Florida Keys

"Seen from a distance, these islands looked like suffering men, a tribute to the many sailors lost on their jagged rocks."

―Description of the Florida Keys.^[src]

The Florida Keys, previously known as Los Mártires (English: The Martyrs), are a group of islands located off the southern coast of Florida, United States.

History[edit | edit source]

The Florida Keys were charted by Juan Ponce de León in 1513.^[1] The explorer named them Los Mártires, meaning "the martyrs", as the islands looked like suffering men from a distance.^[2] As the Spanish Empire grew, its treasure ships sailed near the Florida Keys to Cádiz, making the area a natural point of attack for pirates, as well as a center of pirate recruitment.^[1]

In November 1716, the pirates Alonzo Batilla, Olivier Levasseur, and Samuel Bellamy attacked the Spanish Treasure Fleet in the area. However, during the fight, they were counter-attacked by the Templar Francis Hume and the Royal Navy. While Bellamy left his fellow pirates to go after the fleet's galleon, Batilla and Levasseur were forced to withdraw from the fight. After some time, the pair decided to retaliate against the Royal Navy by plundering a British fort.^[3]

At another time, Battilla destroyed the French slave ship Le Protée and its protector Man O' War, L'Alexandre,^[2] while they were delivering African slaves from Senegal and the Kingdom of Whydah to the West Indies.^[4]

Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]

The Florida Keys are the fourth area that can be explored in Assassin's Creed: Pirates, being unlocked upon completion of the memory "The Prince of Pirates" in Bahía de Guadiana.

Available activities in the area include a main story memory, four assassination missions, two monk missions, four races, fourteen treasure chests to find, seven lost files to collect, six lighthouses to capture and have their viewpoints synchronized, ten drowning sailors to be rescued, five slave ships to attack, eight Maya temples to explore, a three-round survivor mission, eight fish to catch, and five whales to hunt.

When seen from above, the in-game layout of the Florida Keys resembles a skull surrounded by a circle. The British fort is located in the center of the skull.