The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1873-03-27
Letter from Florida.
Correspondence OF the Journal /.

not inclined to wait six hours for the
regular train. Our train consisted of a
platform car, with two extemporised
benches on it, one boy for engineer and
The distance from Tocoi to this place is
fifteen miles our train ran it in three
hours. On the passage We discovered an
obstruction on the rail in the shape of a
piece of plank; our engineer, with won
dertul presence of mind,' stopped his
horse, got off and kicked it out of the
way. OF all the railroads have vet seen,
the St. John's-the rails for two miles be-
ing iron, for the other thirteen woods
the cheapest in every sense of the word ;
but 1t is the road over which persons visit
ing St Augustine have to pass.
st. Augustine is. probably, the oldest
settlement in the United States; dating
back as it does to 1866, when a colony of
Spaniards located here But little is
accurately known of its early history that
''ttlt mis- q val anu blOout page Ill liit
volume of the past. 1t was burned by Sir
Francis Drake in 1886; sacked and rob-
bed by an English pirate, Davis, in 1868 ;
a portion OF it burned and its plantations
ravaged by the allied forces of the Eng
fish and Greek Indians under Gov. Moore
OF ST. Carolina in 1902: attacked by the
combined ~ D.
of the same State, in 1925. the growing
crops ON its plantations destroyed the
buildings in its vicinity burned and its in
habitants driven to seek refuge in the
castle In l740 it was beseiged and bonn
barded for some twenty days from Anas-
tasia Island by Gov. Oglethope, founder
Of the colony of Georgia. The marks of
ms cannon balls are still to be seen on
The eastern wall OF Fort Marion, then
called the Castle of San Marco In 1862
it was taken possession of by the Union
forces without any opposition, and the fort
gawisoned by troops from New Hamp-
shire.
r. = ''ulit va q ptlllfjShIt INiliH litlW cen
The St, Sebastian and Matanzas rivers. It's
resident population is about two thousand :;
about the same it was in 1740, the garrison
included Between it and the Atlantic
lies Anastasia Island. a narrow tract of
land about eighteen miles long. There is
bar at the entrance to the harbor, the
depth of water OF it rarely exceeding five
feet The buildings are principally OF
eoguina, coglOmorate or concretion of
minute sea shells, the principal locality
OF which is on the island 1t is quarried
n blocks OF about the same dimensions a.
me stones used in the construction of
granite buildings with us The streets.
with the exception of lew of modern
Hllgln, are narrow, varying from twelve
10 twenty feet IN width; few Of them are
wide enough to admit of carriages pass-
ing each other. Treasury street. 50
called, leaves Main street with width of
seven feet, and gains one foot by the time
i reaches Charlotte street. On the front
of many of the older houses there are
balconies from the second story, extend
ing one-third of the way across and over
the street; here and there in the widest
streets you find a sidewalk on one side,
TWO and very rarely three feet wide; single
lille IS the rule of locomotion here. MANY
OF the old coquina houses are abandoned
and gradually going to ruin There are
few beautiful houses of modern date
built by Northemers who come here to
reside Ton the greater part of the year.
Take ii for all in all, it is a queer Old
place; there is nothing like it in the United
States; it is an old fragment of an old
city of The Old World, drifted across the
Atlantic and stranded on the coast OF
lorda. 1t must be beautiful by moon
light; but as the moon is absent on visit
Just now and ] cannot wait for her return,
| must lose the sight; but there will be
more soon-tor the lunatics leave behind
me
Near the centre of the city is the Plaza,
or common, as we should call it. 1t is
oblong in form, inclosed with a fence,
contains large number of ornamented
trees, water oak, red cedar, pride of India
or Chinaberry, &c, is three hundred and
ten feet in length and one hundred and
thirty in width. In the centre of it is a
monument of coquina, square at its base.
about eighteen feet in height inscribed
on it are the words, "Plaza de la Consti
)utIon,' and another inscription in Spanish
setting forth, in substance, that it was
erected in 1872 in commemoration of the
constitutional form of Government then
recently adopted in Spain.
Opposite the eastern end ofthe Plaza. on
the north, stands the St. Augustine Hotel.
from the roof of which the best view of
the city can be had. Opposite the western
end is the building. quaint. old fine
stained edifice, which was formerly occu-
pied as dwelling by the Spanish Cover
nors. buf Is now occupied as a Custom
Between the Plaza and the river. on the
east, is the Market House, about sixty bv
twenty-tour feet its foundation is coquina.
a few feet high, foored with brick and on
It are fourteen pillars, or columns, seven
on each side, built of the same material
and over it is thrown a wooden roof: the
ends and sides are all open. I have never
seen any sign of life or business IN or
around it; all The meats exposed for sale
are required to be disposed of. in some
mode or other. at a very early hour in the
morning.
Opposite the Plaza, westerly from the
Hotel, is the Roman Catholic Cathedral =;
venerable edifice in its exterior dark
and gloomy in its interior; its ceiling is
painted, its floor made of concrete. The
walls are adorned with paintings; none