4 O ^' .. vO" *l.-^ V U^.<,^ :'d^iA\ v./ /^fe'v V.^* ; ^-.* .--^^Wt ^--^^' .0 o A v.^^ r-^^. ' ^0 V-0^ ^oK ^^-^^ ^ ^ OLD St. UGUSTINE A Story of Three Centuries BY y {\ CHARLES B: REYNOLDS ILLUSTRATED WITH ARTOTYPES AND FAC-SIMILE ENGRAVINGS St. a u l. um iw k; I' lorid a E. H. REYNOLDS 1886 Copyiij;ht, 1886. By Charles B. Reynolds. All Rights Reserved. Old St. Augustine. Unstable as the ever shifting sands of its harbor bar have been the changing fortunes of St. Augustine. To tell the story, briefly, clearly and with accuracy of histori- cal detail, is the endeavor in the following chapters. Some of the illustrations are from drawings by old-time artists, who were actors here in the scenes of long ago. Some have been printed on the camera by the sunlight of to-day; they are new pictures, but of such things as are old — the massive walls of a decaying fortress, the pillars of a crumbling gateway, an ancient cathedral, a more ancient palm tree. All are memorials which speak of the past, for this is our theme. The purpose of the book will be attained, if with its aid the reader shall see the St. Augustine of the present tinged and illumined with the light of its past. St. Augustine, Florida. THE COOUINA EDITION. / The binding of the present edition is a reproduction by photographic process of coquina, the building stone peculiar to St. Augustine. This is a natural concretion of shells and shell fragments, found in extensive deposits on the island opposite the town. Fort Marion, the city gateway, the seawall, the cathedral, and most of the older dwellings are built of coquina. Several illustrations have been added, the most note- worthy one being the fac-simile of the plan of Drake's attack in 1586 — the original of which has been secured for the purpose only after months of patient waiting. With these additions, the historical illustration of the book is thought to be complete. January. 1886. CONTENTS. ♦ Page I. The Spaniard's Mission, - - - ii II. The Huguenots in Florida, - - 14 III. The Coming of Menendez, - - - 20 IV. Founding a City, - . . - 25 V. Fort Caroline, 29 VI. Matanza, ..... 34 VII. French Vengeance, - - - - 43 VIII. After Twenty Years, - - - 49 IX. The English Sea Kings, - - - 51 X. The Franciscans, ... - 62 XI. The Boucaniers, ----- 69 XII. British Cannon Balls, - - - 75 XIII. The Minorcans, .8;^ XIV. Rangers and Liberty Boys, - - 91 XV. The Old World in the New, - - 100 XVI. The Seminole, .... 108 XVII. Later Years, - - - - - 118 XVIII. Fort Marion,, - - - - 125 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page ^ Fort Marion, - _ - _ Frontispiece. From tower of the Hotel San Marco; showing the Harbor, St. Anastatia Island, and the ocean. Artotype from negative (1885) by H. L. Roberts. A Draught of St. Augustine and Harbor, - VI Fac-simile from the " Map of the West Indies," by Herman Moll, London. \ The River OF Dolphins, 15 Fac-simile of drawing by the French anist Jacques Le Moyne, from the first edition of the Brevis Narratio\ Frankfort-on- the-Main, 1591. ^The Pillar of Stone, ----- 17 With the Arms of France. Fac-simile of the drawing by Jacques Le Moyne, from the Brevis Narraiio, 1591. ^FoRT Caroline, ------ 31 Fac-simile of the drawing by Jacques Le Moyne, from the Brevis Narratio^ 1591. -The Assault by Francis Drake, - - - 51 Fac-simile of the plate in DeBry's.(4»«^r7V7 at war, urged the Frenchman; their Kings were friends and brothers; would the Adelantado not graciously per- mit these shipwrecked men to remain at his fort, until they could obtain passage to France. If Catholics and friends, replied the Spaniard, yes; but since they were of the New Sect, he could regard them only as enemies. He should wage war upon them even to blood and fire, and should pursue them with all cruelty, wherever he might encounter them in this land, to which he had come to plant the Holy Faith for the salvation of the Indians. If they were willing to surrender their standards, give up their arms, and submit themselves to his mercy, well and good; "he should do with them as God might give him grace." The French captain went back and consulted with his men. He came again, this time with another plea. Many of his comrades were noblemen of high birth; they offered a ransom of 50,000 ducats for their lives. No, the Spaniard replied, although a poor man, he was not mercenary; and if in the end he should treat them with leniency, he would wish to be free from suspicion of a sordid motive for doing so. Again the Frenchman came over, with the proffer of a still larger ransom. "Do not deceive yourselves," answered Menendez; "though heaven should come down to earth, I would not do other than I have said." The parley was ended. The French castaways, ex- hausted by their long buffetings with the waves, worn out by the hard march through the wilderness, bedrag- gled, famished and utterly