Pablo de Hita y Salazar

Pablo de Hita y Salazar
27º Governor of La Florida
In office
3 May 1675 – 28 September 1680
Preceded by Nicolás Ponce de León II
Succeeded by Juan Márquez Cabrera
Personal details
Born 1646
Seville, Spain
Died unknown
Spouse(s) Juana Dávila
Profession soldier and governor

Pablo de Hita y Salazar (born 1646, date of death unknown) was a Spanish soldier and governor of Florida (1675–1680). He was best known for the many mistakes he made in the reconstruction of the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida and his refusal to follow the orders of the crown on the construction of the castle.

Early years

Hita y Salazar was probably born in 1646 in Seville, Spain.[1] When he was young, he joined the Spanish army, serving for forty years in Flanders, Germany, Mexico [2] and in the Cambray War. He also organized the construction of the port of San Juan de Ulloa.[3] Eventually, Hita y Salazar attained the rank of Sergeant Mayor. At some point, he also served as corregidor of Veracruz.[2]

He served in the military until 3 May 1675,[4] the year in which the Spanish Crown chose him to become the new governor of Florida.[2]

Governor of Florida

The Castillo de San Marcos

When Hita y Salazar was 29 years old, he left Sevilla and moved to Florida. Once he became governor, plans were made to reconstruct the Castillo de San Marcos. During that time, the Florida government under Hita y Salazar, made further changes and reforms in the plans for the reconstruction of the castle.[5] Although it was Manuel de Cendoya who began the reconstruction of Castillo de San Marcos, it was Hita y Salazar who consolidated the final draft: dimensions of the square, placement of elements of fortification, polvorines and soldier houses. The workers were primarily recruited from Native Americans in the area. Hita y Salazar recommended (following the military engineering concepts in vogue) that the fort be made in a pentagonal shape (the same as the fort of San Diego, in Acapulco, Mexico), although the idea was rejected by his advisers.[2]

On 30 July, after hearing of the creation of another fortress, he thought that it was unnecessary. Later, Hita y Salazar sent two letters to the Crown in which he explained the progress made in the Castillo de San Marcos and gave suggestions on the fort. He also explained that he thought any attacker who arrived in Saint Augustine would try to conquer it and hold Anastasia Island, cutting off resupply fleets and bombarding the castle. To protect the island and prevent the invasion, De Salazar decided that its engineers build a redoubt of four arms, which would be placed on the coast of El Pinillo and would protect entry and access to Anastasia Island. It seemed that many of his decisions may have been influenced by a false idea that there was an army on Anastasia Island that could bombard the castle cut off lines supply. There was no army there, however. After he come to reason and withdrew his theory of invasion of the island, British General Oglethorpe did exactly that in 1739. The supply ships were prepared for the attack, but the castle was able to prevent the few cannonballs that were sent by Oglethorpe. Blocks and others elements (such as the coquina rock) with which the castle was built, blocked the impact of the cannonballs. Consequently, the bombardment was ineffective.[5] Hita y Salazar sent a plane to Viceroy of New Spain, Payo Enríquez de Rivera, explaining the state the Fort was in and his advance, foundations, tanks and bastions that were being built. Hita y Salazar, apparently, had reached economic and technical problems in certain parts of the work. The accounts and expenses always exceeded the budgeted amount. He faced an impeachment trial that was applied him in 1678 but came out unscathed.[2]

Construction plan of the Castillo de San Marcos from 1677, during the Hita y Salazar government

Hita y Salazar ordered the construction of a battery in front of the castle to protect the deck and the pier. This was so that transport activities carried out by the ships, would remain in force during the duration of the attack. All these changes would be paid at the expense of defenses. When Hita y Salazar came to west Florida, he decided he could make a wall of defense to prevent a military attack by replacing the wall with a real stone wall. This idea showed, at least to his staff, that he did not understand the fabrication of a fortification, which prompted them to send a letter to the Spanish crown criticizing him.

Before the Spanish crown had sent a response, Hita y Salazar made a decision to stop all construction on the fort. This interruption of the construction was rejected by many people in St. Augustine. On May 8, 1676, the staff of Hita y Salazar sent another letter to the Crown complaining about the plans of their superior. The Crown decided that he should not make these changes and that he was not competent enough for this position because, according to him, the Royal politics - inclusive those linked to the construction of Castillo de San Marcos - was more important that the ideas of a simple soldier in the army since he had no experience in construction. The personal of Hita y Salazar warned the Crown of the need to stay with the original plans. On October 14, 1676, the Real Accounts sent another letter to the crown, that indicated a long list of expenses, changes and delays made by the Governor Hita y Salazar, including the wages paid to workers even when they had done nothing significant.

