Читать книгу History of Duval County - Pleasant Daniel Gold - Страница 11

ENGLAND claimed Duval territory by virtue of the discoveries of Cabot and the expedition of Sir Francis Drake in 1586. In 1630 Charles I, of England, granted to Sir Robert Heath all land between the San Mateo ( St. Johns ) River and the thirty-sixth parallel north latitude which was forfeited by him, and in 1663 was granted to the Earl of Clarendon by Charles II. This placed all of Duval north of St. Johns River, in Carolina. The Spanish claimed that their northern boundary, by right of settlement by Menendez, was near Port Royal, South Carolina.

In 1670 an English colony was planted in Charleston, South Carolina, which rapidly spread over the surrounding territory, and the Spanish attack of 1676 followed. The English accounts tell of the extreme cruelties of the invaders. The Spaniards expected to destroy the English as they had the French at Fort Caroline, but were unsuccessful. In the disputed territory lived the Timucuans in Duval, the Yamassees to the north; and the Creeks, Cherokees and Choctaws to the north and west of the Yamassees. It was the object of both the English and Spaniards to gain these Indians as allies and to instigate attacks upon their enemies. For fifty years this desultory war continued, with occasional expeditions by each with their Indian allies, spreading ruin and destruction in the land of the other. In all of these expeditions the inhabitants of Duval suffered.

Probably the first Englishman to penetrate the territory of Duval after Sir John Hawkins came to Fort Caroline in 1565 was Colonel Robert Daniel who was second in command under Colonel James Moore in his expedition against St. Augustine in 1702. Colonel Daniel ascended the San Juan ( St. Johns ) River in small boats, with his company of Carolinians and Yamassee Indians and captured Fort Picolota located where the old Spanish trail between St. Augustine and Pensacola crossed the river. It was the same expedition which destroyed the Spanish fort on San Juan ( Fort George ) Island and the mission of San Juan del Puerto located there. After unsuccessfully attacking St. Augustine Governor Moore retreated, along the coast, through Duval by way of St. Juan' s Island, which appears to have been the usual route taken at the time by both sides.

In 1703 Moore with a few volunteers and one thousand Indians, invaded the territory to the west of Duval, destroying all the missions and Indian villages therein. The Spanish accounts dwell upon the cruelties of the English and their allies. They claim that priests were ruthlessly murdered and even burned alive in their places of Worship, in fact, according to the accounts of each side, in the conflict between the English and Spanish colonies no quarter was given. Each claimed that their acts were in revenge for previous cruelties of the other.

It is doubtful if this expedition entered the territory of Duval but it had its effect upon its inhabitants for it was the beginning of the influx of the Yamassees into the territory, who soon destroyed or absorbed the Timucuan or Mission Indians. Shea, in his " Catholic Church in Colonial Days, " says that " only three hundred survivors gathered under the fort of St. Augustine. " Many were driven south into the present county of Volusia, along the Tomoka River from whom that stream receives its name.

The Franciscan friars did not give up their religious work, although their missions were destroyed, and many of their converts killed, but set about to Christianize the Yamassees, just as they had the Timucuans more than a hundred years before. By 1726, there were three Yamassee Missions, one of which was St. Diego, on Diego plains, just south of the present site of Pablo Beach, which " had a crescent and church of palmetto. " This mission was near the present line dividing the counties of Duval and St. Johns, but its district covered the territory of the former.

In 1708, Colonel Barnwell of South Carolina made an excursion into Spanish territory and came to the St. Johns River. In 1714 the Spaniards succeeded in bringing about an uprising of practically all the Indian tribes in the disputed territory between Carolina and Florida, which nearly destroyed the English colonies. Before making their attack the Indians sent their wives and children to Florida and when the English finally defeated them, driving them into Florida, they were welcomed by the Spaniards.

In 1727, Colonel Palmer, at the head of a small body of South Carolina troops and a following of Creek Indians, crossed through Duval, destroying the Yamassee towns as he proceeded toward St. Augustine, where he forced them into making peace, though it was of short duration.

In 1733, the territory between Carolina and Florida became Georgia when James Oglethorpe settled on the Savannah River with an English colony. This settlement gave great offense to the Spanish Government, and he was ordered to withdraw, which he promptly refused to do. A boundary dispute immediately arose, and commissioners were appointed to settle the question but without results, Oglethorpe insisting that his southern boundary was the St. Johns River, and the Spaniards claiming he had no right to be in the country at all.

The Georgia Colony flourished from the beginning. Oglethorpe, a wise leader, soon formed an alliance with the powerful Creek Indians. His treatment of them was so fair and his influence over them so far-reaching that they continued as allies of the British even after his return to England.

In 1736, with Tomo Chichi, the Creek Chief; a Mr. Tanner and Captain Mackey ( with a company of Highland Scotch, who had settled at Darien, Georgia, the year before ), Oglethorpe proceeded south to explore the coast, on which expedition he gave English names to all the islands as far south as the St. Johns River. Wissoe or Sassafras, he named " Cumberland " for the Duke of Cumberland; Sania Maria became " Amelia " in honor of the daughter of the King; " Talbot Island " he named for Charles Baron Talbot, Lord High Chancellor of England; and San Juan Island at the mouth of the river " George' s Island, " in honor of the King of England.

He repaired the old fort, naming it " Fort St. George, " and across the St. Johns on the south side within sight of Fort George, he discovered a Spanish lookout ( Hacer Centinela ). Tomo Chichi pointed it out to Oglethorpe as being the land of their enemies, and wished to attack immediately. It was with difficulty that Oglethorpe restrained the old chieftain and persuaded him to return to " the Palmetto ground " near Amelia Island to the north and there wait for him. As soon as he had departed Oglethorpe, with an escort, crossed the river, his boats carrying a white flag? They found the lookout empty. This fort or blockhouse was evidently about where Mayport now stands and lower down the river was another fort, as it is stated that they went " down to the lower one which was also deserted.