disheartened, too weak to fight, too weak to retreat, threw themselves upon the 38 Old St, Augustine. mercy of the Spaniard, and committed themselves to him, to do with them "as God should give him grace." A boat was sent across the inlet, and returned with the standards and arms. Then it brought over the captain and eight of his men. They were supplied with food and drmk and conducted behind the sand dunes out of the sight of their comrades on the other shore. "Gen- tlemen," said Menendez, "my men are few and you are many; it would be easy for you to avenge upon us the deaths of your friends at the fort. You must, then, march with your hands bound behind you, to my camp, four leagues hence." To this they assented. The sol- diers took the match-cords from their arquebuses; and the arms of the French were securely bound behind their backs. The others came over ten at a time, and the men of each company, on their arrival, were bound in like manner. In all there were two hundred and eight of them. Then the chaplain, Mendoza, interposed. It was the final opportunity. If any were Catholics, let them sig- nify it. Eight sailors so declared themselves, and were placed apart. "We are all of the New Sect," said the rest; "this is our faith; we have no other." The sun was low in the west. There was need of expedi- tion in the terrible work now to be done. Menendez gave the command to march. Divided into squads of ten, their arms tied behind, a guard in front of them and another in their rear, the wretched victims were driven to the sham- bles. Leaving his secret instructions with the soldiers, Menendez went on in advance. At a certain point, before determined, he drew with his lance a mark in the sand. When the first band of ten Frenchmen came to Matanza. 39 this mark, the vanguard turned upon the leading rank of prisoners and stabbed, each his man; and the rear guard stabbed from behind, each his victim, those in the second rank. When the second squad of ten came to the fatal mark they were struck down in the same way; then the third, and the fourth, and those that came after; and so the horrible matanza — the well-planned, systematic butch- ery, where each one struck his appointed blow — was con- tinued so long as the light shone, and went on, after the setting of the sun, into the night, until at length the deed of blackest darkness was finished in darkness. When the last heretic had been stabbed in the back, the Spaniards returned a second time in triumph to San Augustin. And here this dark chapter should end; but the story is not yet finished. What follows is a repetition almost in detail of that which has been told. Let us hasten over it. Upon the following day the Indians came again to San Augustin. Another company had been discovered on the beach at the inlet. With 150 men the tireless Span- iard again set forth. Another night march, another impa- tient waiting for the dawn, another manoeuver of the troops; and again a messenger swam across the inlet. His company, he said, was that of Admiral Jean Ribault; and after the story of their shipwreck, came the request for boats to take them to Fort Caroline. Then the Frenchman inquired whom he was addressing. "Pedro Menendez," was the answer; and the messenger was sent back with the news of the capture of Fort Caroline. A canoe having been sent for him, Jean Ribault him- 40 Old St. Augustine. self came over with eight of his officers. The Spanish Adelantado received the French Admiral with punctilious courtesy, and set a collation before him. Having con- vinced Ribault of the death of those who had been left at Fort Caroline, Iv^enendez led him to the horrible spot where the flocks of unclean birds were gathered, and showed him by the ghastly evidence there what fate had overtaken the first band of castaways two days before. Again came the ineffectual plea for clemency. What had happened to himself, said Ribault, might have be- fallen Menendez; their Kings were brothers and friends, so as a friend should the Adelantado act toward him. Menendez was unmoved. Then the French offered ran- som; and it was refused. The interviews concluded as before; the Spaniard's final answer was that "the French might surrender themselves to his mercy, and he should do with them as God might direct." That night 200 of the French withdrew and marched south into the wilderness; any fate, even to be devoured by the savages, was preferable to that of falling into the hands of the Spaniard.* The next morning Menendez sent a boat across the inlet, and Ribault came over, bring- ing his standards, arms and commission; and surrendered them to Menendez. The Adelantado conducted him behind a sand hill and repeated the treacherous pretext he had used before. Night was approaching, he said; his fort was distant; they had far to go; his men were few; the French were many; they must be bound. The Admiral submitted. * They subsequently surrendered, and most of them found their way back to France. Matanza. 