CHAP. of a magnificent river. The greatest ships of France II. and the argosies of Venice could ride securely in the 1562. deep water of the harbor. The site for a first settlement is apt to be injudiciously selected; the local advantages which favor the growth of large cities, are revealed by time. It was perhaps on Lemon Island, that a monumental stone, engraved with the arms of France, was proudly raised; and as the company looked round upon the immense oaks, which were venerable from the growth of centuries, the profusion of wild fowls, the groves of pine, the flowers so fragrant that the whole air was perfumed, they already regarded the country as a province of their native land. Ribault determined to leave a colony; twenty-six composed the whole party, which was to keep possession of the coninent. Fort Charles, the Carolina,1 so called in honor of Charles IX. of France, first gave a name to the country, a century before it was occupied by the English. The name remained, though the early colony perished.2 July 20 Ribault and the ships arrived safely in France. But the fires of civil war had been kindled in all the provinces of the kingdom; and the promised reinforcements for Carolina were never levied. The situation of the French became precarious. The natives were friendly; but the soldiers themselves were insubordi nate; and dissensions prevailed. The commandant at Carolina repressed the turbulent spirit with arbitrary cruelty, and lost his life in a mutiny which his ungovernable passion had provoked. The new commander try was well known, there was room Com is confused and inaccurate. 1 Munitionem Carolinam, de regis nomine dictuin. De Thou, 1 xliv. 531, edition of 1626. 2 Hening, i. 552; and Thurloe, ii. 273, 274 SECOND COLONY OF COLIGNY. II. 63 succeeded in restoring order. But the love of his CHAP native land is a passion easily revived in the breast of a Frenchman; and the company resolved to embark in 1562 such a brigantine as they could themselves construct. Intoxicated with joy at the thought of returning home, 1563 they neglected to provide sufficient stores; and they were overtaken by famine at sea, with its attendant crimes. A small English bark at length boarded their vessel, and, setting the most feeble on shore upon the coast of France, carried the rest to the queen of England. Thus fell the first attempt of France in French Florida, near the southern confines of South Carolina. The country was still a desert.1 After the treacherous peace between Charles IX. 1564. and the Huguenots, Coligny renewed his solicitations for the colonization of Florida. The king gave consent; three ships were conceded for the service; and Laudonniere, who, in the former voyage, had been upon the American coast, a man of great intelligence, though a seaman rather than a soldier, was appointed to lead forth the colony. Emigrants readily appeared; for the climate of Florida was so celebrated, that, according to rumor, the duration of human life was doubled under its genial influences; and men still dreamed of rich mines of gold in the interior. Coligny was desirous of obtaining accurate descriptions of the country; and James le Moyne, called De Morgues, an ingenious painter, was commissioned to execute colored drawings of the objects which might engage his curiosity. A voyage of sixty days brought the fleet, by way of the Canaries and the Antilles, to the shores 22. the 1 Laudonniere, in Hakluyt, iii. 371-384. Compare De Thou, a contemporary, 1. xliv.; Charlevoix, N. Fr. i. 24-35; Ensayo Crono logico, 42—45; L'Escarbot, Nouv. 2 De Thou, l. xliv.; Hakluyt, iv. 389. April 22 to June CHAP. of Florida. The harbor of Port Royal, rendered gloomy 11. by recollections of misery, was avoided; and after 1564 searching the coast, and discovering places which were so full of amenity, that melancholy itself could not but change its humor, as it gazed, the followers of Calvin planted themselves on the banks of the River May. They sung a psalm of thanksgiving, and gathered courage from acts of devotion. The fort now erected was also named Carolina. The result of this attempt to procure for France immense dominions at the south of our republic, through the agency of a Huguenot colony, has been very frequently narrated: in the history of human nature it forms a dark picture of vindictive bigotry. The French were hospitably welcomed by the natives; a monument, bearing the arms of France, was crowned with laurels, and its base encircled with baskets of corn. What need is there of minutely relating the simple manners of the red men; the dissensions of rival tribes; the largesses offered to the strangers to secure their protection