CHAPTER 7. ROYAL SUPPORT OF THE SPANISH PARISH THE PARISH AND BENEFICE OF ST. AUGUSTINE St. Augustine was a city, entitled on formal occasions to call itself "the noble and loyal city," although informally its vecinos called it "the presidio" or "the plaza." The corps of its vecinos consisted of all of the free, nonIndian heads of households in the captaincy general of Florida, for St. Augustine was the colony's one Spanish municipality from 1587, when Santa Elena was depopulated, until 1698, when an expedition from New Spain reoccupied the site of Pensacola. (Bushnell SS)