St. Johns Bluff Excerpts from a Paper by Ronald Alvin Hassell I the Bluff
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St. Johns Bluff Excerpts from a paper by Ronald Alvin Hassell I The Bluff rises precipitously seventy-five feet above the waters edge, six miles from the mouth of the St. Johns River. To the north lies the Inland Passage where it cuts into the marshes until spilling into Nassau Sound and continuing through the Amelia Narrows into the St. Marys River. To the South is St. Augustine; to the West is Jacksonville, the cowford. The general area is known geographically as the Florida Crown. Throughout four centuries of history five national flags have flown over the Florida Crown. All five have flown at the Bluff. At various times, the Bluff has had various names: Fort Caroline, San Mateo, St. Matthias, San Juan Bluff, Oglethorpe's Bluff and Oglethorpe's Mount; Hubert's Bluff, Hester's Bluff, Browne's Fort, St. Johns Towne, San Vicente Ferrer, and St. Johns Bluff. There have been pirates, slavers, storekeepers, outlaws; battles between the French and Spanish, Spanish and English, English and American, American and Spanish, and Union and Confederate. II Spain had made her attempts to colonize Florida and North America. Beginning in 1513, with the discovery of Florida by Ponce de Leon, Spain's attempts had followed with Panfilo de Narvaez and Hernando de Soto, among others. Finally, in 1559, as a result of the failure of the Spanish to establish a substantial settlement at Pensacola, Philip II decreed that additional exploration and settlement in the Floridas was to be prohibited. Many Spanish lives had been lost to continue a program to settle the wilderness area. The Spanish had achieved huge successes in Mexico and in Peru, but the absolute wilderness and savagery of North America made them halt their conquests. The French, however, were beginning again, after a lull in their explorations of thirty years before. Because of their discoveries, they believed they had an equally justifiable claim to Florida. France's motives were the same as the Spanish: to increase commerce, and to find ready wealth. Florida was chosen as the object of French desires. Its strategic position near the Spanish possessions, and particularly Havana, made it an ideal site to establish a colony and to use it as a home base to raid the Spanish treasure ships sailing from Panama. Another important motive, which was supposed to have been the most pressing, was the desire to find a haven for the Huguenots, the French Protestants. On18 February, 1562, Jean Ribault, under commission from Admiral Coligny and Catherine de Medici, sailed from Havre-de-Grace in three ships for further exploration of the Floridas. It was on the first of May 1562, that St. Johns Bluff anxiously awaited to enter European History. On the first day of May 1562, three French ships approached the St. Johns River. The sun just having set, they dropped anchor and made preparations to send a landing party the next morning. For several days, the exploring party roamed about the river valley, searching for a site upon which to found a settlement. After climbing a high bluff, and noting its strategic value at the mouth of the river, Ribault decided that the Bluff and the adjacent vale would provide an ideal location. Among the reasons for his selection was the fertility of the soil there, the friendliness shown him and his men by the native Timuqua tribes, and its location, providing both an access to the ocean and into the interior. Ribault left the Bluff and the river and set sail back to France carrying with him a recommendation that the settlement should be established at the Bluff. Before the French could return with their ships of colonists, however, Ribault had seen difficulties with Queen Elizabeth of England, who had had him jailed. In the absence of Ribault, one of his lieutenants, and a relative of Coligny, Rene de Laudonniere, was chosen to establish the colony. Returning to the St. Johns River on 24 June; 1564, the French went out again to be assured of building on the proper place. Not far from the Bluff, they found a small stream. The abundance of the Indian towns near by was favorable, for they could provide great quantities of food stores, so they thought. At once, the French began to build a fort constructed of timber and faggots with sand and dirt banks to withstand, fire. The fort was triangular and on the tw6 sides away from the' river were dug moats, and at the front of the fort, facing inland, a gate was hung and decorated with the arms of France and Coligny. Within the fort were buildings to house the powder and shot. Several houses were built inside, but the great majority were constructed without. Sentinels were immediately set at the fort and the adjacent Bluff. For building materials, they used timber, and especially the local clay, from