Sketches of St. Augustine by R. K. Sewall

Author:R. K. Sewall [Sewall, R. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-09-04T22:00:00+00:00

MINORCAN POPULATION.

Says the historian, “A military government succeeded, together with a sparse population, who barely subsisted on their pay, who neglected improvements,—who suffered their gardens and fields to grow up with weeds, their fences and houses to rot down, or be burned for fuel.”

The Minorcan population, however, it is alleged, were an exception. Their industry furnished fish and vegetables to the market. This is a peculiar people, and they compose a large proportion of the population of the city. The present race were of servile extraction. By the duplicity and avarice of one Turnbull, they were seduced from their homes in the Mediterranean—located at Smyrna—and forced to till the lands of the proprietor, who had brought them into Florida for that purpose. After enduring great privation, toil, and suffering, under the most trying circumstances of a servile state, they revolted in a body, reclaimed their rights, and maintained them under English law, by a decision of the king’s court at Augustine, whither they had fled from their oppressor, under the conduct of one of their number, a man by the name of Palbicier. A location was assigned them in the north of this city, which they occupy in the persons of their descendants to this day. Their women are distinguished for their taste, neatness, and industry, a peculiar light olive shade of complexion, and a dark, full eye. The males are less favored, both by nature and habit. They lack enterprise. Most of them are without education. Their canoes, fishing lines, and hunting guns, are their main sources of subsistence. The rising generation is, however, in a state of rapid transition. The spirit of American institutions, and the reflex influence of an association with Anglo-American society, are working an assimilating change in the whole social structure of the native population of this city; the present population of which is estimated at from 1800 to 2000 souls.

From the time of the retrocession of the Floridas, till the disturbances growing out of the late war with England, there was a state of comparative quiet in the border settlements. But ancient jealousies and the seeds of former dissensions, differences of religion, and the remembrance of past injuries, had not been altogether eradicated. Moreover, the occupants of lands on the line between the American and Spanish nations found those within the Spanish domain who strongly sympathized with the free and liberal spirit of American institutions, as seen in contrast with the despotic features of a military government under the control of an intolerant and bigoted hierarchy.

A patriot war ensued. [13] A neutral territory was erected. Spanish authority was rejected. Augustine was again invaded. But the American government interposed, restored quiet, and immediately entered upon negotiations with the king of Spain for the purchase of the Floridas.

These negotiations were at length crowned with success; and on the 17th of June, 1821, the “stars and stripes” of the United States of America floated from the Castle, and St. Augustine became an Anglo-American town, under the government of the American general, Andrew Jackson.

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