The Original Mission Church

Located Here on The Park Grounds

The settlers of St. Augustine moved twice before finally settling at the town’s present-day location south of the plaza in 1572. Franciscan friars arrived in 1573 and later established the first Mission of Nombre de Dios, now recognized as the first Catholic mission established in the continental United States. This Mission was located here on the Fountain of Youth grounds, just behind the living history Timucuan Village exhibit. Eventually the Mission area expanded to encompass the La Leche Shrine area to the south by the big cross.

Head of a Franciscan Friar: 1615-1617 Pieter Pauwel Rubens

Saint Augustine of Hippo Medalion design & period Circa 1650

The Franciscan friar assigned by the order to construct the first Mission of Nombre de Dios was Friar Antonio de Escobedo. There are no paintings or portraits that are known to exist of friar Escobedo, but this 1615 work by the famed Dutch painter Pieter Pauwel Rubens captures the essence of a typical Franciscan friar of the mid sixteenth century.

LOST IN TIME FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS

The site of the Mission Church of Nombre de Dios was lost to time until 1934 when a gardener planting trees discovered a number of human burials. Walter Fraser, the owner of the Fountain of Youth Park during this time, contacted the Smithsonian Institution. They dispatched archaeologists who excavated more than a hundred burials. The remains were on display for several years before being re-interred.

Efforts to convert the Timucua to Christianity began in the vicinity of the former Spanish St. Augustine settlement after 1577, four years after the first Franciscan friars arrived in Florida. The Timucuan town of Seloy (just north of the Spanish city) was renamed Nombre de Dios by the Spanish and in 1587 the first mission was established there and given the same name. This detail from the Hernando de Mestas Map of 1593 shows the Mission of Nombre de Dios illustrated as several buildings at the edge of the water surrounded by fields. A severe outbreak of smallpox in 1654-1655 probably prompted the abandonment of this location.

This replica of the Mission of Nombre de Dios was built using historically correct methods of construction wherever possible. The large rounded beams are locally harvested cypress, used by the Spanish for its natural resistance to local wood-eating insects.

1770s British Anchor

Old Pattern Admiralty Long-Shanked Anchor

This anchor was purchased by Walter B. Fraser and placed here in 1933. The ship’s name and site of the anchor’s recovery are unknown, but Britain’s Royal Navy used this size and type of anchor on their famous 74-gun ships of the line. First designed by the French and then copied by the British, the “74s” were the perfect blend of firepower, maneuverability and seaworthiness. For over 75 years, from the mid-1700s to the early part of the 1800s, these ships formed the backbone of the fighting British fleet. Larger ships with more gun decks were generally reserved for admirals, but could be ungainly in battle.

This anchor’s shaft length is twelve feet and the anchor weighs roughly 1 ton, and would have been used as a kedging or streaming anchor, not as a bow anchor. Kedging is a sailing maneuver used to inch the ship forward when there is no wind. A kedging anchor is rowed out ahead of the ship and dropped. The anchor rope is then pulled, and the becalmed ship inches forward. Perhaps a mile or two per day could be covered in this manner, but kedging was not typically used except in emergencies. A streaming anchor is used from the stern of the ship to limit side to side movement while at anchor. This type of anchor would be used in a narrow waterway so that the ship’s stern would not run aground or impede the movement of other vessels.

As you can see, this anchor has been in this location for decades – long enough for the cedar tree to grow around the fluke.

Peafowl at the Fountain of Youth Park

Indian Peafowl

The peafowl you see here at the Park are Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus), which are one of three species of peafowl worldwide. They are large and brightly colored members of the pheasant family native to South Asia, but introduced and semi-feral in many other parts of the world.

The male peacock is predominantly blue with a fan-like crest of spatula-tipped wire-like feathers and is best known for the long train made up of elongated upper tail covert feathers which bear colorful eyespots. These stiff and elongated feathers are raised into a fan and quivered in a display during courtship. If you are lucky, you may see and hear the rustling of this display while at the Park. The female lacks the train, has a greenish lower neck and a duller brown plumage, and will fan her tail feathers at times.

In nature, the Indian Peafowl is found mainly on the ground in open forest or on land under cultivation where they forage for berries and grains, but they will also prey on snakes, lizards, and small rodents. Their loud calls make them easy to detect, and in forest areas often indicate the presence of a predator such as a tiger. They forage on the ground in small groups and will usually try to escape on foot through undergrowth and avoid flying, though they will fly into tall trees to roost.

Peafowl at the Park

The gender of an adult peafowl can be determined by looking at the tail plumage. Adult males (also called peacocks) have long tail plumage while females (also called peahens) have short tail plumage. Males, unless they are white (leucistic, a recessive pigment condition), are much more colorful than the females. The relatively drab color of the female is thought to aid in camouflaging her while she is nesting – and if you are lucky, you may witness a female spread her short tail feathers!

Mating season for peafowl is a raucous mix of noise and color. The male spreads his tail plumage to entice a female to breed, and to warn off other potential suitors. When a male is displaying, he will aggressively warn off other creatures such as squirrels and other birds.

A few theories exist for how this colorful display evolved. Some theorize that a male with a larger tail must be stronger, since he is more visible to predators and has thus successfully evaded them. Other research shows that peahens do not necessarily mate with the larger, more colorfully-plumed peacocks, and that other unknown factors help the peahens choose a mate.

Strength in Numbers

A group of peafowl can be called a muster, an ostentation, a pride, or a party. Here at the Fountain of Youth Park, we prefer “muster”. The first breeding pair was dropped at the Park back in the late 1960s, and the rest is history. The peafowl here typically roost in trees at night and emerge during the day to forage for food and interact with each other and our patrons. In certain situations, they group together for defense. When alarmed or agitated for any reason, they vocalize with a distinctive call.

A muster of Park peafowl cluster together to ward off an interloping red-tailed hawk, seen here on the upper left portion of an old ship’s anchor in the Park. The hawks occasionally prey on the peafowl chicks, and so are very unwelcome to the muster.

WHITE PEAFOWL

You may note that there are white peafowl at the Park. This beautiful coloration is caused by a recessive gene, and is called leucism. It is a form of albinism – albino animals have a lack of only melanin pigment, whereas creatures with leucism lack nearly all pigmentation except for the eyes, which in white peafowl are generally blue. This genetic oddity is prized by breeders around the world.

Peacock eggs tend to be larger and have thicker shells than domesticated chicken eggs. A peahen typically lays a clutch of 8–12 eggs, and these eggs are incubated in the hen’s nest for approximately 28 days. Peahens usually nest on the ground. The eggs are shown above at actual size.

Indian Peacock | Male
Pavo Cristatus

Indian Peacock | Male
Pavo Cristatus, Leucistic

Indian Peacock | Female
Pavo Cristatus

Indian Peacock | Female
Pavo Cristatus, Leucistic

Peacock Egg

Chicken Egg

U.S.S. Constitution Cannons

Launched in 1797 and named by President George Washington, she is the oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat in the world. These two non-firing cannons were part of the armament on board the U.S.S. Constitution – also known as “Old Ironsides” during the 1930s.

Mayor Walter B. Fraser negotiated with the National Park Service to obtain them for display here on the grounds of the Fountain of Youth Park.

The ship carried thirty of these 24-pound long guns and twenty-four 32-pound short range carronades for her broadside weaponry. These replicas are ten feet long from muzzle to cascabel, have a muzzle bore diameter of six inches and fired a twenty-four pound cannon ball. They have been mounted upon typical ship-board gun carriages. As well as a long 18-pound “chase” gun forward.

By 1928, the decision was made to sell materials removed from the ship, including the replica guns, as a way to raise money for the restoration.

They found new homes across the country. According to a October 21, 1928 Daily Boston Globe article, “Selling Relics of Constitution”.

Today, we know that at least 33 of the 1906 replica guns were dispersed across the United States and many now decorate courtyards, college campuses, cemeteries, and parks around the nation.

Tinajonés

The Large Clay jars placed around the grounds are early Spanish water urns called Tinajónes. They were placed under the eaves of houses to catch rainwater and were buried halfway underground to keep the water cool. The Tinajónes in the park vary in size, but all are made of Fire-baked clay. The largest Tinajónes weigh around a half ton and are over 300 years old.

Timucuan Style Dugout Canoe

An Ancient Form of Transportation

The word canoe comes to English from the Carib word kenu (meaning dugout) via the Spanish word canoa. This linguistic exchange occurred in the sixteenth century as Spain expanded its colonial empire throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America. The Timucua language was recorded by Franciscan friars, and the Timucua word for canoe was recorded as tico.

