During the year 1690, after the appointment of Don Quiroga Loada as
Governor of Florida, the water was discovered to be making encroachments
from the bay into the town. A proposition was then made to the residents
that a wall should be constructed from the castle to the plaza. At this
time the sum of eight thousand dollars was raised, and a wall of coquina
built, a portion of which can yet be seen. The present sea-wall, which
is nearly a mile in length, extending below the barracks, was commenced
in 1837, completed in 1843, at an expense of one hundred thousand
dollars, the entire foundation being of coquina, mounted with a coping
of granite, four feet wide. It is here young lovers delight to promenade
in mid-winter, breathing words of tenderness and love, while the bright
moonbeams silver the waves beneath their feet.
On the north side of the town, near the fort, stands what is left of the
city gates, the most interesting relic that remains from a walled city.
The gates are gone, the architecture of the two towers, or pillars,
remaining being purely arabesque, surmounted by a carved pomegranate.
Like the relics at Mount Vernon, if a protection is not built around
these pillars, the hand of vandalism will soon have
[Illustration: REMAINS OF THE ST. AUGUSTINE CITY GATEWAY.]
them destroyed, as so many careless visitors are constantly chipping off
fragments. The sentry-boxes are much defaced, their foundation being a
cement, the art of making it now being lost.
North of the fort, about one-quarter of a mile, on a slightly elevated
plat of ground, there stood over three hundred years ago an Indian
village, called Tapoquoi. Upon this spot now remains the foundation of a
church, known as "_Nuestra Señora de la Leche_." Two hundred and
seventy-five years since a most inhuman act was committed here by the
Indians. Father Blas de Rodriguez, a Franciscan friar, having
administered reproof to a young chieftain for indulging in practices
which did not belong to his profession, was warned in a menacing manner
to prepare for death. He remonstrated with the Indians, trying to
dissuade them from their wicked designs. However, all his tears and
entreaties were unavailing. Finally, as a last request, he asked the
privilege of celebrating mass before being forced to try the realities
of another world. His fiendish, blood-thirsty persecutors crouched
during the service like beasts of prey, waiting for an opportune moment
to seize their innocent victim. Hardly had the words of supplication
ceased for his enemies, before his murderers, as if impatient for the
sacrifice, rushed upon him with their war-clubs, crashing him in a most
shocking manner, bespattering the altar with his blood, while streams of
his life's-gore covered his snowy vestments. They threw his mutilated
remains into the field, but nothing disturbed them until a Christian
Indian gave them sepulture. An emotion of sadness is produced in the
mind of the sensitive visitor while surveying the ruins of this
chapel--"fragments of stone, reared by hands of clay"--isolated from
human habitation, where no sounds now break the silence but sighing
winds and surging waves from a restless sea.
The fact has long since been demonstrated beyond a doubt that St.
Augustine is the home of the rose as well as the orange, which can be
seen from the following description of one called "La Sylphide," which
grew in the yard of Señor Oliveros, on St. George's Street: "This
remarkable rose-tree before its death attained to the height of about
twenty feet, the main stalk being fifteen inches in circumference and
five inches in diameter, the whole covering an area of seventeen feet,
yielding annually between four and five thousand beautiful buds. But its
glory has now departed. While crowds gathered to admire it, a worm was
eating at the heart, thus withering its creamy petals, blighting the
tender buds, which never opened their velvet coverings to greet the
sunlight, or kiss the morning breeze, as it came from its home in the
sea."
Many who have never spent a winter in Florida think there is no
religion, or churches either, which is quite the reverse, as the finest
pulpit-talent in the North visit St. Augustine during the winter to rest
and prepare for the arduous and responsible duties which await them on
their return. The change of scenery and surroundings give these
clergymen inspiration, when visitors often listen to some heavenly
sermons. Imagine a Sabbath here in January, pleasant as a June holiday,
North, among the roses, with a soft air floating through the house,
which much resembles a new-born spring.
