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[Illustration: Founding of St. Augustine By Pedro Menendez, September 8,
                                1565.]

                    [Illustration: Text decoration]




                                  THE
                               UNWRITTEN
                             HISTORY _of_
                           Old St. Augustine

                   Copied from the Spanish Archives
                      in Seville, Spain, by Miss
                           A. M. Brooks and
                              Translated
                                  by
                          Mrs. Annie Averette

                    [Illustration: Text decoration]




PREFACE


We take pleasure in presenting to our readers information connected with
St. Augustine never before published. It is composed largely of reports
and letters to the King of Spain, much of it written by Pedro Menendez
himself, and contains decrees and letters from the King to the Governor,
Generals and Officers having charge of the Florida Provinces. It has
been buried for over three centuries, in Seville, Spain. It is reliable,
having been written in old Spanish and guarded with care. It contains
facts for which many have sought in vain. The style in which it is
written is clear and comprehensive, without being diffuse or overdrawn.
It is the true history of our country.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER I--A. D. 1565                                                  1

Royal Decree from King Philip II in reference to further discovery and
settlement of Florida--Officers and number of men appointed to go in the
Armada--Reports from the Armada after leaving--Report from Pedro
Menendez to his Majesty--The English and French have already settled
here--Necessity of Spaniards taking entire control--Letter from the King
to Pedro Menendez--Tells of English and French vessels reported to have
sailed for these Provinces--King sends Fleet with sailors, soldiers and
supplies that the person of Pedro Menendez may be guarded properly as
Governor and Captain General of the Province of Florida.

CHAPTER II--A. D. 1565                                                13

Pedro Menendez gives an account to his Majesty of the Fort Matanzas
Massacre--Menendez and army escape from being made prisoners by the
French on account of a tornado--Because of the swollen river the Council
agree to make a land attack--Spaniards surprise and take Fort Matanzas
without loss of a single man--Killing over two hundred Frenchmen
and capturing Laudonnier--Find Indians enchanted with the
Lutherans--Shipwrecked Frenchmen found on coast--With hands tied behind
them are stabbed in the back by Spaniards.

CHAPTER III--A. D. 1598                                               27

Report of Fernando Miranda, agent to the King, complains of
Governor--Espionage over vessels--Gives account of work of
<DW64>s--Houses and churches built, land cleared--Soldiers assist in
repairing Fort--Report of Bartolome De Arguellas--Capture of rebellious
Indians--Sending some to Havana to be hanged, some to be
imprisoned--Casiques render obedience to the Governor who assures them
of his good intentions--Pedro Pertrene reports to the King of being
newly appointed to be Captain of a Garrison in Florida--Insufficiency of
salary to meet expenses--Because of long service to his Majesty implores
aid and satisfaction--Dona Maria Menendez, Casique, writes the King
asking aid in meeting the expenses of instructing the Indians in
Christianity and good government.

CHAPTER IV--A. D. 1598                                                34

Extract from official report made by Gonzales Menendez Canso, Governor
and Captain-General--Six priests of the San Franciscan order murdered by
Indians--Lieutenant Eciga sent to see if any of the priests are still
living--Hears of one--Is refused permission to see him--After much
persuasion and many threats Friar Fray Francisco is delivered--Manner of
the death of the others is investigated--Fray Francisco makes a
statement in regard to the death of the other priests, is forbidden by
the Canons of the Church to reveal all--Notary Public Juan Ximenes
swears to the investigation of several Indians through an
interpreter--Execution of Indian Lucas as participating in the murder of
Fray Blas.

