|
Return of Menendez - Attack on St. Augustine by Sir Francis Drake - Missions to the Indians, and Massacre of the Mission Fathers - Establishment of a Spanish Settlement at Pensacola. 1568 - 1696. While De Gourgues was thus visiting with swift destruction the Spanish forts and garrisons on the St. John's River, Menendez still tarried in restless impatience at the Spanish court. He finally succeeded in obtaining a partial reimbursement of the funds he had expended, and procured from the Duke of Borja ten missionaries to accompany him on his return to Florida, who were to engage in the propagation of the faith among the Indians. Menendez had also been honored by being appointed Governor of Cuba, an appointment then considered of less importance than the command of Florida. He set sail on the 17th of March, 1568, and arrived in Florida shortly after the departure of De Gourgues, of whose attack he only learned upon his arrival there. His proud spirit must have chafed with unavailing rage at the severe blow which had been dealt upon his colony by so insignificant a force, but he had come too late to prevent or revenge it. Menendez found his garrison demoralized, suffering from hunger and insufficiency of clothing. The Indians, aroused by the inroad of De Gourgues, were everywhere in open hostility, and he found ample occupation in restoring order, and re-establishing his posts along the coast. He gave particular attention to the missionary operations among the Indians, and, to his credit be it said, devoted himself with zeal and earnestness to this good work. The success of the missionaries was not equal to their labors, for it is said that although the Indians asked many questions, and gave apparent attention to the explanations and instructions of the worthy fathers while the corn which was daily given to them lasted, yet when that was gone they also disappeared ; and notwithstanding four of the fathers labored in one locality most assiduously for a year, they succeeded in baptizing only seven persons within that period, of whom four were children and the others at the point of death. These missions were soon extended through a large region; beginning at Cape Florida, they reached along the coast to St. Helena on the coast of Georgia, and an attempt was made, even at this early period, to plant a mission on the shores of the Chesapeake, then called the province of Axiocan. Menendez had brought back with him an Indian who had been carried to Spain some time previously and educated in the Roman Catholic faith. This convert now proposed to guide a band of missionaries to his native province, of which his brother was the cacique or chief. An expedition having been fitted out a party of missionaries, consisting of Father Segura, vice-provincial, with five other priests, and four junior brothers of the order of St. Francis, under the guidance of Don Luis, sailed to the Chesapeake, where they landed; and the treacherous convert, pretending to conduct them into the country, caused the massacre of the whole party, one of the junior brothers alone escaping, who was afterwards surrendered to Menendez. Having learned of this bloody massacre of the missionaries, Menendez in the following year sailed to Axiocan captured some of the Indians who had participated in it, and executed eight of them. Others of the mission were desirous to renew the attempt for the conversion of these Indians; but Menendez, in consideration of the distance from his settlements and the duplicity shown in the treatment of Segura and his companions, would not give his consent to their going. Had this company of missionaries succeeded in establishing themselves on the shores of the Chesapeake, it is not improbable that Virginia would have become one of the most important of the Spanish settlements in America. The importance of Florida soon diminished in public estimation. None of the rich rewards which had been anticipated had followed its occupation, and 'it was only by the constant importation of provisions that the inhabitants could be sustained." The colony languished, and was supported only by the personal exertions of Menendez, to whom it was a profitless position, impoverishing him daily. Finally, leaving the government in the hands of his relative, the Marquis de Menendez, he returned to Spain, where his high reputation gave him position at court as one of the counselors of his Majesty, and it is said that no important enterprise was undertaken without his advice. In the year 1574 he was appointed captain-general of the Spanish fleet, and at the mature age of fifty-five, at the summit of his honors, and surrounded with devoted followers, attracted by his brilliant reputation, when on the eve of assuming the command of a grand armada of over three hundred vessels, he was attacked by a violent fever, to which he succumbed after a short illness. It was said by some that he put an end to his own existence. Menendez combined with many admirable and heroic qualities others which have left a stain upon his name and memory. He was distinguished for the perseverance and energy of his movements, the fortitude with which he bore hardships and sufferings in the prosecution of his enterprise, and the possession of many of the virtues which constitute a great leader, and which, on a larger field, would