USA > Alabama > A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas Volume 1 > Part 5
USA > Florida > A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas Volume 1 > Part 5
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Father Segura, with ten other Jesuits, and a large number of converts, were massacred in 1570, by Indians, led by a perfidious chief, who had apostatized. Father Segura and his companions had been specially chosen for Florida by St. Francis Borgia, (1568) who
1 " When Moore raided this country, he found it well inhabited and civilized. Part of his glory consisted in destroying churches, and carry- ing off the plate," etc .- " The Anglo-Saxon Border." Hamilton, p. 279,
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was keenly interested in the American mission, and had sent many zealous laborers to that thorny field. Father Rogers, a zealous Jesuit, who had long labored in the interior of Florida, was chosen to accompany Melendez, in his search for the murderers of Segura. They captured eight. Father Rogers anxiously en- deavored to obtain their pardon, as their crime had been prompted by the apostate chief, Don Louis. He failed, but procured a respite, and had the happiness of converting and baptizing the criminals. They died perfectly resigned to their fate, and with sentiments of the deepest contrition for their sins, blessing God for His mercies in saving their souls.
Peninsular Florida, the part lying east of the Apala- chicola River, was called East Florida, with its capital at St. Augustine. West of the Apalachicola, towards the Mississippi, was a separate province, called West Florida, with Pensacola for its capital.
Pensacola has been a shifting city. It began where Fort Barrancas now stands. Here, the first Spanish Governor erected a church, in 1719; within a short period this region changed masters three times, but was restored to Spain, 1722. Meanwhile, Pensacola was removed to Santa Rosa, on the site of the present Fort Pickens. Floods and storms drove the settlement back to the Continent, 1754, and a town was begun on the unrivaled site now occupied by Pensacola.1 Narvaez who discovered the Bay four centuries ago, called it St. Mary's Bay. But it has long since resumed the name by which it was known to the Indians.
In 1521, Ponce de Leon of Florida, informs his
1 Pensacola in 1777 contained several hundred habitations. The governor's palace, a large stone building, was ornamented with a tower. -Bartram's Travels.
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august master, " that he returns to that country that the Name of Christ may be praised there." It was no longer a region of perpetual youth, where the aged might drink of the magic fountain, and where the young should never grow old, but a land that called for the toil of holy men and their earnest prayers to draw the natives to praise the Name of Christ. Car- dinal Borgia writing to Bishop Carroll, June 26, 1802, asking information as to erecting new episcopal sees- inquires whence priests could be obtained to labor among the Indians, " whose conversion should be an object of solicitude."
Bishop Durango, of Santiago, whose diocese em- braced Florida, asked Philip II. to plant colonies there. The Provincial of the Dominicans in Mexico was com- manded to send Religious with the expedition. The head of the missioners, Father Peter Feria, went forth in the most fervent dispositions, saying that he did not intend that the Indians should be reached by conquest, but "by good example, with good works, and with presents, to bring the Indians to a knowledge of our holy Faith and of Catholic truth." It may be said that there were mis- sioners almost everywhere. "Before the fire of the trapper's gun struck down his woodland game, before the edge of the exile's axe had caught a ray of western sunshine, a mild and steady light is perceptible in the primitive forest; and by its friendly aid we discover the Indian kneeling before the pine tree cross, while the Blackrobe pours on his humbled head, the waters of regeneration."
The Spaniards were the first exploring pioneers in the valley of the Mississippi, and the French were the first permanent settlers on its banks. It is difficult to
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speak too highly of the splendid actions of the Span- iards in early days. Religious zeal was the life and soul of all maritime enterprise. It was the great motive of Columbus, and the darling scheme of his patroness, Queen Isabella," one of the purest and most beautiful characters on the pages of history," says Irving.
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CHAPTER VIII.
DR. ANDREW TURNBULL, of infamous memory, was commissioned by an association in England to establish manufactures and plantations in Florida. For this purpose he brought out fourteen hundred Minorcans and Greeks, in eight vessels. They landed in Florida, June 26, 1768.1 Dr. Camps, Missionary Apostolic, and Father Casas Novas, a Franciscan from Minorca, were appointed to attend to the spiritual welfare of these and other immigrants in a new Parish, formed about seventy miles south of St. Augustine, at New Smyrna, by the Bishop of Santiago de Cuba: Dr. Camps had special faculties from Rome to confer the Sacrament of Confirmation for twenty years.