The Presbyterian church is a good, old-fashioned, well-preserved
specimen of coquina walls. Many pleasant faces, whose homes are far away
in icy regions, worship here every Sabbath. The table in front of the
pulpit has a tall vase filled with the most beautiful flowers that ever
bloomed in any clime--rose-buds, tinted like the sunset sky,
orange-blooms, pomegranates, and snowy jasmines, all fresh from their
bath in the morning dew, exhaling their sweet odors, mingled with the
pæans of God's people--thus giving a holy peace to this blessed hour.
The flowers are from the gardens of Messrs. Atwood and Alexander, who
both have a cultivated taste for the beautiful. Two young men have just
walked in, who are obliged to talk, whether they say any thing of
importance or not. One of them remarked, "I think flowers in a church
look too gushing!" This house, which is capable of containing over four
hundred people, is filled nearly every Sabbath.
Dr. Daniel F. March, the author of "Night Scenes in the Bible," preached
to-day. He always tells us something sweet to think of during the week,
to lighten life of half its burden, that we can take along and travel
its rough, rugged paths, singing instead of sighing. While associated
with so much that is pleasant, the earth appears like a purified
pedestal to a higher life, rather than a vale of wickedness. Dr. March
has given a dissertation to-day upon small matters, which make up the
great sum of life. He says: "Thousands of homes in our land might be
made heaven by kind words. One little pleasant sentence spoken in the
morning will ring all day in a sensitive heart like the song of a
seraphim."
The Episcopal church, situated on the plaza, is a neat Gothic structure,
with stained glass windows of exquisite design, which resemble the inner
furnishing of an elegant city church more than a little chapel down by
the sea. It was commenced in 1827, and consecrated in 1833, by Bishop
Bowen, of South Carolina. This church owns beautiful grounds, filled
with a tropical growth, adjoining it, on the south-west side of the
plaza. The land formerly belonged to the Spanish Government, whose claim
ceased when the province was ceded to the United States. This property,
then, by a special act of Congress, was given to the Church, to be under
the control and management of the wardens and vestry, the act being
confirmed February 8, 1827, when, in 1857, it was leased to a private
party for the term of twenty-five years. It is a piece of property that
involves a curious question--the Spanish or English measurement of a few
feet of ground, which takes in or leaves out the veranda from the front
of the most desirable residence in the city, formerly owned by Dr.
Bronson. The question has never been decided who owns the veranda, but
the Church, having no use for it, has never issued a possessory warrant.
Dr. Root, a venerable and most exemplary clergyman, is their pastor
now, who ministers to them in holy things.
At no place in the world can a greater variety of peculiar people be
seen during the winter, with their idiosyncrasies and eccentricities
cropping out, for the amusement of some, and the annoyance of others,
than at St. Augustine. One of these peculiar folks, of the masculine
gender, can be seen every Sabbath morning in one of the churches. His
devotions during the service are profound--his spiritual nature appears
absorbed in humble confessions. At his side, on the cushion, reclines
his constant companion--a little, black, shaggy dog, fastened to the
seat. His master, having an aversion to strangers sitting by him, places
his dog there as a protection against intruders. At the close of the
service, the dog and master both leave the church with a regularity that
has been remarked by all those who attend this place of worship. It was
one Sabbath morning in March of 1878, while the orange-blossoms were
exhaling their fragrance, the birds singing their songs of joy, combined
with the perfection of a day which increased the desire for a stroll to
the woods, and far away, that this dog and his master were seen
approaching. The dog turned into the church, when the master stopped,
beckoned, and tried to call him out, but all in vain--no effort could
dissuade the dog from his regular custom of church-going, and the master
had to attend church also, but against his own inclination on this
occasion. This man is one of those harmless eccentrics whose freaks no
one would think of interfering with, or trying to deprive him of, more
than the crutch of the aged, or the spar from a drowning man. The most
remarkable part of this story is yet to be told. His acquaintances in
the North, who, seven years since, knew that he was an inmate of a
lunatic asylum in New York, and supposing him there now, could scarcely
credit the statement that he had been spending seven delightful winters
in St. Augustine, chaperoning the ladies, with whom he is a great
favorite, although the current of his matrimonial felicity has been
stirred to the foundation, and never yet settled.