41 Once more, across this Stygian flood, the ferry boat of death with Charon at the oar began its passing. Back and forth, from shore to shore, it fared, bringing the vic- tims ten at a time, until the one hundred and fifty had been ferried over. As each company of ten arrived, they were conducted behind the sand hills; and their arms were pinioned. "When all were tied," writes the Spanish priest, Don Solis las Meras, brother-in-law of Menendez, and present at this scene, "when all were tied, the Adelan- tado asked if they were Catholics or Lutherans, or if any wished to make confession. Jean Ribault answered that all there were of the New Religion; and then he began to repeat the psalm Domine, memento meij having finished which, he said that from dust they came and to dust they must return again; and that in twenty years, more or less, he must render his final account;" and now the Ade- lantado might do with him as he saw fit. This man, Jean Ribault, who spoke thus, we may be sure, walked erect and with an unflinching step to his fate. Four who declared themselves Catholics were placed on one side, and with them the drummers and fifers, one of whom, Nicolas Burgoigne, we shall hear of again. Then, as in the Florida pines to-day one may see the horsemen forcing the cattle into the slaughter pens, the Spaniards drove their wretched victims on to their doom. On the same sandy reach, still red with its sanguinary dye, Menendez drew for this new band of martyrs another mark on the ground. When Ribault and his comrades reached this fatal bound, the horrible scene of that other day was re-enacted; and with each succeeding band the matanza was repeated; the butchers struck and the vie- 42 Old St. Augtisti7ie. tims fell. And when all had been slain, the Spaniards marched on, and returned once more in triumph. Thus at the founding of San Augustin was thrice pro- vided a human sacrifice, and a libation poured out so copious, that were there virtue in the old pagan rites the walls of this Spanish city in Florida must endure for all time. VIL FRENCH VENGEANCE. HE time is three years later. The scene is changed to San Mateo. Enter, for the last stormy act in this lurid drama, the Chevalier Dominique de Gourgues, French Catholic, soldier of for- tune, sometime since Spanish galley slave; now come to repair the outraged honor of his native land and to avenge the death of his countrymen. He has sold his estates that he may fit out an expedition, has gathered a picked company of soldiers and seamen, and sailed out of France with a commission to kidnap slaves on the coast of Africa. Once at sea, he has undeceived his companions; the enterprise, he tells them, is not to steal negroes; it is a mission of vengeance. He rehearses the atrocious cruelties of the Spaniards, with the terrible fate of the Huguenots in Florida, and details his scheme of retaliation — will they follow him ? The answer is a cheer. When the three ships come in sight of the forts at San Augustin and San Mateo, the Spaniards, taking them for friends, fir** salutes of welcome. The Frenchman responds, 44 Old St. Augustine. and sails on. Entering a river beyond, he finds the banks lined with a hostile array of Indians, drawn up under the Paracoussy Satourioua, and prepared for battle. A trum- peter, one of the fugitives who had escaped from Fort Caro- line, is sent ashore. The Indians recognize him. The ships, they learn, are French, not Spanish. The trumpeter's message is heard with joy; and immediately savage hos- tility is changed to eager welcome. Later, when De Gourgues comes ashore and begins to declare his purpose of revenge, Satourioua impatiently interrupts him with the story of the wrongs which his own people have en- dured at the hands of the Spaniards. Well have the Paracoussy and his tribe kept the pledge made to Lau- donniere that his friends should be their friends and his enemies their enemies; and many an incautious Spaniard at San iMateo and San Augustin has been ambushed and slain by the unseen Indian foe. The French landed their equipments, and made prepara- tions for attacking the forts; and meanwhile their savage allies performed the ceremonies which were always observed before the Florida Indian went into battle. The black drink was mixed; and nothing would do but that De Gourgues must quaff a heroic draught. The painted sorcerer with painful contortions and grimaces of suffer- ing fell into his mystic trance, and from the vision brought information of the strength and disposition of the enemy. The chiefs, decked out in totems and forbidding in war paint, gathered in a circle, squatting on the ground; and in the center uprose Satourioua. On his right stood a vessel of water, on his left burned a fire. Taking a shal- low dishful of the water in his right hand and holding it French Vengeance. 