Mark. The first under General Charles Lee fell short because
of mismanagement. The second advanced as far as the St. John’s
River. Consternation in St. Augustine reigned supreme; slaves
were impressed to help strengthen the fortifications; citizens
ran hither and thither with their valuables. But the Americans
were menaced by fever at the St. John’s and faced the prospect of
a midsummer encampment in Florida, so they turned about and went
north. Fort St. Mark was not to leave English hands by force.
In 1783 took place another one of those shuffles between high
contracting parties by which each party thinks that he has secured
the better of the bargain. England traded Florida to Spain for
Jamaica. Spain traded Jamaica to England for Florida. In 1821 Spain
ceded Florida to the United States, and in 1825 the name of the
fort was changed from Fort St. Mark to Fort Marion in honor of
General Francis Marion, of Revolutionary fame.
The Seminole War began in 1835 and continued until 1842, costing
the United States two thousand lives, and forty million dollars.
Fort Marion was the centre of the military operations of this
conflict and it was the scene of the disgraceful episode of
treachery by which Osceola and other Indian chieftains were
captured. In 1838 General Hernandez, in command of the United
States forces, sent word to Osceola that he would be protected if
he should come to Fort Marion for talk of peace. With seventy of
his followers the Indian came to the conference and was placed
in irons. The prisoner was taken to Fort Moultrie, in Charleston
harbor, where from much brooding and confinement he died. The same
tactics were repeated in another sitting with Coacoochee, the
remaining great leader of the Seminoles, and the Seminole War was
ended. Coacoochee was confined in Fort Marion, where his cell is
pointed out to visitors. His fate became that of an exile, for with
his people he was transported to a western reservation.
During the Civil War Fort Marion had a brief flurry of excitement
when the fort was seized by Southern sympathizers in 1861. It
quickly fell before Federal troops, however, and had no further
active part in that war.
The old fort is still government property, but its days of activity
are long since past. That it will be maintained for many years as a
reminder of the past is, however, well assured.
LA FUERZA, MORRO CASTLE, AND OTHER DEFENCES
HAVANA--CUBA
The city of Havana was located where it stands to-day in 1519,
after a four years’ unsatisfactory trial of a site on the opposite,
or south, coast of the island. It jogged along comfortably through
all of the ordinary perils of that time until 1538, when it was
attacked and sacked by a French privateersman. The authorities
in the home country determined to provide some means of defence
for the baby metropolis, and one Hernando de Soto, an impecunious
adventurer who had followed Pizarro to Peru, and had returned
enriched with plunder from that unhappy land, was commissioned
governor of Cuba and Florida with instructions to build a fortress
at Havana.
De Soto came to Havana in the fashion of leisure of the times, and
in pursuit of his royal master’s instructions, laid the foundations
of a fortress. This work was finished under the direction of his
lieutenant while he, himself, was searching an El Dorado in Florida
and was finding a miserable death by fever on the Mississippi.
The structure which de Soto left as his legacy to Havana is the
Castillo de la Fuerza, half hidden, to-day, between the Senate and
old post-office building on the Plaza de Armes. La Fuerza has been
credited with being the oldest inhabitable and inhabited structure
in the Western Hemisphere and the claim is not easily disputed. As
early as 1544 a royal decree had been given forth that all vessels
entering Havana harbor should salute the little fortress with a
ceremony not enjoyed by any other city in the New World save Santo
Domingo.
The form of la Fuerza is that of a quadrilateral, having a bastion
at each of the four corners. The walls are twenty-five feet in
height and are double. There is a moat which has not contained
water for many years, and arrangements for a draw-bridge which
has been replaced by a permanent plank walk. To the seaward is a
watch-tower similar in design to that on the fort at St. Augustine,
and in this tower is a bell which, tradition says, was rung wildly
whenever in the old days a suspicious sail came into the view of
the watchman. The little bronze image in the top of the tower is
known as “La Habana.” When de Soto sailed out from Havana harbor
on that storied expedition through the American wilds which was to
end in his death, he left la Fuerza, and with it his command as
governor, in charge of his bride, Isabel de Bobadilla. For four
years Lady Isabel waited for her lord’s return, spending anxious
hours in the little watch-tower of the fort. Only when the tattered
remnants of that splendid army which had accompanied the adventurer
were brought back to Havana was her long suspense ended.
