Menendez de Aviles
Menéndez de Avilés, Pedro (1519–1574), a Spanish mariner and colonial official. He founded St. Augustine, Florida, the first permanent European settlement in North America. As adelantado (governor) of Florida, Menéndez brought 1,600 colonists to settle St. Augustine in 1565. He led an attack against Fort Caroline, a French Huguenot settlement nearby, took the fort, and massacred the prisoners. In this and related actions, his men killed more than 500 French colonists. After establishing a line of forts in Florida and Georgia, Menéndez returned to Spain in 1572.