Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/617

 religious faith and an inherited rancor on both sides.

In 1648, St. Augustine is described as having more than three hundred householders, and containing a flourishing monastery of the Order of St. Francis, with fifty brothers in residence, all zealous for the conversion of the Indians. The parish Church was built of wood.

But the poor little city was destined not to rest in peace. In 1665, one hundred years from its foundation, it was visited by Captain Davis, an English buccaneer and free-booter, of a class then numerous in those seas. He landed his forces near the city, marched directly upon the town, looted and plundered it without meeting, it is said, with any resistance from the Spanish garrison in the fort, which numbered some two hundred men-at-arms. The easy capture of the town by this casual free-booter indicated the necessity for stronger fortifications and better means of resistance.

The Castle of San Marco had been commenced and partly constructed by the labor of the Appalachian Indians, no doubt very slowly and unwillingly rendered. Don Juan Marquez de Cabrera, having been appointed