The Carib were not the first culture to make a dugout canoe. Hollowing out a tree to use as a boat is an ancient human tradition dating back at least 10,000 years. Nearly all of mankind’s cultures have used this form of boatbuilding. The earliest surviving example of a dugout canoe is the Pesse boat, dating from approximately 8040 BC. Discovered near the village of Pesse in the Netherlands, it is constructed from a single log of scotch pine.

Other types of canoe and boat construction existed at that time, but the fact that dugout canoes are fashioned from a single large log makes them more easily preserved.

This technology would have been commonly used throughout the North Florida area. In fact, recent droughts have exposed a large number of Timucuan era canoes in North Central Florida area lakes.

One of the most common clams in the area is the Southern Quahog (Mercenaria campechiensis) which lives in the mud in estuaries across the southeastern United States. The clam is edible and tasty, and was a dependable food source for the Timucua along the coast.

Judging from the extensive trash heaps (middens) in the area, oysters were eaten in larger quantities, probably because they are easier to gather. The shell of the Southern Quahog is very thick and durable, making it perfect for scraping charcoal from a burnt canoe bottom. Interestingly, it has recently been discovered that these bivalves can live for centuries.

This canoe was made from a single Florida pine log which weighed nearly 1 ton. Over a nine month period, historically-correct methods such as burning and scraping were used to remove the excess wood. Some modern tools were used as well. The result is the distinctively-shaped canoe form you see today.

During the construction process, the artisans alternated between burning and scraping with local shells and chopping with a modern adze. The curved blade of the adze created distinctive crescent-shaped marks in the wood. “Bulkhead” sections of the log were left in place to give the wood lateral stability.

The wood chips that resulted from the use of the adze and a bent gouge were placed in small piles and burned in a slow manner. This method requires that the canoe be observed and attended at all times while the flames burn a small thickness of log to charcoal, which is then scraped away.

Water Travel Made Simple

The Timucua in this area used canoes extensively in their day to day lives for travel, fishing, hunting, and battle. The North Florida region has a large number of river, lakes and streams that make canoe travel one of the best choices for getting from one place to another.

In 1591 Dutch engraver and goldsmith Theodor de Bry published Grand Voyages, which contained the earliest known European images of Native Americans in what is now Florida. De Bry obtained many of the works of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, a member of the short-lived French colony in Florida, Fort Caroline.

De Bry’s renditions of Le Moyne’s sketches are both historically significant and highly controversial. Scholars point out that certain aspects of the engravings do not match later depictions of the Timucua Indians encountered by the French in northeastern Florida, and also contend that de Bry certainly altered the images prior to publication. However, they remain one of the only sets of imagery of the Timucua, and are important as such.

Fire-shaped and scraped from a pine log, this Timucuan dugout measures over 16 feet long. The keel was begun in same manner at left bow but was never completed. Dugout has a knot hole in center. Found in autumn of 1956. The canoe is currently displayed at the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve at Fort Caroline National Monument, located on the site of the ill-fated French Colony.

Water, Water Everywhere

Northeast Florida has miles and miles of waterways – creeks, lakes, marshes, rivers, and the Atlantic Ocean all provided easy transit for a canoe-using people such as the Timucua.

Some water features are man-made.

Mission Life in Nombre De Dios

Changes to the Timucuan Culture

After the establishment of St. Augustine, the Timucuan town of Seloy was renamed Nombre de Dios. The people who lived there were in closer contact with Europeans than any other Native American group in all of Florida. The Timucua of Northeast Florida were not only the first to confront and resist Spanish arrival, but they were also the first to confront and suffer from European diseases on a continuous scale. The first decade of coexistence (1565-1575) undoubtedly reduced the Timucuan population of the St. Augustine region dramatically, and this reduction was probably a major factor in the decision of the Spaniards to relocate St. Augustine in 1572 from Anastasia Island to its present site on the mainland.

The generation of Timucuans born during the 1560’s reached adulthood in the 1580’s, which was when missionary efforts in St. Augustine realized their first successes in converting the native populations to Christianity. This success was aided by the cooperation of the Timucuan caciques (chiefs), who appear to have quickly recognized the advantages of becoming allied with the Spanish.

A Female Timucua Chieftain

Doña Maria Melendez, a member of the Timucuan noble class, was the Chieftainess (cacica) of the Timucuan town of Nombre de Dios during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Doña Maria was a Christian, and her mother (who had been the ruling Chief of Nombre de Dios before her) was one of the very early Timucua converts to Christianity. Doña Maria married a Spanish soldier named Clemente de Vernal, and he lived with her and their children at Nombre de Dios. By 1606 she had become the ruler of the Timucuan tribes extending along the coast between St. Augustine and approximately Cumberland Island, Georgia, probably through Spanish intervention.

Tracking Native Americans Through Pottery

Spanish mission activity also began very early among the Guale people of the coastal region of Georgia, and this provoked movement of the Guale into Florida. The arrival of this new American Indian group may have had even greater impacts on life at Nombre de Dios than the Spaniards did. The Timucuan people around St. Augustine, whose traditional pottery is known to archaeologists as the St. Johns series, began to use the traditional San Marcos pottery of the Guale as well as their own St. Johns pottery during the 16th century. Before the mission period, they undoubtedly acquired it through coastal trade, and small amounts of Timucuan St. Johns pottery are typically found in the Guale region as well.

The gradual movement of the Guale people into St. Augustine for various reasons connected to Spanish presence and domination, however, introduced larger numbers of Guale people and larger quantities of Guale San Marcos ceramics into St. Augustine during the seventeenth century. Guale pottery was particularly favored by the Spaniards who lived in St. Augustine, who used it as their principal cooking ware, and this may have inspired local Native American potters to begin production of San Marcos pottery for sale to the Spaniards. The native Timucuan inhabitants around St. Augustine, however, continued using their traditional St. Johns pottery, using San Marcos ceramics sparingly

The Franciscan Order was instrumental in bringing Christianity to the New World. Pictured here is a Franciscan medallion from the early 1600’s that shows a figure of Mary surrounded by rays of holy light.
Medallion Courtesy of SOS Antiques

Native American pottery occurs locally in two major styles: San Marcos (top) which is generally characterized by line-block stamping, and St. Johns (bottom) which is generally by check stamped. The native Timucua were noted for the St. Johns style, while the Guale introduced the San Marcos style to the area.

The Choir Loft

An interesting aspect of services at the Mission of Nombre de Dios was the singing of hymns by Christianized Native Americans. This was an integral part of the Catholic Mass in the town of Nombre de Dios, and so this Mission replica features a choir loft built into the structure at the opposite end from the altar. The altar was constructed on the west end of the Mission so that the priest or friar faced east during services. Conversely, the choir loft was built on the east end of the Mission and faced to the west.

Many items have been recovered which speak to the every day life of both the Spanish and the Native American populations in the area. The jar to the left was recovered in a well close by on the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park Grounds. Dating from the early 1500’s, it is called a tinaja and was discovered in fragments. It was later pieced together for display.

Life in the Timucuan Village

What has Archaeology Taught Us?

This map details some of the Timucuan structures that have been discovered over the years. They include a large circular structures (in red), and a large shell midden that was built up over years of harvesting and eating clams and oysters, then discarding the shells (large yellow dotted line).

Archaeological investigations have played a significant role toward interpreting the past at the Fountain of Youth. Initial work was carried out by Roy Dickson of the Smithsonian Institution in 1934. Since the 1950s, the University of Florida Anthropology Department and the Florida Museum of Natural History have taken an active role toward unraveling the site’s buried secrets. In particular has been the work of Dr. Kathleen A. Deagan who has been undertaking systematic archaeological investigations since 1976. Her efforts have focused on surveying the entire property to understand the distribution of archaeological deposits and undertaking intensive excavations in selected locations, especially that of the 1565 encampment of Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.

The Spanish were not the first to appreciate this site as an excellent place to settle. Defensive waters on three sides, abundant types of food available, and a number of fresh water sources made this estuary environment popular for many generations before the Spanish arrived.

