Chapter 489

The Spanish created many firsts in St. Augustine.

The first European colony in North America, the first colony, the first town, the first prison, the first time to liberate black human rights, and the first time to provide walls and protection for people of color

St. Mark's coastal defense fortress in front of Lorraine is also the first.

It was the first masonry castle built in North America.

The history of St. Augustine is bloody and thick. Especially after Francis, the ancestor of Lorraine, broke down and burned the whole town in 1586, the Indians learned their experience and began to use fire attacks more and more to destroy urban defense facilities.

In order to gain a foothold in St. Augustine, the Spanish were forced to use nonflammable materials to rebuild the town, and built the current St. marks coastal defense fortress in 1672.

From the beginning of its construction, the castle has placed the heavy expectations of the Spanish people.

They wanted it to be fireproof, so they dug a moat for it, used a large number of concrete bricks made of shells, lime and sand to build the main structure, and further strengthened the key parts with harder bluestones.

They wanted it to resist pirates, so the castle was built on the Atlantic coast and in the suburbs of the town. Four large forts were set up on the castle, with a total of 24 large-diameter shore fire guns.

They wanted it to fight the Indians, so the traditional square wall added a huge rhombic horse face at the corner. No matter where the Indians attacked, the defenders could get the advantage of wrapping on the wall.

The castle of San Marcos also lived up to the hopes of its builders.

From 1672 to 1763, although the town of St. Augustine was destroyed several times, the castle was never occupied. Spanish Musketeers fought 15 bloody battles and won 15 battles here, which saved a lot of vitality for St. Augustine. It is the most trusted Noah's Ark in the eyes of all townspeople.

The carriage stopped steadily in front of the hanging door of the castle. Lorraine jumped out of the car, turned and helped Carmen from the car.

Today's Carmen chose a warm green, narrow shouldered dress. The simple design of the dress does not bring a trace of fancy. There is no obvious make-up on the pretty face. Even the hair is just a simple place to get up. Up and down, there are only sporadic and elegant embroidery patterns on the clothes, which increasingly sets off the pure temperament of the owner.

It's really not Carmen.

Although Carmen mostly converges her makeup to prevent her appearance from going too far when cooperating with Lorraine's scene, that kind of convergence often converges her wisdom and highlights her beauty. Such a simple and fresh appearance seems to be the first time in Lorraine's impression, at least.

Lorraine couldn't guess Carmen's intention all the way. Seeing that he was about to meet the Lord, he finally couldn't help asking, "Carmen, is that governor tulasse's daughter?"

"Daughter control?" Carmen understood what Lorraine meant for a long time. He couldn't help but throw a white eye. "No, he is a fishing enthusiast and an amateur silk collector."

"Silk..." if Lorraine realized something, she looked at Carmen's long skirt again.

You carp play with the lotus, egrets look at the sky

This simple looking long skirt is not simple at all. If Lorraine guessed right, it should be cut from a whole piece of Shu brocade with embroidery. It is in order to preserve the integrity of embroidery patterns and the elegance of brocade, so he gave up other decorations.

The little fox smiled like Carmen: "see?"

Lorraine nodded depressed: "I'm just curious. Do you have clothes or embroidery first?"

"It's custom-made." Carmen stuck out his tongue. "20 embroidery women in the Qing Dynasty embroidered for three years, and my tailor lived in Guangzhou for three years."

"Wow..."

With a perfunctory sigh of praise, Lorraine held up his elbow and asked Carmen to pull it up. They moved forward together. The introducer of the meeting, mayor dipyani of St. Augustine, was waiting outside the gate of the castle.

"Welcome to the eternal castle," he said to them. "The governor is waiting for you on the dock."

"Please the mayor to show us the way." Carmen bowed.

"It's an honor."

The wharf refers to the auxiliary wharf of the coastal defense fortress of San Marcos, which is mainly used to transport supplies and personnel to the castle when the land channel is blocked.

Therefore, the scale of the wharf is very small. There are only two plank roads, a total of four medium-sized cargo berths, and it is not connected with the land at all. It can only pass through the interior of the castle.

A group of three people entered the castle, passed through a deep doorway with a thickness of more than 15 meters, and passed through a wide and flat patio atrium.

Lorraine saw the patrol army with red background and blue robes on the wall. It seemed to be the first time on Spanish land.

Lorraine couldn't help feeling: "St. Augustine is the most dangerous Spanish town I've ever seen."

Mayor dipyani smiled and replied, "we have never forgotten history. Every resident here knows that the next war will come at any time."

He pointed to the atrium at his feet: "every March, the whole town will have a day off. We organize refuge drills here. Women, children and old people set up tents in the atrium, and men went to the city to participate in patrols. For us, it is the same grand festival as Christmas."

"Allow me to pay tribute to the residents of St. Augustine." Lorraine bowed slightly.

The three continued to move forward, through the door opening again from the atrium, and reached the wharf.

From a distance, Lorraine saw a strong middle-aged man concentrating by the seawall with a fishing rod.

He pulled the fishing rod with an irregular rhythm, lifted it, stopped for a while, and the line hammer at the bottom of the rod was slowly tightened, which complemented the rhythm of the lifting.

Mayor dipyani wanted to report. Lorraine held him, stretched out his index finger and gestured to wait.

The three waited by the seawall.

After a while, the buoy on the fishing line suddenly sank and the loose fishing line collapsed straight.

The spirit of the middle-aged people became more and more concentrated. They tightened the fishing rod steadily and slowly, tightening the fishing line circle by circle.

WOW!

The hooked fish jumped out of the water, left a bright silver light in people's vision, and soon jumped back into the water.

Lorraine saw the fish, silver all over, with spots on his dorsal fin.

The fish is at least 60 cm long, its jumping movements are strong and powerful, and its hooked jaw is eye-catching.

If Lorraine is not mistaken, this is a medium-sized, vibrant Atlantic silver salmon.

The struggle between the fisherman and the fish lasted about 15 minutes. The fish ran out of energy and was dragged ashore.

The fisherman smiled proudly at Lorraine with his catch: "President Drake, from the perspective of young people, you are more patient than most people. I think I already know the secret of your success."

"Being good at waiting is indeed one of the secrets of my success, but it is by no means the only secret."

Lorraine looked at all kinds of strange ornaments around the fisherman, suddenly pressed the spring and popped out his umbrella sword.

"This is the first time in my life that I have cooked delicious food for my host when I am a guest. Sir tussela, please give me this opportunity."