PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES
(Pedro Menéndez de Avilés)
After taking the fort, Menendez encountered 350 French Huguenots who were shipwrecked on the shore. A few claimed they were lapsed Catholics and “repented” and were allowed to live, but the others, after having surrendered and had their hands tied behind them were hacked to death with knives and swords. Three years later, the French attacked Fort Caroline (near Jacksonville) beat the Spanish and put all the Spanish to the sword in revenge. Menendez reported his activities with great pride. The King of Spain had instructed him that it would be OK to kill and terrorize colonists from other countries competing for Florida. The Queen and the Priests thought it their duty to execute heretics. Menendez did what he was supposed to so civilly and religiously.
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral and explorer from Avilés, in Asturias, Spain. He is notable for planning the first regular trans-oceanic convoys, which became known as the Spanish treasure fleet, and for founding St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565. This was the first successful Spanish settlement in La Florida and the most significant city in the region for nearly three centuries. St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited, European-established settlement in the continental United States. Menéndez de Avilés was also the first governor of La Florida (1565–74).