On July 3, 1679, the reply from the Crown arrived, indicating that the construction should follow the original construction plans.[5]

Suspension of charge

The following year, on 28 Sep 1680,[4] when the walls were nearly finished, and the pit was finished, including the embankment (although the officials in charge of the work said that still would missing four more years and an expenditure of eighty thousand pesos),[2] Hita y Salazar was suspended from office as governor of Florida. On 30 November of that year, with the arrival of the new governor of the province, Juan Márquez Cabrera, Hita y Salazar gave him a report that included a detailed outline of the progress made by in the city up till that time. In this report, he explained the many changes he had done in the castle (which he considered insufficient)[5] and included the plans of Apalache, Guale and San Marcos, as reference on what he had done.[2] None of these changes corresponded to the original plans, which meant that he had rejected the orders of the Crown to meet the close-ups in the construction of the castle.

Governor Cabrera made a series of investigations that concluded with the numbers of materials and structures carried out in St. Augustine by Hita y Salazar and those that he indicated to have done in the castle. The reports did not coincide. Cabrera's engineers found many errors in the structures that Hita y Salazar had commanded to be done, especially in reference to some walls and bastions, which were unstable because their bases were incomplete. One side of the bastion of San Carlos had to be completely rebuilt, as the wall was uneven. Because of these errors, the former Governor Hita Salazar blamed the discrepancy on his engineer, Lajon Lorenzo, who he said had provided him the data to produce these pieces.

Construction on the castle continued until 1695 and cost tons of gold. In 1695, the walls were 26 meters high and were effective in the siege of 1702, keeping the whole population of the city in a fortress surrounded by 300 soldiers. After two months, the fort was broken.[5]

Contribution to livestock and construction of other forts

Hita y Salazar was not only dedicated to building fortifications to prevent British attacks on Florida. He also gave a boost to the livestock, distributing land to his friends, criollos of the province. He decided to establish himself as a farmer and lived in Saint Augustine and 1680, had a house built that still exists in the city.[6]

In 1679, while Hita y Salazar was dedicated to the reconstruction of Castillo de San Marcos (and as part of the Spanish colonial expansion in the northwestern Florida area), the construction of a fort at San Marcos de Apalache, in St. Marks, Florida began. It was built to prevent external attacks against the colony. The fort was initially built of wood, coated with mud,[2] and acted as a wooden stockade.[7] It remained this way for three years.[2]

Knowledge

Because of his military career, he knew the fortifications and had probably read the treaties of Adam Freitag (LÁrchitecture militaire ou la fortification nouvelle), David Papillon, and Matthias Dogen that contained the experiences of military fortification in Flanders, as well as the books of Prieto Floriani, the books of the Jesuit, Jean Dubreuil, Sieur de Bitainvieu, and the work of Pagan Lein's Fortifications. All were published in the seventeenth century and highlight the relationship between population and fort.[2]

Personal life

Hita y Salazar married Juana Dávila (Ruíz)[8] and they had three sons: Tomás de Hita Salazar y Davila (who was born in Veracruz, modern Mexico),[1] Jeronimo Fernando and Pedro de Hita y Salazar.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 - "Descendants of Pablo de Hita y Salazar" Check |url= value (help) (PDF). November 26, 2008. Retrieved July 8, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Tercera parte: El fuerte de la piedra y la Villa (In Spanish: Part Three. The fort of the stone and the town). Page 97, 99 and 169.
  3. ↑ Mº Massip, José (22/06/1955). ABC SEVILLA: San Agustin de Florida, la ciudad encantada (In Spanish: Saint Augustine, the haunted city). Version in PDF. P. 11.
  4. 1 2 Ben Cahoon. U.S. States F-K.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Hita y Salazar and the Castillo de San Marcos - by Tony Bridges (accessed July 8, 2010, at 19:00 pm).
  6. ↑ Suárez Fernandez, Luis (November 26, 2008). América en el siglo XVII: Evolución de los reinos indianos (in Spanish: Americas in the seventeenth century: The evolution of the kingdoms Indians). Page 224.
  7. ↑ Dale Cox. "San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park - St. Marks, Florida". Explore Southern History. Retrieved June 17, 2012.
  8. 1 2 Our Family. Genealogy Pages: Pablo de Hita y Salazar. Retrieved on June 23, 2014, to 16:15pm.

External links

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