Pedro Menéndez de Avilés

Tonight, friendships.

And as for today in history, on Sunday, September 20th, in 1565, the first European battle on American soil took place when spanish forces under pedro menendez de aviles captured the french huguenot settlement of fort caroline near present-day jacksonville florida in eighteen thirty the first negro convention of free men met in philadelphia and decided to boycott goods produced by slave labor.

In 1881, Chester A. Arthur was inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States following the assassination of President James A. Garfield and marked the third president in one calendar year.

In 1932, Mahatma Gandhi initiated a six-day hunger strike to protest the stratification of India's social classes.

So Dickinson's account of his time in South Florida is simply the only English source we have regarding the indigenous people there.

Now, there are a handful of Spanish accounts from Pedro Menendez forward, but they're very brief at best.

And so Dickinson's account is a sustained account that talks not only about their experiences, but more importantly, the nature of the Ais, their civilization, their relationships with each other, both internally, but also their relationships externally with other groups and the wider Atlantic world, particularly the Spanish in St. Augustine.

While doing research at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Jason Daniels made the thrilling discovery of original material that was not included in the published version of Jonathan Dickinson's journal.

"This is the territory of King Philip II.

I order you to leave directly, for I neither know who you are nor what you want here." The French commander then replied, "I am bringing soldiers and supplies to the fort of the King of France." He then asked the name of the general of our fleet and was told, "Pedro Menendez de Aviles, captain general of the King of Spain, who have come to hang all Lutherans I find here." Our general then asked him the name of his commander, and he replied, "Lord Gasto." While this parlaying was going on, a longboat was sent from the galley to the flagship.

The person charged with this errand managed to do it so secretly that we could not hear what was said, but we understood the reply of the French to be, "I am the admiral," which made us think he wished to surrender, as they were in so small a force.

Scarcely had the French made this reply when they slipped their cables, spread their sails, and passed through our midst.

Remember, he had been taken during a Spanish exploration trip in 1561.

Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Aviles took him and then took him back first to Spain and then to Cuba, taught him the Spanish language, made him a Catholic, and then brought him back to the New World as a missionary, right? This guy, Don Luis, he was the 17-year-old son of a chief, Paco Colino.

As I say, he was taken to Mexico.

He was instructed in the Catholic religion.