THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL - Air Defense Artillery

Colonial Forts of the Gulf Coast
FLORIDA, ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, LOUISIANA, AND TEXAS
THE discovery of Florida must be credited to Juan Ponce de Leon, who,
while in search of the "Fountain of Youth," sighted the coasts of Florida
on Easter Sunday, March 27, 1512. A week later he landed in the vicinity of St.
Augustine, took possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, and
began his search for the mythical fountain whose waters could restore old age
to the bloom of youth. For two months he searched, but at last he became discouraged
and returned to Porto Rico.
From its first discovery, Florida took a firm hold upon the imagination of
the Spaniards, whose minds conceived wonderful dreams of immense wealth in
cities and mines within its unexplored interior. In 1528 Pamphilo de Narvaez,
duly commissioned to conquer and govern Florida, landed near the Bay of
Espiritu Santa (Tampa), probably in Clear Water Bay, and spent five months
in a fruitless quest for gold and in exploriug the country to the north and west.
Becoming discouraged, he built boats for his command, embarked his forces
near the head of Apalachicola Bay, and sailed for Mexico. Eleven years later
Ferdinand de Soto landed about six hundred men in Tampa Bay and traversed
the country in a westwardly direction to the Mississippi River, where he died
in 1542.
Other expeditions to Florida and the Gulf Coast followed, but for many
years, even after the shores of the gulf became well known, the Spaniards made
no attempt to establish permauent settlements in the region. These Spanish
Conquistadores traveled rough-shod over the country, seeking gold, silver, and
precious stones. Leaving death and destruction in their wake, they proved to the
world that the wealth of the Gulf Coast lay not in minerals and jewels; and
caring nothing for agricultural pursuits, they had not at the end of fifty years
a single settlement on the Gulf.
Military occupation was, of course, necessary if the country was to be
subdued; and the few settlements which the Spanish undertook were established
for the purpose of exploiting the country or for holding the French at a distance.
As early as 1558, Philip II, of Spain, instructed Luis de Valesca, Viceroy
of New Spain, to undertake the settlement of Florida. Valesca decided vpon
Pensacola as a satisfactory site for the new colony, and in the summer of i559
he sent there about fifteen hundred soldiers and settlers. For some unexplained
reason the site turned out to be unsatisfactory to the members of the eXpedition,
and the garrison was recalled during the following summer.
Mter the close of the period of exploration, the Gulf Coast received no
attention from Spain until France, working down from Canada by way of the
Mississippi, set up a claim to a part of this shore line. It was La Salle who,
after descending the Mississippi River, first conceived the idea of establishing
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