These settlers were most cruelly treated by Dr. Turnbull. Nine hundred of them perished in nine years, though the baptisms show a natural increase.
Father Casas Novas, for his courage in remonstrat-
1 Dr. Turnbull sailed for the Peloponnesus and for £400, got leave of Governor Modon to convey to Florida a large number of Greek families from Corsica and Minorca. He augmented his settlers to 1500. He made many promises but never complied with any.
It was found impossible to advance settlements into the wilderness without the spirit of meekness and benevolence which had characterized the early missioners.
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ing against the cruelties perpetrated on his flock, was seized and sent back to Europe. Dr. Camps in order not to deprive the poor people of his ministry, labored on in silence.
In 1786, Dr. Camps had been sixteen years on the mission without salary, and had kept his flock safe from loss by heresy. In 1769, the poor Minorcans rose against their cruel oppressor. But Turnbull was a member of the Colonial Council, and the governor, Grant, took sides with him. Five of the leaders were taken to St. Augustine, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Two were actually hanged, one of their friends being compelled to act as hangman. Turnbull fulfilled none of his stipulations, with the unfortunate Minorcans. And by their unsuccessful revolt their condition was rendered worse than before. Finally, they abandoned New Smyrna, and set out for St. Augustine, led by the brave carpenter, Andrew Pellicer. The old men, women and children were in the centre of the sad procession, the able-bodied men kept guard, armed with sharp poles. They numbered about six hundred, including two hundred children born in Florida. Governor Moultrie examined the case, and the survivors were declared free from a con- tract of which Turnbull had failed to observe his side. The tyrant rode many miles after them and overtook them before they reached St. Augustine. But his en- treaties to induce them to return were unavailing. He could show no cause for their detention, and they were set at liberty.
The Minorcans did not wish to return to a place where they had endured such hardships; a part of the city of St. Augustine was assigned them, where their descendants remain to this day, faithful to the Catholic
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religion. They had no redress for the wrongs they had endured. no restitution for the wages of which they had been defrauded. "Such," says Monette, History of the Valley of the Mississippi, " have been the tender mercies of the English in all their con- quests."
Two of the descendants of the brave Pellicer have worn, respectively, the mitres of Mobile and San Antonio, and are still reverently and lovingly remem- bered in these cities. As the earlier churches of St. Augustine were destroyed by the English, Dr. Camps, being without means to erect a chapel for his flock, said mass for them at a house in Carrera, near the city gate.
Pensacola, which had been ceded to the English in 1764, surrendered to Galvez, May 8, 1781, and Count Arthur O'Neil was appointed the first Spanish Gover- nor. The Catholic King provided for the future of the Church in this ancient province. He selected Rev. Thomas Hassett and Rev. Michael O'Reilly, as parish priest and curate of Pensacola, desiring them to obtain faculties and proper installation from the Bishop of Santiago de Cuba.
The first colonists of St. Augustine came from Spain, 1656, many a decade before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock. Even at that early period the church was fully organized. It had a complete set of records, in perfect preservation. For safe keeping they were carried to Havana, when Florida passed under English rule. When Count Arthur O'Neil took charge of Pensacola, the Catholic service was imme- diately restored there, under the Capuchin, Father de Velez.
St. Augustine when restored to Spain was in a
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miserable condition. The few Catholics were mainly Minorcans, with some scattered Indians, remnants of native prosperous missions. There were few English- speaking Catholics-no church. Tolomato and Nues- tra Señora de la Leché were in ruins.
The Franciscan Convent was a barracks. The chapel of the Fort was unrecognizable, as to its original pur- pose. In our own day, the chapel of Nuestra Señora de la Leche was dug out and restored. A statue of the Virgin Mother was erected on the spot.1 Spanish and English-speaking priests were needed. The Catholic King sent out from Spanish Colleges, Fathers McCafferty and Crosby, '84-'91. Father Trocerius of the strict observance, came to teach the school, Father Juan, as chaplain of the Fort, and Father Font to aid the pastor.
