Can volume, pillar, pile, preserve thee great?
Or must these trust tradition's simple tongue?
The ancient fortress of Castle San Marco, the name of which has been
improperly changed to Fort Marion, is considered one of the most
attractive and interesting objects in St. Augustine. It was constructed
in the style of the strong castles in Europe during the Middle Ages,
after the design of military engineering employed by Vauban. In 1762 it
was called St. John's Fort, or San Juan de Piños, afterward San Marco,
which name it retained until the change of flags in 1821, when it
received the title of Fort Marion, in honor of General Marion, of
Revolutionary fame. Its form is that of a quadrilateral, or trapezium,
with bastions at each corner, the wall being twenty-one feet in height.
Its extreme age, together with the durability of material employed,
would be a subject of more interest to ancient architects, could they
return, than to any of the present generation.
The battery is the boulevard of the city, where we can come and listen
to the sea beating its great heart against the rocks, and see the snowy
sails that glide so swiftly out to the solemn seas, while the white
clouds float gracefully in their blue vault over our heads, like doves
through the air, as the clear waters from the inlet flash in the bright
sunlight, like burnished armor for a gala-day parade, and a pensiveness
steals over our senses, which makes all earthly scenes vanish, like
shadows in the distance at breaking of day.
We also find this a favored place for receiving serious
impressions--this structure, formed by long-forgotten hands, which was a
fortress of strength for the defenseless, a prison for treacherous
captives, where they could pine and die far from the sound of human
sympathy, with the gates of mercy forever sealed to them.
The mind embalms pleasant memories from this peculiar spot, when the
skies are bright, bursting upon our vision like that day of which we
read, whose "morning will dawn without clouds."
This structure was commenced in 1565, by the Spaniards, as a defense
against the Indians. In 1732 Don Manuel Montiano, being appointed
Governor of Florida, made application to the Captain General of Cuba for
means to strengthen the fort, also more artillerymen, which were
granted, the work being done under the direction of Don Antonio de
Arredonda, a competent engineering official. In response to his request,
two hundred convicts from Mexico being furnished him, six casemates were
finished, of which there are eighteen in all, the remainder having been
completed in 1756.
The impress of two eighteen-pound shot, low down on the eastern curtain,
are now to be seen,
[Illustration: LAND APPROACH TO FORT MARION.]
made from a battery placed on Anastasia Island by General Oglethorpe,
who attempted by a regular siege to take the city. The bombardment was
continued twenty days; but, on account of the lightness of the guns, and
the distance, little damage was done. The siege lasted thirty-eight
days, when the Americans withdrew their troops, and returned to Georgia.
General Oglethorpe returned two years after this, taking Fort Moosa,
four miles distant, upon a broad river flowing under the fort; then
advanced to the gates of St. Augustine, where he gave the garrison an
invitation to march out and fight, which they declined.
In 1740 the castle is described as "being built of soft stone, with four
bastions, the curtains sixty yards in length, the parapet nine feet
thick, the rampart twenty feet high, casemated underneath for lodgings,
arched over and newly made bomb-proof; and they have for some time past
been working on a new covert way, which is nearly finished. The ordnance
consisted of fifty pieces of cannon, sixteen of which were brass
twenty-four-pounders. Thirteen hundred regular troops composed the
garrison, also militia and Spanish Indians. In addition to this, the
town was intrenched with ten salient angles, on each of which were
cannon."
In 1769 it is again described as being completed "according to the
modern taste of military architecture, and might be justly deemed the
prettiest fort in the king's domain. It is regularly fortified with
bastions, half-bastions, and a ditch; has also several rows of Spanish
bayonet along the ditch, forming so close a _chevaux-de-frise_ with
their pointed leaves as to be impregnable. The southern bastions were
built of stone."
The fort now, as then, is situated in the north-eastern extremity of the
old town, directly fronting the entrance to the harbor. On the west side
is a broad and deep trench, or moat, connected with the moat around the
castle extending across the town to the St. Sebastian River. This trench
was used to flood the moat around the fortress, from the St. Sebastian
River, and also to be filled with water when required, in order to
obstruct the approach of assailants from the southern direction. On the
south side of this trench very strong earth-works were erected,
continuous with portions of massive walls on each side the city gate,
which is now the best relic that exists in Europe or America--thus
acknowledged by tourists who have visited St. Augustine. The form of the
work is a polygon, consisting of four equal curtains, on the salient
angles, on three of which are bastions, or turrets, the one at the
north-east corner having disappeared. The moat around the castle is
inclosed by the internal barrier, a massive wall of coquina, which also
extends around the barbacan, following its entrant and reëntrant angles.
