The Building of Castello de San Marcos: National Park Service Interpretive Series, History No. 1Manucy, Albert C.
History
The Building of Castello de San Marcos: National Park Service Interpretive Series, History No. 1
Manucy, Albert C.
Castillo de San Marcos (Saint Augustine, Fla.) -- History; Florida -- History -- Spanish colony, 1565-1763
In addition to Indian labor, there were a few Spanish peons who were
paid 4 reales per day, a few of the Crown’s Negro slaves, and a number
of convicts, either from the local presidio or sent from Caribbean
ports. The convicts served terms of varying length, depending upon the
nature of their crimes. A typical convict might have been the Spaniard
caught smuggling English goods into the colony, and he was condemned to
6 years’ labor on the fortifications at St. Augustine. If he tried to
escape, the term was doubled and he faced the grim prospect of being
sent to a fever-infested African presidio to work it out.
Spanish skilled labor included the military engineer, Ignacio Daza, who
was paid the top wage of 3 pesos per day. Daza died within a year of his
arrival in Florida, so the Crown paid only the surprisingly small sum of
546 pesos (about $862) for engineering services in starting the greatest
of Spanish Florida fortifications. Of the artisans, there were Lorenzo
Lagones, master of construction, and a pair of master masons, each of
whom received the master workman’s wage of 20 reales (about $2.50) per
day. In addition there were 7 masons at 12 reales, 8 stonecutters at the
same rate, and a dozen carpenters whose pay ranged from 6 to 12 reales
per working day.
There were few men for the job in hand, and to speed the work along
Governor Cendoya had to be ingenious and resourceful. Constantly on the
lookout for labor, he seized the opportunity of using prisoners from the
Carolina Colony, and, ironically enough, they were of exceptional help
in building this defense against their own countrymen. Back in 1670, a
vessel bound for Charleston Harbor accidentally put in at Santa Catalina
Mission, the Spanish frontier post near the Savannah River. William Carr
and John Rivers were captured. A rescue expedition set out from
Charleston, and when the sloop arrived at the Mission, Joseph Bailey and
John Collins took a blustering message ashore. For their pains, they
were dispatched with Rivers and Carr to St. Augustine. There, from time
to time, they were joined by other English prisoners.
The Governor did not long hesitate in putting them to work. Three of the
prisoners turned out to be masons, and the Spanish form of their
names—Bernardo Patricio (for Bernard Patrick), Juan Calens (for John
Collins), and Guillermo Car (for William Carr)—appeared on the pay
rolls. Some of the Englishmen entered into the life of the presidio as
permanent residents. At least one of them took a Florida bride. Although
the Spanish were cautious in depending too much upon the fealty of these
Englishmen to the Spanish Crown, there was little occasion to denounce
their unwillingness to serve.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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