THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL - Air Defense Artillery

COLONIAL FORTS 247
Spanish uniforms, he crossed over to the mainland and quickly captured Fort
San Carlos. The French account says that they surprised the Spanish commandant
in his bed and took the fort without firing a shot; the Sp~nish account
says the fort surrendered after an attack by four French frigates~
Bienville garrisoned the fort with some men under Chateattgne, and then
returned to Mobile. The Spanish at Havana fitted out two ships to retake
Pensacola. Chateaugne declined to surrender when attacked and a lively engagement
followed without a great deal of damage to either contestant. During
the night many of the garrison deserted, and on the next day the French commander
surrendered.
The Spanish governor immediately strengthened his defenses, "and to give
additional defence to the entrance of the port, threw up a little palisade fort on
the point of St. Rosa Island." He then set out with two brigantines to attack
the French settlement on Dauphine Island, where "there was no fort, retrenchment
or other defence, but a battery on the eastern point of the island." The
French, although outnumbered, were able to prevent a successful landing on
the island, so the Spanish undertook a bombardment of the fort and the town.
For four days the garrison of one hundred and sixty Frenchmen and two
hundred Indians, aided by one vessel which was anchored near the fort, withstood
the attack. The arrival of five French vessels caused the Spanish to
return to Pensacola.
With reinforcements, Bienville was now able to' prepare another expedition
against Pensacola. In September he landed a large force on the perdito and
proceeded to assail the town. Upon the appearance of the French and Indians
before the fort, the garrison made a show of resistance and then retreated to
a new fort, called Principe de Asturias, which they had hastily erected on Point
Siguenza. The French vessels having entered the harbor and the Spanish ammunition
having been virtually exhausted, the new fort was forced to surrender.
For the third time in three months Pensacola changed hands.
The French felt that they could not spare the force necessary to garrison the
defenses at Pensacola, so they destroyed the fortifications, burned the town, and
returned to Mobile. However, they left behind a guard in charge of one small
battery, and Pensacola remained in French possession until after the treaty of
peace by which it was restored to Spain. Fort San Carlos was thereupon rebuilt
in substantially its modern form; and in 1722 another fort was built on the
point of Santa Rosa Island, near the site of Fort Pickens.
The French continued to spread out in all directions by means of their small
detached posts. In 1721 a vessel with a small force was sent to occupy Matagorda
Bay in Texas and to build a fort. This was done, but the hostility of the
Indians soon caused the French detachment to withdraw. The Spanish then
located a garrison on the site formerly occupied by La Salle, and called the
place Our Lady of Lareto. l\inety men were located there in 1722, but ten
years later the number had been halved.
In 1722 Sienr de la Tonr established a settlement at Balize at the extreme
mouth of the Mississippi, on the southwest passage. Here, on the soft ground,