The Opelousas courier., 1884-04-26
ST AUGUSTINE.
Interesting Description OF the oldest
Town i'm n United 9tstes.

Interesting Description OF the oldest
Town I'm the United States.
A Philadelphia Ledger correspond
emit writes from Florida: A short
journey through the pine woods south
award from Jacksonville to the sea
coast took us to st Augustine, the old
est town in this country, founded by
the Spaniards under Menendez in 1865.
1t is located in a fiat, sandy region
where a little inlet from the sea comes
in behind a long narrow island-called
Anastasia Island-whicg makes a nat.
ural hreakwater in front of b eharbor.
It was here that that sturdy old Span.
ish buccaneer, Juan Ponce de Leon il
said to have landed when he came oves
to discover the fountain of perpetual;
youth" in 1872, and named the country
Florida. It is now a winter watering
place where the population of about
1900 is swollen to 1000 or 5000 by
| Northern tourists. The streets are
very narrow, some of them being only
a few feet wide, and having balconies
overhanging from the old houses. There
are no sidewalks, for the streets were
used in former times only by pedestri-
ans, and were pavel with a curious
stone formed of shells, called coquina
that was qaarried on the island and
hardened when exposed to the air
The old houses were also built Of this
stone. Two or three streets running
parallel with the shore crossed at right
angles by a few others, and a wider
street in front bordered by a sea wall
make up the town. AT the northern
end is Fort Marion, and at the south
ern end, about a mile distant, is the
Government barracks, formerly a
Spanish convent. When the Spaniards
Lrst landed they built a wooden fort,
subsequently replaced by Fort San
Marco, the present work, whose name
was changed to Fort Marion, when the
United States acquired Florida in 1921.
It was sixty years in building, being
completed in 1856, and IS of coquina,
covering about four acres. a Fashioned
work shaped like a trapezium, with
moat and outWorks and ~inclosing a
parade ground some one hundred feet
square, surrounded by large easements
An old Spanish inscription tells of its
building. and in n of the easements
is an ancient chapel, while others 0
tain dungeons about which horrible |
tales are told. The outWorks are |
ruined, though a few old cannon
are still mounted upon them. The
fort is not %garrisoned and is gradually
into decay. From this fort
down to the barracks the protecting
sea wall stretches, and behind it is the
town, a mixture of ancient buildings
and modern watering-place hotels,
with orange groves and foliage inclos-
ing them. A part of the old city wall.
with the Spanish gateway. remains,
also the quaint little cathedral,
with its bells hung in inches in the
and within the silver lamp that
is kept constantly burning in conn
of an Indian religious
custom. The Spanish Governors
palace has been m~odernized into a pro-
sale Post-ofice, while we gaze with
eve upon the outside of the little
square coqaina building labeled the
oldest house." which the proprietor
to get US to look into, .sprics
twenty-five cents" but in vain. The
barracks, which is a reconstructed
convent, ere comfortable buildings,
Tonted by gardens Of orange trees. In
rOnt of the center of the town is the
,lsga, with two monuments, a COM
generating the Spanish Constitution,
1872. and the other the Con-
ederate dead. The latter. an attract
We shaft. contains an adaptation of
Jackson's last words: sThey
AVE crossed over the river and rest
lnder the shade Of the trees. The
Id slave Market" with its surmount-
ng belfry. fronts on the plaza, a small
nd curious structure with a wooden
oof. The most solemn relic of all,
loWeyer, ism the cemetery adjoining
he barracks, where q single shaft and .
hree white pyramids tell the horrid
ale of Major Dade's massacre during
he Seminole War. That gallant
,flicer, with I07 men, were ambushed
nd massacred in 1885 by 800 Indians, !
nd their remains were afterwards
'rought here and inferred.
A Substitute for Matches.
Countless accid snts, as everyone