45 aloft toward the sun, the chief prayed to that luminary that a victory might be granted them over the Spaniards; and dashing the water to the ground, implored that so might the blood of the enemy be poured out. Then lift- ing up the great vessel of water he emptied it out upon the fire, exclaiming, ''So also may you extinguish the livej of your foes." And all the rest responded with shouts and cries of hate and rage. Again De Gourgues inflamed the hearts of his follow- ers by a fresh recital of the wrongs they had come te avenge; and then Frenchmen and Indians took up their march. The Spaniards, four hundred strong, were intrenched in two small forts near the mouth of the Rio de San Mateo and in Fort San Mateo (formerly Fort Caroline), which had been so strengthened and equipped that the Span- iards boasted the half of France could not take it. The avengers sought first the smaller forts. Making their way as best they could through the swamps, across the treach- erous ooze of marshes and over the cruel oyster beds con- cealed beneath the water, from which they emerged with lacerated feet and bleeding limbs, they came at length to the first fort and prepared for the attack. "To arms ! The French !" cried a sentinel; and from the fort, upon the advancing column, came a cannon ball from the muzzle of one of Laudonniere's own cannon. At this, Olotacara, an impetuous savage, bounded from his place in the ranks, leaped upon the platform, scaled the rampart and ran the gunner through with his pike. French and Indians followed with a rush. It was soon over. The fort was taken. By command of De 4-6 Old St. Augusti7ie. Gourgues fifteen of the Spaniards were reserved; of the rest not one escaped. Panic-stricken at the capture of the first fort, the garri- son of the other one, across the river, rushed out for flight into the forest. Hemmed in by the infuriated sav- ages on one side, and on the other by the French, there was no escape. As before, fifteen were reserved; and of the others, the historian of the expedition records, "all there ended their days." Then on to Fort San Mateo. Here the garrison, hav- ing been alarmed, were in readiness for them; and "no sluggards of their cannon shot," played their ordnance upon the French so incontinently that their courage failed; and retreating to the shelter of the woods, they took up their position on that very bluff where three years before Menendez had concealed his pikemen. Here, since it was late in the day, De Gourgues would have waited, deferring the assault until the morrow. But the Spanish commandant, who must needs hasten his own swift destruction, gave the word for threescore shot to sally out from the fort to discover the number and valor of the enemy. The Spaniards falling thus into a trap of their own making, De Gourgues hemmed them in before and behind, and hewed them down — all save the fifteen reserved with ominous purpose. Seeing this, the rest of the garrison in terror fled from their fort and plunged into the forest. There, turn what way they might, the soldier's pike confronted them and the savage sprang out upon them. In the stern work of retribution the arm of neither Frenchman nor Indian grew weary until the last one was fallen and the vengeance done. French Vengeaiice. 47 And what of the captives, the three fifteens, reserved with sinister intent by De Gourgues ? This is the record of their fate, given in the old chronicle — QTI^c refit of t^z ^paniaries bcinu; leti atoap prisonerei toit^ tl)e otljcrfi, after tf)at t^c ^enerall I)alJ 6l)etDeti tl)em t^c torontj; to|)icl) tl)cp l)atr tione toitljottt occasion to all t()e iFrencf) l^atton, tDcrc all I)ang:cli on tlje boufffjfi of tfje same trees toI)ereon tl)e Jrencl) Ijunjj; of to^tcb number fttie ()alj been Ijansctr bp one ^paniarti, toi)icb, ncto perceibinj l^tmselfe ia. t\^t Itfte miserable estate, confessed l^is fault antr tbe just julJsment tol)ici) ®oB !)a5 brouffjjt upon btm. ^ut ixi steai of tbe toritins; tof)icll Petiro ;j[Heleniie^ j^aU Ijanpti oljcr t^em, importinji t()ese toories in ^pantsb, " 3 ^oe not tl)is as unto JFrencb men, but as unto lutberans," (Sourgues causelj to be tmprintelj tottb a searing iron on a table of iFirretuooti, " 3f tioe not tbis as unto ^paniartJes, nor as unto JHariners, but as unto Crattors, Kobbers, anU fSlvx-. tl)erers," A fire, which had been kindled by some Indians that they might broil fish to feast the Frenchmen, lighted the train of the powder magazine and blew up the store- houses of the Spaniards; and the Indians, who had helped to build Fort Caroline, now demolished its walls and leveled it with the ground. The joy of the savages at the destruction which had overtaken their enemies knew no bounds; and they came in from all the