Litchfield enquirer., 1876-01-20
Spanish Footorfnts os, American l. s2aAa@t 9s ii Sands. .Gei s. 9Ti5
THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY yIeLDs UP ITS s1-l ,s CRETs TO THE DAYLIGHT OF THE NINE
 TEENTH.-THE WINTER OF OUR DIs-
 CONTENT MADE GLORIOUS SUM .f*
 MFR BY THE SOUTHERN SUN.

Fq ChHA0 AO HE OaA AAhSz<aA eOc -sAIs
 TEENTH.-THE WINTER OF OUR DIs-
 CONTENT MADE GLORIOUS SUM .s*
 MFR BY THE SOUTHERN SUN. =
 ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla, Jan. 3. 1876.
 Christmas greens look strangely in an August temperature, albeit the gray, hanging moss is full of Druidical sugges- tions and 82 degrees seems rather high New Years day thermometer. But then, St. Augustine fell asleep so long ago that it may easily have confounded all seasons and forgotten all times. A ''musty flavor of antiquity" pervades the streets and the apparently indestructible eoQuina is be- ginning to sucenmb to the conquering and crumbling hand of time. .sllA 'f'n4 s
 Take a walk with me this breezy after noon from the Plaza (high-sounding name for little square } with its surroundings of Post-office and Court House, Episcopal Church, Spanish Cathedral. St. Angus tine Hotel, and markets, along Bay street and the sea- all to Fort Marion. It has been hot all day, but the sea breeze comes in deliciously across the bay, curling the usually placid waters into tiny white breakers, while from across Asstasia Island. on the other side. comes glorious looming of the invisible surf. .s.
 The Sea wall, nearly mile in length, forms pleasanter footway than the loose shifting sand upon which the city is built, and along it's narrow top may be seen at all hours of the day, northern idlers who like ourselves have nothing to do but while away the time of their exile from the home comforts of the frozen North. This wall was begun in 1890, and repaired and capped with solid stones from 1887 to 1842 it's top is about four feet wide.
 The old fort in which this wall termi- mates, stands at the northeast end of the town. It is built of "coquina," a curious species of rock. composed of conglomerate shells, pliable and easily worked when first dug out of the sands of Aastasia Island, but like the Roman cement, be- coming harder and harder as years length. en on into centuries. It was originally called, "San Juan +den Pinos;" the name afterwards changed to that of ''San Mar co, and, in 1921, when Spanish rule was for that of the United States, it was called Fort Marion. A visit to San Marco, which name we prefer, is nothing unless ''the old sergeant" Mir. Mcclure. is ones cicerone He is introduced to us to day, and from his wen-considered-ye might almost say stereotypcd - mono Iogue, we draw the following particulars
 The fort covers about an acre of ground and would accommodate thousand men and hundred guns; it has however been for sixteen years, and is now used only as prison, the U. s. Barracks being at the extreme end of the town. It is four-bastioned fort. the bastion-walls being in some places about eighty feet thick. A broad and deep fosse, eighteen feet of which have been filled up with sand, surrounds it, and the remains of inner and outer barriers, barbican, draw bridge, portcullis, etc., are still to be seen in good preservation. Across the entrance is Lunette, which not only completely protects it, but commands the town and gives perhaps the best view of the white gables, overhanging verandas, orange groves, and rose gardens of old and new Augustine.
 Over the main entrance is an inscrip- ton in Spanish of which the following is } translation. '.t ... ... sut .
 "Don Ferdinand the VI. being King of Spain, and the Field Marshall Don Alfon- 30 Fernando Hereda being Governor and Capt. General of this place, St. Angus tine, of Florida and it's Province, this Fort was finished in the year 1756. The works were directed by the Capt. Engi- neer, Don Pedro de Brazos Y. Garay." -.
 Our garrulous old guide however in- forms us that the fort was commenced in 1886, being at first constructed of pine trees set up as palisades and without ditches.
 Tho walls containing the casemates, through which we pass, are about twenty or thirty feet thick, and the central square yard is large enough for the drill of reg lment At it's farther side is a wide door, said to have been formerly the chapel en- trance, and above is much defaced table the Royal arms of Spain and some un-decipherable ecclesiastical em. blems. Next to this is 8 large, dark room with curved counter of coquina at which it is supposed stores were anciently served out, which we pass with cursory glance and pause at door in the corner of the northeast bastion. ''Now," says our guide, II am going to show you the hor- TOTS, and he hands each of us lighted. candle. bidding us follow him, which we do through one or two dark chambers till We come into a lofty, narrow passage-way with vaulted roof where we are com manded to halt Here we are told the ceiling gave way during some repairs in 1885 and the light thus admitted showed a large stone in the side-wall with fresher masonry than the rest. The engineer in charge ordered his masons to remove the stone, when low arch not three feetIhigh was discovered and through this we now enter dungeon. perhaps 12x6 and feet high with arched roof When this was first discovered there was found, attached to the end wall, two rusty iron cages con- taining each 8 bundle of bones, one of them recognized as those of q female, while on further investigation the skele- ton of a man was found manacled to the wall of the higher dungeon outside. To what horrors of past centuries the flesh less lips might bear witness we shall never