[Illustration: MORRO CASTLE, HAVANA, CUBA]
The cellars of la Fuerza contain damp dungeons used as
receptacles for modern rifles and ammunition, this part of the old
fort being given over to the purposes of an armory.
In 1554 Havana was again attacked by the French and partially
destroyed and in the following year it fell a victim to pirates.
During the wars which marked the reigns of the Emperor Charles V,
of Spain, and his son, Philip II, the colony became more and more
the object of attack by Spain’s enemies, and in 1585, Havana having
been seriously menaced by Sir Francis Drake, it was determined to
build additional defences for the city. In 1589 Morro Castle, the
Castle of the Three Kings and the Bateria de la Punta were begun;
by 1597 they were completed.
The word “Morro” means promontory, and Castle del Morro is merely
the fortress on the point. The design of Morro is that of the
quaint Moorish fortress in the harbor of Lisbon, but it has been
changed so much for modern defensive uses that it does not now
greatly resemble its original. The work is irregular in shape, is
built on solid rock, and rises from 100 to 120 feet above the level
of the sea. Its situation on the northern one of the two points of
the entrance to the harbor of Havana gives it a great importance.
Opposite Morro, across the harbor mouth, is la Punta.
To visit Morro one climbs to the fort by an inclined road cut out
of rock, shaded with laurels and royal poincianas. Hedges of cactus
hem in the road. The pilgrim reaches at last the moat. This was
cut out of solid rock and is seventy feet in depth. Passing over
the draw-bridge and advancing through the dark walls of the work,
one comes to the inner court, from whence there is a passage to the
ramparts. Here is a fine outlook over city and harbor, from the
seaward side of the ramparts, where there is a battery of twelve
guns known as the “Twelve Apostles.”
Some of the prison cells in Morro are directly over the water and
in one spot a steep chute leads to the sea. Your guide will tell
you that from here bodies of prisoners, both living and dead, were
shot out to become the food of innumerable sharks waiting below.
The most active service that Morro has seen was in 1762, when
Havana was taken by the English under Admiral Pocock and Lord
Albemarle. In June of that year, shortly after the outbreak of
war between France and Spain as allies against England, a fleet
of 44 English men-of-war and 150 lighter vessels, bearing a land
force of 15,000 men, appeared off Havana. The Spanish defenders
numbered 27,000 men, of whom a sufficient garrison was at Morro.
The English landed on the coast to the east of our fortress and
worked around to the rear of that structure to an eminence where
the fortification of Cabanas now stands. The siege began on June 3
and continued until July 30, when, after a stubborn defence, Morro
fell.
The long resistance of the point against an over-whelming force is
largely to be credited to the indomitable spirit of its commander,
Velasco, who, though he knew that his position had been undermined
and his men were deserting him, refused to surrender. The fort
was taken after the mines had been sprung and the walls had been
battered down. Captain Velasco died of wounds received during the
siege, and on the day of his funeral hostilities were suspended by
the English in recognition of his bravery.
The authorities in Spain decreed that a ship in the Spanish navy
should always bear the name of Velasco, and the vessel so named at
the time of the Spanish-American war was sunk in Manila Bay by the
Boston.
Havana fell thirteen days after Morro and for a year was in the
hands of the enemy.
Stretching along bare hilltop back of Morro is Havana’s greatest
fortress, built in 1763 after the departure of the unwelcome
English guests whose coming had shown the weakness of the city’s
defences. Cabanas, or to give its full name, Castillo de San
Carlos de Cabanas (Saint Charles of the Cabin), is nearly a mile
in length with a width of about one-fifth of a mile. Its cost was
$14,000,000. When King Charles III of Spain, under whose direction
the work was commenced, was told the total of expenditures, it
is said that he walked to the window of his study and gazed
intently out of it, remarking that such an enormous and expensive
construction should be visible from Spain.