villages, flocking to De Gourgues to honor him with praises and gifts as their friend and deliverer. One ancient crone declared that "she cared not any longer to die, since she had seen the French once again in Florida and the Spaniards chased out." Having assembled his company to return thanks to 48 Old St. Aiigustine. God for their victory and to pray for a safe voyage home again, and taking leave of the Indians, who cried aloud with sorrow at his going, Dominique De Gourgues, his mission accomplished, set sail for France, where in due time he arrived, having eluded the pursuit of "eighteen Pinnesses and a great Shippe of two hundred Tunnes, full of Spanyardes, which being assured of the defeat in Florida, followed him to make him yeeld another account of his voyage, than that wherewith hee made many French- men right glad." VIII. AFTER TWENTY YEARS. WENTY summers have come and gone, since that September day of Spanish pomp in Seloy. The romance of Florida has departed. No city of gold has been found, nor mountain of treasure, nor pearl fishery, nor fountain of youth. One illusion after another, all have vanished. The magnificent dream is over. Florida is an unprofitable possession, it has contrib- uted no revenues to the crown, nor will it ever; but with jealous hand the Spanish monarch maintains his grasp upon the barren province. Though he will not occupy the land himself, others may not enter; and here at San Augustin he is constructing his fortifications to menace the other nations. The town is an insignificant military post, whose garri- son is dependent for sustenance upon the supply ships from Spain. Opposite the fort, on the northern shore of the island, at the southern point, now called by the sol- diers La Matafiza (The Place of Slaughter), and at other points north and south along the coast, beacons have been erected to light the plate fleets from Mexico 50 Old St. Augustine. and Peru, passing through the Florida channel on their way to Old Spain. Well had it been for the French, twenty years before, had the warning ray of some mighty beacon flashed out over the waters to turn them from the fatal coast. The storms of twenty winters have bleached the sands of that haunted shore, where with his companions sleeps the martyr, Jean Ribault. The illustrious Cavalier, Don Pedro Menendez d'Avil^s, Adelantado of the Provinces of Florida, Knight Commander of Santa Cruz, of the Order of Santiago, and Captain-General of the Oceanic Seas, died in the year 1574, honored by Pope and sovereign and in the full flush of his fame. Eight years later, in 1582, "to the great griefe of such as knew him," died the Chevalier Dominique De Gourgues. The Para- coussy Satourioua, too, has gone the way of his race; and after the custom of their tribe, his subjects have planted about his grave the circle of arrows, placing in the center his cassine cup, chiefest memorial of wisdom and valor; and with wailing and tearing of hair have observed the appointed thirty days of mourning. So one by one the personages, whose deeds have been recorded in the first chapters of our story, have passed away. Spanish bigot, Huguenot victim, French avenger, savage ally — each has played his part, and gone to his reward. New actors take their places. In 1586 came the English Sea-Kings. IX. THE ENGLISH SEA-KINGS. HE English seaman of the Sixteenth century was cast in heroic mould. It was the time of Gil- bert, Frobisher, Grenville, Drake and Raleigh. These were the captains; and their crews were of like spirit — eager to sail out into the wonderful New World, explore untried seas, extend the glory of the English name, and above all to burn gunpowder against the Sp: niard. For to English reaports, with the tales of new- found El Dorados beyond the sea, came dark stories of Spanish cruelty to British seamen in the Western waters. Armed with his Papal Bull of Donation, giving him sole right and title in the two Americas, the pretentious Don regarded as intruders all others who dared to trespass on his domain. French Huguenot or English heretic, it was all one to him — the ship was scuttled or burned, and the crew turned over to the Inquisition. What that meant, English seamen too well knew. Some of them had been stretched upon the rack at Seville; and had seen their comrades give out their lives amid the flames of the auto-da-f^ at Madrid. Chained to the oars and with 52 Old St. Augusime. backs bared to the lash of the slave-driver, men of Devon were enduring the torture of heat and thirst and scourg- ing in the banks of Spanish galleys. Clad in the oppro- brious San Benito, men of Plymouth were wearing out their lives in the gloom of Peruvian mines; and yet other Englishmen were rotting in the dungeons of the Ever- lasting Prison Remediless at Cartagena. The memory of these things, which had been endured, nay, were even now being