An outer barrier extends around the inner, following in parallel lines
the various flexures. Although a mound of earth is now raised against
this outer barrier, inclosing the fort, there is little doubt, from
observation of the remains, that the approaches to the castle were
guarded, as in the Middle Ages, by an abatis, scarp and counter-scarp,
frise, and all the defenses then employed, the traces of which are still
extant. The barbacan in front of the entrance--called in modern
phraseology the sally-port--is the only remaining specimen of a
defensive work of the kind in this country, and to the present time has
been an enigma to all visitors, which some tourists have committed the
blunder of calling a demi-lune. This particular will be recalled by a
reference to Scott's "Betrothed," which describes the castle of the
"Garde Douloreuse." Traces of the "outer barrier gate" remain, also the
draw-bridges, and machinery by which they were worked. Every thing is
preserved but the "Warder's Tower" over the gate; the steps remain to
prove the former existence of the tower. The draw-bridge, and even the
pulleys by which it was raised, are there; also the ponderous
portcullis, as an illustrated monument of Sir Walter Scott's description
in regard to ancient castles.
The following Spanish inscription is to be seen over the sally-port in
_alto-rilievo_:
REYNANDO EN ESPANA EL SEN^{R}
DON FERNANDO SEXTO Y SIENDO
GOV^{OR} Y CAP^{N} DE ES^{A} C^{D} S^{AN} AUG^{N} DE
LA FLORIDA Y SUS PROV^{A} EL MARISCAL
DE CAMPO D^{N} ALONZO FERN^{DO} HEREDA
ASI CONCLUIO ESTE CASTILLO EL AN
OD 1756 DIRI^{G}ENDO LAS OBRAS EL
CAP. INGN^{RO} DN PEDRO DE BROZAS
Y GARAY.
_Translation._--Don Ferdinand VI. being King of Spain, and the
Field Marshal Don Alonzo Fernando Hereda being Governor and Captain
General of this place, St. Augustine, of Florida, and its Province.
This fort was finished in the year 1756. The works were directed by
the Captain Engineer, Don Pedro de Brazos y Garay.
Every year hundreds of visitors rush into Fort Marion, and then the
dungeon, with an awe-stricken feeling, as though the imaginary groans
which are said to have been uttered here centuries since were ready to
burst through the rocks and echo again, like the words of Plato, which
his friends said froze in the winter, but on the return of spring thawed
out again.
Several years after the cession of Florida to the United States the
north-east bastion of this fortress caved in, immediately under the
highest tower, disclosing a dungeon fourteen feet square. On the same
day was made the discovery of a square rock, cemented in an opening
similar to those in the casemates, only much less, which was undoubtedly
the entrance.
A tempest there you scarce could hear,
So massive were the walls.
Some human bones and hair were then discovered and seen by volunteers
from the ship Dolphin--a published account of which was forwarded to
Washington, and deposited in the Congressional Library. The Smithsonian
Institute has no knowledge of these cages, bones, or any thing
pertaining to them ever having been placed there--which forever
silences all inquiries in that direction. They told us, while in
Washington, that when visitors came to the Institute asking information
about them, the Professors were at a loss to know what they implied by
their interrogations.
It has long been a demonstrated fact that some of the St. Augustine
natives have a way of answering questions asked about them in accordance
with their impressions, regardless of dates or historic records. The
following description of the old fort mysteries is a change from the
iron cages--the writer having visited the dungeon before the cage tale
had been invented: "We were taken into the ancient prisons of the
fort-dungeons, one of which was dimly lighted by a grated window, the
other entirely without light, and by the flame of a torch we were shown
the half-obliterated inscriptions scratched on the walls long ago by
prisoners. But in another corner of the fort we were taken to look at
the secret cells which were discovered a few years since in consequence
of the sinking of the earth over a narrow apartment between them. These
cells are deep under ground, vaulted over head, and without windows. In
one of them a wooden machine was found, which some supposed might have
been a rack, and in the other a quantity of human bones. The doors of
these cells had been walled up, and concealed with stucco, before the
fort passed into the hands of the Americans."
Many things, when related about it far away, sound tame, but have an
awe-inspiring effect if surrounded by its grim walls, listening to the
grating of rusty bolts, or the clanking of iron chains, and looking
through the uncertain glare of the old sergeant's candles as he finishes
his well-learned tale of horrors, in subdued tones, with the final
paragraph, "_It may be so, or it may not; I cannot tell_."
