(1519-74), Spanish explorer. Menéndez firmly established Spanish power in Florida when he was sent by King Philip II of Spain to drive the French away. He founded St. Augustine in 1565, which became the first permanent European settlement in the New World. As governor of St. Augustine, Menéndez led an attack on the French Huguenots' Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River. The Spanish massacred the French, ending any further French attempts to settle in Florida.