CHAPTER V--A. D. 1600                                                 49

Letter from one of eleven monks sent out by his Majesty to spread the
gospel--Report eighty churches in different Missions--Indians lazy and
improvident--Avarice of Governor causes dissatisfaction--People desire
his immediate removal--Fray Lopez, a Missionary, has converted many
Indians in twelve years of service, among them Don Juan, a Casique, who
stands highly among his people--His influence quells many
uprisings--Juan Nunez Rios complains of Governor in a letter to the
King--Begs for an open Port that the people may go back and forth and
trade--An officer asks to be allowed to serve his Majesty
elsewhere--Fray Blas De Montes implores that he may be allowed to come
to Spain for retirement--Gives account of a fire which burned the church
among other houses--Slow progress among the Indians--Advices that a
Bishop be sent--Report of Gonzales Menendez Canso to his Majesty--A
shipmaster bearing dispatches shipwrecked in storm--Governor aids him
from the Royal Treasury--Auditor from his Majesty arrives--Reports the
Garrison abounding in fruits and grain--Grieves over the death of the
Christian Indian Don Juan--Return of Fray Lopez from New Spain in good
health--Reports the money brought to establish a hospital--More money
needed for Garrison expenses--Francisco Redondo Villegas, Officer of
Customs, is not treated with the respect due his Royal Office by the
Governor--Reports affairs in a muddled condition--Soldiers well
drilled--Much land under cultivation--Wages small--Rations insufficient.

CHAPTER VI--A. D. 1605-1608                                           67

Minutes of a Bull or Bill of Supplication to be presented to the Holy
See asking for concession of graces and powers for Catholic residents in
Florida--Minorcan families brought priest and monk with them--Wish new
privileges and graces granted--In regard to a Cedula from his Majesty,
which instructs as to duties on wine--Priests and Monks of Tasco use
Municipal monies for their own interests--Advises a change in the office
of Treasurer of the Royal Chest--Vessels carry important papers for his
Majesty lost--Favors shown to Don Francisco gratifies the people--Letter
from Pedro Ibarra to his Majesty says there is not sufficient support
for the Garrison--Solicits aid for a poor widow--Soldiers find amber in
a fish, for which Menendez exacts a duty--French and English pirates
cause much anxiety--A few captured, some imprisoned and ten
hanged--Visiting Indian chiefs so impressed with the religious services
and processions that they ask for friars to instruct their people--Asks
for assistance in building a fort at the mouth of Miguel Moro--Endeavors
to find the source of river San Mateo and Lake Miami--A garrison of
warlike people--Proposition to establish a Manager of the Inquisition to
subjugate and control them--Does not wish to let certain priest and
captain--Report of Juan Menendez Marquez--Deplores the decision to
reduce the garrison--Advises a return to the policy of Pedro Menendez,
his cousin--Desires permission to come to Spain to more fully lay the
condition before his Majesty.

CHAPTER VII--A. D. 1622-1640                                          82

Report of Antonio Benavides to his Majesty--The Spanish King instructs
the establishment of friendly relations with the English of the
Carolinas--Don Francisco Menendez with other officers sent out--Mission
fails owing to the English not having yet received instructions from
London--Requested the removal of an English fort built on Spanish
territory--Refusal--The matter fully laid before his Majesty--Report of
Luis De Rojas--A Frigate sent out to assist a fleet in bringing
supplies, run down by an enemy, boat stripped and burned, soldiers and
crew escape to shore and finally reach the garrison--They collect
Indians and soldiers and return--The enemy take to their launches and
escape--Forty-seven persons only saved from a Spanish Fleet which had
been captured by a Dutch Fleet--Recommends that his Majesty build a fort
at the bar of the place called Jega--Report of Luis Ussitinez to his
Majesty--The Mandate of the King carried out for prayer to Almighty God
for the success of the King’s arms taken up against France--At a meeting
of the Board of the City Council of Havana appears a clergyman of the
Holy Office of the Inquisition with an Auto from the Señor Comissionado,
Don Francisco de las Casas, containing instructions as to certain
ceremonies in connection with the Inquisition.

