Monday, December 13, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
NewsDaily: Drug shootout mars religious festival in Mexico
NewsDaily (2010-12-12) -- Suspected drug cartel gunmen attacked each other during annual religious celebrations in a small Mexican town, killing 11 people and wounding 22 others, local authorities said on Saturday. ... > read full article
NewsDaily (2010-12-12) -- Suspected drug cartel gunmen attacked each other during annual religious celebrations in a small Mexican town, killing 11 people and wounding 22 others, local authorities said on Saturday. ... > read full article
what a trip
It must have been a depressing time for St. Augustine residents in December 1763. The gray damp December days surely did not boost the spirits of the residents who boarded ships that carried them to Cuba. They were leaving behind their own homes in St. Augustine. For many of them, they were leaving the town of their birth and where their grandparents and several earlier generations and been born and lived.
In December 1763, six ships carried Spanish evacuees to Cuba following the transfer of Florida to Great Britain. Spain had been on the losing side of the Seven Years War, (usually called the French and Indian War in the United States) and had given up Florida as part of the peace negotiations. British soldiers and administrators had arrived in St. Augustine in July 1763. Spanish residents were given about six months to depart.
The evacuation had begun in April 1763. Families boarded schooners, sloops and brigantines with their trunks and furniture. No doubt many of the evacuees had never sailed on a ship, especially the women. Ships also carried away the weapons that had protected Castillo de San Marcos. The British brought in their own artillery.
Six shiploads of residents departed that December. One ship carried only a dozen evacuees. The Spanish brigantine San Jose y Nuestra Senora del Rosario left port on Dec. 19 with 90 persons, the largest sailing in December.
The "spread sheet" of the departures compiled in Havana in April 1764 by Florida's Spanish governor Melchor Feliu and Juan Elixio de la Puente tell us that on most of the vessels, the passenger list was about half and half children and adults.
Surely every passenger had his or her own tale, but the old records do not provide much of that sort of information. Eighteenth-century documents did not leave us many of the personal interest stories that abound today. Combining many different documents, I was able to piece together a glimpse of one family at the time they boarded the ship bound for Havana. It is probably a representative story.
Juana de Navarro stepped onto the sloop San Antonio in October 1763 probably carrying her five-week-old baby, her ninth child. Her husband Salvador de Porras and her six other surviving children were on board. They left behind their home on St. George Street, which had been the property of Juana's mother and grandmother. They also owned land and buildings on today's Avenida Menendez.
Some version of this story was repeated over and over until Jan. 21, 1764, when the last of the 3,000 Spanish evacuees sailed away from our town. Some of them, including Juana's middle child Catalina would return 20 years later, when Spain regained Florida in 1784.
By SUSAN R. PARKER
In December 1763, six ships carried Spanish evacuees to Cuba following the transfer of Florida to Great Britain. Spain had been on the losing side of the Seven Years War, (usually called the French and Indian War in the United States) and had given up Florida as part of the peace negotiations. British soldiers and administrators had arrived in St. Augustine in July 1763. Spanish residents were given about six months to depart.
The evacuation had begun in April 1763. Families boarded schooners, sloops and brigantines with their trunks and furniture. No doubt many of the evacuees had never sailed on a ship, especially the women. Ships also carried away the weapons that had protected Castillo de San Marcos. The British brought in their own artillery.
Six shiploads of residents departed that December. One ship carried only a dozen evacuees. The Spanish brigantine San Jose y Nuestra Senora del Rosario left port on Dec. 19 with 90 persons, the largest sailing in December.
The "spread sheet" of the departures compiled in Havana in April 1764 by Florida's Spanish governor Melchor Feliu and Juan Elixio de la Puente tell us that on most of the vessels, the passenger list was about half and half children and adults.
Surely every passenger had his or her own tale, but the old records do not provide much of that sort of information. Eighteenth-century documents did not leave us many of the personal interest stories that abound today. Combining many different documents, I was able to piece together a glimpse of one family at the time they boarded the ship bound for Havana. It is probably a representative story.
