Pablo de Hita y Salazar

Pablo de Hita y Salazar (born 1646, date of death unknown) was a Spanish soldier and governor of Florida (1674–1680), who was best known for his many mistakes made in the re-construction of the Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, Florida and his refusal to follow the orders of the crown on the construction of the castle.

Early years

Hita y Salazar was probably born in 1646 in Seville, Spain.^[1] When he was young joined the Spanish army. He served for forty years in Flanders, Germany, Mexico ^[2] and un the Cambray War. He also organized the construction of the port of San Juan de Ulloa.^[3] So, Hita y Salazar attained the rank of Sergeant Mayor.^[4] At some point, he also served as mayor of Veracruz.

He served in the military until 1674 (or 3 May 1675, according the sources^[5]), the year in which the Spanish crown chose him to become the new governor of Florida.^[2]

Governor of Florida

The Castillo de San Marcos

He took control of Florida in St. Augustine where was reconstructed the Castillo de San Marcos with the plans of major real engineer. Thus, Hita y Salazar, with 29 years, left Sevilla that year and moved to Florida. During that time, the government de Hita y Salazar made further changes and reforms in the castle. On 30 July, after know the creation of another fortress, he think that it was unnecessary. Later, Hita y Salazar sent two letters to the Crown in which he explained the progress made in the castle of the city and gave suggestions on the fort. He also explained that he thought any attacker who arrived at the scene would try conquer it and hold only Anastasia Island, cutting off re-supply fleets, and sometimes, also bombarding the castle. To protect the island and prevent the invasion, De Salazar decided that its engineers built a redoubt of four arms, which should leave the coast of El Pinillo and would protect the entry and access to Anastasia Island. However, it seems, that many of his decisions, took may have been influenced by a false idea that there was an army on Anastasia Island that could bombard the castle and, moreover, he would cut off lines supply. This, by the time, was not real. However, after he come to reason and withdrew his theory of invasion of the island, British General Oglethorpe tried to do exactly that in 1739. The supply ships were prepared for the attack, but the castle was able to prevent the few cannonballs that were sent by Oglethorpe, thanks to blocks and others elements (as the coquina rock) with which the castle was built, blocking the impact of cannonballs, so the constant bombardment was ineffective.

Hita y Salazar also ordered the construction of a battery in front of the castle to protect his deck and the pier, so that some transport activities carried out by the ships, would remain in force, including the duration of the attack. All these changes would be paid at the expense of defenses in the that the land be had based . When Hita y Salazar came to the west Florida, he decided he could make in this place a wall of defense to prevent a military attack, leading to large amount of land and replacing the wall by a real stone wall. However, with this, he showed, at least to his staff, he did not understand the creation of a fortification, which prompted to his staff to send a letter to the crown criticizing him.

When the Spanish crown had not yet sent a response, Hita y Salazar, decided to stop all construction. The interruption of the construction was rejected by many people in St. Augustine . So the May 8, 1676, a staff of Hita y Salazar, he sent a letter to the Crown complaining about the plans of his superior. The Crown decided that he should not make these changes and that he was not competent enough for this position because was before the political, a simple soldier in the army, so he had no experience in construction. The personal of Hita y Salazar warned the Crown of the need to stay with the original plans. In October 14, 1676 the Real Accounts sent another letter to the crown, that indicated a long list of expenses, changes and delays made by the Governor Hita y Salazar, also including the wages paid to workers when they did nothing significant.

On July 3, 1679, came the reply from the Crown and this indicated that the construction should follow the original construction plans.^[6]

The following year, in 28 Sep 1680,^[5] Hita y Salazar was suspended from office as governor of Florida and 30 November of that year, with the arrival of the new governor of the province, Juan Márquez Cabrera, Hita y Salazar gave him a report that included a detailed outline of the progress made by him in the city until then. In this report, he explained the many changes he had in the castle, which he considered insufficient. However, none of these changes correspond to the original plans, which meant that he had rejected the orders of the Crown to meet close-ups in the construction of the castle.

In addition, Governor Juan Márquez Cabrera made a series of investigations that concluded with the numbers of materials and structures carried out in St. Augustine by Hita y Salazar and he said the report that gave him Hita y Salazar was false. His engineers found many errors in the structures which he commanded to do, especially in reference to some walls and bastions, which were unstable because their bases were incomplete. One side of the bastion of San Carlos had to be, in fact, completely rebuilt, as this was in a very uneven wall. Because of these errors the former Governor Hita Salazar was blamed by discrepancy to his engineer, Lajon Lorenzo, whom said had provided him the data to produce these pieces.

Construction will continue until 1695, and construction of the castle will cost tons of gold. In 1695, the walls were 26 meters high and were effective in the siege of 1702, keeping the whole population of the city into a fortress surrounded by 300 soldiers. After two months fort was broken.^[6]

Contribution to livestock

Hita y Salazar not only dedicated to building strengths to try to prevent British attacks on Florida, he also gave a boost to the livestock, distributing land to his friends criollos of the province. He himself decided to establish himself as a farmer and lived in San Augustinne, where in 1680 he commanded to build a house that still exists in that city.^[7]

A learned man

Because of his military career, he knew the fortifications and the treaties of Adam Freitag (LÁrchitecture militaire ou la nouvelle Fortification), the book of Prieto Floriani or the book of the Jesuit Jean Dubreuil, so as the of M. de Bitainvieu and the treaties of Matthias David Papillon and Dogen and containing the experiences of military fortification in Flanders. In addition to the work of Pagans "Les Fortifications", all published in the seventeenth century.^[7]

Personal life

Hita y Salazar married Juana Dávila (Ruíz)^[8] and they had three son, Tomás de Hita Salazar y Davila (who was born in Veracruz, modern Mexico),^[1] Jeronimo Fernando and Pedro de Hita y Salazar.^[8]

References

External links

• Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)
• Castillo de San Marcos. San Agustín, caminando sin rumbo.(In Spanish: Castillo de San Marcos. San Augustine, walking aimlessly) (in Spanish)
• Word Cat: Pablo de Hita y Salazar letters, 1672-1676.