As the Quakers were brought up the coast they noted the chain of Spanish sentinel posts south of St. Augustine, which were located on high dunes overlooking the sea, beach and river. By means of smoke signals, or Indian runners, they could quickly warn the capital of danger.
The little Quaker band was hospitably received at the settlement and quartered among its inhabitants. “This place is a Garrison,” wrote Dickinson, “maintained one-half by the King of Spain and one-half by the Church of Rome. The male inhabitants are all soldiers, everyone receiving his pay according to his post. All of their supply of Bread, Clothing and Money comes from Havana and Porta Vella, and it was going on three years since they had a Vessel from any place whatsoever, which made their needs very great.
“The Towne we saw from one end to the other. It is about three-quarters of a mile in Length, not regularly built, nor the Houses very thick (close together), they having large orchards, in which grow plenty of oranges, lemons, pome citrons, limes, figs, and peaches. The Houses are most of them old buildings, and not half of them inhabited, the number of men being around three hundred.”
On their way north to Charleston the Quakers stopped overnight at several Spanish Indian towns, where Dickinson noted that “the Indians go as consistently to their devotion, at all times and at all seasons, as do the Spaniards.” He also observed that the Indian women modestly clothed themselves with the moss of trees (Spanish moss), “making Gownes and Petticoats thereof, which at a distance or at night looks very neat.”
The Castle’s First Test
Castillo de San Marcos, completed in 1696, had not yet undergone an attack. It was soon to come. In Europe the War of Spanish Succession (1700-1713) involved England in a conflict with Spain and France that soon spread to their colonies, where it was known as Queen Anne’s War. Governor Moore of Carolina obtained the backing of its colonial assembly for an expedition against Spain’s citadel in Florida. He recruited a force of some 600 Carolina militia and a number of Indian allies. They advanced south in two detachments during the fall of 1702. Florida’s Governor Zúñiga learned of the impending attack in time to lay in adequate provisions and put his garrison on a 24-hour alert.
Colonel Daniel with one Carolina detachment came up the St. Johns River and thence overland. Moore with the other came down the coast in eight small vessels. Daniel arrived first and advanced upon St. Augustine by land. Governor Zúñiga had few experienced soldiers, and did not try to save the town. All of its inhabitants were ordered into the fort, which soon sheltered some 1,500 people.
Moore soon arrived by sea with a quantity of trench-digging tools and fifteen long ladders for scaling the fort’s walls. But the English had greatly underestimated the Castillo’s strength and found there was little hope of taking it with their few small calibre guns. Colonel Daniel was sent to Jamaica to secure siege guns and bombs.
During the siege the Spaniards made two sallies from the fort to destroy their own houses in its vicinity to prevent them being used as cover by the English. A total of 31 houses were thus destroyed as shown by claims later filed by their Spanish owners.
Almost two months of siege passed. Within the overcrowded Castillo inhabitants and garrison prayed for relief. The day after Christmas two heavily armed Spanish ships appeared off the inlet bringing aid. Fearing their retreat would be cut off, the Carolinians burned their transports, abandoned their heavy stores, set fire to the town, and withdrew overland to vessels awaiting them at the mouth of the St. Johns River.