Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/614

 Spanish lookout on Anastasia Island, at the entrance of the harbor. Having sent some boats in, a town across the bay was discovered. During the night, a fifer came out to the fleet playing the Prince of Orange march, and informed Sir Francis that the Spaniards had abandoned their fort. This report proved to be true, and Sir Francis found that in their haste they had left behind some ten thousand dollars in the treasury chest. Being fired upon by some of the inhabitants, he burned the town.

An engraved plan of Drake's descent upon St. Augustine, published in England upon his return, represents an octagonal fort between two streams, and at the distance of half a mile another stream, and beyond that the town, with a lookout and church and monastery. The plan shows three squares lengthwise, and four in breadth, with gardens on the west side. The relative position of the town with reference to the entrance to the harbor is correctly shown, and there seems no sufficient ground to doubt the identity of the present city with the original location.

The province was then under the government of Don Pedro Menendez, a nephew of the