The author has endeavored in this work to answer the many thousands of questions that have been asked him in the past fifteen years pertaining to the history of Florida.
Preface to Third Edition.
Having met with success in my first and second editions of Ponce De Leon Land, I am encouraged to publish a third edition, a revised work, embracing, among other subjects, the history of Fort Marion, with a descriptive plan of same; the Spanish Inquisition and its effect on the settlement of Florida, with a full description of siege operations from the investment to the assault.
The author finds a peculiar fascination in the early history of Florida that no other part of our country possesses. When we look back to 1512, the date of the discovery of Florida by the gallant cavalier Ponce de Leon, the explorations of Narvaez and DeSoto, the permanent settlement by Menendez, the French and English colonies, the massacre of the Huguenots by Menendez, the retribution and massacre of Spaniards by DeGourgues, the attacks of Sir Francis Drake and Captain Davis on St. Augustine, the siege of Governor Moore and Colonel Palmer, the brave Oglethorpe's bombardment and siege, the attack on the Highlanders at Fort Moosa, the defense by the gallant and accomplished Monteano, the completion of the Fortress, which was one hundred and ninety-one years in construction, the Seminole war, the confinement of Indian prisoners of war in the fort, the construction of the most magnificent hotels in the world by H. M. Flagler, making this one of the central points of colonial and modern history in the United States. If this book awakens an interest in the colonial history of our country the author will be partially repaid for his fifteen years' work.
