We met Carole and
Bruce just as we were entering the San Sebastian
Winery – for a tour and tasting
A palisaded Timucua village, in an
engraving based on a sketch by Jacques le
Moyne
Founding of St. Augustine: Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sighted land on the 28th of August 1565,
(the feast
day of Augustine of
Hippo) naming the territory was named San Agustín. The Spanish
sailed through the St. Augustine Inlet into Matanzas
Bay and disembarked near the Timucua town of Seloy on the 7th of September. Menéndez's goal was to dig a
quick fortification to protect his people and supplies as they were unloaded
from the ships. Later to take a more proper survey of the area to determine the
best location for the fort. The location of this early fort has been confirmed
through archaeological excavations directed by Kathleen Deagan on the grounds of
what is now the Fountain of Youth
Archaeological Park. It is known that the Spanish occupied several structures in Seloy,
the chief of which was allied with the Saturiwa, Laudonnière's allies. It is possible that Menéndez fortified one of
the occupied Timucua structures as his first fort at Seloy.
Castillo de
San Marcos, completed 1695
In the meantime, Jean Ribault, Laudonnière's old commander, arrived
at Fort Caroline with more settlers for the colony, as well as soldiers and
weapons to defend them. He also took over as governor of the settlement. Despite
Laudonnière's wishes, Ribault put most of these soldiers aboard his ships for an
assault on St. Augustine. However, he was surprised at sea by a violent storm
lasting several days. This gave Menéndez the opportunity to march his forces
overland for surprise dawn attack on the Fort Caroline garrison, which then
numbered several hundred people. Laudonnière and some survivors fled to the
woods, the Spanish killed almost everyone in the fort sparing the women and
children. With the French displaced, Menéndez rechristened the fort as San Mateo
appropriating it for his own purposes. The Spanish then returned south and
eventually encountered the survivors of Ribault's fleet near the inlet at the
southern end of Anastasia
Island. Menéndez executed most of the survivors, including Ribault; this is
how the inlet got its name Matanzas (the Spanish word for
slaughter).
The first slaves in the territory were brought to St. Augustine on
the day it was founded by Avilés, it is said his contract with King Phillip
afforded him three years to import five hundred African slaves. In 1566, Martín de
Argüelles was born in San Agustín, the first European child who was recorded
as born in the continental United States. Argüelles was born twenty one years
before the English settlement at Roanoke
Island in Virginia
Colony and forty two years before the successful settlements of
Santa Fe, New
Mexico and Jamestown,
Virginia. The first recorded birth of a black child in the continental United
States is in the Cathedral Parish Archives, Augustin was born in the year 1606,
thirteen years before enslaved Africans were first brought to the English colony
at Jamestown in 1619.
A wander around the small
History Museum
An injured toe caused me to
borrow Trooper. Don’t slip on the banana peel, unhappy landing in the oyster bed