Within the fort are innumerable walks, dungeons and secret
passages. To the right of the entrance is the famous “Laurel Moat”
where unfortunate Cubans and other political prisoners were shot
without benefit of trial. The condemned men were compelled to kneel
facing a wall, and this wall marked with bullets in a line nearly
one hundred feet long is a grim present-day memento of Spain’s
ruthless rule in the island. The spot has been marked with a bronze
tablet which records its history.
Other fortifications in Havana include Principe Castle, built in
1774, and Atares Castle, 1767. There are two ancient little round
towers of defence at Chorrera and Cojimar.
FORT SAN CARLOS
PENSACOLA BAY--FLORIDA
Pensacola Bay is a lozenge-shaped body of water, the entrance to
which from the Gulf is at the southern point of the figure, and
the southern side is formed by Santa Rosa Island, which stretches
out in a long sandy line here to divide sea and inland water. On
the western shore, near the head of the bay, is situated the busy
city of Pensacola, one of the most active shipping points on the
Gulf and also one of the most ancient. About six miles south of
Pensacola, and near the mouth of the bay, is the city’s ancient
defence, Fort San Carlos de Barrancas, which has gone through ten
generations and more of life as humans reckon it and has done
valiant service under four flags.
The military (and social) history of Pensacola Bay commences in
1558, when Philip II, of Spain, commissioned Luis de Valesca,
viceroy of New Spain, to undertake the settlement of Florida.
After a preliminary survey Valesca, in the summer of 1559, sent
1500 soldiers and settlers to make a beginning at Pensacola Bay,
this body of water having been adjudged the best roadstead and the
most favorable for the support of human life on the Gulf Coast.
A tentative settlement was established, but for some reason the
site did not please the expedition and its leaders attempted
unsuccessfully to find a better one. The winter that followed and
the next summer were filled with privation and the colony became
much reduced in numbers. During the second summer most of the
settlers went with Angel de Villafane to Santa Elena, Port Royal
Sound, south on the Atlantic coast (South Carolina, to-day) and
the remainder was recalled by Philip II, who thereupon decreed
that no further effort should be made to settle the west coast
of Florida, a royal promulgation which circumstance and lack of
incentive to the contrary conspired to make effective for more than
a century. If one accepts this abortive expedition as the beginning
of settlement in Florida then Pensacola is the oldest point of
European residence in the United States, antedating St. Augustine
by seven years.
The Spaniards did not regard La Salle’s effort at colonization
at the mouth of the Mississippi River with favor and were not at
all displeased at his misfortunes. To forestall other efforts of
the French they undertook a survey of the coast and established a
colony at Pensacola in the last years of the Seventeenth Century.
This was the beginning of Pensacola of to-day.
[Illustration:
By courtesy of the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce
FORT SAN CARLOS DE BARRANCAS, NEAR PENSACOLA, FLORIDA]
When Iberville, in 1699, sailed from France with several vessels
containing colonists for Louisiana and when in due course of
time he arrived off Pensacola, he found the Spaniards firmly
established with a fort with four bastions and some ships of war.
The Frenchmen asked for permission to disembark his forces.
His request was refused and he then sailed along the coast until
he found a landing to his liking near the present-day Biloxi,
Mississippi. The governor of Pensacola at this time--and the first
governor of the colony--was Don Andre D’Arriola. The fort was named
San Carlos de Barrancas.
There came in 1719 a war against Spain in which France and England
were allies opposed to her. The French thereupon sent in this
year M. de Serigny with a sufficient force to take possession
of Pensacola which was valuable to the French on account of its
proximity to Louisiana and its accessibility to the West India
Islands. The expedition was entirely successful as, after an attack
by land by 700 Canadians, the commander of the Spanish garrison,
Don John Peter Matamoras, surrendered with the honors of war.
It is probable that the Spanish stronghold at that time was not the
one which has come down to us to-day, though it bore the same name
and was, very possibly, built on the same site.