Some of the early explorers came to the New World as to a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of mystery, where gold and gems might be had for the gathering, where the air was leaden with perfume, and fountains sparkled that gave perpetual youth :
" Where the rivers wander o'er sands of gold, Where the burning rays of the ruby shine And the diamond lights up the secret mine, And the pearls gleam forth from the coral strand."
But whatever were their hopes or cravings, it was put before them as their first and chief business, to reclaim the children of the forest from paganism. The sovereigns of Spain certainly deserved in their colonies the noble title "Catholic." The same missionary
1 Bishop Verot built a church at Tampa in honor of St. Luis, Father Luis Cancer, martyred off that coast, three hundred years ago.
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college, Salamanca, which prepared priests for Ireland where Catholic education was proscribed, was often called on by the King of Spain to send laborers into his harvests in America, and never failed to respond, as history shows.
Heroic men planted the faith in these southern regions, and watered it with their blood. Most of the priests who accompanied De Soto in his straggling marches through so many trackless deserts, perished, and no religious chronicles give details of their later hours. They met Indians with their frightful war- paint, gaudy feathers, wampum, scalping knives, and other hideous accoutrements of their savage warfare. But we should like to think that the missioners, " be- seeching them with the mildness and benignity of Christ," were able sometimes to attract them to God, to enlighten their ignorance, to pour on their heads, the saving waters of baptism. But of this, history makes little mention.
When Florida, by the treaty of 1763, ceased to be part of the dominious of his Catholic majesty, it was thought that the Spanish population could remain Catholic under their new masters. But they were compelled to migrate almost in a body. Bishop Morel, of Santiago de Cuba, ordered that an inventory be made of all the movable property of the church and confraternities of St. Augustine, and had these articles conveyed to Havana. In direct violation of the treaty, the Catholic population was subjected to all manner of vexations. The Bishop's house was seized for the use of the Church of England, the Franciscan Convent for the British troops. Of the suburbs of the city nothing was left. The church in the Indian town was
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converted into a hospital.1 The parish church became a heap of ruins.
The most obvious result of this invasion was the destruction of the Catholic religion wherever the English ruled. Yet groups of Catholics, European and Indian, sometimes assembled, by stealth, to be present at a nautical or dry mass, a form of worship which gave such consolation to the survivors of many of De Soto's brilliant army.
Where wine and wheaten bread cannot be procured, and neither consecration nor consumption of the ele- ments takes place, the mass is said to be a dry mass. In celebrating a Dry Mass the sacred vessels were al- lowed. But inasmuch as no consecration took place, the use of the chalice was unnecessary. The sacred vestments were worn. The Introit, Kyrie Eleison, Gloria, Credo, Gospel, and Preface were read. To make the Dry Mass as solemn as possible, deacon and subdeacon were present. Nautical was sometimes ap- plied to the Dry Mass from the fact of its being chiefly confined to sea voyages where the difficulty of cele- brating ordinary mass would be great on account of the rolling of the vessel, and other causes. Such masses are no longer celebrated by sea or land.
The Spanish were always anxious to provide for the hearing of mass, even when only temporarily in the country, as in the case of the Spanish minister in Phila- delphia, in 1786, who could not hear mass even on Sundays and holidays. He applied to his Government for a chaplain and a chapel. The King of Spain
1 The Council of Nice ordered that a hospital be built in every city. Needless to say that it was not in obedience to the merciful injunction that the enemies of religion stole the Indians' church and changed it into a hospital.
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readily granted his request, and Father John O'Connell, of the Hospital of the Irish Dominicans at Bilboa, on the coast of Biscay, was selected for the office, and reached Philadelphia, May 17, 1786. Requisites were bought for a private chapel, for six hundred and nine dollars and one real. No doubt many Catholics of Philadelphia, English-speaking and Spanish, availed themselves of Father O'Connell's ministry. The Catholic King as usual assumed all the expenses.