CHAPTER VIII--A. D. 1655-1657                                         96

An anonymous letter to his Majesty--Death of Governor Benito Ruid
Salazer--Two others appointed to serve _pro tem._ die suddenly of a
contagious disease--Certain related officials gather in the night and
elect Don Pedro Ruitinez Governor--A distressing condition follows--The
people’s money squandered--Officials intimidated and abused--Material
sent for repairing Fort used to barter with the Indians for amber and
the money used by the Governor and Treasurer--Consults his own pleasure
as to obedience to church laws and vows--A report from Diego Rebolledo,
1657, as to the necessity of guarding the Ports of the Province owing to
pirates and as a prevention from the enemy entering and entrenching
themselves in some of the distant but rich Provinces--The Friars object
to the fortifications as the Spaniards would <DW44> the conversion of
the Indians--The Governor thinks the real reason is, that because of the
present condition the Friars are the masters of the Indians--A Friar
reports to his Majesty that owing to the Governor insisting upon some
Indian chiefs carrying heavy burdens of corn, when there were vassals
for such labor--The chiefs cause an uprising--They march into the
Garrison and hang the Governor--The Island of Jamaica heavily fortified
by the English who intend taking Cuba, so it is rumored.

CHAPTER IX--A. D.        1662-1670                                   107

Alonzo Aranqui y Cortez reports the auditing of accounts and condition
of the Royal Treasury--Finding of large nuggets in a hill, supposed to
be a silver mine--Goes to investigate--Report of Juan Cebadilla to his
Majesty of having sent out the King’s orders concerning who shall keep
the keys of the Royal chest--Administration of the <DW64>s--Harshness
shown the Royal employees--Francisco Guerra Vega reports a Captain of
the Garrison for indecency and offense to his superiors, for which same
he was reprimanded and imprisoned as a warning--Afterward given his
liberty--The King to the Captain-General of Provinces of
Florida--Instructions as to the continuance of the passage to Marcana
Guale--Founding of the town of Santiago--As to the performance of
certain duties by soldiers, for which money shall be paid--Soldiers
shall be permitted to raise their crops, and not employed in personal
work for the Governor--The Governor shall look after the wants and needs
of his people--By order of the King, 1670.

CHAPTER X--A. D. 1671-1673                                           112

Pedro Menendez received the title of Governor by right of conquest, and
Captain-General and Commander of the Fleet by conference of his Majesty
for faithful, valorous service--Don Martin Menendez receives the title
of perpetual Governor by right of inheritance--Important papers burned
at Simancas--Manuel De Mendoza reports to his Majesty as to the designs
of the English enemy--Discovery of the South Sea--Condition of this
Garrison and other Provinces--Implores aid in completing
fortifications--Report to his Majesty by Francisco De La Guerra y Vega
concerning an Englishman taken prisoner in the Province of Guale--One of
a crew sent out from a settlement of English at St. Elena--This man who
was second in authority was confined in prison on soldiers’ rations--An
effort made to break up the English settlement, which was unsuccessful.

CHAPTER XI--A. D. 1675                                               121

Letters to the King from the Governor Pablo Ita Salazer--Oath of office
administered in the tower of the old Fort which is rapidly going into
ruins--The Garrison needing supplies and ammunition--No warehouses, and
owing to the distance and frequency of storms delaying supplies, the
people are forced to hunt in the woods for roots to appease their
hunger--The Fort in danger from pirates--Ammunition and guards exposed
to the fatalities of the weather--Pleads for more money to complete the
Castle--Its great importance--A pentagonal shape recommended--The
Viceroy of Spain fails to send the ten thousand dollars--One hundred men
needed to guard the Castle--Great danger from pirates--Two hundred
leagues from Havana and five hundred from New Spain.

CHAPTER XII--A. D. 1675                                              130

An effort made to dislodge the English from Santa Elena--Governor
ordered to complete the Castle and defense of the Garrison--Yucatan
families--Master weavers asked for to settle in Florida--Appalache
considered the best Province for settlement--Supplies sent from New
Spain--Barracks to be made in the Fort for the soldiers--Money sent to
finish the new Castle, also supplies for the soldiers--The neighbors to
assist in building the new Castle--Repairs on the bulwarks of
Guale--Increase of troops for St. Augustine--A fortress ordered built at
Appalache.

