Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine in September 1565, and before the month was out he had marched south and killed 111 shipwrecked French Huguenot survivors at an inlet his men would call Matanzas — slaughters. Thirteen days later, 134 more. The inlet, the river, and the national monument still carry that name. The settlement Menéndez planted on the Atlantic coast then spent its first century learning how much it needed defending: nine wooden forts on the same site, all lost to rot, termites, storms, tides, or fire. In 1668, English privateer Robert Searle raided the town, killed roughly 60 residents, looted silver, held daughters of wealthy families for ransom, and carried off Black and Native American residents to sell into slavery in the Caribbean. Spain's answer was masonry: construction on the Castillo de San Marcos began in 1672 and finished in 1695. When Carolina Governor James Moore's forces came in 1702, they burned the town but could not breach it.