That human bones have been discovered in the ruins of old churches and
structures of various other kinds, placed there for sepulture, is a
well-authenticated fact. While constructing the wall around the
light-house at St. Mark's, Florida, in tearing down the old Spanish
fort, a tomb was found beneath a tablet, containing a single body of
much greater size than any living in the country at the present day. In
the walls of the State-house, at Nashville, Tennessee, a niche was
planned by the architect to contain his body, where his bones are now
sealed in.
The iron cages about which so much has been said and written have come
before the public with the enormous cruelties of the Inquisition and the
mysteries of an almost-forgotten past. Many statements have been made
and published in regard to them, without the shadow of truth for a
basis. There are old citizens now living in St. Augustine, between
eighty and ninety years of age, who saw those cages when discovered, and
heard their parents state where they first saw them.
The following is, no doubt, the true version of the man-cages, direct
from a most authentic source: About sixty years since, while some
workmen were engaged outside the city gates in making post-holes for a
butcher-pen, when in the act of digging, they struck a hard substance
resembling iron, which excited their curiosity. They continued working
until they uncovered two cages, made of wrought iron, welded together in
a manner somewhat resembling the human form, and containing a few
decomposed human bones. None of the New Smyrna refugees were then
living, but there are those alive now who remember having heard their
parents say that "two cages containing the remains of some pirates were
hanging outside the city gates when they came to St. Augustine from
Smyrna, after the English left it, and buried them just in the manner
they were found by the butchers."
Although many inhuman acts have been committed by the Spaniards, they
are not chargeable with all the atrocities perpetrated in the world.
Señor B. Oliveros thus relates what he saw on the day they were dug out:
"One evening, a little before sunset, I noticed a number of persons
collected around the city gates, and proceeded there to ascertain the
cause of so many people, when I spied the two cages standing against the
city gate-posts." He, being a gunsmith, succeeded in obtaining one,
which he said was most excellent wrought iron, of which he made good
use. The other cage was taken in charge by the Spanish officers, and
locked in the fort for safe keeping until it could be sent to Spain as a
relic, where old persons now living here saw it with feelings of
terror--they then being children. Thus, instead of being exhibited as a
relic of the Spanish Inquisition at Washington, as has been represented
so frequently, it is retained in Madrid as a specimen of English
barbarity. The cages were no worse punishment than that of the old
English law for aggravated offenses: "That the perpetrator be drawn and
quartered alive." And who can number those that have perished in the
English pillories?
No nation of people in the world can wash their hands entirely from
cruel conduct, or show a clear record for the humane deportment of all
its ancestry, remembering infallibility has left its impress nowhere
except on the works and ways of God.
Some of those people usually designated as Indians, whose isolated
existence is concealed in mystery, are here in Fort Marion, fettered
with the forms of civilization, to which their adaptability of character
conforms them with as good a grace as the circumstances will permit.
That these tawny-skinned creatures have constitutions of iron there is
no doubt, as their general appearance indicates a life of fatigue to
which ease is a stranger. They are subjected to much exposure in
pursuing the wild herds that rush with the precipitancy and speed of the
mountain torrent, together with the days and weeks they spend with only
the canopy of heaven for a covering, which increases their powers of
endurance. Many times they retire supperless, and, when game is
abundant, gorge themselves to gluttony, after which, like the stupid
anaconda, they roll up for digestion, to supplant the place of more
moderation. It is the testimony of all those who have lived among the
Indians, that there exists a natural feeling of opposition to
civilization, when not weakened by wars, or overpowered with superior
numbers.
Did it ever occur to us highly enlightened people, while looking at the
native dress of these savages, wrapped in their blankets, that clothing
for the lower limbs was of but recent origin? Trousers were never worn
by the Hebrews, Greeks, or Romans. The idea is said to have originated
with the Gauls, the source from which our fashions are now received. The
garment worn by the ancients was woven in one piece, about twelve feet
in length and half the width, fastened on the right shoulder. It was
secured with a girdle in folds at the waist when they started on long
journeys, which was termed "girding the loins." This seamless coat was
never out of fashion, and worn, if no accident happened to it, for
generations. Think of a young man now wearing his father's coat, to say
nothing of his great-grandfather's! It would be regarded as a synonym of
extreme poverty, however rich the fabric from which it was formed might
be woven.