Initially, the occupation was seasonal, depending on the availability of edible foods. The earliest inhabitants date to the Orange Period (ca. 4,000 to 500 B.C.). Archaeologist recognize the culture by the addition of fiber(such as Spanish moss) in the production of pottery and the types of animals they ate. This seasonal occupation continued through the St. Johns I Period (500 B.C. – A.D. 950), a culture typified by a chalky, sand-tempered type of ceramic (see image). It was until the St. Johns II Period (A.D. 950-1565), however, that the site became home to year-round settlement.

The permanent settlers of the site were part of the Timucua. a sociolinguistics group that spanned northeastern Florida. The Timucua were divided in separate chiefdoms, each one with its own language dialectic and way of life unique to their regional chiefdom. Spanish and French explorers wrote that the Timucua if St. Augustine were under the leadership of a cacique known as the Seloy, who was under control of a Saturiwa – a regional cacique, residing in the Jacksonville area. Nine months after the Spanish vanquished the French at Fort Caroline in 1565 the Timucua under control of Saturiwa became hostile, driving the Spanish from their settlement at the Fountain of Youth to a location on Anastasia Island.

Tools and Crafting

The Timucua were adept at crafting tools as aptly demonstrated by excavations at the Fountain of Youth area. Several tools-specifically shell awls have been found in various stages of manufacture, making this place as a site where tools where made. The Timucua used wood, bone, shell and sometimes a flint-like stone call chert, brought in from central Florida, to fashion tools and ornaments. From Shell thry would craft beads, awls from drilling holes in animal skins and other materials, and tools like scrapers, scoops, cups, and barbed attachments to arrows. Bone was used to make hair pins, punches, fishing hooks and decorative items. Chert was reserved for knives, projectile points (arrowheads). and scrapers for cutting meat and tanning skins. These tools and pottery were crafted using methods handed down from generation to generation.

Hunting and Gathering

Most of the food eaten by the Timucua was collected within or close nearby estuaries. Food would have been available year-round. Fish, clams, crabs, shrimp and oysters would readily be available from brackish water. A hearty population of wildlife such as deer, rabbit, squirrel, alligator, raccoon and opossum existed in the adjacent coastal forests. The men of the Timucua would hunt in groups for larger game such as alligators, or spread out to catch smaller game such as rabbits, leaving the women to do much of the gathering – usually berries, grapes, nuts acorns and palm hearts.

The Timucua had a large array of hunting tools from chert-tipped arrows to long wooden spears, and wooden clubs. They also wove fishing nets of cedar bark or nettle and stretched them across small inlets during high tide. When the tide went out, fish would be trapped in the shallow pools and then easily collected.

What did they look like?

There is little archaeology can tell us about the kinds of clothes they wore or how they decorated themselves, as soft organics such as cloth do not preserve in the subtropical Florida Climate. There are a few historical accounts describing the natives as dressing in clothes of moss and deerskin. However, when Jean Ribault came to the New World from France to establish the French colony of Fort Caroline near Jacksonville, Florida, in 1564, he brought with him an artist named Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues. The artist spent his time documenting the expedition with maps and illustrations of the new plants and animals encountered. Perhaps the most important legacy that Le Moyne behind were his illustrations of the Timucua. They include everything from planting corn and hunting to preparing foods, and participating in ritual activities related ti a ball game, the council meeting and punishment. The drawings provide a unique insight into the daily life of the Timucua. Most of the illustrations used on this sign are originally by Le Moyne. However his paintings were lost and today the only surviving remains of these paintings are the engravings of them that were made by Theodor de Bry in 1591. These engravings were intended to make de Brys new book a best seller so they were embellished and changed to please potential buyers, leaving historians with some debate as to their historical accuracy. Even so they are the best available representation of the native population of Northeast Florida

The Menéndez settlement field: Rebuilding the past

Building of St. Augustine, Florida. Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles laying out the Spanish city of St. Augustine Florida in 1565.

The Original Settlement of St. Augustine Comes Back to Life.

On September 8, 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Aviles founded the fledgling settlement of San Agustín here in the field before you, establishing what was to become the oldest continuously-inhabited European settlement in the United States. Conclusively established as the site of the actual First Settlement of St. Augustine by Dr. Kathy Deagan through years of extensive archaeological excavation and research, the field will now be brought back to life via a program of framework building reconstruction. This framework reconstruction approach will allow visitors to experience the physical presence of the First Settlement while preserving the site for future archaeological excavations. The project will be Phase-based.

Archaeologically correct outlines mark the perimeters of the 1565 Menéndez settlement structures, and a select few have been partially reconstructed to give guests a sense of scale and placement. The round shapes mark the locations of Timucua structures taken over by the Spanish. The rectangular shapes mark the locations of the Spanish-built structures. The largest structure is thought to be the Casa de Municiónes.

Archaeology of Menendez Encampment

Spanish buildings

Some of the larger buildings constructed by the Spanish were constructed on mud sleepers – large logs split in half used as the foundation to build up from. This method of construction dates all the way back to medieval times and was widely used in areas that had soft ground which would quickly rot wooden posts that were sunk into the soil.

When they were uncovered for the first time in the late 1980s they were first suspected to be agricultural trenches. Eventually it was discovered that they formed the outline for an extremely large building over sixty feet long which is believed to be the casa de municiones that stored the settlers’ ammunition and food supplies.

The North Defensive Wall

Although history is not clear on what kind of wall was built here, records indicate that Spanish men from all ranks were involved in the labor of constructing a defensive barrier to the north to protect against the natives as well as any attack from the French at Fort Caroline in what is today Jacksonville.

Test units chased the wall all the way to the waterfront in the east, ending in a large structure that may have been a small watchtower or gatehouse.

Archaeology in the Park

The Fountain of Youth Park has been home to many archaeological excavations over the decades, with many of them focused on uncovering the details of the Spanish settlers’ 1565 encampment. The white lines on the map below indicate the many carefully-mapped test pits that have been excavated by archaeologists in the past 60 years. Within those test pits, the marks inside indicate other features – usually postholes associated with buildings.

Spanish Barrel Wells

There are several natural springs in the area, but once the fortification wall was constructed across the north boundary of the camp the Spanish needed access to clean water without the risk of venturing outside of the safe area. To do this, they created wells by digging holes and stacking three to five barrels on top of each other to keep the soft sand from collapsing back into the well shaft.

The barrel wells at the Fountain of Youth had several 16th-century artifacts in them, including an almost complete olive jar that may have been used to gather water. The discovery of these wells helped to establish this area as the landing spot for the Spanish settlers.

Native American Buhillos

By the time the Spanish had arrived, Timucua Indians were already living year-round at the site. Historic accounts say that the Spanish first lived in these small circular huts before beginning to construct buildings of their own from wood and palmetto thatch.

Today archaeologists can still see the footprint of these huts by the circle of posthole stains left in the ground, as well as the charred earth from the hearth that burned in the center of the small building’s single room.

The Owl Totem from Hontoon Island

Dredging Up a Piece of History

For millennia, the peninsula of Florida was populated by large numbers of indigenous people who used the many navigable rivers as a superhighway to travel, trade and hunt. These natives flourished until the mid 1500s, when diseases accidentally introduced by European explorers began to rapidly decimate them. One of these tribes was known as the Mayaca, and is mentioned in the histories of Pedro Menendez de Aviles. Their lands lay just to the south of the Timucua.

The Mayaca tribe, along with every other tribe located in Florida, vanished as a people. However, they left behind a very unique and beautiful relic of their existence. A team dredging out a yacht basin in 1955 near Hontoon Island discovered a huge log and extracted it from the muck. Noticing that the wood appeared to be shaped and carved, the item was taken to Gainesville, Florida for conservation and revealed to be a large owl totem. Along with the owl, carved effigies of an otter and a pelican were discovered. The owl totem was far larger than the others.

Carved in about 1350 A.D. and made of one solid piece of pine, it is the largest such totem east of the Mississippi River, and for decades was mistakenly thought to be of Timucuan origin. However, recent studies have shown the owl totem to have been carved by the Mayaca. The owl totem must have been of great importance to the Mayacan people. It was carved using tools made from shark teeth, shells, and bone. These tools would have made the process of carving the totem very slow and tedious.

The Importance of the Owl

Owls are very prominent figures in the myths and religion of pre-Columbian Florida natives. This predator bird was regarded as the night spirit’s messenger and protector of shaman priests. This primitive image of a supernatural owl touches upon one aspect of the deep, profound relationship the Mayaca people had with the natural world.

