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National Geographic : 1966 Feb
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When he saw me taking notes, he asked, "You going to write this up?" I said yes. "To be printed?" I said yes. He said: "Well, now, don't you believe everything I say. You just believe about half what I say, then you safe." He thought this over, and added reflective ly, "I talk long enough, there bound to be some truth in it." Cars Thread Streets of Spanish Days Actually, Major's discourse on St. Augus tine was reasonably accurate. I learned that the city was founded by the Spaniards, who held it for two centuries, then taken over by the British, then by Spain again, and finally, in 1821, by the United States. We clip-clopped along the pleasant water front, past the massive old Spanish castillo, through the stone City Gate and along streets with Spanish names-Cordova, Sevilla, Granada, Cadiz. Some of them seemed too narrow for cars (though cars nosed through most of them anyway), and balconies leaned out overhead from the two-story Spanish houses. Other streets were wider, and these were walled and roofed by giant shade trees; here the houses were big, square, opulent reminders of the end of the last century when wealthy Americans "discovered" St. Augus tine and made it a fashionable spa. St. Augustine today is a city of 15,000. The old town faces the Matanzas River, part of the Intracoastal Waterway that links Flori da and New England. The Bridge of Lions spans the river and lets the city expand on Anastasia Island, where modern houses line the waterfront. A few miles down the island there are ocean beaches, but the city itself is not, strictly speaking, a seaside resort. It is customary for visitors to call St. Au gustine a sleepy Spanish town, and parts of it are. On the edge of the business district, in fact, the townspeople and the State of Florida On the sea road from the Spanish Main, the Florida peninsula saw riches flow past in Spain's treasure fleets. With gold to be plundered-and protected-Spain estab lished St. Augustine to guard her galleons against corsairs. Today history embellishes the old town; suburbs spill across the river. Swathed in satin, her mantilla-draped head bowed behind a fan, Nancy Russell adds Spanish elegance to St. Augustine's Easter Week Festival. She traces her ancestry to Mi norcans who came to the town in the 1770's. 202KODACHROME BY EMORYKRISTOF © N.G.S. 202
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