St. Augustine, Florida

“ The King ordered Pedro de Valdés, the Governor of Cuba, to make a thorough investigation of conditions in Florida. Valdés sent his son to St. Augustine in 1602 to hold hearings, in which missionaries and settlers of long residence testified. While many of these witnesses expressed the view that a more favorable location for a settlement might be found, the conclusion reached was that St. Augustine should continue to be maintained as a center for the expanding missions, and as a base to guard the vital trade route. ”

“ St Augustine is served by the Florida East Coast railway and by the Florida East Coast Canal, an inland waterway from the St John’s river to the Florida Keys.
The city stands on a narrow, sandy peninsula, about 12 ft. above the sea, formed by the Matanzas and San Sebastian rivers, and is separated from the ocean by the northern end of Anastasia Island. St George, the chief street in St Augustine, is only 17 ft. wide, and Treasury Street is, at its east end, an alley across which two people may clasp hands. There are many old houses, some of which have balconies projecting above the streets. ”

“ One of the highlights in the early religious annals of Florida was its first visitation by a Bishop in 1606. Bishop Altamirano arrived at St. Augustine from Cuba shortly before Easter. Impressive religious ceremonies followed with candles burning brightly on the flower-decked altars. On Easter Saturday the Bishop ordained twenty young men as clerics, some of them natives of the settlement. On Easter Sunday he celebrated Mass and confirmed 350 Spaniards. After a week’s rest, the Bishop made a leisurely tour of the outlying Franciscan missions, confirming a total of 2,000 Indian converts. ”

“ Augustine, where their descendants form a numerous, industrious, and virtuous body of people, distinct alike from the indolent character of the Spaniards and the rapacious habits of some of the strangers who have visited the city since the exchange of flags. In their duties as small farmers, hunters, fishermen, and other laborious but useful occupations, they contribute more to the real stability of society than any other class of people: generally temperate in their mode of life and strict in their moral integrity, they do not yield the palm to the denizens of the land of steady habits. ”

“ Life in St. Augustine followed a distinctive pattern, due to its isolation and lack of frequent communication with other cities. It was Spanish in language, dress, customs, and for the most part in architecture and population. Some of its officials and planters owned slaves, fine horses, and lived comfortably if not elaborately. They enjoyed leisure time for gambling, cock fighting, and to lounge through the long summers in a cool patio or at a congenial tavern. ”

“ The city of St. Augustine, on the eastern coast of Florida, stands in one respect preeminent among all the cities of the United States—it is truly an old city. It has many other claims to consideration, but these are shared with other cities. But in regard to age it is the one member of its class.
Compared with the cities of the Old World, St. Augustine would be called young; but in the United States a city whose buildings and monuments connect the Middle Ages with the present time, may be considered to have a good claim to be called ancient. ”

“ The original inlet through which they sailed has disappeared, and a man-made channel now cuts through the barrier islands. Davis Shores, a popular residential district across the bay, was once a marsh from which the English shelled the fort and town in 1740.
At the south end of the original settlement the State Arsenal occupies the site of the Franciscan Monastery, from which the heroic Friars went forth to Christianize the Florida Indians. Across from it the Oldest House, owned by the St. Augustine Historical Society, preserves some of the Spanish atmosphere of former periods. ”

“ There are eleven or twelve hundred people and these are invalids, public officials, and Spaniards, or rather Minorcans.”
While here Emerson met another distinguished visitor of the time, Prince Napoleon Achille Murat, son of the King of Naples, and nephew of the great Napoleon. Murat came to Florida in 1824, purchased an estate south of St. Augustine, and was a frequent visitor to the city, living here for a time during the Seminole War. He later settled on a plantation near Tallahassee. St. Augustine began to prosper in a small way from its increasing number of visitors and winter residents. ”

“ Many who have never spent a winter in Florida think there is no religion, or churches either, which is quite the reverse, as the finest pulpit-talent in the North visit St. Augustine during the winter to rest and prepare for the arduous and responsible duties which await them on their return. The change of scenery and surroundings give these clergymen inspiration, when visitors often listen to some heavenly sermons. Imagine a Sabbath here in January, pleasant as a June holiday, North, among the roses, with a soft air floating through the house, which much resembles a new-born spring. ”

“ Under the dominion of the United States, St. Augustine soon became a health and pleasure resort. Without manufactures, with, as yet, no products of agriculture for export, its fine port is destitute of commerce, and its easy-going population have ever since depended upon the attractions offered by their city to invalids and persons of fortune, for the means with which to procure the necessaries and luxuries which its inhabitants enjoy in a fair measure. Strangers often wonder how the town is supported, but upon investigation it is found that the frugality of the people is remarkable. ”

“ Andrew Turnbull, an Englishman, had taken from the Island of Minorca about 1300 persons to colonize Florida, for whom he was appointed Parish{193} Priest and Don Bartolome Casanovas, of the St. Augustine order, Vicar of said jurisdiction. They had received their appointment from the Supreme Pontificate, not knowing to which Bishop this jurisdiction of Florida belonged, but it was their duty to appear by writing before the expiration of three years to the Prelate of the Apostolic chair in that diocese. ”

“ Augustine is sufficiently cold in winter to brace up the constitution, after being relaxed by summer heats. On the other hand, it is sufficiently warm to entice the invalid to be out of doors, and to present opportunities for open-air exercises. The east winds that prevail are tempered by the proximity of the Gulf Stream, a vast volume of warm water moving along the coast of Florida, whose effect is felt thousands of miles farther north in modifying the temperature of the British Isles. ”