From the above facts, it can be seen that St. Augustine was not only
supposed to contain the fountain of youth, but has, in reality, by its
equable atmospheric influences, deprived the lunatic of his madness.
Among other attractions, St. Augustine contains a Public Reading-room
and Circulating Library, both being the enterprise of kind-hearted,
benevolent citizens and visitors, among the most prominent of whom we
find the name of J. L. Wilson, Esq. The Reading-room is furnished with
daily and weekly papers, together with periodicals from all parts of the
United States, where time can be passed very pleasantly in obtaining a
knowledge of the events taking place in the outside world. The Library
contains about two thousand judiciously-selected volumes--most of them
being late and standard works, from the best authors, in both Europe and
America. Library-books are lent to responsible persons, who will return
them within a prescribed time without injury. All contributions, either
in books or money, will be thankfully received and properly used.
[Illustration: A SEA-CRAB.]
The important question with most visitors wherever they go is, What do
we have to eat? as though the sole object of their lives was
gormandizing. The market in St. Augustine is well supplied with
eatables. Vessels from New York arrive weekly with groceries consigned
to one or more of the various firms of Messrs. Hamlin & Co., Genovar &
Brother, Lyon & Co., large wholesale and retail dealers, which are
furnished to their customers on more reasonable terms than purchasers
would think possible. During most of the winter months fresh
strawberries, cabbage, and lettuce, sparkling with the morning dew, are
sold on the streets, besides celery, turnips, sweet and Irish potatoes,
wild turkeys and ducks, together with plenty of venison and beef. It is
a treat to visit the fish-market at early dawn, and see the boats come
in with their live fish of various kinds--drum, mullet, flounder,
sheep-head, red bass, crabs, etc.
Fine Matanzar oysters are kept for sale in or out of the shell, as the
purchaser may choose. If any appearance of starvation has ever faced
visitors here, no one has perished here from hunger. It is true, there
have been times when the demand for certain articles has exceeded the
supply a day or two only, but now good, palatable, life-sustaining food
can be obtained; also fresh milk, as some of the citizens are making
dairies a specialty. Very sweet oranges are sold from Dr. Anderson's
grove by the cart-load, while some others have almost every variety
produced, including the Lisbon, Chinese, Maltese, Tangerine, Seville,
and Mandarin, or Clove orange.
Hotels here, with high-sounding names and inviting appearance, are well
kept. The St. Augustine, Magnolia, and Florida Houses, have the most
rooms, while the Sunnyside has taken a front seat for first-class
accommodations with all its patrons. Nearly every house rents rooms or
takes boarders, and many of them feed well--among whom we find the names
of Mr. George Greeno, Mr. Medicis, and Miss Lucy Abbott, as extremely
popular.
Some who visit Florida expect gratuitous offerings from the residents
for the great favor shown them in coming, and when they find every thing
is cash on delivery, a general fault-finding is commenced on
extortion--this exercise being the only escape-valve for their bottled
wrath. The far-famed hospitality of the Southern people is a record of
the past, from the force of surrounding circumstances, now obsolete, as
Webster says with regard to some of his Dictionary words: with most of
them it is a question of bread, and whatever produce or fruit of any
kind is raised--from a ground-pea to a ripe sweet orange--the question
is asked, How can I turn it into something by which my family may be
supported? The South has now neither wealth nor much leisure to spend
without value received. The inhospitality in not giving fruits is only
one of the many sources of complaint--the boarding-houses and hotels
being the most prolific cause for disagreeable remarks. The most
eligible houses of entertainment, with scarcely an exception, are kept
by Northern people, who have charged two dollars for a dinner with the
most unblushing effrontery, while the Floridian is satisfied with fifty
cents for a square meal. There are also those reared here who ask
whatever they think visitors will stand, regardless of principle, but
they always bear brow-beating, when they come down to prices within
range of any ordinary purse.
