Q: Which was first? St. Augustine or Pensacola? A: Neither!

San Miguel de Gualdape was the first European/African settlement in North America.

by Dale Cox

Was the first settlement of Europeans and Africans in
the continental United States somewhere near Sapelo Island,
home to the beautiful old Sapelo Island Lighthouse?
Joanne Dale / stock.adobe.com

The Florida cities of St. Augustine and Pensacola engage in a (mostly) good-natured debate over which is the oldest European community in the continental United States.

Pensacola stakes its claim on a settlement established there in 1559 by the explorer Tristan de Luna. The colony failed, however, and was abandoned until the return of the Spanish to Pensacola Bay in 1698.

St. Augustine, in turn, is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in North America. Pedro Menendez de Aviles founded the ancient Spanish city in 1565, six years after Luna's attempt at Pensacola.

Both cities are beautiful, and both defend their claims with exceptional community pride. Pensacola was the site of the first settlement in today's Florida, even if it did not last. St. Augustine, on the other hand, has been there for 355 years.

Spanish settlers first built the city of San Miguel de Gualdape
somewhere on the Georgia coast in 1526.

Each city has a basis for its claim. Neither, however, was the first European settlement in the continental United States. That title belongs to San Miguel de Gualdape, a town settled somewhere on the Georgia coast in 1526.

It is worth noting, of course, that Native Americans were here for thousands of years before the first Spanish explorers. It should also be remembered that Juan Ponce de Leon - who later "discovered" Florida - founded Caparra, Puerto Rico, in 1508.

All but forgotten in United States history, Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon brought the first large scale colonization attempt ashore in what is now South Carolina on August 9, 1526.

It was a disaster from the start. Ayllon's flagship, El Capitana, wrecked on a sandbar, and the vital supplies aboard were lost. The colonists cut timber and built a replacement vessel. Christened La Gavarra, she was the first tall ship built in the continental United States. The provisions and other supplies, however, could not be replaced.

Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon 

Ayllon brought 600-700 men, women, and children with him, and they began to sicken and die almost immediately. Food supplies evaporated, and the site of the initial landing did not look promising for long-term occupation. Exploring parties were sent out, bringing back intelligence of a more-suitable location on a mighty river some 200 miles to the south.

Ordering his ships to carry the women, children, and sick down the coast to the new location, Ayllon mounted the able-bodied men on his remaining horses and started overland to meet the ships at the river described by his scouts.

The new site was somewhere on the coast of the modern state of Georgia. Most historians identify Ayllon's river with today's Sapello Sound, but the mouth of the Altamaha River and St. Simons Sound are also possibilities.

The new city was christened San Miguel de Gualdape on September 29, 1526, the day of the Festival of St. Michael. Archaeologists are searching for its site, but have yet to find it.

The Altamaha River flows past Darien, Georgia. The town of
San Miguel was somewhere in the area.

Things did not go well for the settlers of San Miguel. Starvation stalked the settlement, and the death rate soared as the colonists suffered from disease and exposure. They also made matters worse by forcibly taking food from local Native American communities.

Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon died at San Miguel de Gualdape on October 18, 1526. Hundreds of the other colonists went to the grave with him.

San Miguel was abandoned in November 1526 after a series of mutinies and North America's first-recorded slave uprising. Only 150 of the settlers survived to make it back to the Spanish settlements in the Caribbean.

The attempt to found a settlement on the Georgia coast ended in death and failure more than 30 years before Spanish soldiers set foot at Pensacola or St. Augustine.

The map below shows Sapello Sound, where many scholars believe the colony was located: