Pedro Menendez de Aviles
(1519-1574)

Died aged c. 55

Pedro Menendez de Aviles, born in Spain in 1519, was a Spanish Naval Officer and founder of St. Augustine. At the age of 35 he was appointed captain-general of the Indies fleet and in June, 1565 sailed with his fleet from Cadiz to Florida. From his landfall near Cape Canaveral he sailed north to Jean Ribaut’s French fleet at Fort Caroline. It was during this voyage looking for Ribaut, probably on September 4, 1656, that he located a "good harbor, with a good beach," to which he gave the name St. Augustine. Near the mouth of the St. Johns River, he scattered Ribaut’s forces and took his fleet back to St. Augustine, where on the morning of September 8th he came ashore and founded the city. Using St. Augustine as his base, he marched overland to Fort Caroline and on September 20th captured it. He proceeded to explore the Florida peninsula and to establish Spanish posts on both coasts, at Port Royal and in Chesapeake Bay. He died in 1574.

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