The mystery of the original owl totem’s meaning deepens when some of the original details are considered. The Hontoon Island owl features eyes that have both human and owl characteristics. The totem’s feet have five claws, whereas owls have four. This has led some scholars to theorize that the owl is a portrayal of a changeling – perhaps an owl changing into a human, or a human changing into an owl. Whatever the case, this totem truly is a rare glimpse into the past. Since the Mayaca and their neighbors, the Timucua, are gone from this earth, we may never know what this totem truly represents.

The Timucuan Home Anoti: An Enclosed Family Home

This Timucuan hut would have been a comfortable shelter for two to three generations of family. Providing protection at night from animals and cover from inclement weather.

Timucuan Homes were mostly for shelter Daily activities such as toolmaking, food processing and socializing went on in the open village, and so the home only needed to be large enough to accommodate sleeping space and room for a hearth to cook by. The circular shape of the building helped to make the structure very resistant to wind – up to a category 2 hurricane!

There were typically three types of buildings in a Timucuan Village: The open and Public Paha, the closed family anoti, and the large council house which could be up to 60 feet in diameter with room for 30-100 people depending on the size of the village.

Archaeologists recognized Native American structures by the stains left in the ground from the wooden posts. As the wood decays it leaves a dark black organic stain in the soil which is typically a golden-orange color. Archaeologists also find remnants of the central hearth from scorched earth and animal bones left over from cooking meals.

In 2013, we completed construction of an historically-correct anoti, a large Timucuan family house, and a nihi paha, a special meeting house. Although the Timucua are gone, they are not forgotten.

Coontie – Zamia pumila or Zamia floridans

200 Million Years in the Making

Coontie is a low and palm-like or fern-like plant that grows throughout Florida and the Caribbean. Coontie is a member of the Phylum cycadacaea. At roughly 200 million years old, this is one of the older plant phyla in Florida, and is sometimes called a ‘living fossil’. Looking at this plant,you may notice that it seems a bit more primitive than other plants you might see in the Park.

Coontie is often found in well-drained shallow sandy soil and is commonly found on coastal middens and shell mounds. The name Coontie comes to English most directly from the Seminole language. The original Seminole meaning was ‘white root’ or ‘flour root’. When the Seminole Indians moved into Florida in the mid-18th century, they found the remnant Timucua and Calusa populations extracting flour from Zamia, and quickly added it to their potpourri of wild plant foods.

a.k.a. Florida Arrowroot – But Use Caution

With a subterranean stem that is rich in starch, Coontie has a historically widespread use as a food among Florida Indian peoples. The plant must be carefully processed to remove toxins that are naturally inherent in the plant. These poisonous compounds are called cycasins. Preparation of edible starch from the roots requires complex processing – a flour base called sago or sofkee can be prepared from the roots, after washing and boiling has removed the cycasin. All parts of the Coontie are toxic to humans if eaten raw, and all plant parts are poisonous to dogs and livestock as well.

Around 1825, early settlers in the Fort Lauderdale area learned the Seminole’s technique of removing the toxin cycasin from the Coontie to produce starch. By the 1880s, several mills were in business in Miami. During WWI, one mill was processing as much as 18 tons of coontie daily for military purchase. The starch content was said to range from 20% in winter to a low of 8% in summer. By 1911, the starch was known as “Florida Arrowroot.” The Food and Drug Administration banned the practice of Coontie starch making in 1925, because of the chance that improper procedures could result in unintentional poisoning. The last commercial Coontie starch factory in Florida was destroyed by the 1926 Miami Hurricane.

Coontie is widely used as an ornamental throughout south Florida. As a result of this, the Atala Hairstreak Butterfly has returned from the edge of extinction.

Far Left Coontie seed cones can look very similar to ears of corn. The similarity ends there.

Left The starchy roots of the Coontie can be processed into a light yellow starch from which doughs and breads can be made.

The Atala Hairstreak Butterfly Returns

Coontie is critically important to the Eumaeus atala butterfly, also known as the Atala Hairstreak.

This butterfly, thought to be extinct until recently, is dependent for its survival on the Zamia genus. As Coontie plants were harvested in the millions for starch making, the butterfly had no food source and died out in large areas. With the return of the Coontie plant as a common landscaping shrub, the butterfly has made a return.

At the larval stage, the Eumaeus atala caterpillar exclusively eats the leaves of the coontie. A half dozen caterpillars can completely strip a Coontie bare and so a large coontie population is needed to sustain the Eumaeus atala population. The butterfly is boldly colored, with black wings, cyan spots, and a bright orange abdomen.

Spanish Bayonet – Yucca gloriosa, Yucca aloifolia

A Natural Plant for Defending St. Augustine

A member of the yucca family, this hardy plant grows all across North and Central America from coast to coast. With over 40 species across the continent, this evergreen is easily recognized across deserts, beach sands, rocky mountains and arid grasslands by its distinctive thick, sword-shaped leaves and clusters of creamy white flowers. The two species of Spanish Bayonet native to the area are yucca gloriosa and yucca aloifolia.

The Spanish Colonists learned to make use of the naturally forbidding plant by planting it along defensive lines around the settlement of St. Augustine, and it was from this practice that the plant got its name.

Another plant in the Spanish New World colonies that is often confused with the spanish bayonet is yuca (manihot esculenta), a Caribbean plant that is used to make cassava. Before he journeyed to these shores, Juan Ponce de Léon cultivated acres of yuca on the island of Puerto Rico. With this cash crop, Ponce de Léon supplied Spanish fleets with a hardtack-type flatbread made from the yuca.

Yuccas pollinate by means of a highly specialized moth, the yucca giantskipper (megathymus yuccae), who spreads the pollen of the plant while also laying its own clutch of eggs in the flower. The young of these rare moths are only found on plants from the Yucca family. Growing up to three inches wide, they fly so fast and powerfully that they can be heard buzzing by. The moths have developed a symbiotic relationship with the yucca. They are the plant’s only source of pollination, and in return for this the caterpillars feed on the seeds…though they are always careful to leave enough seeds that the yucca can continue to flourish.

Other Names

Adam’s Needle
Bear Grass
Dagger Plant
Our Lord’s Candle
Soapweed
Joshua Tree
Spanish Dagger
Don Quixote’s Lance
Texas Bayonet
Datilillo
Meat Hangers
Ghosts in the Graveyard

“Ghosts in the Graveyard” is perhaps the most interesting name given to the yucca plant. The tall stalks of pale flowers that rise above the dark leaves of the plant cause the flowering yucca to appear like a hovering pale apparition in the dark, giving rise to this otherworldly name that originated in the midwestern United States.

A flowering group of Yucca plants is a beautiful sight, with large groups of bellshaped, creamy off-white edible flowers that give off a delicate perfume.

The Yucca Giant Skipper moth, shown here slightly larger than life size.

Various Uses

The Spanish Bayonet had many practical uses to Native Americans. The roots of some yucca species are high in saponins, which are used to make soaps that are used in various cleansing rituals. The flowers are generally edible, and have a delicate flavor. The fibers of the trunks can be dried and used to start fires – the fibers have a low ignition point, so they are ideal for this purpose. Some species have fibrous strands in the leaves that can be twisted into a coarse thread, and when combined with the sharp tip could be used as a needle and thread or as parts of fishing lines.

The tough, fibrous leaves could also be used to hang meat and other foods for storage, smoking and curing. The point was passed through the meat and looped for hanging. In Appalachia, yuccas are often called “meat hangers” for this reason.

Tabby & Coquina

Tabby

Composition
Tabby is a unique North American building material consisting of lime, sand, water, and crushed oyster shells. It is predominantly found in the Southeastern United States. Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers and colonists first brought tabby (which appears as tabee, tapis, tappy and tapia in early documents) to the coasts of what would become Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Tapia is Spanish for “mud wall” – the mortar used to caulk some of the earliest structures in this area was a mixture of mud and Spanish moss.

The vast majority of tabby structures from this era were located on the southeastern Atlantic coast. This distribution of structures is the result of diffusion from two primary tabby making centers or hearths: a Spanish center at Saint Augustine, Florida, and a British center at Beaufort, South Carolina. These hearth centers represented the core areas for two separate traditions in tabby building.

The Spanish tabby tradition began in St. Augustine in the late 1500s. The British tradition began about one hundred twenty years later,using techniques copied from Spanish Florida.

The use of tabby as building material spread up the eastern seaboard, reaching at least as far north as Staten Island, New York, where it can be found in the still-standing Abraham Manee House, which was built around 1670.

