard-line view, shown at a 1569 meeting between representatives of the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians with the Viceroy in Mexico. It was decided there that any just war against the Indians condoned the taking of slaves "in deposit," that is, in trust for a time. In Florida, Pedro Menendez asked in 1573 for the right to clear the coasts of hostile Indians and sell them as slaves to the Antilles. Al though this was denied, individuals in Santa Elena did hold Indian women as slaves. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

A noted preacher, Fray Diego de Moreno, came to Santa Elena with other Franciscan missionaries and began to work in the Guale area as soon as the Jesuits, disheartened by the massacre of their Chesapeake missionaries, pulled out. Moreno had success in Guale--he brought to conversion the Chief and his wife. The Indian pair came to Santa Elena, where a great feast was observed. But Velasco's relations with the Franciscans deteriorated. When they decided to leave Florida to go to Vera Cruz, Velasco refused permission. But the friars persuaded the owner of a small vessel to take them, and were evidently lost at sea in the fall of 1575. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

In truth, the surface appearance of Spanish-Indian relations in Florida was an illusion. Although Velasco claimed that Indians paid no tribute, many witnesses testified that the opposite was true. Enforced tribute, in the form of corn, furs, shell money and other things, had been levied for many years, and was often given under duress. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

43. Events in Santa Elena before its abandonment were described by Dona Catalina Borbon in AGI PAT 75, ramo 4; this was testified to at Mexico City on March 24, 1577. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

1566

1566 PMA (Pedro Menendez de Aviles) found Hernando Escalante Fontanza and other survivors of a 1546 ship wreck living amongst Native Americans in Southwest Florida. Chief (cacique) “Carlos” gives Menendez his sister, Dona Antonia, as a wife; Menendez moves her to Havana. [Santa Elena History 2015]

Just 8 months after their founding, the garrisons of both Santa Elena and St. Augustine rebelled (mutinies were successfully put down). Timucua hostilities also escalated, forcing the Spanish to shift their settlement to Anastasia Island, reinforced by a 1500-person fleet arriving May 1566. [Historical Archaeology of Sixteenth-Century La Florida, Kathleen Deagan]

On June 4, a group of 43 soldiers--tough, independent Spanish infantry-- mutinied at Santa Elena. Seizing a supply vessel, they fled to Cuba. Only 28 soldiers, 5disarmed and wi th little food, were left with Alas at Fort San Salvador. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

The arrival of the Royal reinforcement fleet from Spain rectified the situation at Santa Elena. Two of the vessels brought supplies and Captain Juan Pardo with his 250-man company. The troops mustered on July 11 and began immediately to build Fort San Felipe. Using iron bars and pickaxes to remove sod and sand from the fort site, they dug the moats and fashioned barrows from kegs to carry earth for the ramparts. They built a forge. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

Pedro Menendez also supplied Santa Elena by sea from the Antilles and Yucatan, shipping in hogs, biscuit, manioc, corn and salt meat. He sent hardware, tools, cooking utensils, extra pikes and cords for the crossbows. To call the whole town to work, worship or military duty, he sent a bronze bell. When Pedro Menendez left Florida in October, 1566, for anti-corsair patrolling and the strengthening of Caribbean defenses, he named Esteban de las Alas ~s his principal lieutenant. The position of Santa Elena was also advanced. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

1567

By 1567, Pedro Menendez was primarily occupied with the Armada, and the management of La Florida was left to his associates and sons-in-law. Late that year, he filed suit against the Crown to recompense his heavy losses in the enterprise and got some consideration, including the governorship of Cuba the position of captain-general of the Royal Armada with all the financial benefits thereof (although suit itself was not settled for 65 years!). [The Enterprise of Florida, Eugene Lyon]

1568

Two years later, 1568, 225 settlers – including farmers, Catholic missionaries, and families – arrived in Florida from Spain and supplemented the garrisons at St. Augustine and Santa Elena. Menéndez’s city government at Santa Elena issued land for the immigrants, and by 1569, there were 40 houses around the central plaza.

1568 Phase II of colonization plan- 225 civilian settlers departed Spain in October, 193 of which were in Santa Elena by August 1569. A smaller number went to San Agustin. [Santa Elena History 2015]

In his contract with Phillip II, Pedro Menéndez had agreed to bring 100 farmers among those in his initial expeditionary force, and he was also obligated to bring an additional 400 settlers to Florida within three years of his arrival. He began settling civilian farmers and artisans at Santa Elena in 1568, and by August, 1569, there were nearly 200 settlers living there in a community composed of about 40 houses; the town was controlled by an organized city government.

