Excerpt from Castillo De San Marcos: A Guide to Castillo De San Marcos National Monument, Florida

Sgt. Maj. Nicolas Ponce de L�on, the officer responsible for defending the town, was at home, a sick man, covered with a greasy mercury salve and weak from the sweatings prescribed for his illness. On hearing the din, he roused himself and rushed to the guardhouse, only to find the pirates had been there first. He turned to the urgent task of shep herding his 70 unarmed soldiers and the others men, women, and children - into the woods, leaving the pirates in complete possession of the town.

By daybreak the little force at the fort had lost five men, but they believed they had killed 11 pirates and wounded 19 others. Ponce came from the woods and reinforced the' fort with his weaponless men. With daylight, two other vessels joined the ship from Veracruz. One was St. Augustine's own frigate, taken by the raiders near Havana, in which the pirates had been able to move in Spanish waters without detec tion. The other was the pirates' own craft. All three sailed into the bay, passed the cannon fire of the fort, anchored just out of range, and landed their remain ing forces. Systematically they began to sack the town; no structure was neglected.

That afternoon, the governor sent out a sortie from the fort, but the leaders were wounded and the party retired. After 20 hours ashore, however, the pirates were ready to leave anyway, taking their booty, which probably amounted to only a few thousand pesos, and about 70 prisoners whom they had seized during the previous night's rampage. Just before leaving they ransomed most of their prisoners for meat, water, and firewood. The local Indians, however, they kept, claiming that the governor of Jamaica had told them to keep all Indians, blacks, and mulattoes as slaves, even if they were Spanish freemen. Finally on June 5 the raiders headed out to sea, amused as once again they passed the thunder of the useless guns in the old wooden fort as the small community grieved over its 60 dead and gave thanks for the ransomed prisoners.

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