UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON
CASTILLO DE SAN MARCOS, OLDEST EXISTING MASONRY FORT IN THE UNITED STATES, IS A TYPICAL EUROPEAN FORTIFICATION OF THE LATE 1600’S. IT OVERLOOKS THE ENTRANCE TO ST. AUGUSTINE HARBOR, AND FROM ITS WATCHTOWER THE SENTRIES LOOKED OUT OVER THE MIGHTY ATLANTIC TOWARD THE TREASURE FLEETS ON THEIR WAY TO SPAIN.
Contents
Page [FLORIDA AND THE PIRATES] 1 [BEGINNING THE CASTILLO] 8 [THE YEARS OF CONSTRUCTION] 15 [DEFENDING SAN MARCOS] 26 [THE END OF AN ERA] 31 [GLOSSARY] 34
The Building of
Castillo de San Marcos
FLORIDA AND THE PIRATES
A Pirate Raid forced the Queen of Spain to build Castillo de San Marcos in Florida. On May 28, 1668, a sailing vessel appeared off the shallow bar of St. Augustine Harbor. It was a ship from Vera Cruz, bringing a supply of flour from New Spain to feed the poverty-stricken soldiers and settlers in Spanish Florida. Out went the harbor launch to put the bar pilot aboard. The crew of the launch hailed the Spanish seamen lining the gunwale of the supply ship, and to the routine questions came the usual answers: Friends from New Spain—come aboard. The launch fired a prearranged two shots telling the Governor that the vessel was recognized, then she warped alongside and tied up. Not until then did a strange crew swarm out from hiding and level their guns at the chests of the men in the launch. There was nothing for them to do but surrender. Worst of all, the reassuring signal had already been given. No one in the fortified town of St. Augustine could suspect the presence of pirates.
The invaders waited until midnight, when the presidio was asleep. Quietly they rowed ashore in small boats. Scattering through the streets, shouting, cursing, firing their guns, the hundred of them made such an uproar that the bewildered Spaniards dashing out of their homes thought there were many more. Governor Guerra emerged from his house and with the pirates pounding at his heels, he joined the guard in the race for the old wooden fort. Behind those rotten walls with 33 men, he somehow beat off several assaults. By daybreak his little force was reduced to 28.
Defense of the town itself was the charge of Sgt. Maj. Nicolás Ponce de León and some 70 soldiers. In the darkness the pirates fired effectively at the burning matches of the Spanish harquebusiers (soldiers with matchlock guns), and Ponce and his men fled to the woods. More than half a hundred Spaniards were killed as they ran from their homes into the confusion of the narrow streets. Many others were wounded on their way to the shelter of the forest. The pirates were left in complete possession of the settlement.