New Smyrna Minorcans Ballada

The Story of the 1768 Florida Colony

New Smyrna Minorcans Ballada

by Chanda Singleton Griesë

On God’s great earth
From east to west
Some simple colonists

By Turnbull’s sway
Packed belongings
Not knowing the way.

On stormy seas
That fierce winds blew—

Two months they sailed
On black seas to 
The promised land.  

Abandoning Old for New—
This brave band planting
Indigo blue

With Father Camps
Plagued with worry
A faithful witness
Penned their story

Abuses spoken
Fatigued with death
Beaten, broken
Deliverance.

The sweet refrain
Families saved to start again
And continue on from
Generation to generation.
~C.S. Griesë

Illustration by April Singleton Griesë
Reprinted from My Grandchildren Are My Glory|
Recipes and Memories of Sharon Louise Singleton Tanchin