Robert P. Jones, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, former St. Augustine bricklayer, and longtime fisheries association executive, is in his 93rd trip around the sun. He is passionate about telling the story of the Minorcans, who arrived at Andrew Turnbull’s colony in 1768—and, after nine harrowing years during which over half the colonists perished, walked seventy miles north to freedom in St. Augustine. His passion is personal. His late wife, Malinda Usina Jones, to whom he was married for 67 years, was a descendant of one of those original colonists. Her great-great-great-great-grandmother is among the 964 whose graves remain lost in the soil of New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
The Minorcan Odyssey
Life after the colony
by Robert P. Jones
The Minorcan Odyssey
Life after the colony
by Robert P. Jones
Published Apr 12, 2026
197 Pages
5 x 8 Black & White Paperback
Genre: FICTION / Historical / Colonial America & Revolution


