St. Augustine, Florida's Colonial Capital

By J. T. VAN CAMPEN
Third Printing 1971 C. F. Hamblen, Inc. P. O. Box 1568 St. Augustine, Florida
Published By THE ST. AUGUSTINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Copyright 1959 by J. T. Van Campen
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
Don Pedro Menéndez de Aviles, the great Spanish admiral, who founded St. Augustine and made Florida a Spanish province.
It all began at a little bay on the east coast of Florida during September of 1565. Two large galleons rode at anchor outside the harbor entrance, while three smaller craft with sails furled and pennants flying from each masthead were moored within. The ships were a part of the fleet of Don Pedro Menéndez. They brought an expedition from Spain to establish settlements in Florida and drive out the French Huguenots, who had a fort near the mouth of the St. Johns River in this Spanish-claimed territory. The French colony, named Fort Caroline, lay only some thirty-five miles up the coast from the point where the Spanish ships were anchored. There on this very same day Jean Ribault, who had just arrived from France with reinforcements, was preparing to attack the Spaniards before they could finish landing and fortify their position.
During the late forenoon, Menéndez and a group of his officers transferred from the larger of the two galleons offshore to a smaller boat alongside. Aided by a strong incoming tide, the boat entered the inlet and advanced across the bay toward the mainland, heading for a little creek that wound among the marshes to higher ground. As it neared this point, the roar of cannon and the blare of trumpets startled huge flocks of marsh birds into noisy flight.
On shore curious Indians looked out upon the scene with mingled fear and wonder. A Spanish detachment, which previously had disembarked, was drawn up along the bank to greet the landing party. From their ranks a robe-clad priest emerged holding aloft a cross and singing in a clear voice the Latin words of the Te Deum Laudamus .
Beneath the gnarled oaks festooned with moss the Spanish knelt before a rustic altar to celebrate the first parish Mass on Florida soil.