This is Fort Matanzas, a Spanish fort built in 1742 on Florida’s Atlantic Coast south of St. Augustine. This National Monument is visited by boat from the NPS Visitor Center. It was here 200 years before this fort was constructed that shipwrecked French forces who were intending to capture the fort at St. Augustine were met by the Spanish and 111 Frenchmen who surrendered were killed, two weeks later, a second group of 134 surrendered and were killed. It was then that this area got named, Matanzas -- meaning "slaughters" in Spanish.
