Manuel de Cendoya

[5] During his 22 years of service, he fought in several military campaigns to capture enemy strongholds[5] in Extremadura, Guipúzcoa, Flanders, and Italy,[5] eventually attaining the rank of sergeant major[6] On July 6, 1671,[7] when Cendoya was in Cadiz, Spain, he was appointed royal governor and captain general of Florida.

Before assuming the governorship, Cendoya sailed to Mexico in November 1671 to receive the appropriated funds and consult with the Viceroy of New Spain, Sebastián de Toledo, and his military engineers about the construction of a new fort to defend the colony.

[11] In April 1671, Cendoya obtained 12,000 pesos in Mexico City to build the fort, as well as acquiring tradesmen, including fifteen masons, stonecutters, lime burners, and plasterers in Havana.

[13] Native Americans hired as laborers cleared trees and brush from the quarry site and removed topsoil to expose the coquina beneath, working with picks, shovels, and tools forged by the town's blacksmith.

[5] After receiving reports of numerous threats appearing at Matanzas Inlet, Cendoya began to consider the status of its watchtower, and after personally inspecting the wooden structure himself,[15] formed a plan to build a second masonry fort there.

He also sent Captain Matheo Pacheco and twenty-five soldiers to a mission located on St. Catherines Island to establish a garrison and obtain information from the local Indians of activity in the British colonies to the north.

The Spanish Crown also sent orders to Cendoya to arrange a meeting between him, the Captain General of Havana and the Viceroy of New Spain, to discuss possible ways to drive out the British from Carolina without breaking the peace treaty.

Construction of the Castillo de San Marcos began on October 2, 1672, [ 4 ] and continued through the administrations of seven successive governors, finally being completed in 1695.
Spanish Coquina Quarries , on Anastasia Island . Blocks of coquina , a sedimentary rock, were quarried on Anastasia Island and transported on barges to the Castillo.
Artist's conception of one of the early wooden watchtowers at Matanzas Inlet, as described in a 1671 document