Returning to George' s Island he left Captain Hermsdorf in charge of Fort St. George and joined Tomo Chichi and his Creeks at the " Palmetto Grounds."

On May 2nd, Oglethorpe received a report that Major Richards, an emissary, whom he had sent to St. Augustine, had been arrested; also that Captain Hermsdorf' s men had mutinied, and he had been compelled to abandon Fort St. George. Oglethorpe hastened to George' s Island, where he found the report untrue as to the mutiny but that a panic had been caused by " the lies of one man, whom Oglethorpe promptly sentenced to' run the gantlope'. " The other men were put to work strengthening the fort.

That night fires were seen on the south side of the river, and Oglethorpe believed that the Spaniards intended to attack him. In order to gain time to get reinforcements, he engaged in what he calls " Some small stratagems " to impress the Spaniards with the idea that he had a large force. He had two large and two small cannon placed at distant points in the woods on the island which he fired continually, seven shots by the smaller and five shots by the larger, with the effect that " the smaller guns, from the faintness of their report, had the sound of a distant ship saluting, the larger that of battery returning the salute. " The ruse had the desired effect and the Spaniards, believing that a large force of the English were at hand, asked for a parley. Three commissioners were then sent to meet Oglethorpe, who dispersed his troops and Indians so that the Spaniards would be impressed by his strength.

The English emissary was released, and in October, 1736, a treaty was concluded whereby Fort St. George was evacuated by the English and dismantled, and occupancy of the Island prohibited by either nation.

On October 23, 1739, war was declared between England and Spain. Oglethorpe was ordered by the British Government " to annoy the settlements in Florida. " With thirty rangers, four hundred Creeks and six hundred Cherokees, he marched south from Savannah in November. Before he arrived at Amelia Island the Spaniards had made a night attack there, killing two unarmed High landers and mutilating their bodies. In reprisal Oglethorpe pursued them to George' s Island ( still called San Juan by the Spaniards ), crossed the river, and was met by a troop of Spanish cavalry and infantry, who quickly retreated south, Oglethorpe pursuing them as far as a place called Canalles. He then returned to George' s Island and sent Captain Dunbar with forty soldiers and ten Indians up the St. Johns River to destroy all the boats he could find. Passing the site of the present city of Jacksonville, Dunbar went as far as Fort Picolata, which he attacked, but was repulsed. In the meantime, Oglethorpe repaired Fort George, and when Captain Dunbar returned, reporting the result of his trip, the Indians were so eager to attack Picolata that Oglethorpe set out on December 1, 1739, with his entire force, ascending the St. Johns River, and, on December 7th, captured and burned the fort. He then proceeded to Fort St. Francis de Poppa, called Poppa by Fairbanks, which was situated on the opposite side of the river, and captured that. Leaving a small garrison there he returned to Fort George.

Fairbanks states that " Fort St. Nicholas on the present site of South Jacksonville was built about this time by Don Manuel de Monteano, the Spanish Governor, for the purpose of keeping the Indians in check and to protect the passage of detachments to Apalachee. Oglethorpe makes no mention of the existence of this fort in 1739, when he passed the site both going up and down the river to and from Picolata. No further mention is made of the garrison which Oglethorpe left at Fort St. Francis de Poppa. It was presumably withdrawn about 1740 and Fort St. Nicholas built at that time.

In the following year Oglethorpe determined to invade Florida in force, and obtained the help of South Carolina in the undertaking. Colonel Vander Deusen, with two hundred South Carolinians; Captain Tyrrell, with a large schooner, and Oglethorpe with four hundred Georgians and a considerable number of Indians, including Creeks and Cherokees, met at Fort George Island on May 10, 1740. The united forces advanced on Fort Diego, which was located twenty-five miles north of St. Augustine. The site of this fort is still pointed out a few miles from Pablo Beach, near the boundary of Duval and St. Johns counties, and the locality still retains the name of Diego Plains. It was " defended by eleven guns and fifty regulars besides Indians and negroes, "' and was the plantation of Diego Spinosa, who had built it at his expense, and who had many slaves.

Oglethorpe captured this fort, after which he returned to Fort George Island, where he was met by Captain John Moore McIntosh, a young Scotch Highlander, with a company from Darien, Georgia. He then returned and lay siege to St. Augustine, first capturing Fort Moosa, two miles north of the city, called the " negro fort, " as it was built as a refuge for escaped slaves from Carolina. The siege of St. Augustine was a failure and on July 9, 1740, Oglethorpe returned to Fort George Island. Here he called on Colonel Vander Deusen for one hundred of his South Carolinians to hold the river and the forts he had captured, but not a man could he get.

Fort George was then abandoned. In 1742 the Spaniards with thirty-six vessels and five thousand men invaded Georgia. Oglethorpe, though his force was small, was able by stratagem and good fortune, combined with blunders by the Spanish, to repulse them. In 1743 he again invaded Florida, and came to Fort George Island, but does not appear to have remained there but a short time, and to have returned no more. The fort was not rebuilt, but one on the south side of the river was maintained by the Spaniards. There was no further conflict between the two nations for several years, although skirmishes between their Indian allies continued.

About 1750, a division occurred among the Creek Indians, between those who took sides with the English and Spanish. The Spanish sympathizers, under Seacoffee, withdrew from the Creeks and removed to Florida. Duval territory was their first habitation where they absorbed or destroyed the Yamassees. They were called Seminoles, or Runaways, by the Creeks, and combining with others in Florida became the tribe of Seminoles which still exists.