In 1562 the French Huguenot Jean Ribault landed at the St Johns River in Florida before sailing further north and starting an unsuccessful colony called Charlesfort, on what is now Parris Island, South Carolina. In 1564, another French Huguenot who had sailed with Ribault, named René Goulaine de Laudonnière, landed at the “River of Dolphins”, now the Matanzas River, and built a palisaded stronghold called Fort Caroline. A short while later, French deserters from Fort Caroline had turned pirate and were attacking Spanish shipping, and the Spanish King sent Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to establish a Spanish base in the area and expel the French. Avilés landed at a nearby native Timucuan village on August 28, 1565, with about 800 troops and colonists, and obtained permission from the local chief to build a wooden fort next to the village. Since it was the feast Day of St Augustine of Hippo, the new Spanish settlement was named St Augustine.
At about the same time, the French explorer Ribault had returned to Fort Caroline with more troops and claimed Florida for France. When he heard about the Spanish fort being built nearby, he put five hundred troops on a small fleet and sailed towards St Augustine, intending to destroy it. The fleet was hit by a hurricane, however, and Ribault and about 350 survivors were stranded on what is now Anastasia Island. At St Augustine, meanwhile, during the same hurricane, Menéndez de Avilés was already marching his own army overland to Fort Caroline, attacking it at dawn after the hurricane ended, and overpowering the Fort. After massacring everyone inside, Menéndez de Avilés then went south and found Ribault and his stranded men, and killed them too. Fort Caroline was renamed Fort San Mateo, and a Spanish garrison was left there.
Today, the Fort Caroline National Memorial commemorates the early French history of Florida. Some photos from a visit.