Huguenots and Catholics: The Fight for Colonial Florida

As the sun rose on the 20th of September 1565, so did Pedro Men ndez de Avil s and his men. Their woolen clothes reeked of sweat and swamp, moldering from the four-day journey and the overnight rainstorm so common to La Florida. They bivouacked several hundred yards from their objective the night before after hacking and wading through swamp and jungle in the oppressive heat. Their matchlocks, pikes and swords needed maintenance - the men double-checked their apostles of powder for dampness and wiped down their dully-gleaming steel weapons. Men ndez again polled his officers as to their feelings concerning their mission and many still declined support. However, Chaplain Mendoza who accompanied the soldiers, supported Captain-General Men ndez, offering that he stood with him in thought and deed. The lieutenants soon acquiesced and the 500 Spanish soldiers set off, stealthily creeping toward Fort Caroline. The damp ground deadened the sound of their approach. This was fortunate, as they were laden with weapons and ladders. They soon saw that most of the fort was unguarded and cheerfully slinked closer, saying their last prayers before the slaughter of the heretic French began. The vignette above is not prose written for some Hollywood spectacle attacking the evil Europeans and their mistreatment of the natives in the new world. It is an account of a small part of the drama that played out on the coast of Florida in the early years of European colonization. The area known now as the "First Coast" from Amelia Island to the Matanzas Inlet in Northeast Florida was the set of the beginning scene of the ethnic cleansing of a native population, the holy war between Christians and the founding of what is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the United States. The colonization of the New World provided opportunities for many, from those in pursuit of religious freedom like the French Huguenots to those seeking to expand their empire in the name of God like the Spanish Catholics - but when the two collided in 16th Century Florida, kindly Christian values waned and killing in the name of God became the norm.