From Cadiz on October 7th, 1568, the caravels Nuestra Senora de la Vitoria and Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion sailed for the Indies anClthe distant province of Florida. The little ships carried 225 emigrants: men, women and children recruited from the uplands of Old and New Castile-labradores, of small farmers. There were families, most with children, widows, and single men. Pedro Menendez had contracted to pay their passage and freight costs to America; he was to maintain them for two years, and agreed to provide them with cows and bulls, oxen, sheep, goats, chickens, and vineshoots. In return, they contracted to stay out their termf~ or pay a quitrent for release of them, and sharecrop with the Adelantado. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

1569

Santa Elena had been designated the primary settlement area. By August 1, 1569, 193 settlers had arrived there. A city government, or concejo, had been formed, and one of Spain's oldest institutions--municipal liberties--had been implanted. The male immigrants and soldiers became citizens, or vecinos, and chose their representatives on the council, or cabildo. Although the concejo possessed judicial and regulatory functions, it served as an important means of conquest through its powers to issue land: town lots and rural plots. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

Soon the settlers had built 40 houses on their granted lots. One house held five bachelors who had come to Florida on the same ship; another was home for Diego Hernandez, his wife Juana, and eight children. Hernandez was a natural leader among the immigrants. A tailor, Alonso de Olmos, his wife and mother-in-law were crowded in with six children. The occupants of another house were a cut above the soldiers and other settlers: the letrado Doctor Juan de la Rosa, his wife Dona Antonia, three children and a nephew, and three servants. By the end of October, there were all told 327 persons in the town. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

1569 By October, Santa Elena had 327 residents (~200 civilian settlers) with 40 houses; Jesuit missionary work initiated (Lyon, 1990, p. 4) [Santa Elena History 2015]

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.

In the fall of 1569, missionaries, soldiers and settlers alike suffered severe privation at Santa Elena. The farmers with large families had not yet been able to break enough ground to harvest enough to feed themselves. Although barley, wheat, grapes and vegetables had also been introduced, their yield was insufficient. Although some supplies were sent in, Pedro Menendez was himself in financial straits again. He went to Madrid to ask the King for the promised subsidy for the Royal troops; no action was taken. Menendez continued to sell the ship licenses he had been granted in his contract in order to better his cash position. Meantime, in Santa Elena, children cried for a bit of bread and the people were reduced to gathering oysters and foraging for roots and shrubs in order to eat. It became a tradition in Santa Elena that Jesuit Father Gonzalo del Alamo, reputed to be of great sanctity, was preaching near Christmas time to the whole community gathered in the church. He consoled them, saying that God would soon remedy their need, and adding, "I think I see a ship loaded with supplies and aid from Heaven, entering the bar." No sooner, the legend ran, had the people left the church when the fort bell was repeatedly struck, and the shout went up "A ship! A ship!" Relief had come, but the time of troubles had not ended. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

1570

In the spring, Ensign Juan de la Bandera, commanding at Fort San Felipe, ordered neighboring caciques to send canoe loads of corn to help the fort; he also quartered 40 soldiers upon the Indians for sustenance. The Indians appealed to Father Rogel, who realized that this would bring them to the point of rebellion. His mission had borne no fruit, and he knew that retaliation would come to him if he remained and failed to take the Indians' side. Sadly, Juan Rogel dismantled his church and moved to Santa Elena. Although he knew that force and pressure could never convert the Indians, he felf grief and remorse at t~e failure of his mission. By mid-July, 1570, it indeed seemed that the military presence, the settlement intent and the mission impulse had alike foundered. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

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.

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

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.

