REVOLT OF THE COLONISTS.

55

the beauty and fertility of the surrounding country, that he pitched upon this as the site of the new Protestant colony. The fort, which he erected, was called Carolina, in honour of the king, and a company of twenty-six men, under the command of Captain Albert, was left in possession. The traditions of the Indians agree with the French accounts in designating this spot as the first which was settled by the whites in Carolina.

After leaving provisions and arms with the colonists, Ribault saluted the new French establishment with his artillery and sailed to the north in search of the river Jordan (the Santee), which a sailor, who had accompanied De Ayllon, had discovered forty years before. But the navigation on the coast proved so difficult and dangerous that he abandoned the search and returned to Dieppe in safety, after a voyage of five months.

The colonists had no difficulty in conciliating the Indians; but were impatient under the severe and capricious government of Albert. A revolt and the desertion of the colony was the consequence. Embarking hastily in a brigantine of their own construction, they suffered all the horrors of famine at sea, until they were picked up by an English captain, who set a part of them on shore in France, and took the remainder to Queen Elizabeth, July (1564).

The civil war in France had prevented Coligny from sending supplies to this colony. A short peace enabled him to despatch three ships, under Laudonniere, (April 22d, 1564,) which reached the coast in June. The mouth of the river May was selected for the site of a new fort, Carolina, which the Indians lent their aid in erecting. Improvidence soon led to a revolt among the colonists. A part of them compelled their commander to sign a commission for them to go to Mexico. They commenced a course of piracy against the Spaniards, were captured and punished. Laudonniere, freed by their departure, struggled on with his colony till the next summer, when he was relieved by Sir John Hawkins, who touched at the fort on his return from the West Indies, and offered to take the colonists home. This was prevented by

56

EXPEDITION OF MELENDEZ.

the arrival of Ribault (August 27th), who had been sent out to supersede Laudonniere, and form a permanent colony. The latter was preparing for his departure, when a Spanish fleet appeared upon the coast.

The bigoted and avaricious Philip II. had received information of the occupation of Florida by a colony of Huguencts, and unwilling to relinquish a country which had already cost Spain so much blood and treasure, he had despatched Pedro Melendez de Aviles, with eleven vessels and a military force of two thousand six hundred men, to extirpate them.

The expedition sailed from Cadiz, June 29th, 1565. On the 9th of August, he arrived at Porto Rico, with five ships, the others having been dispersed in a tempest; and he had now only a third part of his troops. Without waiting for a reinforcement, he sailed for Florida, and soon reached the mouth of the river May, where he found four ships at anchor within the bar. Melendez approached with the design of seizing them; he took some prisoners, on the shore, addressed a summons to the commander of the ships to surrender, and declared that he had come to engage in a war with the Lutherans, to whom no quarter would be shown; that the Catholics should be humanely treated; but that the heretics should be destroyed. He then put to sea, watching for the ships, which were not strong enough to engage with him. They, however, succeeded in escaping. Melendez proceeded to St. Augustine, and the French vessels returned to the river May.

Ribault now resolved to re-embark with part of his troops and attack the Spaniards. Laudonniere and the other officers opposed this design, and advised him to remain on shore and strengthen their fortifications, instead of exposing the fleet to the hurricanes of the season, and risking the capture of the fort in their absence. But Ribault considered himself bound by the instructions of Admiral Coligny, who had been apprised of Melendez's design, to attack the enemy before he had time to fortify himself on the coast where he had landed.

Meantime the Spanish commander was not deficient in activity. Hardly had he arrived at St. Augustine, when he

SURPRISE OF FORT CAROLINA.

57

landed thirty men, to choose a suitable place for a settlement, and laid the foundation of the town which still bears that name (8th September, 1565). It is by more than forty years the oldest permanent settlement in the United States. Melendez took from his vessels all things necessary for the establishment of his colony, and then, learning that Ribault was about to attack him, he sent two ships to Hispaniola for reinforcements, and stationed himself near the bar of the river, with his other ships and a part of his troops. The shallow water did not permit Ribault to cross the bar; and a tempest arising, the French ships were carried out to sea and cast away on the coast, fifty leagues south of Fort Carolina.

Profiting by the departure of his enemy, Melendez made haste to attack Fort Carolina. Placing himself at the head of five hundred men, he cut his way through the dense forest, and arriving in the night, surprised the fort, and entered it with scarcely any resistance.

Laudonniere, who had been left in command by Ribault, had not had time to build up the ruined fortifications of Fort Carolina. His effective force was but forty men, and he was encumbered with two hundred women, children, and invalids. Unable to defend his post, he effected his retreat through a breach, attended by a single soldier, and gained the woods, where some others had taken refuge; thence they proceeded across a marsh to the mouth of the river. The three ships which were still anchored in the bay received them; twenty others succeeded in escaping, and were taken up by the ships, which sailed along the coast for the purpose, and they set sail, September 25th, for France.

Melendez ordered the women and children taken in the fort to be spared; no mercy was shown to any others, and those who had escaped from the battle were reserved for the scaffold. That portion of the French colony which had accompanied Ribault, were nearly all saved when his ships were wrecked on the coast; but in endeavouring to make their way by land to Fort Carolina, they were intercepted by the Spaniards, and trusting to their promises of safety, surrendered. But they

VOL. I. 8

58

RETALIATION BY DE GOURGUES.

were all treacherously massacred, those who were hung upon the neighbouring trees, bearing on their backs the inscription, "Hung, not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans."

This atrocious act of Melendez was disavowed by Philip II. and not resented by the French government. A private gentleman of Gascony, Dominic de Gourgues, who had signalized himself by various adventures and feats of valour, resolved to avenge the outrage. He sold his property, obtained contributions from his friends, and fitted out an expedition of three ships, in which, with one hundred and fifty men, he embarked for Florida (August 22d, 1567). On his arrival, he entered into alliance with the Indians, and easily surprised and captured the Spanish forts; but being in no condition to establish a permanent colony, he sailed for Europe immediately afterwards, having first hanged his prisoners upon the trees, and placed over them the inscription, "I do not this as unto Spaniards or mariners, but as unto traitors, robbers, and murderers."

The French court disavowed this act, and even attempted to punish De Gourgues. Florida was speedily reoccupied by Spain, at this period the only European nation possessing a rood of territory in North America, or its islands.