Handbook 149
Castillo de San Marcos
A Guide to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument
Florida
Produced by the Division of Publications
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Washington, D.C.
Using this Handbook
Castillo de San Marcos National Monument is locatedin the longest continuously inhabited communityfounded by Europeans in the United States. Thishandbook tells the intercultural story of the longeffort to build the Castillo and the emergence of anew Nation. The Guide and Adviser provides a briefguide to Saint Augustine and other related NationalPark Service areas in Florida.
From the air the rationale for the layout ofCastillo de San Marcos is readily apparent: no wall orapproach is unguarded.
This map, one of the earliestmaps of a city that is now inthe United States, depicts theJune 1586 attack on St. Augustineby Sir Francis Drake.Note, in the middle, the Englishtroops on AnastasiaIsland firing across the wateron the Spanish fort.
Florida and the Pirates
On May 28, 1668, a ship anchored off St. Augustineharbor. It was a vessel from Veracruz, bringing flourfrom México. In the town, the drum sounded thealert for the garrison of 120 men. A launch went outto identify the newcomer and put the harbor pilotaboard. As it neared the ship, the crew on the launchhailed the Spaniards lining her gunwale. To theroutine questions came the usual answers: Friendsfrom México—come aboard! Two shots from thelaunch told the town the ship had been identified asfriendly, and the seamen warped the launch alongsidethe ship. In St. Augustine, the people heard thesignal shots and rejoiced. The soldiers returned theirarms to the main guardhouse on the town plaza.Tomorrow the supplies would come ashore.
Unknown to the townspeople, when the launchpilot stepped aboard the supply ship, an alien crewof pirates swarmed out of hiding and leveled theirguns at him and the others. He could do nothing butsurrender.
Some time after midnight, a corporal was out on thebay fishing when he heard the sound of many oarspulling across the water. Something was not right.Desperately he paddled his little craft toward shore.The pirates, four boatloads of them, were rightbehind. Twice their shots found their mark, but hegot to the fort where his shouts aroused the guards.
At the main guardhouse, a quarter mile from thefort, the sentries heard the shouting and the gunfire,but before they could respond, the pirates were uponthem, a hundred strong. Out-numbered, the guardsran for the fort. Gov. Francisco de la Guerra rushedout of his house and, with the pirates pounding at hisheels, joined the race for the fort. Somehow thegarrison was able to beat back several assaults. In theconfusion of darkness, however, the pirates seemedto be everywhere. They destroyed the weapons theyfound in the guardhouse and went on to the