Pedro Menendez de Aviles forced the issue of Florida funding with his King: he ordered the evacuation of all troops in the Florida forts over the number of 150. Then he went to Spain to plead his case once more. At court, he met opposition from the highest officials on the Jesuit order... Finally, the Adelantado had to yield; he issued an order granting freedom of movement to any Jesuits in Florida. Now Philip II convoked four major councils... to settle the affairs of Florida. After their meeting in mid-October, 1570, a royal subsidy to support a 150-man garrison was approved... [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

In the meantime, on August 13, Esteban de las Alas departed Santa Elena, taking with him all the soldiers but 46. The hapless settlers had no choice but to remain. There were five months' rations left in the fort. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

1571

While Menéndez' first settlement was at St. Augustine, he made Santa Elena his capital in Florida. When his wife, Dona Maria de Solis, 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. Settlers were primarily farmers, who by this time were growing a variety of crops including corn, squash, melons, barley, and grapes; livestock, including hogs and cattle, as well as chickens, had been introduced and were being raised with limited success.

But the ship brought not only supplies; it brought disease, possibly typhus. Many in the fleet had died at sea, and the sickness spread rapidly through the town, until virtually all had fallen ill. No sooner had Santa Elena recovered from the effects of the epidemic when, in the early winter of 1571-1572, careless soldiers accidentally set Fort San Felipe afire, and its stores had to be replenished yet again. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

1572

Pedro Menendez leads September hostage recovery mission and punitive expedition to Jamestown vicinity (Hoffman, 1990, p. 265) Menendez household remains at Santa Elena (179 settlers plus 76 soldiers= 255 total). San Agustin had 13 married settlers, plus some soldiers at about this time (Manucy, 1997, p. 38) [Santa Elena History 2015]

But Pedro Menendez faced a vacuum in leadership; his top echelon of lieutenants, except his two nephews, had left. His own personal dilemma of succession lay in the death in 1563 of his only son Juan. One of his daughters had been murdered in Asturias and another, Maria, had entered a convent there. Pedro Menendez had another legitimate daughter, Catalina, and a natural daughter, also named Maria. He sought good marriages for both. Catalina was married to Hernando de Miranda of Asturias, and Maria to Don Diego de Velasco, grandson of the High Constable of Castile and a high nobleman. Menendez signed two agreements with Velasco: a dower contract for 8,000 ducats (twice Miranda's) with 500 ducats a year more for each year served in Florida, and another 6,000 ducats for six years' service as Lieutenant Governor there. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

Governor Velasco was a man of energy, but also of a high temper and pride. In February, 1572, he learned that French corsairs might attack the town; he issued a bando that all men turn out to help rebuild the burned fort. The new structure was large enough to hold the whole population. It had a moat, drawbridge, and two wells within to help withstand siege. But Alonso de Olmos refused to work; the settler said it would be getting into corn-planting time. Moreover, he said, he was a citizen and not a soldier; his rights were supported by ancient Spanish municipal privilege. At this defiance, Velasco knocked Olmos and Francisco Ruiz, the cabildo attorney, down and ordered a gallows made for their execution. But the Jesuits intervened, and the men served on the works in chains instead. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

Now Santa Elena began to assume the identity of its climax period. As a microcosm of the life and society of peninsular Spain, its material culture was determined by the regions from which its people had come--the Meseta, Andalusia, Vizcaya, Santander, Asturias. There were now "old" and "new" soldiers and settlers; 76 officers and soldiers, and 179 settlers by 1572. Although the military vocation dominated in the town, many of the trades and crafts of Castile were also present: mason, a tailor, seamen, a carpenter, notary, barber-surgeon, and smith. By now, the farmers had settled upon corn and hogs as primary crops, although squash and melons grew fairly well in the light soils of Parris Island, and grapes and barley had been introduced. The settlers had signed new 10-year agreements with Pedro Menendez in which he cancelled their debts to him in return for renewal and the promise to build stockades to contain the livestock. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

Santa Elena was a stratified community, a society mirroring that of the peninsula, presenting every class except that of grandee, from nobleman to servant. The town was dominated by an Asturian control-group comprised of interrelated families whose members held most of the important offices. Thus the Adelantado had named his nephews Pedro Menéndez the Younger and Pedro Menéndez Marquez Treasurer and Accountant of Florida, and Hernando de Miranda, Factor. When Miranda could not take up his duties, his relative Diego de Londono was appointed. [S.E. A Brief Hx]

By 1572 the rebuilt fort on Anastasia Island in St. Augustine 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 dependents. Many of the new houses were made of wattle and daub. [? also The Florida Historical Society Qtrly Vol 91 pt 3, 2013.]

