It is very certain there was on each side, enough supposed causes of provocation to induce a far from amiable state of feeling between these neighboring colonies.
COMPLETION OF THE CASTLE--DESCRIPTIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE A CENTURY AGO--ENGLISH OCCUPATION OF FLORIDA. 1755--1763--1788.
Don Alonzo Fernandez de Herrera was appointed governor of Florida in 1755, and completed the exterior works and finish of the fort. It is this governor who erected the tablet over its main entrance, with the Spanish coat of arms sculptured in _alto relievo_, with the following inscription beneath:--
REYNANDO EN ESPANA EL SENR DON FERNANDO SEXTO Y SIENDO GOVOR Y CAPN DE ESA CD SAN AUGN DE LA FLORIDA Y SUS PROVA. EL MARISCAL DE CAMPO DN ALONZO FERNDO HEREDA ASI CONCLUIO ESTE CASTILLO EL AN OD 1756 DIRIGENDO LAS OBRAS EL CAP. INGNRO DN PEDRO DE BROZAS Y GARAY.
DON FERDINAND THE SIXTH, BEING KING OF SPAIN, AND THE FIELD MARSHAL, DON ALONZO FERNANDO HEREDA, BEING GOVERNOR AND CAPTAIN GENERAL OF THIS PLACE, ST. AUGUSTINE, OF FLORIDA, AND ITS PROVINCE. THIS FORT WAS FINISHED IN THE YEAR 1756. THE WORKS WERE DIRECTED BY THE CAPTAIN ENGINEER, DON PEDRO DE BRAZOS Y GARAY.
I am not sure but that the boastful governor might with equal propriety and truth have put a similar inscription at the city gate, claiming the town also as a finished city.
The first fort erected was called San Juan de Pinos, and probably the same name attached to the present fort at the commencement of its erection; when it acquired the name of St. Mark, I have not discovered. The Apalachian Indians were employed upon it for more than sixty years, and to their efforts are probably due the evidences of immense labor in the construction of the ditch, the ramparts and glacis, and the approaches; while the huge mass of stone contained in its solid walls, must have required the labor of hundreds of persons for many long years, in procuring and cutting the stone in the quarries on the island, transporting it to the water, and across the bay, and fashioning and raising them to their places. Besides the Indians employed, some labor was constantly bestowed by the garrison; and, for a considerable period, convicts were brought hither from Mexico to carry on the public works. During the works of extension and repair effected by Monteano, previous to the siege by Oglethorpe, he employed upon it one hundred and forty of these Mexican convicts. The southwestern bastion is said to have been completed by Monteano. The bastions bore the names respectively of St. Paul, St. Peter, St. James, &c.