CHAPTER XIII--A. D. 1680-1685                                        136

Letter from Pablo Ita Salazer to his Majesty--Indians of the Province of
Guale declare themselves friendly to the English, and make war upon the
Spaniards of the Island of St. Catherine--They surprise the six
sentinels, killing all but one who escaped and gave warning--The people
gather in the convent of a Friar and defend themselves from day light
until four o’clock, when aid reaches them from the Garrison of St.
Augustine, whereupon the enemy retires--The natives of the Island
greatly alarmed--Disquieting news of the intentions of the enemy upon
this Garrison--Implores aid from the King quickly, that the English may
be ejected from the land--Don Juan Marquez Cabrera, Governor and
Captain-General of Florida--Gives account to his Majesty of hostilities
in the Provinces--Two Fleets, French and English, going and coming from
Havana--Seize Fort Matanzas and, after plundering, burn it to the
ground--Is now being rebuilt--Great depredations committed up and down
the coast by the enemy--Pushing the work on the Castle--Grieved over its
slow progress, owing to lack of workmen--Begs to be allowed to retire
because of age and long service--To Charles II, our principal Casique,
the King--From the people of the territory of Habalache--The King to the
Governor and Captain-General of Florida--Concerning ten <DW64>s from St.
George, who asked for the water of baptism--A Sergeant-Major from St.
George comes to claim them--Because they have become Christians the
Spanish King decides to buy them--After receiving a receipt they are to
be set at liberty, each one given a document to that effect--The King
reprimands Don Diego Quiroga for not attending to these matters--Orders
a full account to be sent as soon as it is accomplished.

CHAPTER XIV--A. D. 1689-1698                                         147

Letter of the Governor and Captain-General of Florida, Don Diego Quiroga
y Losada, to his Majesty--Giving an account of a custom obtaining in the
Garrison which endangers the safety of the people--When the Host is
taken out in the night to administer communion to the dying the bells
are rung until its return which is often hours, thus preventing the
hearing the firing of the sentries across the river who are instructed
to fire as often as there are numbers of vessels sighted--This danger
fully laid before the Priest, who refused to discontinue the ringing of
the bells, notwithstanding the city has been in arms awaiting the enemy
for some days--In a Cedula by his Majesty of July 18th, 1674, he asks
for a statement concerning the order and place of the Holy Tribunal of
the Inquisition--These questions answered by Severino Mausaneda March
17th, 1690--An account of a military review in St. Augustine by Governor
Don Diego Quiroga y Losada--Also recounts the great advantage to the
City by building a sea wall to extend from the Fort the entire length of
the City thus securing it against the sea which at present comes up to
the houses during a storm--The soldiers and citizens subscribe ten
thousand dollars, and the King is petitioned for aid that the citizens
seeing his Majesty’s interest will be encouraged to proceed--The King
rebukes Governor Don Diego Quiroga y Losada of the city of St.
Augustine for unjustly taxing the Indians--Misappropriating funds sent
by agreement for canvas and provisions for them--Not attending to their
wants and comfort and treating them alone as vassals--Extracts from the
investigations of the Council as to alleged excesses committed by the
Governor Don Francisco Moral Sanchez--His ill treatment of a Captain of
Grenadiers--Acting according to his own will and not to military
law--The Governor’s removal desired--A report according to the King’s
command concerning affairs under Governor Don Francisco Morales
Sanchez--Investigation shows that the facts set forth in the different
papers and petitions sent to his Majesty to have been only too
true--Impossible to put upon paper the strange, divers and extraordinary
excesses committed by this Governor--The abuses sufficient to chill the
soul and congeal the blood.

CHAPTER XV--A. D. 1708-1723                                          163

Francisco Córcoles y Martinez in a letter to his Majesty reports all
possible measures taken to prevent the destroying of this
Province--Indians from the villages bordering on the Carolinas, aided by
the English, each day carry off certain families, Christians and
natives, more than ten thousand having been carried off to
date--Probably sold into slavery--A Treaty urged with the English of the
Carolinas, else there will be a continuance of hostilities and the
spread of the Gospel impeded--In a second letter the Governor gives an
account of certain Friars in a dispute with the Priest of the Parish
concerning the rights to marry soldiers, Spaniards, Indians and
half-breeds--The matter laid before the Governor, who in turn refers it
to his Majesty--Recommends the abolishing of all Heathen customs--By a
Royal dispatch, A. D. 1721, the Governor of Florida is commanded to go
in person to the Governor of the Carolinas and arrange with him a Treaty
of Peace between the English and Spanish of those Provinces
adjoining--Which same was carried out as far as possible--Trinkets and
clothing sent to the Casiques and chiefs of Apalachicola as
commanded--Indians restless making preparations for war--English
spreading dissatisfaction--A Council of war decides to send a vessel to
Havana to the Governor asking for men, arms and provisions.