“ Spain further strengthened its garrison and defenses. Spanish privateers, some of them based at St. Augustine, preyed upon English commerce and plantations along the coast to the north. During 1741 no less than thirty English prizes were brought into Matanzas Bay.
Oglethorpe momentarily expected the Spanish to launch a return attack upon Georgia. During June of 1742 a Georgia scout boat discovered fifteen sail in St. Augustine’s harbor. Soon more arrived, and a strong expedition composed of units from St. Augustine and Cuba set out for Georgia, with Florida’s Governor Montiano in command. ”

“ The peculiar location of St. Augustine, upon a narrow peninsula, provides a natural drainage that renders the place particularly desirable as a health resort. Through the winter rains are{181} infrequent, that being the dry season in Florida; whatever rain falls, however, is immediately absorbed by the sandy soil, and, in many parts of the city, the slope of the surface carries the rain-fall immediately into the tide-water environing the city, before it has time to be absorbed by the earth. ”

“ Santa Fé itself, next to St. Augustine, Florida, is the most ancient city in America, having been founded in 1605 by Spanish settlers on the site of a "pueblo" or Indian village of far-distant origin. Naturally, therefore, it was the centre of trade for years numbered by hundreds, and traders from afar brought their goods and supplies in boats up the rivers as far as navigable and then in teams across the dreary plains and over the steep Rockies to this one destination. ”

“ Williams and Mr. Hildreth, north of the city, have attractive places which are much visited by tourists. When the tide is low there is a short but quite hard drive along the edge of the St. Sebastian River. There is an interesting drive to a suburb west of the city called Ravenswood, where is a spring called from the famous Ponce de Leon. A great natural curiosity is a large spring in the ocean about three miles off the coast near Matanzas Inlet, eighteen miles south of St. Augustine. ”

“ How long the walls of the cathedral had been standing, before the change of flags, is unknown. In 1703 the king decreed an appropriation of $20,000 for the repair of the churches of St. Augustine injured by Colonel Daniel. In 1720 the crown sent $20,000 more, and in 1723 issued a decree to procure at once workmen and repair the convent, the church, and the walls of the city. In 1790 the king decreed the application of the rent from ten lots in Havana to finish the church. The inhabitants were urged to contribute in work or money ”

“ Augustine, especially during the summer season. Throughout the greater part of the year rare sport could be obtained by good shots who had the skill to lodge a rifle ball in the head of the porpoise as he rises to “blow.”
The Indian town located on the present site of St. Augustine was Seloy, and the same name seems to have been given to both of the rivers which unite to form the harbor. From the narration it would seem probable that the point where Laudonnère landed was upon Anastatia Island, the Indians having come over from the mainland on seeing the French ships in the offing. ”

“ Augustine’s Golden Age under Spain. Substantial coquina houses and tastefully decorated chapels lined its narrow streets. The inhabitants lived in relative ease and comfort. Social life was gay with colorful carnivals and religious celebrations rivaling those of Havana, Cuba. The capital was now a city of three thousand souls, and would soon be two centuries old. Florida seemed held firmly in the grip of Spain.
But English colonists to the north now numbered almost one million and one hundred thousand Frenchmen had settled in Canada. ”

“ The British divided the territory into two provinces—East Florida, with St. Augustine as its capital, and West Florida, with Pensacola as its capital.
New Orleans Mississippi River GEORGIA 1764 BOUNDARY 1763 BOUNDARY WEST FLORIDA ★Pensacola Mobile Apalachicola River EAST FLORIDA Chattahoochee ★St. Augustine New Smyrna
Records show that St. Augustine at the time of the Spanish evacuation had a population of 3,096—961 men, chiefly soldiers and officials; 798 women, and 1,337 children. The majority went to Cuba and the West Indies to find new homes. The English flag with its cross of St. ”

“ At St Augustine are car and machine shops of the Florida East Coast railway. Oyster canning and fishing are engaged in to some extent, and cigars are manufactured, but the city is important chiefly as a winter resort, the number of its visitors approximating 25,000 a year. ”

“ Augustine, immediately after it came under the jurisdiction of the United States, began to receive a most desirable addition to its population in a class of Americans of culture and means, who had long desired to avail themselves of the benefits and delights of its climate, but had hesitated about becoming citizens of the place under Spanish rule. I have heard old citizens say that there was no town of its size in the country where there were so many persons of refined tastes and independent means as in St. ”

“ The growing of oranges was an important industry in St. Augustine and its vicinity at this time. Many of its residents derived their principal income from the sale of the golden fruit, which was shipped by sloop to northern cities. The town was described by visitors as being virtually bowered in groves, and on each side of the Plaza were two rows of handsome orange trees, planted by Governor Grant during the English occupation. ”

“ It is needless to say that this treaty was never executed.
Forbes’s “Sketches,” published the year of the cession, gives an interesting account of the condition of St. Augustine at the end of the Spanish possession. It is related in these words: “The town, built in Spanish manner, forms an oblong square, or parallelogram; the streets are regularly laid out, but the buildings have not been put up to conform strictly to that rule. The streets are generally so narrow as to admit with difficulty carriages to pass each other. ”

“ Augustine and environs contained four thousand inhabitants, of whom eight hundred and forty-four were free blacks. The large number of free persons of color is accounted for by the fact that St. Augustine under the Spanish had been an asylum for all the runaway slaves from the neighboring colonies. ”

“ We may even buy, if we choose, some little black alligators, alive and brisk and about a foot long. As to fruit, we can get here the best oranges in the world, which come from the Indian River in the southern part of Florida, and many sorts of tropical fruits that are seldom brought to Northern cities.
If St. Augustine were like most American cities, and had been built by us or by our immediate ancestors, and presented an air of newness and progress and business prosperity, its delightful climate and its natural beauties would make it a most charming place to visit. ”