Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1875-03-22
LETTER FROM FLORIDA.
ST.. AUGUSTINE, Feb. 20, 1875.

Ed. Nonitor In our ride from the
station | saw enough to strengthen the
curiosity which had already taken pos
session of me. and | almost rebelled be-
cause night would come so soon and shut
out all the scene before us but resign
ing myself to what could not help. |
fell diligently to work on an old history
| chanced to find, determined to hunt
out of it every scrap of information con-
cerning this antiquated city that it con-
tanned and as, no doubt. there are some
of your readers who are not perfectly fa-
miliar with the past history of ST. Au-
gustine, will, with your permission,
recall few of the leading incidents con-
nected with her birth and stormy life.
About the year 1864. company of
two hundred Huguenots settled near Ft.
Caroline, on the ST. Johns river. about
ten miles from its mouth, having forsak-
en- home, friends, kindred-everything,
to come to this new world where they
might be unmolested. but hated by the
Catholics because they dared to worship
God in manner not in accordance with
the pope's orders. A year later Philip
III. of Spain, equipped thirty-six vessels,
and, with twenty-six hundred men, Don
Pedro Menandez started out to found q
colony and exterminate the little settle
ment at Ft. Caroline. On the 28th OF
August, 1866, he landed with his forces
at what is now st. Augustine He saw
at once the natural strength of his posi-
ton. for back of him lay the unbrokeu
wilderness, with its almost impossible
tangle of underground and before him
the harbor with its one entrance. Surely
he could hold this place against any who
dared attack him, and taking possession
in the name of Philip, King of Spain
he at once planted his colony and Sc
about Strengthening its defenses. Hast
ening his work, he summoned strons
force and marched across the country t.
do the work set for him. Surprising th'
French colony his task was an easy one
and he stopped not until the life of ev
cry man, woman and child had been sac
ri6ced-killing them, he wrote, mot be
cause they are Frenchmen, but becaus
they are heretics and enemies of God.
That he was no unwilling leader i
this hellish work, is evident from hi
subsequent career; for, on returnln
from TT. Caroline he learned that othe
Frenchmen had been seen. Huntin
them out, he found they were a porto
of the company which had started ou
under Ribault, to join the colony at F
Caroline, but which had been shipwrecl
ed and had taken refuge near st. Al
gustine. They told their story of suffe1
ing-enough to move heart of stone
but Menandez planned their murde
while he pretended to pity their cond
tion. Boldly telling them he had slaugl
tered the garrison at Ft. Caroline,
promised. if they would give themselv
up as prisoners he would "do with the
whatever God should of His grace d
rect" They were helpless and the
only chance for life was through hin
but they leaned on a treacherous sta
and found their graves nearer the
pathway than they thought, for with
two days the Spanish soldiers, under o
ders of their cruel leader, put every o.
of them to death This wholesale mu
der was succeeded by the capture of o
hundred and fifty more of the shi
wrecked crew, all of whom were put
death. An old man said to me: ''Wh
l was boy, seventy years ago, the pc
r. pie called the Matanzas river the riv
". of blood; kdon't know why they did II
81 Well may it have been called the riy
of blood, for it drank the life blood
Is more than three hundred of the men
France.
Two years later a French adventur
". Dominique de Gourgues. accompani
by small force of volunteers, aveng
lge his murdered countrymen by attack
as this Spanish colony, burning their DIVE
'ne ings and hanging all whom he took
prisoners mot because they are Spa
- iards, but because they are traitors, y
~ bers and murderers." Unfortunate
Menendez was absent in Spain at Il
no time, and thus escaped the just puni
MS ment for his fearful crimes, living ur
llu 1874, and receiving from the King
Spain. high honors for the heavy bio
Al "struck in defence of catholicism" Th
of early on this continent was begun
the contest between catholicism and prot
ats, tantism-between a religion based
=. and supported by the ignorance of m
vic of its followers. and religion which
DE- lows every man to think for hims
ife. Bloodshed and cruelty have walked ha
in hand with Jesuitical catholicism
.nts centuries. and to rule or ruin has b
sti- the cry from the watch tower of SUI
into stition. No wonder that John h
1Ase cried. mo liberation for those who
the bidding of the Pope" Ne won
70 the clear-beaded Presbythian Scots
1T their life and liberty in danger VI