have made him illustrious. Unfortunately, he was a cruel bigot, and was placed in a position calculated to develop the worst traits of his character. His portrait bears some resemblance to that of Henry VIII of England - the forehead and upper portion of the face noble and full of intelligence, while the wide mouth and heavy chin be- speak the cruelty and selfishness of character which alike belonged to them. Under a leader of less resolution, the settlement of Florida would have been abandoned ; and he is justly entitled to the credit of establishing the first permanent colony in the United States. The settlement of the country progressed but slowly, consisting mainly of garrisons established at a few points. In 1586 Sir Francis Drake, returning from a free-booting expedition against the Spanish settlements in the West Indies, observed a lookout upon the shores of Anastasia Island, near the entrance to the harbor of St. Augustine. The English landed with a piece of ordnance, and, planting it at the nearest point, fired two shots, the first of which passed through the royal standard of Spain waving over the fort, and the second struck the ramparts. As it was nearly dark, the English suspended any further demonstrations until the following day. During the evening, several officers, making a reconnaissance in a boat, were fired at three or four times from the fort, which was at the same time being evacuated by the Spanish garrison to the number of one hundred and fifty, they supposing that the whole English force was about to attack them. In the mean time the boat had returned to the English camp, when a French fifer, playing the Prince of Orange's March, approached in a canoe. He reported himself as one of the garrison, informed them of the flight of the Spaniards, and offered to act as a guide to the English forces. (1) The boats were immediately manned, and, upon approaching the fort, two shots were fired from it by some of the garrison who had remained; but, upon landing, the English found the place entirely deserted, the garrison having left in such haste that the treasure-chest, containing two thousand pounds sterling, destined for the pay of the troops, fell into the hands of Sir Francis. The fort then existing was constructed of the trunks of pine-trees, set upright as a palisade, but was without ditches; the platforms were of trees laid horizontally and filled in with earth; but the works were in an unfinished state, and not capable of defense against a superior force. Owing to heavy rains and some intervening creeks, it is said, the English were not able to approach the town by land. Upon their arriving at the town, after a slight show of resistance, the garrison and inhabitants fled, the former going to San Mateo. The English sergeant-major, pursuing the fugitives, was shot from an ambush, in retaliation for which the English pillaged and then burnt the town. Understanding that there was another Spanish settlement at St. Helena on the coast, and also that of San Mateo, Sir Francis determined to attack these points, but was unable, on account of the tempestuous weather, to make a landing. St. Augustine, at the time of its destruction by Drake, boasted of a hall of justice, a parish church, and a monastery. The combined garrisons of St. Augustine and San Mateo then numbered but four hundred men, and the only other post of any importance was St. Helena. With the departure of Menendez, the importance of the province had sensibly diminished, and, as no discoveries of the precious metals had been made, it was difficult to procure colonists to engage in mere agricultural pursuits. After the departure of Drake, the Spanish governor returned to St. Augustine and commenced to rebuild the town. In the year 1593, twelve brothers of the order of St. Francis were sent to Florida to continue the missions among the natives, and were distributed at different points along the coast, the principal mission being on the island of Guale. Five years afterwards the son of the chief of Guale, dissatisfied with the restrictions and reproaches of the priests, incited a general conspiracy for the destruction of the missionaries. In the suburbs of St. Augustine were two Indian villages, called respectively Tolomato and Topiqui. At midnight, the young chief and his followers made an attack upon Father Corpa, who had charge of the mission of Tolomato, and dispatched him with their hatchets. Then, being urged by their chief to complete their cruel work, the band hastened to Topiqui, where they entered the habitation of Father Rodriguez, who begged the privilege of celebrating mass before he died. He had no sooner concluded then they fell upon him with the utmost fury, killing him at the very foot of the altar, and from thence dragging his lifeless body, they cast it into the fields. They then went to the Indian town of Assopo, on the island of Guale, where were two friars, Fathers Aulion and Badazoz, whom they quickly dispatched, their bodies being afterwards buried by their friends at the foot of a high cross, which Father Aulion had himself erected. From Guale, the infuriated savages went to the Indian town of Asao, where a friar resided by the name of Velascola, a man of great humility and piety, but endowed with remarkable strength, and of whom the natives stood in great