By Scott A. Grant
mail@floridanewsline.com

St. Augustine is rightfully proud of its tradition as America’s Oldest City. Of course, it isn’t the first city to have existed in the United States or even the first European city, but it is the oldest European city to have remained in continuous existence. The French actually founded a city near Jacksonville on the banks of the St. Johns River that pre-dates St. Augustine. 

That city, known as Fort Caroline, was founded in June 1564, a year earlier than St. Augustine, by a group of French protestants led by Jean Ribault. Initially, Ribault sent his lieutenant, Rene De Laudonniere to establish the new colony with promises he would follow with more settlers and supplies. Ribault was delayed. De Laudonniere and his followers became disheartened. In late July, the English pirate, John Hawkins, visited Fort Caroline to take on fresh water. The distressed settlers traded their cannon for one of Hawkins’s ships. That was unfortunate. The cannon might have come in handy as things turned out.

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In September 1565, as De Laudonniere was preparing to leave, Jean Ribault arrived with the much-needed reinforcements. At the same time, Pedro Menendez arrived from Spain with an expedition of his own. The two fleets engaged in a brief skirmish off of what we now call the St. Johns River. Both sides retreated. The French fled to sea and the Spanish sailed south to the next estuary where they established a permanent settlement.

The situation was rife with peril. The two sides hated each other. It wasn’t just that they were French and Spanish, which might have been enough to bring them to conflict on its own. More importantly the Spanish were Catholic, and the French were Protestants. That made them mortal enemies. 

Both sides set out to destroy the other. The French sailed south. Shortly thereafter, the Spanish marched north. On Sept. 11, a hurricane hit. The hurricane arrived during the feast of Saint Matthew. (Ironically, 451 years later another Hurricane Matthew would hit the First Coast.) The storm wrecked the French fleet and battered Pedro Menendez’s troops. It also hid their movements. The Spanish troops surprised the outnumbered French at Fort Caroline on Sept. 20 and put 140 men to death.

Meanwhile, Ribault and the survivors of his wrecked fleet washed ashore near Daytona Beach. The French began to march north hoping to make it back to their base at Fort Caroline. Their progress was blocked by the Matanzas Inlet, south of St. Augustine. On the far side of the inlet, Pedro Menendez waited with his troops. After some negotiation, the French agreed to surrender.

Menendez rowed the French across the inlet in groups of 10 with their hands tied behind their backs. As each group arrived, they were asked if they were Catholics. Those who were not were marched out of sight behind a sand dune, where the Spanish slit their throats. About 350 Frenchmen were killed in this manner over several days in October, giving the inlet its name. In Spanish, “Matanzas” means massacre. 

The slaughter was controversial even in its day. It is still unclear whether the French were tricked or went willingly into eternity. At the time, a Spanish professor who wrote a contemporary history of the event suggested the French protestants got off easy. They should have been burnt at the stake as heretics. 

Scott A. Grant is a local historian and author. By day, he acts as president of Standfast Asset Management, a fiduciary asset manager based in Ponte Vedra. He welcomes your comments at scottg@standfastic.com.

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