Background
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was born on 15 February 1519 in Spain. He was a member of a noble but somewhat impoverished Asturian family.
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was born on 15 February 1519 in Spain. He was a member of a noble but somewhat impoverished Asturian family.
At an early age he sought his fortune at sea. All the rest of his life he followed the sea, seldom finding opportunities to return to his wife, Ana María deSolís, and his children. At thirty he distinguished himself fighting pirates off the French coast, and at thirty-five he was appointed by Charles V captain-general of the Indies fleet. Between 1555 and 1563 he made three voyages to the New World and served Philip II ably in Flanders and in England; during these years he demonstrated his honesty, his seamanship, and his capacity for vigorous and intelligent action. Early in 1565 the kings elected him to resist the encroachments of the French in Florida. By contract of March 20, 1565 he was given the title of adelantado of Florida, and in return for various privileges undertook at his own expense to explore and colonize the Florida coast; and he was ordered to drive out by any means he saw fit any "settlers who are corsairs, or of any other nations not subject to Us". He sailed with his fleet from Cadiz in June; late in August he found Jean Ribaut's fleet at anchor off the St. John's River whither it had come to reinforce the French port of Fort Caroline. He scattered it with a bold night attack, and then took his fleet south to the harbor of St. Augustine, where on Sept. 6th a fort was started. Five days later Ribaut's fleet, about to attack the new fort, was driven south by a violent storm. Menéndez seized the chance for an overland attack on Fort Caroline. Leading a force of 500, he surprised and took the badly guarded French fort, killed or captured three-quarters of the 240 occupants, and, leaving a garrison, returned at once to St. Augustine. Ribaut's fleet had been wrecked. Twice in the next three weeks Menéndez faced the problem of dealing with large parties of Frenchmen, trapped at Matanzas Inlet in their attempt to win their way back to Fort Caroline. On each occasion, after a parley in which Menéndez promised no mercy and forced an unconditional surrender, those who accepted his terms were disarmed, ferried across the inlet in small groups, and slaughtered behind the sand dunes. Over 200 Frenchmen, including Ribaut himself, were thus put to the knife. Menéndez wrote the king that such treatment of heretic interlopers was "necessary for the service of God Our Lord and of Your Majesty".
Perhaps doubts as to his ability to feed and guard so many captives played a part in his decision. But in his letter to the king, he did not disguise his satisfaction that the able Ribaut had been put out of the way. The later capture, on a promise of mercy, which he kept, of the few Frenchmen who had not surrendered at Matanzas, ended the French danger. Menéndez now proceeded with his plans for posts on both coasts of Florida, at Port Royal and in Chesapeake Bay, and searched for a water route from the Gulf of Mexico through the peninsula. In all his explorations he dealt honorably with the Indians, tried to pacify them and to save them from exploitation, and worked, though handicapped by a scarcity of missionaries, to implant the rudiments of Christianity. In May 1567, unable to get sufficient support in the West Indies, he returned to Spain to seek help from the king, but Philip's response was disappointingly small. Menéndez made his fifth voyage to the west in 1568-69 and may have visited Florida. In 1570 he was at sea protecting Spanish commerce from pirates; not till 1571 could he return to St. Augustine. Conditions in Florida were deplorable. Only a handful of discouraged colonists and mutinous soldiers in the three posts of St. Augustine, San Mateo, and Santa Elena was the result of his efforts over the past six years. Leaving such aid as he could, he sailed again for Spain in April 1572. In 1573 he asked permission to wage war on the Florida Indians and to export as slaves any who should be taken alive. Later he asked to be allowed to take his two daughters and sons-in-laws and fifty settlers with their households to Florida. But while in command of a large fleet at Santander he died, September 17, 1574. In 1591 his body was taken for final burial to his native city of Avilés.
Menéndez was a man of honor and of strong religious feeling, an expert seaman and a bold and resourceful leader. His early dealings with the Indians, before he not unnaturally lost patience, are a refreshing contrast to the conduct of many early explorers. Like most adventurers in colonization, he overestimated the results to be expected and underestimated the difficulties; his plans were too large for his resources; he scattered his forces too widely, perhaps because of the scanty food supply. Nevertheless he did succeed in establishing Spanish power in Florida. He will be chiefly remembered, however, as the author of the slaughters of Matanzas; these can be explained but never excused. Pedro Menendez High School on State Road 206 in Saint Johns County is named after him, as well as several streets in the area.
Menendez was married to Doña Antonia.