Pictured to the right is a cluster of American oysters (crassotrea viriginica). Also called the Eastern oyster, these shellfish are very common in the salt and brackish marshes of the Southeastern United States. This delicious bivalve has been a readily available food source for humans in this area for thousands of years.

Readily Available Materials

Constructing buildings with tabby was a relatively fast method of construction, and luckily there was a huge resource for raw materials – Timucua shell middens. These local Native Americans built up thick layers of trash over the centuries. Composed mostly of oyster shell, these middens can also contain broken pottery, discarded shell tools, shattered projectile points and animal bones.

The tabby pictured above contains oyster shells from a Timucua trash midden – and what appears to be the jawbone of an animal which was probably hunted, killed and eaten by the tribe.

The center gate of the Park is made of coquina and provides an interesting contrast with the Park wall. The coquina on the left has a natural yellowish color, a small shell size, and is a natural conglomerate. The tabby wall on the right is composed of dark Grey concrete interspersed with large oyster and clam shells that are bleached white with age.

Building with Tabby

After the Timucua shell middens were “harvested”, the oyster shells were stacked in a wood-lined fire pit called a rick. The shells were then burned and crushed to create lime – the primary ingredient in the concrete portion of the tabby. When it was time for construction, a vertical mold was made by building a wooden scaffold to hold up wooden planks. The tabby was poured into the mold in two to three foot increments, leaving a distinctive stacked look to the finished wall. A tabby structure built using this construction method could withstand the elements for hundreds of years. There is a tabby wall located downtown at 214 St. George Street that dates from the First Spanish Period – still standing after nearly 350 years.

Coquina

Composition
Coquina is a sedimentary rock that is found around the world. This rock forms in marine coastal areas where high tides and strong ocean waves work to align, sort, abrade, smooth,fracture and pack the tiny shells of marine creatures over the course of millions of years. The resulting rock is one of the few native stones occurring in northeastern coastal Florida.

Coquina is composed mainly of the donax clam(donax variabilis). These small bivalves are found around the world, and are sometimes called cockles or periwinkles. They occur in awide variety of colors, and live in the sandy intertidal zone of the beach.

Pictured to the right are life-sized donax variabilis clam shells. They are very common on the beaches of Florida. After the clam has died and decomposed, the shells typically assume this pleasing butterfly shape.

Quarrying Coquina

Looking at these two images of coquina quarry workers working the rock from the earth – one from the 1860s and one from the 1940s – it’s easy to see that the technique changed very little over time. The soft coquina was chiseled out in slabs and hauled from the site with ropes to a drying area so it could cure in the sun. It was backbreaking, labor-intensive work.

The Rock That Changed St. Augustine

The Spanish knew what coquina was – they had seen it along the coast of La Flórida in many places. Letters from both the French and the Spanish document deposits of the material as landmarks along the coasts – for example, the large coquina outcropping known as El Peñon just south of today’s Matanzas inlet appears on the Bernard Romans map of 1768 and well known to the early Spanish navigators.

It was over a century after the founding of St. Augustine before the Spanish decided to use coquina for construction. Privateers and the 1670 founding of Charlestowne (now Charleston, SC) forced the Spanish to use the rock as a building material to construct a fortress in 1672 guarding the city and bay of St. Augustine. This fortress, the Castillo de San Marcos, was the tenth fort built in St. Augustine and still stands today as the oldest masonry fortification in the United States. The first nine forts, including San Juan de Pinas, thought to have been on this property, were constructed of wood. The coquina was quarried from Anastasia Island by slave, Spanish, and Native American labor. It was then pulled to the shore, ferried over to the mainland, and shaped while it was still soft and malleable. After being left to cure for a year, the coquina was hard enough to be used for construction.

Construction Began in 1672 and finished twenty three years later in 1695, the Castillo de San Marcos was constructed of coquina and was never conquered in battle, partly due to the resilient nature of the coquina rock. Note the grey weathering typical of coquina. The Castillo is the oldest masonry fortification in the United States.

Coquina’s resiliency made it ideal for building forts, much to the dismay of English attackers. During attacks on the Castillo de San Marcos, where normal stone would have crumbled under cannon fire, the coquina merely absorbed the impact and left nothing more than a minor dent in its place. Thanks to this unique rock, the Castillo de San Marcos has never been taken by force. It wasn’t until the Castillo was almost complete that private and civilian homes were allowed to be constructed of coquina. Until that time, the rock was protected by the king and the quarries were guarded at all times.

Common Anchor

This anchor is typical of early marine ship navigation, and weighs approximately one ton.

A stock of oak would have been placed near the ring in the opposite direction of the flukes (also called hooks) to more easily secure them to the ocean floor.

Typically, a ship would pay out anchor line (rode) equal to seven times the waters depth.

Copper Cauldron – circa late 1500s

Copper cauldrons such as this had a wide variety of uses in Spain’s New World Colonies.

The rounded bottom indicates that this cauldron may have been used at a shore station in the making of whale oil, as most cauldrons on-board ships had flat bottoms.

Spain whaled extensively in the Northwestern Atlantic during the 1500s.

Juan Ponce de Leon 1513 Voyage of Discovery

Beimeni: A New Land to the Northwest

Indian Slaves on Española were dying off; the Spaniards needed this free labor force and raided the Lucayan Islands (the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands) for more Taino Indian slaves. Between 1509 and 1512 the islands were almost completely depopulated.

During this period of Spanish slave raids, Florida was first discovered by Diego Miruelo, a pilot whose ship was driven north by a storm. The crew of the lost ship took no captives and engaged in friendly trade only. However, the crew of the next ship, after making friends with the Florida Indians, invited them aboard their ship. After luring them below deck the Spaniards closed the hatches and sailed back to Española with the captives. This chance discovery and the beginning of slave raids in Florida were critical factors in Ponce’s 1513 voyage of discovery to Florida.

Florida’s coastline is visible at the center top of the 1511 Peter Martyr Map, labelled as “illa de beimeni” – the writing is rotated upside down on the Martyr map. To the left, it is rotated to read correctly.

Ponce de León’s fleet: Santiago, Santa Maria de la Consolación, and San Cristóbal

Model of the Santa Maria de la Consolación

Ponce’s Log Books: Lost to History

What we know about Ponce de León’s voyage to La Florida comes to us from the writings of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, who in the early 1600s compiled the Descripción De Las Indias Ocidentales, part of an enormous encyclopedic book set published in several editions. Herrera was a court reporter by profession and was said to have seen Ponce’s actual log books. The actual log books have been missing since the 1500s.

The Voyage to La Florida

As a result of the lawsuit brought by Diego Columbus, the King had to remove Ponce de León from the governorship of Puerto Rico. However, he wanted to reward Ponce for his excellent service and place him where his loyalty to the Spanish crown would be of benefit. Consequently the King instructed Ponce de León to mount a voyage of exploration and discovery to the north where slavers had found a new land.

Juan Ponce de León prepared for his expedition in the port of Salvaleón de Higuey on Española in January of 1513. The caravels Santiago and Santa María de la Consolación sailed to the port of San Germán on the west coast of Puerto Rico in early February where they were joined by a third caravel, the San Cristóbal.

In San Germán the small fleet took three weeks to prepare for the voyage of exploration, departing March 4th, 1513. Sailing northwest by north they raised the Lucayan Islands on March 8th. These islands were charted as the fleet moved north arriving at the island of Guanahani on March 14th where the fleet made preparations for leaving the island group and putting to sea.

Departing Guanahani, the fleet steered to the northwest. On Easter Sunday, March 27th, 1513, land believed to be an island was sighted. This was the first sighting of the east coast of Florida by Juan Ponce de León. The fleet sailed to the north along the coast for a few days before running into a storm April 1st.

When the weather cleared April 2nd, the fleet approached shore and the fleet’s pilot, Antón Alaminos, made a noon observation of the sun using either a quadrant or astrolabe. The height of the sun above the horizon was then combined with information from tables of declination of the sun to arrive at a latitude reading of 30 degrees 8 minutes north. This latitude reading defined the fleet’s position north of the equator. This line of latitude lies a short distance to the north of St. Augustine in the vicinity of South Ponte Vedra.

After taking the noon observation of the sun near present day St. Augustine on April 2nd, the fleet began looking for a good anchorage. They anchored offshore that evening in 48 feet of water and went ashore the next morning to claim the land for Spain. Juan Ponce de León named the new land La Florida because of its lushness and its discovery during the time of Easter. After landing on April 3rd, 1513, the Spanish remained in the area for five days. There is no record of where they went or what they did during this time but it is possible that they ranged inland as well as north and south along the coast. Departing, they sailed north along the coast for one day before turning south.