awe. Becoming aware of their hostile intentions, he embarked for St. Augustine in a canoe. Enraged at his escape, the Indians hastened to intercept him, if possible, at the point of his landing near St. Augustine. Reaching this place in advance of him, they concealed themselves in the thickets, and, stealing upon him, seized him from behind and struck him repeated blows with their clubs and hatchets until they had deprived him of life. Their thirst for blood still unslaked, they proceeded to Ospo, where Father Davila was stationed, who, hearing their yells and being made aware of his danger, sought safety by flight to the woods. But the night being clear, and the moon at the full, they soon discovered him and wounded him with their arrows. As he was seized and was about being sacrificed, he was saved by the intercession of an Indian woman, who claimed him as a captive and carried him to the interior, where he was forced to perform the lowest menial service, accompanied with much ill usage and severe treatment. Tired of their captive, they at last determined to complete their measure of vengeance against the missionaries by burning him alive. He was brought out for this purpose, and bound with thongs to an upright post in the campus of the town; the fuel was heaped about him, and the torch about to be applied, when an Indian mother, whose son was held prisoner by the Spaniards at St. Augustine, begged that the priest might be delivered to her that she might procure the exchange of her son for him. With great difficulty she at last succeeded in having the father released from his great peril, and delivered to his friends in exchange for the Indian youth. The savages had now visited all the missions except that of the island of San Pedro. With upwards of forty canoes they made a vigorous assault upon that mission, but were repulsed by the friendly cacique, whose tribe was at enmity with that of the assailants, and who followed up his success with such vigor that all who had already landed were destroyed, and the remainder forced to seek safety in flight. In this massacre of the missionaries perished five priests, and another, Davila, was so maltreated that when he returned to his friends they were unable to recognize him. The Spanish governor proceeded immediately to visit the murderers with exemplary punishment, - burning the dwellings and granaries of those whom he could not more directly reach. In the course of the years 1612 and 1613, thirty-one missionaries of the order of St. Francis were sent to Florida, which was now erected into a religious province of that order, by the name of St. Helena ; the principal house of which was established at Havana, and Juan Capelles chosen the first provincial. (2) A catechism in the Indian language had already been prepared and printed, being probably the first work ever published in the Indian language.(3) Three years later, twelve brothers of the order were added to the mission of St. Francis, and such progress was made in the ensuing two years that there were now twenty missions established in the principal Indian towns through the country, and many of the friars preached to the natives with great success. In the year 1638 a war broke out between the Spanish colonists and the Apalachee Indians, and although the garrison was very weak, not being able to furnish over one hundred effective men, the governor succeeded in repelling the assaults of the Indians and driving them back to their own province. A considerable number of Indians of this tribe, who had been captured, were set to work on the fortifications of St. Augustine, and they and their descendants were kept thus employed for sixty years. St. Augustine remained the principal town of the Spaniards, and so slow was the progress of settlement that, although the recipient of government patronage and aid, in 1647 it is stated, with some degree of exultation, that the number of families or householders had reached three hundred, and that there were then domiciled in the city, at the convent of St. Francis, fifty members of that order. The succession of the house of Menendez to the governorship of Florida had now terminated, Hernando de Alas being the last of that family. Pedro Menendez, the nephew of the governor, had perished at the hands of the Indians, and De Alas had married his daughter Carolina. Diego de Rebellado was captain-general from 1655 to 1675, when Don Juan Hita de Salacar succeeded him, and held the government until 1680. He was succeeded by Don Juan Marquez Cabrera. The settlement of Virginia had been commenced in 1607, and the other colonies to the north had been planted by the English and Dutch without opposition on the part of the Spanish crown. The wide separation of the Spanish and English settlements, for a time prevented difficulties between them, and the spirit of Menendez no longer animated his successors. It was not until 1663, when the charter of Carolina was granted by Charles II, that the English settlements trenched on the ground which the Spaniards had at any time claimed by possession. With the settlement of Carolina there at once grew up a hostile state of feeling, which lasted for a century, between these neighboring colonies. At this period the buccaneers or free rovers filled the seas, to the destruction of the Spanish commerce, and