THE OLD FORT AT ST AUGUSTINE Keli Sipperley rourke educational media Scan for Related Titles and Teacher Resources
Chapter 1 ATTACK IN THE NIGHT English pirates rowed silently toward the shore of St Augustine in 1668 their approach cloaked by the darkness of the night With little warning Robert Searle and his men laid siege to the town taking what they could and burning the rest as residents took cover in the woods and soldiers tried to fend them off from the cover of rotting wooden forts St Augustine St Augustine is the nation’s oldest permanently occupied European settlement It was founded 55 years before the Plymouth Colony 4
The attack left many dead and the residents without food supplies and ammunition It also inspired the queen regent of Spain to provide funding for a new fort to protect the important Spanish town Freedom Fact An English sailor who joined Drake on the English expedition against Spain described St Augustine as a city built all of timber or bodies of trees set upright and close together Sir Francis Drake Robert Searle’s attack was not the first devastating blow to the Spanish shipping hub About 100 years before Francis Drake was appointed by Queen Elizabeth of England to lead an expedition to attack Spanish settlements in the Americas Under orders from the queen Drake and his crew of 2,000 men attacked and set fire to St Augustine in 1586 In historical documents you will often see the word circa before a date when the exact date is not known Circa means approximately or about Sir Francis Drake circa 1540 1596 5