Clearing the Florida Keys, the fleet sailed to the north and northeast making the west coast of Florida on May 23rd, 1513. Here they encountered a Florida Indian tribe called the Calusa. The Spanish noticed that the Calusa Indians of West Florida had guanines, body ornaments made of low grade gold. They traded for these as well as animal hides. A number of interactions with the Calusa were violent and at least one Spaniard was killed. They departed West Florida on the 15th of June and began the return journey east to Puerto Rico where Juan Ponce de León arrived in the middle of October of 1513, having been away at sea for some seven and a half months.

A quadrant was used to help early navigators determine latitude. Equipped with these and other instruments, sailors from Spain and Portugal set forth to the New World.

Juan Ponce de Leon – Early Life and Arrival in the New World

The Man

Five hundred years ago, a fleet of three small Spanish ships sighted the east coast of Florida on the 27th of March, 1513. They sailed along the coast to the north for a number of days and finally landed on the 3rd of April, naming this new land La Florida in honor of the Catholic Feast of Flowers. The fleet was under the command of a Spanish nobleman named Juan Ponce de León.

Ponce de León Comes to The New World

The year 1492 was also the year Christopher Columbus sailed on his great voyage of exploration to the New World. He presented his discoveries to the king and queen who provided funds for a second fleet to take settlers to the new land. The second Columbus fleet sailed in 1493. On board were over 1,000 settlers and crewmen including a nineteen year old Ponce de León. His participation in the wars against the Moors helped him win a place on one of these ships. The fleet and settlers sailed to the island of Española (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in the Caribbean. There they landed and started the settlement of Isabela, establishing a permanent Spanish presence in the New World.

Early Life in Spain

In northern Spain in 1474, a child was born to a noble father and a humble mother. The child’s name was Juan Ponce de León. He was apprenticed as a page to a Spanish knight at about the age of ten. This is how Ponce de León learned the art of warfare and military campaigning, and he learned well. As a young man, Juan Ponce de León participated in the final great battles between the Christians and Moors during the re-conquest of Spain, which culminated in the fall of the great City of Granada to the Christian forces of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492. This experience would help Ponce de León survive in the New World.

The painting to the left (La Rendición de Granada, Francisco Pradilla Ortiz, 1882) commemorates the capture of Granada by the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. This victory neutralized Moorish power in Southern Spain. Note the two young men holding the reins of the King and Queen’s horses, as they typify the age and general appearance of the young Ponce de León.

The primary weapons used in fifteenth and early sixteenth century warfare in Europe were the sword, the pike, the matchlock rifle (arquebus) and the cannon. Pictured here is an early sixteenth century six-pound solid shot.

The Isabela settlement existed from 1493 until 1496 but failed. Below, Dr. Kathy Deagan confers with a colleague at the settlement archaeological site.

The Isabela Settlement on Española

After the settlement of Isabela on Española’s northern coast, Spanish supplies soon began to spoil in the hot climate and food became scarce. Crops that grew well in Spain’s climate did not do well in the humidity and heat of the Caribbean island. Hundreds of Spaniards, unaccustomed to the climate, became ill and many of them began to die. The collapse of good relations with the native Taino Indians came about as the Spanish consumed their supplies and enslaved the people.

Juan Ponce de Leon – Rising in the ranks

The Conquering of Española

Beginning in March 1494, Columbus sent hundreds of soldiers into the gold-bearing region of the interior of Española to build and hold a fort called Santo Tomás. Given Ponce de León’s military experience, he was likely included in this group. This is how Ponce survived against heavy odds during this early period in the New World.

Ponce de León soon got combat experience on Española that would further his career. In 1495 the Battle of the Vega Real took place. The Spanish were commanded in this battle by Bartholomew Columbus, a younger brother of Christopher Columbus. The battle came about because of fighting between the Taino Indians and the Spanish over food, supplies and women. The Taino were overmatched by the Spanish, and hundreds of Indian prisoners taken in battle were enslaved.

Higuey, and on to Puerto Rico

Juan Ponce de León began a new settlement called Salvaleón de Higuey on the Yuma River in the southeastern area of Higuey, with a port at the river’s mouth for both coastal and transatlantic trade. Years later, this port would provide supplies and crews and serve as the starting point for Ponce de León’s voyage to Florida. Sometime between 1504 and 1506 Ponce de León married the daughter of an innkeeper in Santo Domingo named Leonor. They began their family in Salvaleón de Higuey where Ponce de León soon heard news of gold deposits on the neighboring island, San Juan Bautista – today known as Puerto Rico.

With permission from the King of Spain, Ponce de León mounted his first naval expedition in 1506 founding the settlement of Caparra in northeast Puerto Rico. Here he began gold mining operations. This was the first Spanish settlement established off the island of Española. Diego Columbus, the eldest son and heir of Christopher Columbus was made governor of the New World in 1509. He become angry at the King’s gold mining arrangement with Ponce de León on Puerto Rico, an island discovery by his father Christopher Columbus. Diego Columbus appointed political officials to the island of Puerto Rico. These arrived in October 1509 with hundreds of settlers. To counter Diego Columbus’s interference in Puerto Rico, the king of Spain appointed Ponce de León governor of Puerto Rico. The Columbus political appointees would not acknowledge the king’s decree so Ponce de León arrested them. Angered, Diego Columbus sued the king in the Cortes, or advisory council of Spain, and won the right to appoint officials to Puerto Rico.

Military Successes

Ponce de León had settled in the newly founded port of Santo Domingo by 1504. He had lived in the interior for years – and during this time he had learned much of the Taino language and had become familiar with their culture. A rebellion in the province of Higuey in eastern Española broke out in 1504 and Juan Ponce de León, aged 30, was made captain of the military contingent from Santo Domingo. He was successful in quelling the rebellion, and at the end of the war in 1505, Ponce de León was made the administrator of the new Spanish province. This was a huge break which greatly furthered his career.

The province of Higuey had no gold to speak of, so Ponce de León began farming and cattle ranching, and became very successful. One of his major products was manioc flour produced from the yuca plant. This flour was cooked on hard ceramic tiles and called cassava bread. This was often sold to Spain-bound ships.

The arquebus played a major role in Spanish warfare from the mid 1400s through the early 1700s. This matchlock musket could throw a single ball or be used like a shotgun by using small found objects. Natives soon learned to duck upon hearing the click of the trigger, as there was a slight delay in the gun firing while the powder in the pan ignited. A native warrior could then loose four to five arrows while the gunman reloaded. Still, massed Spanish volley fire must have been terrifying to the natives.

The Sigla – Medieval Anti-Forgery Protection

It was very common for important people of the time to fashion a complex signature that made the writing difficult to reproduce. Although not infallible proof against forgery, the sigla was an important security feature in official or sensitive documents.

Juan Ponce de Leon – Adelantado and the final voyage to Florida

After the 1513 La Florida Voyage

When Ponce de León returned from his Florida expedition to Puerto Rico he found his settlement of Caparra in ruins. In his absence the Carib, a bellicose neighboring Indian tribe, and the Taino Indians had sacked the town and carried off the church ornaments and other plunder. Ponce de León put his affairs in order while waiting for the return of his vessel San Cristóbal which he had ordered to continue exploring for the island of Bimini. After its arrival February 20th, 1514, Ponce made final preparations to return to Spain. Ponce, along with his shipmasters and pilots as expert witnesses, reported their findings from the voyage to the king and discussed other issues such as the continuing state of war on Puerto Rico.

Juan Ponce de León was granted the title of Adelantado of Florida and Bimini. However, given the state of war on Puerto Rico with the Carib Indians he was given command of a fleet with which to attack them in their home islands. For King Ferdinand, this had been the royal priority rather than Ponce’s return to Florida. Ponce was also made Captain General of the island of Puerto Rico giving him military, if not political, command of that island.

1521 Back to La Florida

Very little is known about the last voyage of Ponce de León. This may be in large part because it failed. The documentation was never made because Ponce was ill and feverishly fought what became a fatal infection in his thigh – the result of an arrow wound. While he was ill and spending his final days in Cuba, he organized a final business venture to make money for his heirs. He planned to ship horses and some of his settlement supplies to Cortés in Mexico. He had other things on his mind besides documenting his disaster.

