Also,
Directions and advice to such as shall go thither whether on their own accompts, or to serve under another.
Together with
A most accurate MAP of the whole PROVINCE.
London, Printed for Robert Horne in the first Court of Gresham-Colledge neer Bishopsgate street, 1666.
CHAPTER III
The English Threat
St. Augustine remained the sole European settlement in what is now the continental United States for a period of forty-two years. About the time of its attack by Drake in 1586 it received vague but disturbing reports of the presence of English settlers to the north in a region known to the Spaniards as Jacán, or the Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia. This was the ill-fated Roanoke colony. It was followed in 1607 by the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, by the English, which represented a further violation of territory claimed by Spain as a part of Florida. Three expeditions, one in 1588 and others in 1609 and 1611, set out from St. Augustine to reconnoiter these rival settlements.
The Virginia colony survived and others crept down the coast in defiance of Spain’s claims to the territory. The Spanish governors at St. Augustine repeatedly implored authorities in Spain to strengthen Florida’s garrison and defenses to meet this English threat. But the mother country, almost constantly involved in wars with European rivals, or vexed with internal problems, took no decisive action.
In 1665 St. Augustine became one hundred years of age. As if to celebrate its centennial, the English King Charles II, issued a second patent opening up the territory south of Virginia to English settlement. This patent not only disregarded Spanish claims to the area, but even included within its boundaries the very site of St. Augustine itself.
A Midnight Raid
In the spring of 1668, during the delightful month of May, the appearance of a vessel off St. Augustine’s inlet caused a ripple of excitement. The settlement was awaiting a shipment of flour from Veracruz, Mexico, and a payment on its subsidy then eight years in arrears. The harbor pilot put out to bring the vessel across the treacherous bar. Soon two cannon shot were heard, a prearranged signal identifying the vessel as the one expected. The people were elated and retired confidently for the night.