After 1574 Florida did not develop significantly but remained a backward, unpopular military and mission outpost with little of the glitter and pomp that characterized life in busier imperial centers. Saint Augustine, the capital and most important city of the colony, lay on the east coast in northern Florida on the west bank of the Matanzas River directly across from Santa Anastasia Island. By 1600 a church, convent, six-bed hospital, fish market, and approximately 120 shops and houses graced the streets of the town. Fort San Marcos, located on the northern edge of Saint Augustine, defended the shallow entrance to the harbor and the northern approaches to the Florida capital. Residents were primarily soldiers, their wives and children, and shopkeepers catering to the needs of the military. A few administrators, friars, Indians, and Negroes partially tempered the garrison atmosphere of Saint Augustine, but for the most part, it was a soldiers’ town. [Note: Without large deposits of gold and silver, rich soil, or a large sedentary Indian population, Spain found it difficult to develop Florida into more than just a military outpost. It successfully fulfilled its military function through the colonial period, but in other ways Florida failed to fit the usual pattern of colonial development.] (Tepaske GSF)