Thanksgiving in 1777 was especially meaningful for one group of St. Augustine citizens who arrived six months earlier - Menorcans who fled the brutality of a failed indigo plantation at New Smyrna.

Old men, women and children in the center, younger, stronger men in front and behind, carrying wooden spears, the silent column of some 150 trudged north along the trail from New Smyrna to St. Augustine.

They were unconcerned about attacks from Indians, or being hunted by their overseers,  or insects or beasts of the forest. In nine years they had suffered all forms of misery.

Three of their number had secretly made the 70-mile trek before them and filed complaints with East Florida Governor Patrick Tonyn. This tattered band would testify further to broken contracts, forced labor, beatings and death at the hands of overseers charged with making a success of an agricultural colony carved out of the wilderness.

It was May 5, 1777, nine years and 18 days after their arrival on the Mosquito Coast.

It began in the late 1760s, with a man of vision, an adventurer, a well-meaning businessman. Dr. Andrew Turnbull saw an opportunity to help his native England and make a name - and tidy profit - for himself.

He formed a company with English investors, then searched the Mediterranean for colonists. He found them in Corsica, Italy, Greece, and the little island of Menorca.

He had hoped for 500 colonists; when his convoy left Gibralter early in 1768, there were 1,403 colonists aboard. Far from a good sign, he was pouring nearly three times the expected number into a raw land, where it would take two years of clearing and cultivating before crops finally developed.

In those first two years, half the population died. England could not supply necessary food, shelter was no more than rough huts and lean-tos, and the Spanish had properly named the area the Mosquito Coast. A constant torrent of mosquitoes was bad enough, but they brought with them malaria.

These people had joined the adventure with great hope. Dr. Turnbull had  signed individual contracts with them: If each family would work for him for ten years, initial profits would repay his company's expenses, later profits would be shared with the colonists and finally they would own portions of the 104,000 acres granted the company by England.

Most of the colonists agreed to only five to eight years indenture, and when they protested for their land and freedom, they were put in chains and beaten.

Dr. Turnbull, often travelling, was apparently unaware of the discontent until it was too late. He spent his final years being sued through courts and commissions by his investors.

The New Smyrna survivors were granted small parcels of land at St. Augustine where, their hopes finally realized, they quietly built new lives and became a major influence on the future development of  St. Augustine.

   Image: Statue of Father Pedro Camps, priest to the Menorcans, in St. Augustine's Cathedral courtyard