Admiral Coligny (sponsor of French colonization attempts to 1555 Brazil, 1562 Charlesfort, and 1564-65 Fort Caroline) was murdered in Paris with thousands of Huguenots on 24 August in the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre orchestrated by the Duke of Guise and Catherine de Medici (Bennett, 2001, p.51). [Santa Elena History 2015]

1574 - Death of Menendez

Death of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, leaves his impoverished estate to his daughter, Dona Catalina. [Span. Settlement of Santa Elena, Mary Ross]

Various accounts: 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.

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. The town and fort were burned by the Indians. https://web.archive.org/web/20120121112346/http://www.cas.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/hstory1.html

Report of Doctor Caccras, Habana, Noviembere, 1574...? [Span. Settlement of Santa Elena, Mary Ross]

Dr. Alonso Caceres of Sando Domingo was to investigate the financial matters of La Florida in relation to Menendez' suit against the Crown for his losses, but the visit never happened. [The Enterprise of Florida, Eugene Lyon]

1575

Dona Catalina's husband, Hernando de Miranda, named Adelantado and governor of La Florida. He instituted a harsh policy against the local Indians. Captain Alonso de Solis was in charge of the defense of Santa Elena and carried out the policy, hanging several Indian chiefs in the process. [Span. Settlement of Santa Elena, Mary Ross]

In his will, Pedro Menendez attempted to provide for the Florida enterprise as well as for his heirs. As legitimate heir, Catalina received the title of Adelantado of Florida and its income; Velasco's wife Maria [as a natural daughter] inherited the estate and title of Marquis. Hernando de Miranda acted quickly; persuading his wife, Catalina, to give him her power of attorney, he went to Court. Miranda's appearance in Madrid coincided with Philip II's second royal bankruptcy. The stresses of the fight against the Dutch rebels and continued involvement in the Mediterranean had told upon the treasury. For the moment, Philip II may have been content to allow the management of Florida to remain in proprietary hands. But he authorized Baltasar del Castillo to go to Florida to investigate its affairs. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

1576

Effective in 1569, Santa Elena was the major settlement in La Florida (Hoffman lecture 1:08). Of ~500 Spaniards living in La Florida in June 1576, 65% were at Santa Elena, 20% at San Agustin, and 15% at San Pedro (Amy T. Bushnell, Historian, Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board, 23 November 1983). [Reclaiming America's Lost Century]

It was October, 1575, before Hernando de Miranda left Spain, and he did not arrive in Santa Elena until February, 1576. It was soon clear that the new Adelantado had stepped into boiling controversy. The hostility between the two brothers-in-law (and probably between the two half-sisters as well) exploded immediately. Miranda reversed several of Velasco's decisions, including the Olmos fort case, and jailed the ex-governor for alleged misappropriation of some 20,000 reales in soldiers' bonuses. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

Another case which pitted Velasco against the Olmos family casts some light upon Santa Elena's social structure. Upon leaving church on Sunday, May 8, 1576, the Velasco party met Maria de Lara, Olmos' daughter, walking with her father. He called out to the girl that she was a "proven bitch," and allegedly taunted Alonso de Almos with the cry: "See the Lutheran go along to the synagogue!" The tailer sued the nobleman, and local justice-in the form of Alcalde Diego Hernandez--saw that due process as it was seen then took place. At the trial, Velasco denied making the remark about Olmos but said that he was, after all, a man engaged in trade. With regard to Maria de Lara, he said that she had been putting herself above her station, using the honorific Dona when, in truth, her reputation was none too good. For his part, Olmos said that his people were Old Christians, and stated that "we hold ourselves, in our being, to be as honorable as he." But arbitrary action--la mano dura--was, and is, an acceptable style in Spanish America, always in tension with rights under the law. Velasco's haughty demeanor was in keeping with his exalted position. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

Next, Miranda had to face a group of angry settlers. They were reduced in number to just over 20, but had to a degree merged with the soldiery through intermarriage and the co-option of many farmers into the garrison. At a called meeting of the cabildo, many farmers stated their desire to leave Florida, complaining that the rich lands and livestock Pedro Menendez had promised them had not materialized. Instead, they said, they found themselves exhausted by eking out a bare living working thin soils on a small island. Rainfall, they said often spoiled the spring planting, and milling enough corn to feed their large families consumed their labor. Like all farmers, they tended to remember only the famines and to forget the times of plenty--once two of them had sold 6,000 pounds of corn to the garrison. One settler said that he had planted garbanzos, wheat, barley and that only corn, squash and melons did well. Another testified that the goats and hogs Menendez had imported had not thrived. There was no way, they complained, to reach better lands from Santa Elena with carts or wagons across the marshes and lagoons. Miranda heard their complaints and passed them along with their representative to be heard in Spain. [Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

