CHAPTER III.

FRENCH AND SPANISH SETTLEMENTS AND DISCOVERIES.

HITHERTO the exploration of America had been prosecuted for purposes of gain and conquest; but the disturbed state of religious affairs in France, created new desires of colonization, based on loftier and more peaceable motives.

Gaspard de Coligni, high-admiral of France, and one of the leaders of the Protestant or Huguenotic party, foreseeing the troubles which they were destined to undergo, through the rage of papal power, and the treachery of royal faith, sought in the New World a refuge from the persecutions of the old. The tenets of this body, styled "The Reformed Protestants of France," were Calvinistic in theology, and Presbyterian in polity. Under the preaching of Calvin and Beza, and through the circulation of the Bible of Olivetan, and the Psalms of Marot and Guadimel, the reformed religion made great progress; penetrating even into the court of Henry II., and making converts among the counsellors of parliament, the nobles of the kingdom, and the princes of the blood!'1

1 Holmes' Memoirs of the French Protestants, Cambridge, 1826, pp. 3, 4, quoted from Quick's Synodica. Brown

ing's History of the Huguenots, i. 45, London, 1829.

THE ADMIRAL DE COLIGNI.

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Coligni, of princely descent, and brother to Odet, Cardinal of Chatillon and Bishop of Beauvais, was the first nobleman in France who dared to profess himself a Protestant, and espouse the Huguenotic cause. In conjunction with John Calvin, he attempted, in 1555, to settle a colony of French Protestants in Brazil, and fourteen missionaries were sent over by the Genevan Christians, to plant the Reformed Church among the Brazilian savages.2

The Chevalier de Villegagnon, who was selected to conduct this expedition, soon renounced the Huguenotic faith, abused the confidence of his employers, and a total failure was the consequence. The few French who remained in Brazil were massacred by the Portuguese, in 1558.

3

But Coligni was not the man whom failure made irresolute. Obstacles but increased his zeal, and spurred on his efforts. In the Assembly of Notables which convened at Fontainbleau, on the 21st August, 1560, Coligni, as soon as the business of the assembly was opened, went on his knees before the king, and presented a petition from the Calvinists of Normandy for the free exercise of their religion. But the stand which he took in favour of the Protestants was unsuccessful. Edicts of greater severity than before were published. The King of Navarre deserted the Protestants after the conference of Poissy; and though the well-known edict of the 7th January, 1562, was considered a triumph for the Calvinists, yet the massacres and outrages committed on them at Vassy, Cahors, Toulouse, Amiens, and other places, proved that the queen

2 Le Plutarque Français, etc., tom. ii. Southey's Hist. of Brazil, part i. c. ix.

3 Brow. ing, i. 81. Holmes, 6:

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COLIGNI RESOLVES TO COLONIZE FLORIDA.

mother, Catherine de Medicis, was performing a perfidious part, and only dallying with the Protestants, in order the more effectually to compass their ruin.

4

Taking advantage, however, of this temporary lull, Coligni determined to prosecute his original design of founding a settlement in Florida, which the French claimed, under the title of discovery through Verrazzano, in 1524. Two ships were fitted out, under command of Jean Ribault of Dieppe, "so well furnished," says the historian of the expedition, "with gentlemen and with old soldiers, that he had means to achieve some notable thing, and worthy of eternal memory."

They sailed from Havre de Grace the 18th February, 1562, and in two months reached Florida, at a place which they named Cape François, a little north of the 30th degree north lat. Thence coasting north, they soon entered the mouth of the St. John's, which, because discovered on the first day of May, they called

4 The authorities which I have consulted for the statements in the remainder of this chapter, are the following. The account of the four voyages, viz. Ribault first, Laudonnière second, Ribault third, Gourgues fourth; the first three written by René Laudonnière, in Hakluyt, iii. 301-360. London, 1600, This is a translation from the original French work of Basanier Le Moyne's Gallorum in Floridam America provinciam altera navigatio, Duce, Laudonniero, anno M.D.LXIV.

