Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, 1565 . The final (and only successful) Spanish expedition to colonize Florida was financed by both royal and private funds, and was led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. Five ships and some 800 soldiers and colonists arrived along the northeast coast of Florida in late August, where they ultimately slaughtered much of the French colonial force before establishing St. Augustine, which would become the first permanent European colonial city in Florida. From this port and administrative center, colonial Spanish Florida would grow over the course of the following decades, up to and including the short-lived Spanish town of Santa Elena (1566-1587) and three-succesive Veracruz-based Spanish presidios at Pensacola Bay (after 1698).