suffered by comrade and friend, and by son and brother, nerved the English sailor's arm to strike a blow at the Spaniard wherever found. To resentment for individual wrongs was added the broader motive of patriotism. England and Spain were not at open war, but the peace between them was far from being hearty or long enduring. Philip II. was col- lecting his invincible armada, to overwhelm the British Islands and add them to his already colossal empire of two-thirds the known world; and Queen Elizabeth, fear- ing to precipitate the blow, which she knew must come, maintained a policy of discreet inaction. Not so her loyal sea captains. They burned with impatience to be away to cut off the gold-trains and intercept the plate- fleets; and, by crippling the Spanish monarch's resources, delay, if they might not finally avert, the coming of the armada. Many a stately carack from the Indies, sailing home to Old Spain, struck her colors at the English sea- king's bidding; and more than cnce, when the Spanish prize had been taken, along with the bars of silver and the ingots of gold, they brought forth from her hold, as from the dead, some maimed wretch of an English cap- tive — and so by one stroke was England's enemy spoiled The English Sea-Kings. 53 of his treasure, and the familiars of the Holy Office were cheated of their prey. Two expeditions already had "that light rare and thrice worth}'- Captaine, Francis Drake," led against the Spaniards in the West; first, when at Nombre de Dios he showed his men the way to the Treasury of the World, and a second time, when in the Golden Hinde he ploughed a furrow round the whole world; and from each voyage he had returned again to Plymouth with great store of silver and gold, that would else have gone to swell the invader's might. But notwithstanding this staying of his treasure, the in- domitable Spanish monarch went on adding galleon to gal- leon and armament to armament; and year by year the rumors that reached the ports of the sturdy little island grew more alarming. So it happened that in 1585, Philip having laid an embargo on English ships, and thus given him provocation anew, Francis Drake must needs go forth again to sack the cities of the Spanish Main. On September 14, 1585, admiral of a fleet of twenty- five ships and pinnaces and a company of 2,300 men, Drake sailed out of Plymouth. One of his captains was the Arctic explorer, Martine Frobisher, not long before this returned from his search for the Northwest Passage to Cathay, and from guiding his pioneer bark amid the icy perils under the North Star, now come to court new hazard in fighting Spaniards beneath the Southern Cross. Making for the coast of Spain, the Englishmen over- hauled a stout Spanish ship laden with Poore John (the sailors' name for dried Newfoundland fish); extorted from the Governor of Bayonne a present of "wine, oyle, 54 Old St. Augustine. apples, marmalad and such like;" and off Vigo captured a flotilla of caravels, in one of which they found "a great crosse of silver of very faire embossed worke and double gilt all over, having cost a great masse of money." Com- ing to the Cape Verde Islands, they took Porta Praya and St. lago; and having dallied long for the ransoms of those wretched towns, finally set out on their mission^ and turned their prows " Westward ho ! with a rumbelow, And hurra for the Spanish Main, O ! " The fleet arrived off San Domingo, Hispaniola, on New Year's Day, 1586. Two companies of troops landed, entered the gates on opposite sides of the city, cut their way through all opposition, met in the market place in the center of the town, there took their stand, demanded ransom, enforced the demand by firing the city, received finally 25,000 ducats, and then sailed away to the Main. By a furious onslaught and after much desperate fighting, they made themselves masters of Car- tagena, and set about securing the ransom. What with one day burning the houses and plundering the treasury, and the next dining and wining Bishop and Governor — and other grotesque medley of sacking, spoiling and conflagra- tion, with divers courtesies and "all kindness and favor" — six weeks passed away. Finally the 120,000 ducats de- manded were laid down; and then the fleet was ready to set out for the real destination of the enterprise. This was the Spanish treasure houses at Nombre de Dios and Panama, where the gold and silver were stored awaiting transportation to Spain. And thither they would now have gone but for the raging of a "verie burning and The English Sea-Kings. 