to the great disturbance of the Spanish settlements. In 1665, one of these piratical expeditions, under the command of Captain John Davis, made a descent upon St. Augustine, with some seven small vessels, and pillaged the town. (4 ) The garrison, consisting) of two hundred men, do not appear to have resisted the attack, which, it is probable, was made from the south by boats. The fort is said to have been an octagon, with two round towers. (5) The ill feeling existing between Florida and Carolina continued to increase; the Spaniards alleging that the pirates who preyed upon their commerce were received and sheltered in the harbors of Carolina, an accusation which was but too true. The Carolinians, on the other hand, complained that the Spanish authorities endeavored to incite the Indians to acts of hostility against them, and also seduced their servants from them and gave them protection at St. Augustine. The Spaniards sent a force to attack some of the colonists on the Ashley River in the year 1616, but, the settlers having thrown up intrenchments for their protection, the Spaniards retreated. Two years later, an expedition, consisting of three galleys, from St. Augustine, made an attack upon a Scotch settlement on Port Royal Island, which had been established by Lord Cardross. The settlers were too few in number to protect themselves, and their houses were pillaged. From thence the galleys ascended the North Edisto River to Bear's Bluff, where they made a landing, burnt the houses, and plundered the settlers. This expedition inflicted severe injury upon the colony, then in its infancy, and was characterized by all the atrocities of savage warfare. The property of the settlers was carried off, and their persons maltreated by the infliction of every indignity ; one gentleman, of the name of Morton a brother of the governor of the colony, was allowed to perish by the burning of the galley upon which he was confined. The utmost indignation was excited throughout the colony by these acts. It was a part of the original contract with Menendez that he should carry into Florida five hundred negro slaves from the coast of Africa, but he does not appear to have complied with it, having introduced but a small number. One hundred years later, we find the privilege of introducing slaves accorded to one De Aila as a reward for meritorious services, and his arrival, in 1687, with Negroes, seems to have occasioned much rejoicing in the colony. Renewed efforts were made at this period to extend missions among the natives, and large numbers of priests and friars were sent across from Cuba to labor in Florida. The natives of South Florida had begun to have considerable commercial intercourse with Havana, carrying across skins, fish, and fruit in exchange for merchandise suited to their wants. Don Juan Marquez Cabrera, the governor, about 1681 attempted to remove the various Indian tribes of Apalachees, Cowetas, and Casicas, as well as those of San Felipe, San Simon, San Catalina Sapala, and others, to the islands on the coast, and along the St. John's. This occasioned an insurrection of all these tribes, and several of them removed within the limits of Carolina, and subsequently made a sudden incursion into Florida, attacked the towns of the Timuquas, robbed the church and convent of St. Francis of the vestments and plate, burnt the town of Tomuqua, killed a large number of the Christian Indians, and carried many others away as prisoners to St. Helena, where they were made slaves of. (6) At this comparatively late period in the history of America, by the energy and perseverance of Monsieur de la Salle, the course of the Mississippi was traced from the regions of the Illinois to the points of its discharge into the Gulf of Mexico. Although one hundred and seventeen years had passed since the actual settlement and occupation of Florida by the Spaniards, the spirit of enterprise and discovery had so far died out, that the information they had already derived from the expeditions of Narvaez, De Soto, and De Luna, apprising them of vast and fertile regions and magnificent rivers, had not stimulated them to undertake further explorations and occupation of the rich regions lying within the limits claimed by them as a part of Florida. It was left to the insignificant expedition of La Salle embarked in slight canoes and almost unarmed - to trace the mighty floods of the great rivers of the west to the sea, and thus to confer on France, by the claim of discovery, the right of appropriating the fairest portion of the American continent, the great valley of the Mississippi, to which they applied the name of Louisiana. Spain, indifferent to other motives, was always accessible to the impulse of jealousy; and the successful voyage of La Salle aroused her to the necessity of presenting her claims to the extensive regions about to pass under the sway of France. Hitherto she had been content to occupy the single fortified post at St. Augustine, and to make some feeble attempts at colonization. In 1692, however, an expedition was fitted out by the Viceroy of New Spain to explore the harbors on the western coast of Florida, and especially that of Santa Maria de Galva (which De Luna had occupied in 1561). In the year 1696, a Spanish colony was planted, called Pengacola, - a name derived