CHAPTER XVI--A. D. 1736-1739                                         174

Governor Señor Montiano in a letter to his Majesty says: It is reported
that Don Diego Oglethorpe has said openly “that should he receive orders
from his Government to fix the boundary lines between the Spanish
possessions and the Carolinas, he would so delay its execution that
there should never be a sign of these limits”--Montiano thinks “it will
be impossible to ever discuss matters of importance with such a man and
it will be best that he be removed”--An Indian, Juan Ygnacio de las
Reyes, gives himself up to the English, under pretext of having killed
an Indian, to gain information concerning the strength and intentions of
the English toward the Spanish--After misleading the English as to the
strength and numbers in the Spanish fortifications, he makes his escape
and returns to this Province--Statement of what has been ordered for the
aid of Florida Provinces--The dislodging of the enemy from certain
settlements on its territory up to 1674--Dispatch of 1675 commands that
if the <DW64> slaves sent to Havana have not already been sold, they
shall be sent to Florida to be put to work upon the construction of the
Castle to relieve the Indians.

CHAPTER XVII--A. D. 1741-1743                                        185

A letter from the Governor Francisco Córcoles y Martinez--Conduct of the
Christians worse than the Heathen--Soldiers guarded while cutting timber
to repair the Fort--The Castle in a tumble-down condition--The Garrison
to be maintained for the propagation of the Holy Gospel and to shelter
the workers of the Apostolic faith--A paper of representation to his
Majesty concerning certain properties willed to the Royal Treasury by
Don Francisco Menendez, and designated by the King for use as
hospitals--The Royal Officers of the Province think these properties
should be sold at auction, and the proceeds applied to the back pay of
soldiers who are suffering and in need.

CHAPTER XVIII--A. D. 1770-1771                                       191

A letter of resolution to his Majesty concerning a letter of appeal made
to the Governor and Bishop of Havana asking for patent and Holy oil to
administer baptism and extreme unction to the Catholic families taken
from the Island of Minorca by the English--These families bringing with
them Don Pedro Campos, Doctor of Sacred Theology, as a Parish Priest,
and Don Bartolome Casanovas of the St. Augustine order as Vicar--These
same claiming to have received their appointment from the Supreme
Pontificate, not knowing to which Bishop the jurisdiction of Florida
belonged--In order that a thorough investigation may be made the whole
matter was referred to his Majesty--Letter of the Archbishop of Valencia
concerning this matter--Letter of the Bishop of Cuba to his Majesty,
expressing gratification over the zeal of his Majesty in this
matter--Advices that the privileges be conferred--Letter of the Bishop
of Minorca giving information concerning same.

CHAPTER XIX--A. D. 1771                                              204

The opinion of the Judge--Having examined the different letters from the
Bishop and made a thorough investigation into the matter concerning the
granting of certain privileges to these Priests of the Minorcan families
of the English colony of Florida, decides that these privileges should
be granted as per reasons set forth in his written opinion, Madrid,
1771--Bishop of Cuba for the Council to Dr. Don Pedro Campos and the
Rev. Father Bartolome Casanovas, extending to these same Priests the
title of Parish Priest and Vicar--Also sending a box containing three
flasks of sacred oil--Hopes soon to be able to send a more extended
prorogation of other powers--King solicited these powers from the Court
of Rome--Asks for a detailed report of the number of families and
condition of the congregation.

CHAPTER XX--A. D. 1773                                               214

Proceedings of the Council at the Court of Rome concerning the appeal
made by the Parish Priest and Vicar of the Catholic families established
in the English colony of Florida--The different Bishops’ letters--Also
those of the Priest and Vicar asking for patent and further privileges
and