Having fulfilled his obligations to his various offices in Puerto Rico and having married off his daughters, Juan Ponce organized his expedition to La Florida beginning sometime in 1520 in order to be ready for his sailing on the 26th of February 1521.

Logistically, the second voyage was organized in a very similar manner to the first. Ponce de León and his three or four vessels departed Española, possibly Salvaleón de Higüey’s port at the mouth of the Yuma River, and sailed to San Germán on the west coast of Puerto Rico. There, additional personnel and supplies were brought on board.

The duration of the expedition is difficult to judge. The vessels left San Germán on February 26th, 1521 and likely followed sailing routes established during the 1513 journey. Some 200 hundred expeditionaries went along including priests and friars to convert the Indians and establish missions.

There is one passage by chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés that describes a battle in the interior with the local Calusa Indians. Oviedo writes that Ponce de León was not as skilled in that land as in the islands. Ponce and some of his men fought with a very large number of Indians and had not the strength of numbers to persevere. Many were killed during this action. Many were also wounded including Ponce who was struck by an arrow in one of his thighs. The expedition retired to the coast and took ship for Cuba in order to heal from the action and regroup for another attempt.

The expedition arrived at the new settlement that would become Havana. There, a number of the injured expeditionaries died of their wounds including Juan Ponce de León who died in July of 1521. Before dying, Ponce put his affairs into order and left instructions and power of attorney for one of his men to purchase horses and take his vessels and their cargo to New Spain where the supplies were desperately needed and would consequently fetch a high price. The money from the sale was to go to his heirs in Puerto Rico. What occurred was something different.

As soon as Ponce de León had died, the receiver of goods of the deceased in Havana (aided by it’s mayor) confiscated the vessels and equipment from which they purchased what they wanted, no doubt at a very good price, and then sent the vessels and the remainder of goods to New Spain where all were sold. They then pocketed the money. There were two royal decrees, one in the 1523 and the other in 1524, requesting that the authorities see that justice was done on behalf of the heirs of Juan Ponce de León the results of which are unknown. Juan Ponce de León the Second, his grandson, had Ponce’s remains exhumed in Cuba and brought to the island of San Juan de Puerto Rico and kept in the church of St. Thomas in the capital. They have resided in a sepulcher in the San Juan Cathedral since 1913.

Conte Ottomano Freducci Map, 1515: The first map to use the designation “I. Florida.” This map shows the designation “Chequiche” near the southern tip of the peninsula. This is spelled “Chequescha” by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas in his works.

A Calusa sinker for a fishing line, carved from a whelk shell. Note the finely detailed indentation on the top where line was attached to the sinker.

A Calusa chert arrowhead dating from the 1500s. One like this probably wounded Ponce de León in the thigh.

The Calusa Indians of southwest Florida were fierce warriors, accomplished seamen and masterful carvers. These carved items attest to their skill in turning bone and shell into tools, ornaments, and weapon points.

Reproduction of Juan Ponce de León’s 1521 letter to King Ferdinand V of Spain announcing his second voyage to Florida. Ponce would be seriously wounded on this expedition, dying soon after in the settlement that would become Havana, Cuba.

Continuing archaeology – 2015 dig, site B

You are Standing in the First Colony of St. Augustine

On September 8th, 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Aviles came ashore here. At that time, this field was part of the Timucua town of Seloy – an easily defensible peninsula that would serve as the Menéndez expedition’s base of operations.

While searching for the French in the initial stages of his campaign, Menéndez spotted our inlet and beach on the day of the Feast of St. Augustine of Hippo, and so he named the fledgling outpost San Agustín. On September 8th, 1565, this tiny settlement hosted a Thanksgiving celebration between Europeans and Native Americans 55 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, and 42 years before the British established the colony of Jamestown.

The Menéndez settlement was the logistical base for the overland attack on the French stronghold of Fort Caroline, and the twin slaughters of the shipwrecked Frenchmen at the next inlet south, which was eventually named Matanzas (slaughter) Inlet.

The settlement in the field before you lasted roughly nine months before deteriorating relations with the Timucua forced the Spanish to relocate to Anastasia Island. The location of the Anastasia Island settlement eludes historians to this day, and has probably been lost to development and the natural erosion of the island’s eastern shoreline. Soon after the Spanish moved, a mysterious nighttime fire consumed the largest structure, seen here in the upper middle of the settlement. It is believed that this structure was the Casa de Municiónes, which had earlier contained the settlement’s gunpowder and weapons stores. The Spanish stayed on Anastasia Island for roughly six years before relocating to what is now the area of St. Augustine southwest of the Bridge of Lions.

Revealing the Past, One Centimeter at a Time

The Park owners have, for over three quarters of a century, been dedicated to retaining only qualified, professional archaeologists from major universities and museums to excavate these sensitive grounds. Even though archaeological digging has been occurring since 1934, it is estimated that only 35% of the Park has been excavated and cataloged. According to Dr. Kathy Deagan, it is “a game of inches.” As the archaeological team exposes an area, valuable structures can be missed by less than a foot! In addition, the team exposes a centimeter at a time using a dirt scraping process called “schnitting.” This exacting process is very time-consuming.

Small soil discolorations and changes in soil type can indicate a great deal. It is thought that the small circular features represent posts. If so, this structure is most likely a large Timucua building.

Sentinels of the Spanish coast

An Early Warning System

The Spanish were well versed in the art of war. They built watchtowers around St. Augustine in order to spot potential danger early enough to muster an effective defense. These two examples of mid-sixteenth century watchtowers are from a map of Drake’s 1586 Raid on St. Augustine drawn by Baptiste Boazio, an Italian mapmaker and illustrator in London from 1585 to 1603.

Sharp-Eyed Lookouts Needed

The modern telescope or spyglass as we know it today was invented in Holland in September, 1608 by a spectacle maker named Hans Lipperhey. Since these were unavailable in the New World, watchtowers in the early years of Spanish Florida were manned by the sharpest-eyed men available. These sentinels probably used their naked eyes. A man standing on open ground can spot an object nearly 3 miles away, but a 30 foot watchtower could boost a man’s visual limit to over 19 miles. Keeping watch for ships was incredibly important, be they Spanish resupply ships, French ships bent on destruction of the city, or English privateers looking to loot the town.

The Inlet Over Time

The view to the southeast from the top level of the tower to the vividly illustrates the commanding vista that a lookout would have had.

St. Augustine’s present inlet was dredged in the early 1940’s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the war effort during World War 2.

In prior centuries, the inlet channel meandered more to the southeast, as indicated in the photograph. Historically, the inlet was rather shallow and difficult to navigate, and large ships such as galleons could not usually cross it.

The Menendez Settlement Field: Rebuilding the past

Building of St. Augustine, Florida. Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles laying out the Spanish city of St. Augustine Florida in 1565.

The Original Settlement of St. Augustine Comes Back to Life.

17th & 18th Century Cannons

These cannons were recovered from various locations in Florida and the Caribbean, by wreck salvage operators. Artillery of this era, the 17th and 18th century, are rated by the weight of the projectile cannonball they fire. The guns on display here range from 6 pound on the far right to 18 pound on the far left.

Treasure hunters from the Florida Keys in the 1950s stacking cannons found in the shallow waters of the coast of Florida from several ship wrecks dating back to the 1600s

Treasure hunter Art McKee “Silver Bar” McKee standing by cannons recovered from a shipwreck

The Matchlock Arquebus

History of the Matchlock Arquebus

The matchlock arquebus first appeared in Europe in the mid-1400s. The name is taken from its ignition source, a slow, hot-burning cotton or hemp rope called a matchcord, or simply slow match. The first dated illustration of a matchlock mechanism was produced in 1475. By the 1500s, the matchlock arquebus was used worldwide. During this time the most common tactic for using the matchlock was to line-up a group of arquebusiers (arcabuceros in Spanish) and fire a volley of lead balls at a broad line of the enemy. This volley would be much more effective than an individual soldier trying to hit a specific target.

Despite the appearance of more advanced ignition systems, such as that of the wheellock or snaphance, the low cost of production, simplicity, and high availability of the matchlock kept it in use in European armies until about 1700. Ultimately, the flintlock became a soldier’s primary armament.

A single lead ball would have been the primary projectile fired from an arquebus, though it often came in handy as a club in hand-to-hand combat. The ball here is pictured at actual size, roughly .62 caliber.

