Castillo de San Marcos / A Guide to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, Florida

Handbook 149
A Guide to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument Florida
Produced by the Division of Publications National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior Washington, D.C.
Castillo de San Marcos National Monument is located in the longest continuously inhabited community founded by Europeans in the United States. This handbook tells the intercultural story of the long effort to build the Castillo and the emergence of a new Nation. The Guide and Adviser provides a brief guide to Saint Augustine and other related National Park Service areas in Florida.
From the air the rationale for the layout of Castillo de San Marcos is readily apparent: no wall or approach is unguarded.
This map, one of the earliest maps of a city that is now in the United States, depicts the June 1586 attack on St. Augustine by Sir Francis Drake. Note, in the middle, the English troops on Anastasia Island firing across the water on the Spanish fort.
On May 28, 1668, a ship anchored off St. Augustine harbor. It was a vessel from Veracruz, bringing flour from México. In the town, the drum sounded the alert for the garrison of 120 men. A launch went out to identify the newcomer and put the harbor pilot aboard. As it neared the ship, the crew on the launch hailed the Spaniards lining her gunwale. To the routine questions came the usual answers: Friends from México—come aboard! Two shots from the launch told the town the ship had been identified as friendly, and the seamen warped the launch alongside the ship. In St. Augustine, the people heard the signal shots and rejoiced. The soldiers returned their arms to the main guardhouse on the town plaza. Tomorrow the supplies would come ashore.
Unknown to the townspeople, when the launch pilot stepped aboard the supply ship, an alien crew of pirates swarmed out of hiding and leveled their guns at him and the others. He could do nothing but surrender.
Some time after midnight, a corporal was out on the bay fishing when he heard the sound of many oars pulling across the water. Something was not right. Desperately he paddled his little craft toward shore. The pirates, four boatloads of them, were right behind. Twice their shots found their mark, but he got to the fort where his shouts aroused the guards.