those of their countrymen, and especially of the chiefs, through whose influence mainly the resolution to abandon Florida had been taken. They even fired at and wounded several, so that they durst not stir out of their houses. At last, the government was obliged to interfere, and send them to Mexico by tens and twenties, taking care that each party should be all on one side. At Mexico they were received with much interest, and there was even a talk of renewing the expedition to Florida; but the final issue was, that they all dispersed either to the mother-country, or to seek their fortune in different parts of the colonies.*

* Vega, b. 4, ch. 14.

CHAPTER III.

FRENCH EXPEDITIONS INTO FLORIDA.

Expedition of Ribaut-Of Laudonniere-Of Menendez.-Capture of the French Fort.-Dreadful Catastrophe.-Expedition of De Gourgues.-His Success.-Return to France.

IT must be obvious, from the narratives now given of the Spanish expeditions in Florida, that however gallant and adventurous their conduct had been, and however striking and eventful their career, Florida was left by them exactly as they had found it, and not a single permanent settlement formed. Yet, from the original discovery of Ponce de Leon, and these misnamed conquests, that proud nation claimed a right, under the name of Florida, to the whole North American continent. It was not likely that the other great nations, as they advanced in maritime skill and enterprise, would long acquiesce in so empty a claim. France, which had not hitherto taken any lead in this direction, was now the first to dispute it. The brave and generous Coligni, bred to naval affairs, first perceived all the advantages which his country might

VOL. I.

L

derive from commerce and colonial possessions. In 1562, the great civil war was as yet only brooding, and Catherine, in the crafty balance which she sought to maintain between the parties, studied to conciliate the admiral. She therefore cordially concurred in his plan of sending a Huguenot expedition to occupy Florida; which, amid the fatal designs over which she was brooding, promised even to weaken a body of which she had sworn the destruction. Coligni had thus no difficulty in fitting out a party exclusively Huguenot, and including some persons of respectable birth. They embarked in two vessels, under the command of Ribaut, an officer of merit. He had a tolerably prosperous voyage, and arrived at the mouth of a river, which he called May, from its being discovered in that month of the year, 1562; but he sailed to the southward in search of a river which Ayllon, a previous navigator, had called the Jordan; but instead of it he lighted upon one which the English afterwards called Ediscon, and which is, in fact, on the borders of South Carolina. A fort was soon erected, and the settlement being thus founded under promising auspices, Ribaut set sail for France, with the view of bringing out a re-enforcement to the colony. This was an imprudent step. The settlement, in its most critical state, was left without the benefit of his prudence and judgment; and the command devolved upon Albert, an officer quite unequal to so delicate a task. Finding it difficult to maintain discipline in a society where all were more willing to command than to obey, he had recourse to the most tyrannical and brutal means of

enforcing it. He addressed the colonists only in the most opprobrious language; he hanged one of them with his own hand, and held out to the others a continued menace of the same fate. At length, losing all patience, they rose upon him, and put him to death. Amid these dissensions, and amid some vain inquiries after silver and gold, they never bethought themselves of the more essential object of raising a supply of provisions, till famine, in the most alarming shape, stared them in the face. After exhausting all that they could either procure for themselves, or obtain from the natives, a council was called, and no resource was found but to construct a bark and return in it to Europe. They had thus the same task to perform as the followers of Narvaez, though not with means so wholly imperfect; and hunger stimulating their exertions, enabled them in a short time to complete their vessel. A much heavier task awaited them in crossing the mighty Atlantic, and one which it seemed scarcely possible that they could achieve in safety. Other perils, however, threatened them, than those their fears had anticipated. Instead of shipwreck, they encountered so dead a calm, and the voyage thus reached to so unexpected a length, that their slender store of provisions was exhausted, and the famine from which they fled met them in all its horrors. After every other mode of sustaining life had been exhausted, their reluctance was overcome to that impious one which every civilized mind must view with the deepest horror. One of the crew had been already sacrificed, to afford a dreadful prolongation to the life of the rest, when an English vessel

appeared in sight, by which they were taken up and conveyed to their native country.*

Coligni, mean time, involved in the violent civil war which followed the massacre of Vassy, had been unable to think of Florida; but as soon as the death of the Duke of Guise had led to a peace between the two religions, he appeared again at court, and succeeded in fitting out a fresh expedition, under an officer of merit, called René Laudonniere. This captain received three vessels, well manned and appointed, and with every thing which could minister to the wants of a new colony. On the 22d June, 1564, they arrived at the river of May. Laudonniere here learned the calamitous breaking up of the former colony, and, on proceeding to its site, judged it less inviting than that in which he had first landed. He proceeded thither, and founded the fort of La Carolina. He was extremely active, and sent parties who penetrated into the country as far as the Apalachians, continuing, notwithstanding all experience, to be cheated, as the Spaniards had been, by vain appear ́ances of gold and silver. He was equally unable, also, as his predecessor, to maintain discipline among a band who came out with the expectation both of full license and boundless wealth. Some young men of rank, impatient of the restraint in which he held them, formed a plot against his life. It was discovered, and they were sent back to France.

* Benzo, Novus Orbis, 434-8. Hist. Gen. des Voyages, xiii. 416-19. De Bry, part ii.