Matanzas Inlet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matanzas Inlet, Florida. Between Flagler Beach and St. Augustine.
Photo: Marc Averette

Matanzas Inlet is a channel in Florida between barrier islands connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the south end of the Matanzas River. It is 14 miles south of St. Augustine, in the southern part of St. Johns County, at coordinates 29°42′21″N, 81°13′42″W. The inlet is not stabilized by jettys, and thus is subject to shifting.

[edit] Overview

Historic maps made by Spanish military engineers in the 18th century show that the inlet today has moved many hundreds of yards south of its location during the Spanish Empire. In 1740, a British invasion force from Fort Frederica, Georgia blockaded this inlet, the southernmost access for boat travel between St. Augustine and Havana, Cuba. Shortly thereafter, in 1742, a coquina stone tower 50 feet square by 30 feet high, now called in English Fort Matanzas , was built by the Spanish authorities in Florida to safeguard this strategic inlet.

The name MATANZAS, the Spanish word for "slaughter" or "butcheries", derives from the cold-blooded killing of some 350 French Protestant prisoners of war in late September and mid-October 1565 by patrols of Spanish troops during the command of Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés , the founder of St. Augustine on 3 September 1565. These French Huguenots, under Jean Ribault , had founded a colony on Spanish soil along the St. Johns River, near Jacksonville in 1562. Some of the Huguenots had rebelled against their leaders and gone pirating, taking their prizes back to Europe. Word of their piracy reached the Spanish government. Admiral Menéndez, one of the foremost Spanish naval officers of his day, was expressly sent out by King Phillip II of Spain to remove all these Protestant French pirates from Florida's coasts. His fleet found a squadron of French ships off the mouth of the St. Johns River, and attempted to close and board them. Rough sea conditions prevented a decisive combat. Menéndez withdrew his fleet south to the next available sheltered anchorage on the Atlantic coast, and there established St. Augustine on 3 September 1565 next to an existing Timucuan Indian village called Seloy. Two weeks later, Ribault set sail southward to destroy his Spanish opponent. The French fleet was caught in a hurricane and shipwrecked far to the south, probably near Daytona Beach. The survivors of the French fleet walked north on the beach until they arrived at Matanzas Inlet. They surrendered to the numerically smaller Spanish patrol they found on the north side of the inlet. Groups of Frenchmen had their hands tied behind their backs and were asked if they were Catholics or Protestants. The few Catholics in the Fort Caroline group, along with some young military musicians, were spared their lives. All Protestants, including the prominent French Huguenot commander, Jean Ribault were taken behind a sand dune and immediately put to the sword.