from the locality having been formerly that of the town of a tribe of Indians called Pengacolas, which had been entirely exterminated in conflicts with neighboring tribes. A fort of quadrilateral form, a church, and other public buildings were erected. To the fort the name of Charles was attached, in honor of Charles II. of Spain. Andres de Arriola was the first governor of the province; Don Lauseano de Torres was at that time governor of East Florida. Two years later, D Tberville arrived on the coast with three vessels sent out by Louis XIV to establish a colony in Louisiana. He touched at Pensacola, then occupied by three hundred Spaniards. Sailing thence to the west, he entered Mobile Bay, and landed on an island, called by him Massacre Island, and subsequently known as Dauphin Island, where he established a colony. The Spaniards, at this period, called the Mississippi the River of Palisades, from the number of tall trees standing singly along its shores. The English called it Mes-sa-che- be. While France and Spain were thus planting their colonies in the western portion of Florida, England was contemplating a similar enterprise, and three vessels were sent by King William to take possession of the country bordering on the Mississippi. But they were too late; D Tberville had already occupied the country. The interior of Florida was occupied by the Apalachians beyond the Suwanee. The tribes of Calos or Carlos were in the southern portion, and the Timuquans along the coast north and south of St. Augustine.(7) Many of these Indian names are still attached to various localities in Florida. There does not seem to have been much progress made in the civilization of the Indians during the Spanish rule; the natural ferocity of these savage tribes, their freedom from restraint, and their warlike propensities, made them impenetrable to the claims of a faith which inculcated love and forbearance towards one another. Over one hundred years had now elapsed since Menendez had planted the standard of Spain on the coast of Florida, and a vast amount of labor and treasure had been expended in the almost fruitless effort to occupy and christianize the country. At the beginning of the seventeenth century no European colony existed on the Atlantic coast of North America, except St. Augustme. In 1607, and forty-two years after the founding of St. Augustine, the settlement of Virginia, by the English, began at Jamestown, and thirteen years later the Plymouth colony landed in New England. In the course of the next fifty years settlements were made on the whole coast by the French, English, Dutch, and Swedes; and from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Port Royal harbor in Carolina, flourishing settlements had arisen and a very considerable commerce had grown up under the fostering care of their respective governments. During the seventeenth century, Spain possessed, by right of discovery and conquest, the claim to the most valuable portion of the American continent, but the history of this hundred years of Spanish domination is barren and fruitless. It is a record of feeble and spasmodic efforts at colonization, with a timid exploration of the regions adjoining the military posts. Pensacola and St. Mark's had been established as isolated posts, and a few others. The history of Florida, during this period, presents but little more than a chronicle of the changes of governors, and petty details of local events. Having the fertile valley of the Mississippi, the rich plains of Texas, and the productive uplands of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee within their reach, no exploration had been made, no colonies planted, no empire founded, and in this magnificent and then vacant domain the results of over one hundred years of Spanish domination were, three small fortified towns, and a few mission-houses. It is indeed quite probable that in the year 1700 they actually knew less of the country than did Menendez within ten years of his settlement. The mines of Mexico and the riches of the Spanish Main had drawn the attention of the Spanish monarchy from the more enduring wealth and power to be derived from a fertile and populous agricultural region, and the colony in Florida was allowed to languish, presenting but little more than a bare existence.
(1) This French fifer bore the name of Nicolas de Bourgoyne, and was one of the musicians said to have been spared at the time of Ribaut's massacre. (2) Ensayo Cronologico, p. 181. (3) Mr. Buckingham Smith, former Secretary of Legation to Spain, to whose indefatigable labors Florida owes so much, in his researhes abroad, discovered a copy of this Indian catechism, called " La Doc trina Cristiana," in the Timuqua language - a tribe occupying the larger part of the coast below St. Augustine, the name of which is still preserved in the Tomoka River. (4) Buccaniers of America, 53, London, 1684. (5) This description of the fort is evidently erroneous; it was then unfinished, but was square, with bastions. (6) Ensayo Cronologico, p. 287. (7) These were apparently tlie dialects, the Timuquan being the language used at San Mateo, San Pedro, Asila, Machua, etc., as shown in the memorials in the Timuquan and Apalachian languages found by Buckingham Smith, Esq., in the Spanish archives at Madrid. ©Genealogy Trails |
