Horrendous history of the land of flowers
April 15, 2015 -- I’m taking a class on the history of Florida, taught by John Danner, who happens to be the pastor at my church. He is quite the scholar, and a darned good teacher. At the end of this morning’s session, I, and several others, were feeling shocked at the bloody violence of Florida’s tale. Much of the horror had to do with the Spanish. As John pointed out, the Spanish flag has flown over Florida for 30 years more than the American flag has. After the Spanish repeatedly tried to establish a permanent settlement in Florida, and after settlements repeatedly failed, a guy named Pedro Menendez de Aviles finally succeeded by founding St. Augustine – the first permanent European settlement in America, pre-dating Plymouth and Jamestown. It was in March 1565 that he started St. Augustine, and you’d think that given the apparent difficulty of the task, he would have had his hands full. But no, in September of that first year, Pedro had to go a...