Plymouth Colony most of them in two or three months' time". By November 1621, only 53 pilgrims were alive to celebrate the harvest feast which modern Americans know as "The First Thanksgiving". Thirteen of the 18 adult women died the first winter, while another died in May. Only four adult women were left alive for the Thanksgiving. Several of the graves on Cole's Hill were uncovered in 1855; their bodies were disinterred and moved to a site near Plymouth Rock. The autumn celebration in late 1621 that has become known as "The First Thanksgiving" was not known as such to the Pilgrims.
Matanzas Inlet inlet, the southernmost access for boat travel between St. Augustine and Havana, Cuba. Shortly thereafter, in 1742, a coquina stone tower square by high, now called Fort Matanzas, was built by the Spanish authorities in Florida to safeguard this strategic inlet. René Goulaine de Laudonnière founded Fort Caroline in what is now Jacksonville, in 1564, as a haven for Huguenot settlers. In response to the French encroachment on what Spain regarded as its territory, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine in 1565. Menéndez de Avilés quickly set out to attack Fort Caroline, traveling overland from St. Augustine. At the