which they made brick. At the first, sleeping was accommodated by hammocks, but later, framed beds were constructed within the newly built homes. It did not take long before there was added a flour mill, a bakery, and a blacksmith shop. Among these first French settlers were carpenters, blacksmiths, tailors, barbers and shoe makers, as well as brewers, mechanics, ordnance men, a crossbow maker, a physician, an astronomer, and an artist. At first there was no minister and until his arrival, services were held by dedicated laymen. There are signs that the colonists enjoyed making wine and discovered the pleasures of tobacco1 During the short life of the settlement which came to be called Fort Caroline, Laudonniere made no attempts to encourage his people to break the soil and begin to sustain themselves on their own meri+ts rather than having to depend on the Indians. A false sense of security pervaded the atmosphere of the small settlement; it seemed that the Indians had ample quantities of food for everyone and then too, the French expected the supply ships to arrive anytime. It was soon discovered, however, that the Indians had only enough for themselves; but the supply ships were still forthcoming, but the supply ships did not come, and the people grew hungry and began to quarrel among themselves, and the object of their discontent was soon centered upon the person Laudonniere. Several attacks were made upon him and serious mutinies resulted in desertion. During this period of discontent, Philip of Spain had once again decided to have one last fling at Florida and North America, and this would mean that the French interlopers at Caroline would have to be gotten rid of. For the job he commissioned Pedro Menendez de Aviles. 1 Charles E. Bennett, Laudonniere & Fort Caroline: History and Documents (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1964), p. 21. The colonists at Caroline, meanwhile, were in such distress for food that they were grinding fishbones into meal which they had found in the refuse2. They began trading their possessions to the Indians for food. A notable visitor to Caroline during these early days was the English slaver, John Hawkins. On seeing the condition of the inhabitants of the settlement, Hawkins offered them transportation back to France, which Laudonniere refused, believing England and Queen Elizabeth had some ulterior motives in seeing the French settlers leave. Perhaps England too, held aspiring glances upon the Florida coast. The colonists did accept, however, a ship and food stores which Hawkins left them. Upon Hawkins' departure, the French began preparing for their return home, but they were stopped short in August of 1565 as five ships were spotted by the sentinel at the Bluff. Ribault had returned. He had come with orders for Laudonniere’s dismissal. With Ribault's return, the air of the colonists was quelled with orderliness and good judgment. Six days later Menendez found and crossed St. Johns Bar, and began to make his way to Caroline. There was a brief naval engagement, and Menendez fled, having received rigging casualties the night before, during a storm. Ibid., p; 28. The next morning he returned and was met with five French ships abreast across the river. Realizing the odds against him, Menendez turned south once again, and took shelter and succor from an Indian village near the present site of St. Augustine. Hearing of this, Ribault took his ships south to St. Augustine, but was met with a hurricane at the entrance of the bar, and was driven as far south as present Cape Canaveral, beaching and destroying the small French fleet. Menendez, ignorant of the French disaster, forced his men to march to Caroline in the midst of the storm, awaiting for dawn before attacking. Fearing no possible attack during a storm, the Spanish caught the colonists completely off guard, killing one hundred and thirty-two men and taking captive fifty women and children. Among those who escaped were Ribault's son and Laudonniere, who saved three ships and sailed back to France to tell of their ordeal. However, Ribault had not been forgotten. Hearing of the wreck of Ribault and his men, Menendez hastened to their scene and executed them all. Upon the destruction of the French attempts to colonize Florida, the Spaniards occupied Fort Caroline, renaming it San Mateo. Not more than a week after this reoccupation it was burned by the Indians, who had remained friends to the French; throughout the years the Tamuqua remained the ever present enemy to the Spanish at San Mateo. It was not until 1568, that. the French returned to wreak their vengeance upon the Spanish, routing San Mateo with the assistance and best wishes of the Indians. The French this time, however, had no desire to remain and resettle the area, and San Mateo was refortified by the Spanish immediately upon the departure I of the French.