Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1892-03-11

ST. AUGUSTINE.
Its History, Ruins, st. Marion. The
Old City Gates, The Plaza, &c.


''The scenes of many hard fought Gght,.
or many u siege when Spanish might
Was DER the land in i,s decay
1t hath beauty to live away,
Tha quaint old Spanish city,
st. Augustine is the Mecca of
the southern tourists pilgrimage.
So much of history attaches to
the place, and 80 much of beauty
in the added improvements of
later years, that it is spot from
which we turn only to turn back
again and look at what we now see,
and ponder over all that has oc-
cured to render every stone, every
tree, every house, stories in them
selves could they but speak to tell
US of all of which they have been
parts. Persons of all classes have
given their need of praise to the
glories of St. Augustine.
Founded by the Spaniards SO
long ago as 1865, 1t has the oldest
authentic history of any city in
the United States. 1t is site
well chosen for city that needed
to be defended as did those early
settlements; to the West lies the
San Sebastian, ON the east the en-
trance to its hsrbor is protected
by Anastasia Island, and connect
ing the bay with the river, was the
moat which at high tide was filled.
Back of this moat were the en-
bankments, the ruins of which are
still seen near the San Sebastian.
The entrace to the city was through
the city gate, the ruins of which
now forms one of st. Augustine's
most interesting attractions. AT
first these pillars that stand like
monuments of the past, are disap-
pointing; one fails to allow for
the growth of the city up to and
beyond them, hence it does not
seem possible that the gate whose
place they mark, WAS so much of
a protection in earlier times. In
the sentry boxes back of these
pillars stood the watchmen, the
drawbridge across the moat was
raised, aud behind the wall that
leads from either pillar, were sta
toned the troops. Many fusi-
lade and battery have the walls
and gate withstood, thus proving
in truth ga rock of defence" The
pillars to this gate, and the city
walls were built of coquina, a
peculiar shell conglomeration pro-
duced abundantly from the qua
ries on Anastasia Island. Nearly
all of the oldest buildings are
constructed of this stone.
When the pold buccanneer, Sir
Francis Drake, came sailing up
the eastern coast of Florida on
what he thought unexplored
waters, the old watch tower at the
entrace to Mantanzas Inlet greet
ed his vision and later was taken
by him. The discovery of the
: coquina quarries was boon tc
the Spaniards, and they immedi.
ately set about the construction OF
a fort that was afterward known
as San Marco. Under various
names and forms that old fort, the
ruins of which still stand, has ex-
-tru for about three centuries
the material of which 1t WAS built
could easily withstand the crude
weapons of q more remote lerlod
but It proved of no effect curing
the late civil war because it shat
tered SO easily.
In charge OF this fort is al old
Sergeant v no never tires OF telling
of the history in which it hs
: played a part. So many blood
curdling stories he tells and s.
often does lie tell them, that he
has really come to believe the
most appalling of them. Volumes
could be written of this oldsfort
and still the half remain untold
When it passed into the hands of
the United States the name was
: changed to Ft. Marion in honor
of the revolutionary hero. Much
has been said about this change of
name but when we reflect that in
: the veins cf Marion flowed
Huguenot blood, it simply illus
irates the ironv of fate, that the
fort whose garrison slaughtered so
numerically his ancestors, should
now bear his name.
Within the walls of this fort
were at one time confined the In
dian chief Oceola and his COM
panion Coacoochee, who escaped
through a ventilator nine inches
wide by thirty long. This ventila-
tor WAS eignteen feet from the
casemate where they were contin-
ed. To reach it, Oceola stood OF
his companions shoulders and as
high up as lie could reach drove a
knife Tito the stone wall to form
a peg to which he might attach
rope. He found that his head
would pass through the opening
but because of tie aldermanic
proportions the old rule. "where
the head will pass the body will
follow" did not hold good. So a
course of medicine to reduce
himself to the required proper
| tinns uas snccessfnllN fnIlnwad