Many speak of this favorably as a summer-resort, but when the season
advances into May, the winter-visitors all leave. Then a painful silence
pervades every thing, unbroken only by an occasional yawn from the
residents, who are tired doing nothing. These demonstrations sound sad,
as if from the tomb, and where the echoes cease to reverberate we have
never been able to determine. The climate, from its insular exposure, is
said to be lovely even in August.
We are now enjoying moonlight nights, about which so many have so much
rhapsodized. There is no doubt that the nocturnal appearance of the
heavens in this latitude contrasts with a Northern one in the same
manner that two paintings differ--the warmth, richness, and brilliancy
of the one being in opposition to the poverty and indistinctness of the
other. On account of the latitude, there is no twilight--the "fairy web
of day is never hung out"--but from blazing sunshine into darkness we
are at once precipitated--no witchery or poetry to be found between the
magic hours intervening.
Every season finds a large number of nice people at this place, who
require a change of climate, from the severity of cold, piercing winds,
to the blandness of an Indian summer. The care-worn come to rest,
writers to find inspiration; for here, fanned by the sea-breeze, does
not "light-winged fancy" travel at a swifter pace in the daylight? and
when night comes, lulled by the surf, we can listen to the "great sea
calling from its secret depths."
The inquiry is often made by those who have never visited here, How do
you kill time in that ancient city? To the historian, there is no spot
so well adapted to meditation on the past, where associations are
awakened with greater rapidity, when the Indians held undisputed sway,
only dreaming of plenty and the happy hunting-grounds beyond; but,
suddenly as the Montezuma monarch, their territory was wrested from them
by the Spaniards, whom these unlettered savages at first regarded as
children of the Great Spirit; but when the ensigns of authority were
unfurled, their country overran by myrmidons, and the power of their
cazique sneered at, then the illusion vanished--the truth dawning that
they were only sojourners whose presence did not add to the happiness of
the newly self-constituted sovereigns of their country.
Three distinct classes of visitors come here--the defiant, the
enthusiastic, and the indifferent. The defiant spend their time in
assailing, "with vehement irony," every thing with which they are placed
in contact, ringing changes upon any thing disagreeable to them, until
their companions are wearied beyond measure. The enthusiastic rise more
or less on the wings of their fertile imagination, when exaggerated
accounts, highly colored, are written about Florida as it appeared to
them--the change from the North to a land clothed in the perpetual
verdure of spring-time being so great, they were enraptured in a manner
that others of less delicate susceptibilities have failed to realize.
The indifferent tourist is an anomaly to everybody. Why he ever thought
of leaving home to travel, when with his undemonstrative nature he
appears so oblivious to all scenes and sights around him, is an unsolved
problem. He maintains an unbroken reticence on every occasion, the
mantle of silence being thrown about all his movements, while his
general appearance evinces the same amount of refinement as a polar
bear, his perceptive powers the acuteness of an oyster, his stupidity
greater than Balaam's saddle-animal.
_St. Augustine_, 1876.--The minds of the citizens and visitors in the
city have been on the _qui vive_ for several days, in anticipation of
witnessing the realities, in miniature, connected with a buffalo-chase
on the prairies, in which princes from Europe have participated,
regarding it as the crowning feat of their exploits in the New World.
For days previous ladies were discussing the propriety of their
presence, as the animal might be so unmanageable as to imperil their
safety; very brave lads, who have been sufficiently courageous to fire a
pistol at an alligator while in Florida, thought they might be safe in
the fort if they were to climb upon the walls, and very small boys
concluded their fathers would keep the buffalo from hurting them.
Long before 3 o'clock the fort was enlivened by those bent on
sight-seeing. Here were the richly-dressed ladies and their escorts,
with New-York-style mustaches, where only a restricted smile ever
rested, gazing through their eye-glasses toward every thing that came
near enough for them to take sight at, as though a fixed stare through
optical instruments was more excusable and allowable than with the naked
eye. Children of all sizes and colors came in crowds. There were more
old people present, whose silvery hair looked like a "crown of glory,"
than could be seen in any other town at once in the United States. Like
Ponce de Leon, they visit St. Augustine in search of the famous waters
which would give back their youth, restore and strengthen their feeble
limbs with renewed vigor, that would be perpetual as the verdure and
beauty by which they are surrounded. Nor are they disappointed in all
respects; for if they do not grow younger, they prolong their days to
enjoy more of God's pure air and sunlight, mingled with the perfume of
flowers and singing of sweet birds, than they would in their own homes.