We find, too, many evidences that priests and people were anxious for the sacrament of Confirmation. Thus the missionaries of Philadelphia applied to the Bishop of Santiago de Cuba for the Holy Oils, and they were supplied to them, with the consent of the King of Spain. Regarding other parts of the country we read: " Unable to obtain the Holy Oils as usual from Eng- land, and intercourse with Canada being impracticable, the Holy Oils were supplied from the same source, 1779." Don Jose de Galvez' reply, July 17, to Don Juan de Miralles, May 16, 1779.
In our own day, Father Salvador di Pietro, S. J. of British Honduras was empowered by Pope Pius IX. to give confirmation in Central America. He was afterwards consecrated Bishop.
When the missionary priests of the Thirteen States besought the Pope to give them a Superior, they lamented that " no one in these regions can bless the Holy Oils, chalices, or altar-stones, no one administer the sacrament of Confirmation . to em- power a priest to perform these offices in the present necessity that the people may no longer be deprived of confirmation, or die without extreme unction."
This power was given in 1784, to Father Carroll,
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afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore. Bishop Chal- loner of pious memory, Vicar Apostolic of the London District, was anxious for the appointment of a Bishop in the colonies. He wrote to Rev. Dr. Stonor, 1766: " There be many thousands here (in America) that live and die without Confirmation." And elsewhere : "It is a lamentable thing that such a multitude have to live and die, always deprived of the Sacrament of Confirmation."
Early in the history of the colonies appeared the negro. He was instructed, converted when possible, and baptized. It was the English, for the most part, who brought slaves to America, nor was there ever in those days the slightest scruple in connection with slavery. Hawkins, the pirate, told Queen Elizabeth that in bringing negroes from their savage homes to a Christian country he was doing them a positive benefit."
They were used in the fields, for domestic service, and in the church. But a negro consigned to the clergy was held to have a pleasant sinecure: "A priest's negro," was a proverbial expression for a slave who could, to a great extent, do much as he pleased. Mr. Hamilton says that the slaves, as a rule, seem to have been docile, happy, and well treated. "Indeed, Governor Perier said that the negroes made better soldiers than the refuse sent from France in his time, who usually fled at the first flash of an Indian's gun. But negroes were too valuable to be used as such."
There was little disturbance regarding slavery. People seemed satisfied with things as they were. They thought slavery was a rather venerable institution. St. Paul made the runaway slave, Onesimus, return to his master, and Onesimus is revered as a Saint of the
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Catholic Church. The same St. Paul instructed the masters: " Masters, do to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you, also, have a master in heaven." The Church had always befriended the slaves. For them Sunday Schools were established, and the masters were fined if the servants failed to attend. The Catholic Church admitted them to all her privileges.
I shall now give, the first time any information of the kind has been published, some notes on the manner in which slaves were treated in a typical religious house, the oldest in the United States, the Ursuline Convent of New Orleans. That I can do so is due to the kindness of some ancient and cultured ladies in that venerable Convent.
" Disguise thyself as thou wilt, Slavery," says old Stern, "still thou art a bitter draught, and though many have been compelled to drink of thee in all ages, thou art not, on that account, the less bitter." Let us see how the Convent slaves were treated by one of the earlier mothers and her colleagues in ante-bellum days.
About half way between the Convent and the place known as the negro quarters, is a comfortable brick building of four large rooms and a spacious attic, having dormer windows. Well, this still retains the name of Hospital, because it was long used as such by the slaves who required medical treatment, which was given with as much charity to them as to members of the community. At some distance is a frame build- ing called " the Carpenters' Shop " which, on festive occasions as marriages, served as a banquet hall, wherein the inhabitants of the quarters, carpenters, masons, smiths, gardeners, cooks, house-maids, seam-
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stresses, old and young were allowed to enjoy inno- cent pleasures, to their hearts content."
