St. Augustine, Florida's Colonial Capital — John Shaqi
St. Augustine, Florida's Colonial CapitalCampen, J. T. Van
History
St. Augustine, Florida's Colonial Capital
Campen, J. T. Van
Saint Augustine (Fla.) -- History
After two months of harrowing captivity the Quakers were rescued by a
Captain López and detail of soldiers from St. Augustine. They were
brought to the settlement and later escorted safely to the English
border. One of their number, Jonathan Dickinson, wrote and published a
book of their adventures, which contains an interesting description of
St. Augustine and Florida as these Quakers saw them so many years ago.
As the Quakers were brought up the coast they noted the chain of Spanish
sentinel posts south of St. Augustine, which were located on high dunes
overlooking the sea, beach and river. By means of smoke signals, or
Indian runners, they could quickly warn the capital of danger.
The little Quaker band was hospitably received at the settlement and
quartered among its inhabitants. “This place is a Garrison,” wrote
Dickinson, “maintained one-half by the King of Spain and one-half by the
Church of Rome. The male inhabitants are all soldiers, everyone
receiving his pay according to his post. All of their supply of Bread,
Clothing and Money comes from Havana and Porta Vella, and it was going
on three years since they had a Vessel from any place whatsoever, which
made their needs very great.
“The Towne we saw from one end to the other. It is about three-quarters
of a mile in Length, not regularly built, nor the Houses very thick
(close together), they having large orchards, in which grow plenty of
oranges, lemons, pome citrons, limes, figs, and peaches. The Houses are
most of them old buildings, and not half of them inhabited, the number
of men being around three hundred.”
On their way north to Charleston the Quakers stopped overnight at
several Spanish Indian towns, where Dickinson noted that “the Indians go
as consistently to their devotion, at all times and at all seasons, as
do the Spaniards.” He also observed that the Indian women modestly
clothed themselves with the moss of trees (Spanish moss), “making Gownes
and Petticoats thereof, which at a distance or at night looks very
neat.”
_The Castle’s First Test_
Castillo de San Marcos, completed in 1696, had not yet undergone an
attack. It was soon to come. In Europe the War of Spanish Succession
(1700-1713) involved England in a conflict with Spain and France that
soon spread to their colonies, where it was known as Queen Anne’s War.
Governor Moore of Carolina obtained the backing of its colonial assembly
for an expedition against Spain’s citadel in Florida. He recruited a
force of some 600 Carolina militia and a number of Indian allies. They
advanced south in two detachments during the fall of 1702. Florida’s
Governor Zúñiga learned of the impending attack in time to lay in
adequate provisions and put his garrison on a 24-hour alert.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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