As the time for the chase approached, painted Indians peered from every
part of the fort, most of them dressed in full costume, their heads
trimmed with feathers from birds of varied plumage, the most conspicuous
of which was the American turkey-tail. They were wrapped in
gaily-colored blankets, profusely trimmed with beads, all of which
trailed in a very _negligee_ manner, while they seemed as much excited
with the surroundings as any of the spectators. The Indians regard death
with much less terror than do the whites. They say that if in hunting a
horse falls and kills them, they will go where game is abundant, always
living there--thus, like the Christian, making death the golden gate to
glory.
No bugle echoed through the woodlands wild as a signal for the chase to
commence, nor well-trained dogs, with the lead-hound barking fiercely
from the excitement of a fresh trail which indicated a near approach to
game. Their captain, to whom real buffalo-hunts on the boundless
prairies are no novelty, led the van, followed by four painted,
gaily-dressed, full-rigged Indians. They all rode as though their homes
were in the saddle, and swiftly as if bright visions of fleet-footed
game were feeding in green fields, only waiting to be captured by being
shot at with their well-aimed arrows. They made some fine exhibitions of
horsemanship, peculiar to their methods of warfare and hunting. In
riding, they described circles, as if surrounding a foe in ambush, at
the same time discharging their arrows, at a distance of two hundred
yards, with great accuracy, while their horses were running at full
speed. Their arrows perforated a small building, which they used as a
target, penetrating so far they could not be removed without being
broken. Gathered in groups outside the fort, near the hunting-ground,
were many boys and young men of the more daring class, who displayed
their bravery by a foot-race which put Weston, or any other walker, in
the shade, whenever the buffalo looked toward them. Every thing was a
success, except the buffalo, which was a small steer, that would not
scare on any account. He was entirely too gentle for the fever-heat of
excitement to which the feelings and imagination of the crowd had been
wrought up. He shook his head once or twice, and started as though he
might create a sensation, but would not keep far enough ahead for the
hunters to make any thing like a good charge on him. Finally an arrow,
sped from the bow of White Horse, pierced his vitals to the depth of
four or five inches, killing him instantly. His throat was then cut,
after which he was dressed and hauled into the fort, where ample
preparations were made for his reception, with immense fires and kettles
of hot water. Some of the Indians ate the heart and liver raw, which
process did not look very appetizing to a delicate stomach. They always
cook their food before eating it when in their native wilds, except the
heart and liver, which they sometimes consume as a medicine. At a given
signal among themselves, those not engaged in cooking commenced dancing.
In their movements the poetry of music, or motion, has no votaries; but
a slight approach toward it is made, as they all take the Grecian bend,
and keep it, while going through their gyrations. When weary they group
together around the fires, turning their right foot on the side, and
seating themselves with an ease no studied art could teach them, and
then they rest more free from care than the heart that beats beneath
ermine, or reclines on velvet cushions. When their meat was cooked they
terminated the day's exercise with a feast, which they all seemed to
enjoy very much, each Indian consuming about four pounds of flesh, with
a greedy gusto before which an epicure would retire in disgust. The
grand war-dance of the season came off after dark, when prisoners were
captured and treated with sham hostilities. The mind of the imaginative
could portray what would be done in reality to a helpless captive in
their power.
We regard these poor savages as only a connecting link between the herd
that roams the "verdant waste"--who see the Great Spirit in clouds, and
hear him in the crashing storms--and ourselves. May we not inquire if
their condition cannot be improved, and their voices, which only shout
for conquest over a vanquished enemy, or in the chase while victimizing
the huge buffalo with bleeding, gaping wounds, be taught to sing the
songs of redeeming grace for a ransomed world?