55 pestilent ague," which had been contracted at St. lago, and of which several hundred of the men had already died. "With the inconvenience of continuall mortalities," writes the historian of the expedition, "we were forced to give over our intended enterprise, to goe with Nombre de Dios, and so overland to Panama, where we should have strooken the stroke for the treasure, and full recompence of our tedious travails." Accordingly, with what plunder they had already secured, they turned their faces homeward, and set sail for England. On the 20th of May, being then off the Florida coast, they came in sight of a watch tower, which was a token to them that there were Spaniards here. Their hostility to the race was sufficient inducement for them to approach the land and fall upon the settlement; but when they found that it was none other than San Augustin, a more particular mo- tive urged them on to the attack. This San Augustin was the town founded by Pedro Menendez d'Aviles, a Spaniard with whom Admiral Francis Drake and all other English sea-kings had a long-standing account to adjust. Twenty years before this, certain Spanish ships of the Indian fleet. Admiral Don Pedro Menendez d'Aviles in command, had come upon five brigs flying the Cross of St. George at the main. Menendez gave chase, overtook the brigs, delivered his broadside into them and cried, "Down with your flags, ye English dogs, ye thieves and pirates !" And in due time, the Englishmen being inca- pable of defense, the flags came down, and the crews were handed over to the tortures of the Inquisition. The memory of this Spanish outrage, as of all others like it, had been cherished by English sailors; and many a 56 Old St. AiigtislZfie. captain had looked forward to the time when fate should make him its chosen avenger. Upon Menendez himself retaliation might not be wrought. Death had taken him away unpunished; but here in Florida was the town he had planted, and upon it and its people, by a sort of poetic justice, the debt might now be discharged. Drake's flagship, the Elizabeth Bonavefttura, with the Primrose, the Tyger and the others of the fleet, came to anchor off the harbor; and manning their pinnaces the Englishmen set out for the shore. What then transpired between Spanish soldiers and English sea-kings is related by Lieutenant Thomas Gates, one of Drake's officers, whose narrative, told after the manner of his time, is more befitting than any we could devise, so we will let him relate it: — "After three dayes spent in watering our Ships, wee departed now the second time from this Cape of S. An- thony, the thirteenth of May, and proceeding about the Cape of Florida, wee never touched anywhere; but coast- ing alongst Florida and keeping the shore still in sight, the 28 of May, early in the morning, wee descried on the shore a place built like a Beacon, which was indeede a scaffold upon foure long mastes raised on ende, for men to discover to the seaward, being in the latitude of thirtie degrees, or very neere thereunto. Our Pinnesses manned and comming to the shore wee marched up alongst the river side to see what place the enemie held there; for none amongst us had any knowledge thereof at all. "Here the Generall tooke occasion t# march with the companies himselfe in person, the Lieutenant generall having the Vantguard; and going a mile up or somewhat The English Sea-Kings. 57 more by the river side, wee might discover on the other side of the river over against us a Fort, \\ hich newly had bene built by the Spaniards; and some mile or thereabout above the Fort was a little Towne or Village without walles, built of woodden houses, as the Plot doeth plainely shew. Wee forthwith prepared to have ordinance for the batterie; and one peece was a little before the enemie planted, and the first shot being made by the Lieutenant generall himselfe at their Ensigne, strake through the Ensigne, as wee afterwards understood by a Frenchman, which came unto us from them. One shot more was then made, which strake the foote of the Fort wall, which was all massive timber of great trees like Mastes. The Lieu- tenant generall was determined to passe the river this night with 4 companies, and there to lodge him:elfe in- trenched, as neare the Fort as that he might play with his muskets and smallest shot upon any that should ap- peare; and so afterwards to bring and plant the batterie with him: but the helpe of Mariners for that sudden to make trenches could not be had, which was the cause that this determination was remitted untill the next night. In the night, the Lieutenant generall tooke a little rowing skiffe and halfe a dozen well armed, as Cap- taine I'>Iorgan and Captaine Sampson, with some others be- sides the rowers, and went to view what guard the enemie kept, as' also to take knowledge of the ground. And albeit he went as covertly as might be, yet the enemie taking an Alarme, grew feareful that the whole force was approching to the assault, and therefore with all speede abandoned the place after the shooting of some of their peeces. They thus gone and hee being returned unto us 58 Old St. Augustine. againe, but nothing knowing of