Should a negro or negress prefer to choose a life- partner elsewhere, the steward was authorized to pur- chase such partner. Two apartments were fitted up for the new couple, whose marriage took place at a nuptial mass. The groom was dressed in French fashion; the bride wore a snow-white robe, a tulle veil, and a wreath of orange blossoms. Of course, each had prepared for the sacrament of matrimony by a good confession and Holy Communion. After the ceremony, they were accompanied by their friends, in processional order, to their own apartments, where a delicious breakfast was served. In the evening, old and young, in the quarters, all dressed in holiday attire, accompanied the newly wedded pair to " the Carpen- ter's Shop," now transformed into a bower of roses, where all remained feasting, singing, playing, dancing, till near midnight, when they quietly retired to rest, " happier, perhaps," said one who had frequently mingled in these scenes "than the richest and freest in the land."
The children usually received the names of the Saints on whose feasts they were born, or baptized. To the baptismal name was occasionally added another, indicating some trade or peculiarity. Thus one was called "Louis l'avocat ; " " Louis the lawyer " because of the tact with which he settled differences, etc.
At Easter each family received a supply of summer clothing; and at Christmas a supply for winter. Every adult in good health was required to work a certain number of hours daily. Those who wished to labor beyond the prescribed time, received remuneration for the extra work done. Attached to each cabin was a
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small garden which the owners could cultivate for their own use during their leisure hours. They were also permitted to raise poultry.
Thus a system was created whereby an industrious negro could secure his freedom by saving the amount of his first cost to his master.
They were assembled daily for morning and night prayers, also, for religious instruction; on Sunday afternoons, when the chaplain gave them religious in- struction, after which they recited the Rosary, sang a hymn, and were present at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. One of the Sisters taught them the Christian Doctrine and prepared them for the worthy reception of the Sacraments.
They were wont to testify their appreciation of the maternal interest taken in their welfare, by coming in a crowd on New Year's Day, and on the eve of the Mother's feast, to offer their best wishes and some token of gratitude, such as fruit, pralines, etc.1 On these occasions they assembled on the gallery in front of the Sister-Treasurer's office, and one addressed the Superior in the name of all. The Mother having thanked them and expressed satisfaction, gave each twenty-five cents. After they had played some tunes, and sung some favorite songs, she dismissed them with kind and encouraging words. Towards the close of the war, however, many of the colored inmates of the monastery, elated with the bright prospects held forth to them, left to seek their fortunes elsewhere. They did not always find in liberty a primrose path. But when troubles assailed them, they were welcome to their first home, not as slaves, now, but as hired ser- vants. The faithful old Louis de Gonzague said to his
1 Pralines-Cakes made of cocoa-nut and sugar.
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wife, Constance, when freedom was proclaimed: " You may go if you wish, but I am determined to re- main." Of course she was too good a Christian to leave her husband, "and," says my informant, "I venture to add, that each enjoyed a happier life and died a holier death than if they had left in quest of liberty." This ancient pair lived to pass the century mark. Constance was the head cook of the establish- ment till death called her home. The young people who aided her regarded her as a Saint. Her only fault was that, not uncommon in her profession, irritability. But when she yielded to temper in the morning she was always missed in the afternoon. She could not rest until she went to confession. Her confessor, Father Roussillon, was well known in New Orleans at that epoch, and had a very high opinion of the virtue of his ancient penitent.
The deceased slaves were buried in the front yard of the old Convent, on the left of the flagged court. Their remains were not disturbed when the nuns re- moved to their new Convent, 1824. But the buried nuns were reverently removed to the cemetery of their new home.
In 1817, Spain prohibited the importation of African slaves into her colonies.
There is nothing new to be said on slavery in the South. There was little if any ill-treatment of slaves in Cuba, Querida Cuba.1 Ballou, Abbott, and other American travelers say, there was none.
The claim has been made that slaves were kindly treated in Rhode Island. In the Rev. Dr. McSparron's time numbers of wealthy land-holders in Narragansett were slave-holders and slave-dealers. As late as 1804,
1 Beloved Cuba.
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Rhode Island had 59 vessels engaged in the slave trade (fifty-nine). The glebe house occupied by Dr. McSparron for over thirty years, is still standing. For a long time, the slaves were practically barred out of the protestant church. They were not instructed, baptized, or admitted to Communion.
But Dr. McSparron, " the great-hearted Irishman," protested against this unchristian exclusion of slaves, and ultimately prevailed in their behalf.
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