or their alliance; the improvident prodigality with which careless soldiers wasted the supplies of food; the certain approach of scarcity; the gifts and the tribute levied from the Indians by entreaty, menace, or force? By degrees the confidence 1 There are four original accounts by eye-witnesses: Laudonniere, in Hakluyt, iii. 384-419: Le Moyne, in De Bry, part ii., together with the Epistola Supplicatoria, from the widows and orphans of the sufferers, to Charles IX.; also in De Bry, part ii: Challus, or Challusius, of Dieppe, whose account I have found annexed to Calveto's Nov. Nov. Orb. Hist. under the title De Gallorum Expeditione in Floridam, 433-469: and the Spanish account by Solis de las Meras, the brother-in-law and apologist of Melendez, in Ensayo Cronologico, 85-90. On Sols, compare Crisis del Ensayo, 22, 23. I have drawn my narrative from a comparison of these four accounts; consulting also the admirable De Thou, a genuine worshipper at the shrine of truth, 1. xliv.; the diffuse Barcia's Ensayo Cronologico, 42— 94; the elaborate and circumstantial narrative of Charlevoix, N. Fr. i. 24 -1C6; and the account of L'Escarbot, i. 62-129. The accounts do not essentially vary. Voltaire and many others have repeated the tale. HUGUENOTS SUFFER FROM SCARCITY. II. 65 of the natives was exhausted; they had welcomed CHAP powerful guests, who promised to become their benefactors, and who now robbed their humble granaries. 1564 Dec. But the worst evil in the new settlement was the character of the emigrants. Though patriotism and religious enthusiasm had prompted the expedition, the inferior class of the colonists was a motley group of dissolute men. Mutinies were frequent. The men were mad with the passion for sudden wealth; and a party, under the pretence of desiring to escape from famine, compelled Laudonniere to sign an order, permitting their embarkation for New Spain. No sooner 1564. were they possessed of this apparent sanction of the chief, than they equipped two vessels, and began a career of piracy against the Spaniards. Thus the French were the aggressors in the first act of hostility in the New World; an act of crime and temerity which was soon avenged. The pirate vessel was taken, and most of the men disposed of as prisoners or slaves. A few escaped in a boat; these could find no shelter but at Fort Carolina, where Laudonniere sentenced the ringleaders to death. 8. Meantime, the scarcity became extreme; and the 1565. friendship of the natives was entirely forfeited by unprofitable severity. March was gone, and there were no supplies from France; April passed away, and the expected recruits had not arrived; May came, but it brought nothing to sustain the hopes of the exiles. It was resolved to return to Europe in such miserable brigantines as despair could construct. Just then, Sir John Hawkins,' the slave-merchant, arrived from the Aug. West Indies. He came fresh from the sale of a cargo of Africans, whom he had kidnapped with signal ruth 3. CHAP. lessness; and he now displayed the most generous II. sympathy, not only furnishing a liberal supply of pro1565 visions, but relinquishing a vessel from his own fleet. Preparations were continued; the colony was on the point of embarking, when sails were descried. Ribault had arrived to assume the command; bringing with him supplies of every kind, emigrants with their families, garden seeds, implements of husbandry, and the various kinds of domestic animals. The French, now wild with joy, seemed about to acquire a home, and Calvinism to become fixed in the inviting regions of Florida. But Spain had never relinquished her claim to that territory; where, if she had not planted colonies, she had buried many hundreds of her bravest sons. Should the proud Philip II. abandon a part of his dominions to France? Should he suffer his commercial monopoly to be endangered by a rival settlement in the vicinity of the West Indies? Should the bigoted Romanist permit the heresy of Calvinism to be planted in the neighborhood of his Catholic provinces? There had appeared at the Spanish court a bold commander, well fitted for acts of reckless hostility. Pedro Melendez de Avilès had, in a long career of military service, become accustomed to scenes of blood; and his natural ferocity had been confirmed by his course of life. Often, as a naval officer, encountering pirates, he had become inured to acts of prompt and unsparing vengeance. He had acquired wealth in Spanish America, which was no school of benevolence; and his conduct there had provoked an inquiry, which, after a long arrest, ended in his conviction. The nature of his offences is not apparent; the justice of |
