Fort de la Caroline

St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest continuously inhabited European city in North America. This Spanish town was founded by Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles in August of 1565. St Augustine is more than 40 years older than the English colonies of Jamestown, Virginia (1607), Bermuda (1608) and Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620).

But Spain was not the first European power to attempt colonization in North America. A French expedition of a few ships was organized by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and led by navigator Jean Ribault. This little fleet landed on the Florida coast in February, 1562. They erected a monument, claimed the territory for their king and sailed on to present-day Parris Island, South Carolina. Here, Ribault erected a second monument establishing a northern border of a territory they named New France. Ribault’s men built a fort called Charlesfort, named for their king, Charles IX. Leaving twenty-eight men to defend the fort, Ribault and the remainder of his crew returned to Europe for additional supplies and settlers. However, Ribault was arrested and imprisoned in England where he languished for a year. As the months went by, the French manning Charlesfort grew desperate. Their supplies were dwindling, forcing the French to rely on trade with the natives to obtain food. The natives did not grow large surpluses of food and grew angry when the hungry Frenchmen demanded the very food from their mouths. After a year of no relief ships, the desperate men of Charlesfort decided to sail back to Europe. They built an open boat and shoved off. During their voyage, starvation and thirst reduced them to cannibalism before the survivors were rescued in English waters. Meanwhile, René Goulaine de Laudonnière, Ribault's second-in-command on the 1562 expedition, commanded a fleet of ships carrying 200 new settlers back to Florida. Construction of a new settlement, Fort de la Caroline, atop St. Johns Bluff, on the St John's river was begun on June 22, 1564. For a year, the men and women of this new colony suffered from hunger, Indian attacks, and mutiny. The colonist did not clear land to plant crops. They were promised that France would provide all the craftsmen, tools, food, livestock, arms and munitions the colony needed. The colonists only task was to search for sources of gold, silver and precious stones. These treasures must exist in Florida in great abundance as they did in the Spanish colonies of Peru and Mexico! Well, they did not! Unfortunately, while the French settlers were searching for Florida gold, the Spanish court learned of Fort de la Caroline. Spain would not tolerate a foreign colony lying so close to the route of their annual Spanish treasure fleet. The Spanish sent a fleet of ships to destroy Fort de la Caroline and execute most of its' inhabitants. Once this was accomplished, the Spanish founded a town nearby and named it St Augustine!