History of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States de Oñate. In all, Spaniards probed half of today's lower 48 states before the first English colonization attempt (Roanoke Island, 1585). The Spanish didn't just explore, they settled, creating the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States, at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. Santa Fe, New Mexico also predates Jamestown, Virginia (of Pocahontas fame, founded in 1607) and Plymouth Colony (of "Mayflower", Pilgrims and Thanksgiving fame). In 1566 Pedro Menendez established Fort San Felipe on Santa Elena- which is present day Parris Island near Beaufort South Carolina. The fort was part of the Spanish King’s ongoing effort to
History of Plymouth with the purpose of establishing settlements on the coast of North America. A few years later, Plymouth was also the departure point of the "Mayflower" in 1620, aboard which the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World, establishing the second permanent English colony in the United States of America. They eventually landed at a site which Captain John Smith had already named New Plymouth in a map published in his 1616 work "A Description of New England" and the Pilgrims accepted this name. Twin flags of the US and UK now fly at the Mayflower Steps to commemorate the