Brevis Narratio eorum quæ in Florida America Provincia, Gallis acciderunt, etc.

Libellus sive Epistola Supplicatoria, Regi Galliorum Carolo IX. ejusdem nominis oblata, etc. Anno 1565.

De Quarta Gallorum in Floridam Navigatione sub Gourguesio. Anno

1567, written by Challus or Challusius of Dieppe.

All of the above Latin narrations are contained in the second part of De Bry's rare and valuable work, for the loan of which I am indebted to the kindness of the Hon. Mitchell King, of Charleston, South Carolina.

Histoire Mémorable du dernier voyage aux Indes, lieu appelé la Floride, fait par le Capitaine Jean Ribaut, et entrepris par le commandement du Roi, en l'an M.D.LXV. A Lyon, par Jean Savgeain, M.D.LVI.

Coppie d'un Lettre venant de la Floride envoyée à Rouen et depuis au Seigneur d'Eueron; à Paris, 1565.

La Reprinse de la Floride par le Capitaine Gourgue.

These French works are in the Recueil of Ternaux.

COLIGNI ON THE SEA-BOARD OF GEORGIA.

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the river of May. Here, on a sandy knoll, near the mouth of the river, he erected a pillar of stone, on which were engraved the arms of France, as a memorial of their discovery. Coasting northward, they discovered" another fair river," the St. Mary's, but which Ribault named the Seine, " because it is very like unto the river of Seine in France." Having searched out this river, they trimmed their sails to voyage toward the north, and to descry the singularities of the coast. They were now upon the sea-board of Georgia, and their course was arrested every few leagues by the rivers and harbours, which demanded their notice; for," says he, "it is a country full of havens, rivers, and islands; and it seemeth that men may sail without danger through all the country, and never enter into the great sea.

Leaving St. Mary's, they soon cast anchor off the mouth of the Satilla, termed by them the Somne; and manning two boats, rowed up the river, to examine its banks and hold intercourse with its Indian king. They next discovered the Altamaha, which, when they had viewed it, they called the Loire; further north, they opened upon Newport river, emptying into Sapelo Sound, which they termed Charente; next, St. Catherine's Inlet, which they called the Garonne; then, Osabau Sound, receiving the waters of the Ogeechee river, to which they assigned the name of Gironde; still onward, they entered the broad mouth of the Savannah, styled by them the river Grande; thus bestowing upon the noble streams of Georgia the names of the beautiful rivers of their own beautiful France. Each of these waters was well explored, and glowingly described.

The remaining part of their narrative has but little

30

A COLONY ESTABLISHED NEAR BEAUFORT.

to do with Georgia; but, as illustrating the efforts, with their results, which were made by the Huguenots of France to plant colonies of Reformed Protestants on our southern Atlantic coast, upon each side of our borders, which, had they succeeded, would have altered the entire character of our State, it certainly deserves a record in the history of the most southern colony planted by the English on the American shores.

Having examined the islands and country between St. Helena Sound and Port Royal, Ribault determined to build a fort, and leave a colony near to the spot on which Beaufort now stands. Thirty men, "gentlemen, soldiers, and mariners," with Captain Albert de la Pierria, “a soldier of long experience," at their head, desired to remain; and a small fort, about one hundred feet long and eighty wide, with proportionable flanks, was built and munitioned for their protection. This was the first European fort built in our Union; and, in honour of the King of France, was named Charles Fort. Ribault arrived in France on the 20th July, 1562, intending to return with additional stores, and an increased force; but the distracted state of the country prevented his obtaining the requisite supplies, and this minor design was, for the present, lost, amid the greater commotions which then rocked the kingdom to its base. Indeed, the very day of his arrival at Dieppe, letters patent were issued by the Parliament of Paris, declaring rebels all Huguenots who had taken arms; and this, too, when but three weeks before, they had passed a decree authorising all persons to take arms and fall upon the Huguenots, wherever they could meet with them.

The sieges of Orleans, Bourges, and Rouen, and the bloody hostilities raging between the Papists and the