The news of the surrender of Pensacola caused a great stir in
Spain, and an expedition was fitted out to recover the lost
territory. The command of the expedition was given to Don Alphonse
Carracosa and the force consisted of 12 vessels and 850 fighting
men. Don Carracosa achieved success, as at the sight of his fleet
part of the French garrison deserted and the rest surrendered, to
be treated with great severity by the Spanish. Don Matamoras was
re-established and an expedition was despatched against the French
at Mobile without result satisfactory to the Spanish.
The French were to have their day, again, however. De Bienville
invested Pensacola by land and Count de Champmelin by sea. After
a stubborn resistance Matamoras surrendered, giving the French
between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred prisoners. The French
dismembered the greater part of the fort and left a small garrison
in the remainder of the structure.
Under the peace of 1720 Pensacola was restored to the Spanish and
thus was ended the port’s first experience of warfare. Fort San
Carlos was rebuilt substantially in the form that it bears to-day,
and in 1722 another fortification was built on the point of Santa
Rosa Island where Fort Pickens long years afterward was to maintain
a gallant defence.
Fort San Carlos is a little semicircular structure most solidly
put together but not of great pretension as to size. On account
of its fine location, however--having no heights near which could
dominate it, and having a fine sweep over the entrance to the bay
which it is designed to protect--it was of importance in the days
of short-range cannon.
In 1763 the whole of Florida, which, of course, included our brave
little fort at Pensacola, passed into the hands of the English by
treaty with Spain, and an English garrison took possession of Fort
San Carlos. Upon the outbreak of hostilities again between Spain
and England, Galvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, sailed from
New Orleans in February, 1781, with 1400 men and a sufficient fleet
to reduce Pensacola. He was joined by squadrons from Havana and
Mobile and in May of that year entered Pensacola Bay. The fort here
was in the command of Colonel Campbell with a small garrison of
English. After a sufficient resistance Colonel Campbell surrendered
and Galvez took charge. In 1783 the whole province of Florida was
ceded to Spain, and Pensacola remained under a Spanish ruler for
thirty-one years after this latter date.
The next eventful interval in the life of Fort San Carlos had to
do with one of the most popular figures of United States history,
Andrew Jackson. In 1814, during the progress of the second war of
the United States with England, Jackson was made a major-general
and was given command of the Gulf Coast region where he had been
operating against the Creek Indians. While arranging a treaty with
these conquered savages he was informed by them that they had
been approached by English officers, through the connivance of
the Spanish commander at Pensacola, with offers of supplies and
assistance to fight against the Americans. Two British vessels
arrived at Pensacola August 4 and Colonel Edward Nicholls in
command was allowed to land troops and to arm some Indians. Late
in August seven more British vessels arrived at Pensacola and the
mask of Spanish neutrality was thrown aside when Fort San Carlos
was turned over to the British, the British being allowed to hoist
their ensign thereon, and Colonel Nicholls was entertained by the
Spanish governor as his guest.
Jackson was at Mobile, Alabama, not very far distant as the crow
flies from Pensacola, and when the intelligence of these happenings
had been confirmed immediately set about raising a force of
Americans. By November he had 2,000 volunteers and early in that
month marched from Fort Montgomery (Montgomery, Alabama) upon
Pensacola. November 6 he was two miles from that city. To ascertain
the Spaniard’s intentions he sent Major Pierre to wait upon the
commandant of the city and was rewarded for his pains by having his
envoy fired upon. By midnight Jackson had his men in motion against
the city, and in the hot engagement which followed the Spanish and
British were badly worsted. The British fled down the Bay in their
ships, blowing up Fort San Carlos in their retreat and carrying
away one of the higher Spanish officers--certainly, on the whole,
a not very grateful return for the benefits bestowed upon them by
their hosts.
The Creek and Seminole Indians who had begun to rally to the
English standard were much impressed by this display of force
on the part of the Americans and esteeming Jackson a very bad
medicine, indeed, wisely decided to return to the prosaic paths of
peace.
During the Civil War, Fort San Carlos played no conspicuous
part. The limelight of fame was thrown on its close neighbor,
Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa Island. This latter post at the
outbreak of the war was in charge of Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, a
Pennsylvanian, who, seeing the conflict impending, concentrated (in
Fort Pickens as being the easiest one of them all to defend) the
forces in the various forts under his jurisdiction. From January 9
to April 11, 1861, Slemmer was in a state of siege in Fort Pickens
and on the latter date was relieved by forces from the North. The
point was held by Federal troops throughout the war.
