Many English still remained when Governor Zéspedes arrived off St. Augustine with thirteen vessels to take over the province of East Florida for Spain. The official transfer of the government took place on July 12, 1784. The Spanish flag was unfurled again over the capital to volleys from the Spanish infantry and a fourteen-gun salute from the artillery. “On the following day,” Governor Zéspedes wrote, “we rendered dutiful and solemn adoration to Christ the King, by attending the Te Deum.”
The curtain fell on twenty years of English occupation, and a second period under Spain began.
A page from Florida’s first newspaper, the East Florida Gazette, published at St. Augustine February 1, 1783 to March 22, 1784.
East-Florida GAZETTE.
Nullius Addictus Jurare In Verba Magistri. Hor.
From SATURDAY, May 10, to SATURDAY, May 17, 1783.