Juana de Navarro stepped onto the sloop San Antonio in October 1763 probably carrying her five-week-old baby, her ninth child. Her husband Salvador de Porras and her six other surviving children were on board. They left behind their home on St. George Street, which had been the property of Juana's mother and grandmother. They also owned land and buildings on today's Avenida Menendez.
Some version of this story was repeated over and over until Jan. 21, 1764, when the last of the 3,000 Spanish evacuees sailed away from our town. Some of them, including Juana's middle child Catalina would return 20 years later, when Spain regained Florida in 1784.
By SUSAN R. PARKER
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
St. Augustine Tour Guides Trials & Tribulations: The end of the story
St. Augustine Tour Guides Trials & Tribulations: The end of the story: "Moore ordered St. Augustine set to the torch as his men withdrew, and on 30 December Zuniga's men reoccupied the town and controlled the fir..."
The end of the story
Moore ordered St. Augustine set to the torch as his men withdrew, and on 30 December Zuniga's men reoccupied the town and controlled the fires. The siege was over, but St. Augustine had to be almost completely rebuilt. The English destruction of Spanish settlements at Apalache, Timuca, and Guale left St. Augustine the only Spanish strongpoint in northern Florida, and over the next twenty years the town was rebuilt with a surrounding wall.
The retention of the Spanish hold on Florida was not completely accepted by the English colonists to the north. Although the War of the Spanish Succession ended in 1713, military action did not completely stop. In 1728 Colonel William Palmer of Carolina marched against the fort but "refrained" from capturing the town once he saw the fort. The next and last serious attack came in 1740, when the founder of the colony of Georgia, James Oglethorpe, led an expedition against Castillo de San Marcos in order to secure his southern border from expected Spanish incursion. Spanish Governor Manuel de Montiano commanded a sortie be launched against the English while their forces were divided and that paralyzed the English attack. They proceeded to bombard the fort with naval gunfire for twenty-seven days, but inflicted little damage and few casualties. With hurricane season approaching, the force finally retreated to Georgia.
The Castillo de San Marcos, when finally completed, performed its mission. It maintained Spanish authority in northern Florida by resisting every attack launched against it. Their final additions to the fort were built in 1762, at the end of the Seven Years War, but the fort saw no more action after Oglethorpe's abortive attack. Spain ceded Florida to Britain the following year as penalty for being on the losing side in the Seven Years War, but regained it in the wake of the American Revolution. The Spanish possessed Florida until 1819, when the territory was finally sold to the United States. By then Spanish power was little but a fond memory and the United States was just starting down the path to greatness.
The retention of the Spanish hold on Florida was not completely accepted by the English colonists to the north. Although the War of the Spanish Succession ended in 1713, military action did not completely stop. In 1728 Colonel William Palmer of Carolina marched against the fort but "refrained" from capturing the town once he saw the fort. The next and last serious attack came in 1740, when the founder of the colony of Georgia, James Oglethorpe, led an expedition against Castillo de San Marcos in order to secure his southern border from expected Spanish incursion. Spanish Governor Manuel de Montiano commanded a sortie be launched against the English while their forces were divided and that paralyzed the English attack. They proceeded to bombard the fort with naval gunfire for twenty-seven days, but inflicted little damage and few casualties. With hurricane season approaching, the force finally retreated to Georgia.
The Castillo de San Marcos, when finally completed, performed its mission. It maintained Spanish authority in northern Florida by resisting every attack launched against it. Their final additions to the fort were built in 1762, at the end of the Seven Years War, but the fort saw no more action after Oglethorpe's abortive attack. Spain ceded Florida to Britain the following year as penalty for being on the losing side in the Seven Years War, but regained it in the wake of the American Revolution. The Spanish possessed Florida until 1819, when the territory was finally sold to the United States. By then Spanish power was little but a fond memory and the United States was just starting down the path to greatness.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