In June, Sergeant Hernando Boyano with 21 soldiers was lured into an ambush while on an expedition to Escamazu (after he seized their evening meal) and was killed along with 20 of his men (Andres Calderon escaped to bring news of the massacre to the town). Shortly after that, Captain Solis himself was killed along with 8 of his men just outside Santa Elena. (The story of his wife, Dona Catalina Borbon, is told at the La Florida website and her account is referenced below in footnote 43). [Span. Settlement of Santa Elena, Mary Ross and Santa Elena: A Brief History, Eugene Lyon]

In July, further retaliations occurred, including the killing of 3 royal officials and several soldiers. This led to the abandonment of Santa Elena, after a group of indigenous warriors laid siege to the settlement, which was burned that night. [Span. Settlement of Santa Elena, Mary Ross]

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 Phase of Spanish Settlement

With the disgrace of Pedro Menendez' heirs, culminating in the destruction of Santa Elena in 1576, the Spanish colonial efforts in La Florida entered a new phase of adjustment and adaptation. Abandoning the Adelantado scheme in favor of a standard royal governorship, albeit still under the control of a relative of Pedro Menendez.

Second Spanish Occupation at Santa Elena (1577-1587)

La Florida was no longer an adelantado (conquest-contract) after 1577. The adelantado system had been the primary means of expansion of Spain in the Americas, and dated back to the 12th century and the Reconquista. [The Enterprise of Florida, Eugene Lyon]

Pedro Menéndez Marqués arrived in Havana in June 1577 and presented his instructions to Cristobal de Eraso, captain-general of the treasure fleet, who provided the necessary ship and men to relieve La Florida. Santa Elena was still in ashes, and St. Agustin was essentially under siege by Indians assisted by marooned French corsairs. [Span. Settlement of Santa Elena 1578, Mary Ross]

Marqués force consisted of only 139 men, supplemented by Captain Vicente Gonzales and 14 seamen from the Espiritu Sancto. The first priority was to strengthen San Agustin where Marques place 60 soldiers under Captain Juan de Junco to defend the new capital (replacing Santa Elena) and the 44 women and 62 children living there. [Span. Settlement of Santa Elena 1578, Mary Ross]

...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. https://web.archive.org/web/20120123160435/http://www.cas.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/hstory2.html

Marques mission to Santa Elena was complicated by a fire in one of the supply ships he confiscated to take supplies (which was put out and repaired), and then a hurricane lashed them for one-and-a-half hours, sinking one of the ships. He managed to get everything together to take 83 men north to Santa Elena, facing another storm along the way, which forced them to lighten by throwing some of the pre-cut timber overboard. [Span. Settlement of Santa Elena 1578, Mary Ross]

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 days. At this point, Santa Elena was only a military outpost, and St. Augustine retained its new-found position as Florida's capital. https://web.archive.org/web/20120123160435/http://www.cas.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/hstory2.html

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. https://web.archive.org/web/20120123160435/http://www.cas.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/hstory2.html

1578

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. https://web.archive.org/web/20120123160435/http://www.cas.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/hstory2.html

The inspections of Santa Elena by Captain Alvaro Flores de Quinones in 1578 are quoted extensively in Mary Ross' The Spanish settlement of Santa Elena 1578, including the names of the soldiers in the garrison with rank, nativity, equipment. [Span. Settlement of Santa Elena 1578, Mary Ross]

1580

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?]. https://web.archive.org/web/20120123160435/http://www.cas.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/hstory2.html

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. https://web.archive.org/web/20120123160435/http://www.cas.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/hstory2.html

1584

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. https://web.archive.org/web/20120123160435/http://www.cas.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/hstory2.html

1586

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. https://web.archive.org/web/20120123160435/http://www.cas.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/hstory2.html

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

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

Thirty-three Santa Elena farmers sued for the loss of their homes and gardens subsequent to the 1587 forced abandonment of the thriving colony (Lyon 1982, p.16). [Reclaiming America's Lost Century]

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

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

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

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/