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Title: The Seminole Indians of Florida Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 469-532 Author: Clay MacCauley

The Minorcans of St. Augustine in the late 1700s and early 1800s were no strangers to relocation. They had survived two major moves since 1768, once from the Old World to the New, and then from New Smyrna to St. Augustine. It should come as no surprise then, that some of these families began to move to the beach along the northeast coast of St. Johns County. They had come to the New World for an opportunity to own their own land. In acquiring land along the North and Guana Rivers, they were finally realizing their dream. Who were these Minorcans and what prompted them to begin development along the ocean? To answer this question one has to look back to the ambitious plans of the British during the two decades when East Florida was a British colony.