The arquebus played a major role in Spanish warfare from the mid-1400s until circa 1700. This matchlock gun could fire a single lead ball, become a shotgun by loading it with shot sewn into small linen bags, or used for a club. When Spanish conquistadors were pitted against Native American foes, the natives did not line-up in rows like Europeans but learned to “duck” upon hearing the commands to load, take aim, and fire – “Fuego!” Warriors would then shoot arrows as the next Spanish line aimed to fire their rounds. Still, the sight, sound, and devastating effects of massed Spanish volley-fire must have been terrifying to native peoples.

Firepower for Spain’s “New World” Conquests

When Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed here on September 8, 1565, his primary mission was to eliminate the French Huguenots at Fort Caroline, located on the River May (St. Johns) in present-day Jacksonville. Leaving Spain with twelve ships, Menendez fleet was battered by storms, rendering only five vessels capable of completing the journey. They proved to be sufficient for the task. He established the settlement of San Agustín – now St. Augustine – in the field behind you as his base of operations. You are standing very near to what once was the northern-most defensive wall of the outpost. The lay of the harbor provided a perfect defensive position encouraging Menendez to remain at this location for roughly nine months before moving to Anastasia Island. Menendez brought 800 people with him, including 500 soldiers. Many of these soldiers were arcabuceros, wielding the smoothbore firearm pictured here. Because each firearm was hand-made, the caliber of each weapon would vary slightly, but the projectile size likely averaged a brawny .62 caliber. This gave his firearm tremendous knock-down efficiency. Menendez’s soldiers who arrived to settle St. Augustine in September 1565, came well-armed with 20 cannon and many arquebuses, crossbows, pikes, swords, and daggers.

What is that flag?

The Cross of Burgundy represented Spanish rule in Florida from 1565 to 1763. The X-shaped cross symbolized the rough branches of the trees on which Saint Andrew was crucified. The flag was introduced into Spain by Philip I, Duke of Burgundy, and was established as one of the country’s banners by his son, Charles I, in 1516.

Mixed Weaponry

The Arquebus was just a part of a wide arsenal of weapons used by Spain in their goals of exploration and world conquest in the 1500s. Using tactics born of long, drawn-out wars on the European continent, the Spanish military possessed a wide variety of weapons to bring to bear on their enemies. A Spanish soldier might be equipped with a sword, dagger, pike, halberd, shield/buckler, arquebus, or crossbow. In addition, war dogs and specially-trained war horses made a Spanish military force one to be reckoned with.

In Florida, the arquebus was preferred over the long-barreled musket due to the density of the forests and swamps. Muskets supported on long, forked poles were used in the open-field conflicts of Europe, not in Spain’s American colonies.

Rocroi, el último tercio, by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau

Block and Tackle

One of the most important tools onboard ship and in the 1565 Menendez Settlement

With block (pulley) and tackle (rope) systems, sailors moved enormous loads onto and around ships. On Spanish ships of the age of exploration and during the colonization of the Americas, the crew used blocks in the rig to help set and furl the heavy sails. With an elaborate system of tackle, Spanish sailors could brace the yards (change the yards’ angle to the mast), raise and lower them, and even cockbill them (tilt one end up and another down).

The sailors could also load cargo, raise the anchor, tune the rig (adjust tension) and do any other heavy job using their own strength in combination with the mechanical advantage provided by the block and tackle system.

The use of block and tackle was extremely important in the 1565 Menendez Settlement area around you, as there were no port facilities to load and unload the ships.

Heavy objects destined for the Menendez Settlement were usually offloaded from deep draft ships in the ocean off the shallow inlet into open work boats (chalupas), and these chalupas came ashore within yards of where you are now standing.

Haul on The Three Ropes and raise each barrel to the same height

Which one uses the most rope?
Which one requires the most strength?

What’s Going On?

Did you notice that the block and tackle using the most rope requires the least strength?
Did you notice that the block and tackle using the least rope requires the most strength?

This relationship is called THE PRINCIPLE OF MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE.

THE PRINCIPLE OF MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE

is also at work in the gearing of a multiple speed bicycle (think about riding up a steep hill – you need to pedal a lot but you don’t go very far.)

If you have the strength, you may find it preferable to use more muscle and less mechanical advantage. If you are not as strong, you might choose to use less muscle and more mechanical advantage.

The San Agustín: St. Augustine’s Workboat

A New World Workhorse

Pictured here are the archaeological remains of a Spanish chalupa that was wrecked in Labrador, Canada in 1565 – the same year that Pedro Menédez de Avilés established the settlement of St. Augustine in the field behind you.

Historical Record

The chalupa at the St. Augustine Presidio was recorded in Spanish accounts. At the bottom of this document, item number 27 states: “In addition add to his charge one chalupa that serves this presidio that was made in it for service with its masts, yards, and rudder with its irons and ten wooden oars for the service of said chalupa…”

Manpower or Wind Power

The chalupa could be rowed by a team of men or could be outfitted with masts to support a set of sails. The chalupa which was built for the St. Augustine Presidio featured a 10 oar layout, a rudder and a set of masts for a mainsail and a foresail.

The 1586 Drake’s Raid

With a fleet of 23 ships and a force of 2,000 men, Sir Francis Drake raided and sacked the town of St. Augustine on June 6th, 1586. The fort protecting St. Augustine was incomplete at the time of the raid and so could not be properly defended. The garrison fired on a number of approaching English boats, causing damage and casualties to the attackers before abandoning the fort. Most of the Spanish escaped inland, leaving Drake’s men free to sack, loot, and burn the town. Three years later, working from eyewitness descriptions, an Italian mapmaker named Baptiste Boazio drew a map of the raid, and this detail shows the fort with the astillero close by, and a chalupa (what the English called a pinnace) anchored just offshore.

An Astillero and Chalupa Close By The Town Fort. Located on the Baptiste Boazio Map.

Menu

The Original Mission Church

Located Here on The Park Grounds

LOST IN TIME FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS

1770s British Anchor

Old Pattern Admiralty Long-Shanked Anchor

Peafowl at the Fountain of Youth Park

Indian Peafowl

Peafowl at the Park

Strength in Numbers

WHITE PEAFOWL

U.S.S. Constitution Cannons

Tinajonés

Timucuan Style Dugout Canoe

An Ancient Form of Transportation

Water Travel Made Simple

Water, Water Everywhere

Mission Life in Nombre De Dios

Changes to the Timucuan Culture

A Female Timucua Chieftain

Tracking Native Americans Through Pottery

The Choir Loft

Life in the Timucuan Village

What has Archaeology Taught Us?

Tools and Crafting

Hunting and Gathering

What did they look like?

The Menéndez settlement field: Rebuilding the past

The Original Settlement of St. Augustine Comes Back to Life.

Archaeology of Menendez Encampment

Spanish buildings

The North Defensive Wall

Archaeology in the Park

Spanish Barrel Wells

Native American Buhillos

The Owl Totem from Hontoon Island

Dredging Up a Piece of History

The Importance of the Owl

The Timucuan Home Anoti: An Enclosed Family Home

Coontie – Zamia pumila or Zamia floridans

200 Million Years in the Making

a.k.a. Florida Arrowroot – But Use Caution

The Atala Hairstreak Butterfly Returns

Spanish Bayonet – Yucca gloriosa, Yucca aloifolia

A Natural Plant for Defending St. Augustine

Other Names

Various Uses

Tabby & Coquina

Tabby

Readily Available Materials

Building with Tabby

Coquina

Quarrying Coquina

The Rock That Changed St. Augustine

Common Anchor

Copper Cauldron – circa late 1500s

Juan Ponce de Leon 1513 Voyage of Discovery

Beimeni: A New Land to the Northwest

Ponce’s Log Books: Lost to History

The Voyage to La Florida

Juan Ponce de Leon – Early Life and Arrival in the New World

The Man

Ponce de León Comes to The New World

Early Life in Spain

The Isabela Settlement on Española

Juan Ponce de Leon – Rising in the ranks

The Conquering of Española

Higuey, and on to Puerto Rico

Military Successes

The Sigla – Medieval Anti-Forgery Protection

Juan Ponce de Leon – Adelantado and the final voyage to Florida

After the 1513 La Florida Voyage

1521 Back to La Florida

Continuing archaeology – 2015 dig, site B

You are Standing in the First Colony of St. Augustine

Revealing the Past, One Centimeter at a Time

Sentinels of the Spanish coast

An Early Warning System

Sharp-Eyed Lookouts Needed

The Inlet Over Time