The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-05
{ ANCIENT ST. AUGUSTINE
By Frederic ]. Haskin.


 St. Augustine, Fla. Jan. 4--Forty- two years before Captain John smith and his party landed at Jamestown. fifty-five years before the Mayflower brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth. this ancient town of St. Augustine was city of considerable importance. It is the oldest town in the United states and although 1t has no history or tradition which links 1t to any event of importance in American annals. t Is interesting because of its antiquity.
 Don Juan Ponce de Leon. that oe- bonair sailor and adventursr, came. 10 St. Augustine in 1513 in search of the fabIed Fountain of Youth. Here, at the ancient Indian village Of seloy. he first placed foot upon the North American continent. It was Easter Sunday and 1t was a land of flowers' SO he gave the land the beautiful name of Pascua Florida. His search Tor the mystic Fountain of Youth was iruh- less. but there Is no doubt tnat ne had found here then the magnificent hotel which ,iss here now and which bears. his name he would have behev. ed that he had found Fl Dorado ana fairyland at the same time.
 The French came, founded a Hugue- not, colony. but it did not continue anu it was not until 1865 that Pedro henen-
 aez brought a colony of spanish 10 take actual possession of the territory which had been claimed by Ponce de Leon, which had been largely explored by De Soto and which had been over run by more than one band of gold seeking Spanish murderers. The colony landed on St. Augustines day. and, following the religious custom or the time.t the new town received the name of that saint. After having properly sanctified itself by the mas sacre of the French Huguenots on the l nearby St. Johns River. the colony set- | tied down to a ;humdrum life. Forts were built Of course, the pirates came | the town shared with most spanish American settlements the distinguished honor. of being attacked by that noble | Britisher. Sir Francis Drake, there | were piracies and massacres. wars with the French and with the Enghsn' After nearly three centuries or Sr D,ooa | the little old city became an American | town in 1921. It knew the curse or
 war again in the Seminole War. 1t felt n portion of. the shock of the great
 conflict of fhe sixties. and then peace came. .5s
 And after peace came the railroad Y and the orange grove speculation ana the winter resort hotel. Now S'.
 Augustihe Is a. winter, resort, plae" | l The town itself shows very little | of the old Spanish character. There ie the Inevitable plaza, with its old cathedral and the captain-gen- erals palace which, now does duty as a postoffice, These. with
 d few tumble down houses the old
 city gates and the old fort, are about
 the only survivals of the ancient | Spanish days. F-.I
 cionar' heeause of . monument erected In its center in honor of the granting of a liberal constitution by the Span ish Cortes to the colony of Florida in 1873. The Spanish city fathers hired an Englishman to cut the inscriptions on the monument so 1t Is presumed for on all four sides he spelled the
 English, complement of three "ts. On the front of the monument some
 Spanish scholar. probably arisen since tho winter resort era began. has labori'
 ously changed the word to it's prope' Spanish spelling of ''eonstitucion
 !" At one end of the plaza is an. old
 stone pavilion which Is used for band
 concerts these days, The negro car | riage drivers, the professional guides
 and the souvenir post cards gravely inform the credulous tourist that II
 Is the old slave market" built by the
 Spanish and used until the time of the
 Civil War As a matter of fact, the
 place was built long after the end oi
 Spanish rule and was used Tor a meal
 and vegetable market. St. Augustine was too small and too poor to afford
 A alave market, but the story Is good
 one for tourists and some St. Angus tine people are said to have told Il
 so often that they believe 1t them selves.
 Fort Marion is the most interesting thing to see in St. Augustine. Com pleted in l756 1t is the only example of medieval qualification extant in | North America, It is in an almost l perfect state of preservation and. tn- | deed. has been repaired and improved bv the United States since the Ameri- | can occupation. It was garrtsoned l until the Spanish War. but for the
 last ten years no soldiers have been
 kept here and the place is In charge | of an old sereeant who has seen fifty l years service in the army. It is his l delight to tell visitors the story of the | old fort where he has been stationed l for a generation.
 The fort occupies the position of | more than one predecessor. Menende5 built a fort of pine logs hero in 1865. It was succeeded by stronger one Of l earthwork and finally a small one of | stone. Then the EngHsh navy DecdHe
 very active in American waters and it
 was necessary to protect the capital of Florida. The work of building the pres
 ent fort extended through many years. The stone, coquina. was Quarried on the Island of St. Anatasia. and ferried across the bay in row boats. The work
 was done by convicts from Spain. Cuba. ! and Mexico, by Indian slaves and me- Kroes. King Ferdinand VI Is said to have declared that he believed the fort
 was built of gold. 1t had cost so mach. Fort San Marco it was called in those l days and 1t was the strongest and noblest fortiAcation in all North Amer 1 lea.
 within a decade, however, it became English property. In 1T62 the English captured Havana and occupied Cuba. Tn the following year England gave Cuba back toHSpain in exchange for Florida and the Bahama Islands. St. Augustine became the English capital of East Florida and earnest efforts were made to introduce English colonists. The Eng fish retained control for twenty years. | Tn the meantime they had lost the thir- | teen colonies to the north by the War | of Independence and were only too will | ing to get rid of East Florida in some great international land swap.
 The Spa nish came back, to the great