23 T 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
Our Oldest City. 
When we read, in history or in fiction, of the city walls 
and the watch towers, the strong-hold and its draw 
bridge, portcullis, and moat, and all. then of men who 
wore armor, and went in search of impossible things, 
that we can not express it by years, and can only say that 
this material was prepared for the building of the city 
“ in early times.” Should you ever go to San Augustine, 
you would find this coquina at every turn, for it was not 
only used in the early times for building, but for orna¬ 
mental-work ; as when first quarried it is soft, though it 
Fig. 1.— THE ANCIENT GATE-WAY AT SAN AUGUSTINE, FLA. 
the story takes us back, far back into the past ages. Yet 
we have here, in the United States, in this busy, very 
modern country, a city, which has all these old-time sur¬ 
roundings. It was built long before New York, Boston, 
or Philadelphia, and it still stands with enough of its old- 
time peculiarities remaining, to be unlike any other 
American city. You, of course, know that this oldest of 
our cities is Saint Augustine, or, as it is now spoken, 
San Augustine. We speak of it as our oldest city, the 
first fort having been built in 1505, but it has an antiquity 
far beyond that. The city walls, the fort, and the princi¬ 
pal buildings are of a coarse material, called coquina. 
(pronounced ko-kee-nar). Examine this, it does not 
need a glass, you will see that this, which is used as a 
Fig. 3.— SENTRY-BOX, FORT SAN MARCO. 
building material as if it were a stone, is made up of bits 
ol small shells. Every little shell in this mass has cost 
the animal that once lived in it, years to build up, thin 
layer after thin layer; then, after the animals have died, 
the shells have been broken up by the action of the sea, 
and in the course of time slowly cemented together, to 
form building material of many feet in thickness; you can 
see that, however old the city itself may be, the material 
'Of which it is built, takes us so far back into the past 
becomes very hard upon exposure, it can be easily 
wrought with a hatchet, and with such tools it was work¬ 
ed into fence-posts, fountains, vases, and the like. How¬ 
ever far into the past thinking over the material of which 
the city is mostly built may carry us, there is much that 
is curious in its history as a city. If we were now to 
read of a young man who started off in search of a foun¬ 
tain, the waters of which should give those who bathed 
in it, perpetual youth and beauty, we should laugh at the 
folly of the person. Yet it is only a little over 300 years 
ago that a Spaniard, Ponce de Leon, having heard of 
such a fountain, started out in 
search of it. lie started from 
Porto Rico and visited all the 
neighboring islands, and at last 
discovered what he thought to 
be a large island, and landing 
not far from the present. San 
Augustine, he took possession 
of it in the name of the King 
of Spain, calling it, from the 
fine vegetation, Florida, or the 
land of flowers. This all hap¬ 
pened in 1512, several years be¬ 
fore any settlement was made. 
San Augustine was first settled 
in 1565, and its early history is 
one of wars, takingand retaking 
by the French, the Spanish, the 
English, and the Indians. It 
would seem strange to come to 
any of our modern cities or 
towns, and find it surrounded 
by a wall, and could only be 
entered at certain places by 
gales. Yet this was the case 
with San Augustine, and the 
old gate, shown in the engrav¬ 
ing, is still one of the principal 
entrances on the land-side—we say gate—but it is 
more properly the gate-way; the gate itself, which 
formerly closed this against enemies, having long ago 
disappeared. Besides the city wall, San Augustine has a 
striking relic of the olden times in its old fort, San 
Marco. This is also built of the sliell-stone, coquina, 
which is found in the greatest abundance on Anastatia 
island; this is a long, low island, which is not far from 
shore, and forms a breakwater to the harbor. The first 
Spanish settlers built a fort as early as 1565, which was 
taken by the English 20 years later, they then gave up 
Florida, and do not seem to have made any attempt to 
settle there for many years. The Spaniards, however, 
again returned, and this time built the present fort. It 
was over a century in building, and was not finished 
until 1T56. But there is a sad 
story belonging to this fort; 
these old Spaniards knew 
how much easier it was to 
have work done by others 
than to do it themselves, 
made slaves of the Indians, 
and all the labor of building 
this fort was done by Indian 
slaves. The poor Indians 
had a hard time of it, taken 
from their idle life in the 
mildest of climates, and set 
at hard work. The interior of 
the fort has been made over 
anew, and furnished with 
modern guns, and a new 
name—Fort Marion—it re¬ 
tains enough of its ancient 
peculiarities to show how 
it appeared a century ago. 
It had its draw- bridge, 
which could be raised by 
heavy chains, and thus cut 
off all entrance, exposing 
only the moat or broad and 
deep ditch which surround¬ 
ed the fort. The friend who 
passed a portion of a winter 
in this oldest of our cities, 
and sent us a sketch of the 
city gate, also sent some 
drawings of the fort, two of 
which are given here. One 
of these, figure 2, shows the 
watch tower, from which 
there is a fine outlook sea¬ 
ward, and also inland. Fig. 
3 shows a quaint little sen¬ 
try box, curiously placed up- 
—on a corner, to allow the sen- 
_— tinel to look in two direc- 
. tions, and be safe from the 
arrows of the Indians. We 
do not build fo:ts in this 
manner now. Such affairs as this watch-tower and sen¬ 
try box would make altogether too good marks for our 
long-range cannon, one ball from which would shatter 
them into rubbish. But we are glad that these things 
are left to remind us of the early times. One who visits 
San Augustine now does not enter by permission at a 
particular gate, but goes into the city by rail, and many 
of the ancient buildings are now modernized, and used 
as slores. Still this old city grows very slowly ; it has 
very little of commerce or manufactories, and its chief 
business comes from invalids and others who find 
Fig. 2.— THE WATCH-TOWER OF FORT SAN MARCO. 
in its mild climate, its healthful sea air, and its quiet, a 
pleasant change from the severity of northern winters. 
The following actually occurred in a grammar school 
in this city lately; Subject under discussion Joan of Arc. 
Schoolmaster—” Now, Miss Jones, what was Joan of Arc 
Maid of?” Miss Jones hesitated in answering. MissJones, 
did you hear my question ? What was Joan of Arc Maid 
of? Miss Jones—“Made of—dust, sir,” she answered. 