The locality from which these Indians were brought was formerly
designated The American Desert, located beyond the Arkansas River; but,
as no remarkable barren country has been found there, the name was
changed to Plains. The aborigines first found on the discovery of
America, and those roaming through the Western wilds, are of quite
different material. Those on the Atlantic coast were planters--cultivators
of the soil. The Western Indians range through an area of two thousand
miles in extent, with no abiding-place but the camp-fires, around which
they gather at night to rest, after shooting during the day the buffalo
that supplies all their necessities--clothing, tent-covers, shoes, and
strings for their bows; also an article of commerce for trafficking with
the whites. An attempt at a treaty with these children of nature would
have never been productive of any good. The most feasible plan for the
present has been adopted--to capture a portion of them, which will have
a tendency to awe the remainder. Force is the only weapon to be used.
They are the Ishmaelites of the West. The names of the tribes
represented here are the Cheyennes, Comanches, Kiowas, and Arapahoes.
The Comanches are the most numerous of any tribe now existing, and have
for many years been a terror to Texas and frontier settlers. Entire
districts have been depopulated by them. While they exert a sleepless
vigilance over their own possessions, they are constantly making
predatory incursions upon their neighbors. The Texas Rangers acquired
the great skill, of which we saw such frequent exhibits during the war,
in spending a portion of each day skirmishing with these Indians. They
are bold and warlike, with a home on the grassy plains, whose kingdom is
conquest, their throne a horse, upon which, when once seated, with their
arrows and lasso, they acknowledge no umpire but death. More than three
hundred years since, when first discovered, they had dogs for beasts of
burden--horses never having been used among them. Plunder is what they
live for, and trophies what they fight for--it is considered
disgraceful for them to return to camps empty-handed: no glory then
awaits them, or words of kindness.
The Cheyennes have a rude system of representing their ideas by
picture-writing, which may be traced up to the highest type of
communicating thought by letter-writing. In this manner they have
preserved legends, written history, and recorded songs.
The pantomimic movements of these Indians are all the language of signs.
Each yelp has its import, by which means they can converse with one
another, although their dialect may differ. Riding with the tails of
their ponies braided is a key-note to hostilities. It is a remarkable
peculiarity, in regard to their language, that they have retained it,
however much associated with other tribes, which is illustrated by the
Arapahoes and Cheyennes living in close proximity, indulging in freaks
of fighting and friendship, as their inclination dictates, communicating
with each other only by gestures or interpreters. They inhabit the
valley of the Platte River, always ready to receive presents, talk in
good faith of peace, but hardly have the words ceased to echo from their
lips before they are holding a council of war, and making preparations
for a descent upon any thing of value they may have discovered during
their parley. They eat the flesh of canines with a relish that places
all Government rations at a discount. Their visitors are expected to
partake with them as a mark of friendship.
The Kiowa and Arapahoe tribes appear to have oratorical powers not
possessed by the others, and their native eloquence has never been
improved by education. Sa-tan-ta, a former chief of the Kiowas, when
taken by the Government for numberless depredations, pleaded his own
cause with such powerful effect he was dubbed "The Orator of the
Plains." There is no doubt that the patriarchs among them prefer peace,
but the young warriors are fond of fighting. With them it is an inborn
instinct, like a bird for the air.
No life can be imagined fraught with greater dangers and privations than
that of soldiers in search of Indians, to be found lurking with their
missiles of destruction behind trees, grass-blades, or in any covert
from which they can discharge these death-dealing weapons, in real or
fancied security. The wild animals, driven by necessity, are always in
readiness to pluck the bones of the first object they see, whether man
or beast. Then the terrible thirst the poor soldiers endure, to be
slaked with bitter waters, which destroy instead of refreshing them; the
starving mules and horses of uncertain ages, whose flesh they have
devoured like hungry dogs; the frosted limbs upon which they have limped
until life seemed a burden. The fate of those who have preceded them is
constantly in view; their companions are found lying near the last
Indian trail with their bones bleaching, or their bodies filled with
arrows, according to the number present when they were killed--no
warrior is satisfied until he has pierced his bleeding, quivering flesh
with a barbed point. Many of the arrows used have been poisoned by
dipping them in the decayed hearts and livers of the buffaloes they have
killed and then dried--a wound from one of them being equally as fatal
in its effects as the virus from a dissecting knife.
During the stay of these red men efforts have been made to teach them
the use of boots and breeches, but the practical utility of either is of
little import to them. Their first movement on returning West will no
doubt be to drop their Government clothes, and resume the blanket and
leggins.
[Illustration: text decoration]