their flight from their Fort, forthwith came a Frenchman, being a Phipher (who had been prisoner with them*), in a httle boate, playing on his Phiph the tune of the Prince of Orange his song; and being called unto by the guard he tolde them, before he put foote out of his boate, what he was himselfe, and how the Spaniards were gone from the Fort; offering either to remaine in hands there, or else to. return to the place with them that would goe. "Upon this intelligence the Generall and the Lieuten- ant generall, with some of the Captaines in one Skiffe, and the Vice-Admirall with some others in his Skiffe, and two or three Pinnesses furnished of Souldiers with them, put presently over towards the Fort, giving order for the rest of the Pinnesses to follow. And in our approch some of the enemie, bolder than the rest, having stayed behinde their companie, shot off two peeces of ordinance at us; but on shore wee went, and entered the place without finding any man there. "When the day appeared wee found it built all of tim- ber, the walles being none other but whole Mastes or bodies of trees set up right and close together in manner of a pale, without any ditch as yet made, but wholy in- tended with some more time; for they had not as yet finished al their worke, having begunne the same some three or foure moneths before: so as to say the trueth, they had no reason to keepe it, being subject both to fire and easie assault. "The platforme whereon the ordinance lay was whole bodies of long pine trees, whereof there is great plentie, * A marginal note tells us that this was Nicholas Burgoigne. The E7iglish Sea-Kings. 59 layd a crosse one on another and some little earth amongst. There were in it thirteene or fourteene great peeces of Brass ordinance and a chest unbroken up, having in it the value of some two thousand pounds ster- ling, by estimation, of the King's treasure, to pay the souldiers of that place, who were a hundred and fiftie men. "The Fort, thus wonne, which they called S. John's Fort, and the day opened, wee assayed to goe to the towne, but could not, by reason of some rivers and broken ground which was betweene the two places: and therefore being enforced to imbarke againe into our Pin- nesses, wee went thither upon the great maine river, which is called as also the Towne by the name of S. Augustin. "At our approching to land, there were some that began to shew themselves, and to bestow some few shot upon us, but presently withdrew themselves. And in their running thus away, the Sergeant Major, finding one of their horses ready sadled and brideled, tooke the same to follow the chase; and so overgoing all his com- panie was (by one layd behinde a bush) shotte through the head; and falling downe therewith, was by the same and two or three more stabbed in three or foure places of his body with swords and daggers, before any could come neere to his rescue. His death was much la- mented, being in very deede an honest wise Gentleman, and a souldier of good experience and of as great cour- age as any man might be. "In this place called S. Augustin, wee understood the King did keepe, as is before said, one hundred and fiftie 6o Old St. Aup'usline. i> souldiers, and at another place, some dozen leagues beyond to the Northwards, called S. Helena, he did there likewise keepe an hundred and fiftie more, serving there for no other purpose than to keepe al! other nations from inhabiting any part of all that coast; the government whereof was committed to one Pedro Melendez Marquesse, nephew to that olde Melendez the Admiral, who had overthrowen Master John Hawkins, in the bay of Mexico, some seventeene or eighteene yeeres agoe. This Gov- ernor had charge of both places, but was at this time in this place, and one of the first that left the same. "Heere it was resolved in full assembly of Captaines to undertake the enterprise of S. Helena, and from thence to seeke out the inhabitation of our English countrymen in Virginia, distant from thence some sixe degrees Northward." The Englishmen burned the town, demolished Fort San Juan de Pinos, took on board the cannon and money, and not forgetting the French fifer, sailed away from San Augustin. They were deterred by the want of a pilot from their intended enterprise of St. Helena, and went on to Virginia. Directed, after the custom of those days, by the smoke of a great conflagration kindled on the land, they found Raleigh's people at Roanoke Island; and the colony was in such sorry plight that they were all taken aboard. Among the rest was Governor William Lane, for whom is claimed the credit (disputed by him with Raleigh and others) of having, on this voyage with Drake home from San Augustin in the year 1586, first intro- duced into England "that Indian weed they call tabacca and nicotia, or tobacco." Laden with booty and ran- The English Sca-Kines. 6i