CHAPTER V.

HUGUENOT SETTLEMENT UNDER RIBAULT.

The Spaniards having thus far been unsuccessful in making a settlement upon the shores of Florida, the country was left open to any nation which should enter upon and colonize the territory. The Admiral Gaspard de Coligni, then at the head of the Protestant party in France, perceived with the sagacity of a statesman, the advantage of a colony in America composed of French Protestants. While increasing the dominion of France, and thus gaining its promoters honor and patronage, it would afford a refuge, in case the result of the bitter contest with the Guises should prove disastrous to the Protestant party.

Charles the Ninth, then monarch of France, approved of the admiral’s purpose, and furnished him with two ships. These were readily manned with zealous Huguenots, under the command of Jean Ribault, who sailed on the 18th of February, 1562, intending to enter the river Santee. Arriving on the coast in about the latitude of St. Augustine, they proceeded north, and entered a large river on the first of May, which they called the river of May. Here Ribault erected a stone monument on which was engraved the arms of France.

Continuing their exploration of the coast, they sailed north about “ninety leagues,” until they finally disembarked near Port Royal, South Carolina, where they concluded to plant the colony. The site selected for their new city was a favorable one, being in a fertile and pleasant country, “abounding in mulberry and persimmon trees, and inhabited by a race of hospitable Indians, who supplied them with food for the merest trifles.” Though the prime object of the expedition had been to establish a colony in America, when the moment arrived to decide who should remain in the new settlement so far from home, and who return in the ships to France, it seems that it was necessary to appeal to the honor and the patriotism of the company to secure volunteers to retain possession of the territory which they had christened New France. Twenty-six of Ribault’s followers, however, agreed to remain, under the command of Albert, one of his lieutenants.

A field, sixteen rods long and thirteen wide, was stockaded, and within this they built a fort, which they named in honor of their sovereign, Fort Charles. We shall see that this honor paid to their king was reciprocated on the part of that vacillating monarch by a total neglect of the rights and interests of his loyal subjects.

Leaving provisions and ammunition for the little colony, Ribault sailed away in the middle of July, trusting to soon return with a large company, who should be the pioneers of a great branch of the French nation on this continent. Having arrived in France, he found the government so divided by civil discord and confusion that he was unable to secure any attention for the settlement of New France.

Meanwhile Captain Albert visited the Indian chiefs in the vicinity, cultivating their friendships, and exchanging simple presents for their gifts of pearls and some silver ore, which the Indians reported as having been dug from the ground on certain high hills by a tribe who lived ten days’ journey to the west.

The colonists seem to have expected to live on the provisions left within the fort until the return of the fleet from France. When the weeks passed by and their supplies began to be exhausted, with no sign of relief from France, the colonists began to be disobedient, quarrelsome, and unmanageable. In the company was one Laclerc, a licentious demagogue. This Laclerc, being opposed by Albert in his attempt to reduce certain of the Indians to slavery, raised a mutiny, in which the captain lost his life. After the death of Albert, the Indians refused to supply the colony with provisions, and their situation became so serious that they resolved to desert the country, and if possible return to France. Choosing one of their number as captain, they set to work to build a small ship and collect a store of provisions.

Having succeeded in constructing a small vessel, calked with moss and rigged with cordage made from fibrous plants, they set the sails made from their garments, and embarked to cross the wide ocean in a craft that had neither the capacity nor equipment for a coasting voyage. Soon after putting to sea they became becalmed, and continued so for twenty days, by which time they had been reduced to a starving condition.

So great was their necessity that they were about to cast lots for a victim, whose flesh should support life in the rest, when Laclerc the mutineer, offered himself as the victim. So desperate was their strait that his offer was accepted and his flesh distributed among the company. Life being sustained, they were soon after relieved from the repetition of such a shocking tragedy, being picked up by a passing vessel and taken to England. Having been brought before Queen Elizabeth, they gave such an account of Florida as to excite in her a great interest in the country.