A curious incident which occurred early in 1914 at Fort San Carlos
recalled vividly to the officers there the part the little Spanish
post played in the days when pirates roamed the Spanish Main and
all of this part of the world was new. A stranger came to the fort
with an old parchment which he declared showed the location of
buried treasure in the old fort. He would not tell how he came by
the document, but its evident antiquity aroused interest and for
an idle hour’s interest the officers of the post decided to dig
for the buried treasure. On the parchment was a well drawn plan of
the fort with a cross in a particular corner of the parade. This
point was located with some little difficulty and men were set
to digging. For a time nothing interesting occurred, but after
a while one of the men struck a rotten wooden board which proved
to be the top of an old well. At the bottom of this covered-over
well was discovered a lot of watery mud which, when it had been
dug into, revealed the top of an old chest. Darkness fell now and
it was not considered worth while to continue operations until the
next day. The next morning when the men went back to work they
found that the stirring up of the earth and water had caused the
object, whatever it was, to sink so deep into the unstable soil of
the spot that it could not be recovered!
THE PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO
GOLDEN GATE--CALIFORNIA
Hand in hand with the Military went the Church during Spain’s days
of dominion in the New World. Where the soldier walked, there
too, came the priest. At first when all of the New World was new,
when the hold of the Old World was insecure, it was the soldier
who pointed the path, but when Spain’s hand had a firm grasp upon
her possessions it was the priest who took the lead. The records
of Spain on the east coast of America are records of bloodiness
and cruel oppression. On the west coast where the friar led the
way we find deeds of gentleness and love. Where Florida reveals
a memory of hate in two old bastioned fortresses--Marion and San
Carlos--with dingy dungeons and rusty chains, California shows
its missions with their silvery chimes and its presidios, the two
institutions being bound together.
Four presidios were established by Spain in old California to guard
its missions; the first, at San Diego; the second, at Monterey;
the third, at San Francisco; and the fourth, at Santa Barbara. It
is the third which bespeaks our interest in this chapter, owing to
its importance in the present day as well as to its historic and
natural charm.
The presidio at San Francisco was established in 1776 by an
expedition which set out in two parts in June of that year from
Monterey; one part to go by land, the other by water. The objective
point of the two was a bay which had been discovered in 1769 by
an expedition from San Diego. It was named in honor of Saint
Francis of Assisi, hence, San Francisco. The land expedition
included Friars Palou and Cambon, a few married settlers with large
families, and seventeen dragoons under the command of Don Jose
Moraga, who was to be the commandant of the new post. It carried
garden seed, agricultural implements, horses, mules and sheep. This
party reached the neighborhood of the Golden Gate on June 27 and,
without waiting for the detachment which was coming by sea, chose
a site for the presidio and began work upon the modest buildings
of that station. The seed was placed in the ground, the cattle and
sheep put out to graze and the horses and mules set to labor. All
was activity.
The first part of September saw the buildings of the post
substantially complete and on September 17, the feast of the
Stigmata of Saint Francis, solemn possession of the Presidio, in
the name of the King of Spain, was taken by the grizzled soldier
Moraga, while a mass was celebrated by Palou. A Te Deum was sung, a
cross was planted and salutes were fired over land and water. Thus
was the presidio of San Francisco founded.
[Illustration:
By courtesy of R. J. Waters & Co.
FORT SCOTT AND THE GOLDEN GATE, PRESIDIO RESERVATION, SAN FRANCISCO]
It is a far cry from 1776 to the present day (though not so long
as from 1776 back to the first day of Spanish settlement in
the future United States), but, while the immediate aspect of the
country round about Spain’s presidio of 1776 at San Francisco has
changed, the situation of the post has remained the same; and the
view of land and water here is just as entrancing to-day as it was
on that day in 1769 when the expedition from San Diego saw the
far-famed Golden Gate.