The Massacre of the French Protestants

The first earnest effort to establish a French colony in America was made in the interest of the French Protestants at the instigation of the celebrated Admiral Coligny. His primary effort in this direction was made in Brazil. The northern shores of that country, as we have already stated, had been discovered by Pinzon in 1499. In 1500 a Portuguese fleet under Pedro Alvarez Cabral, on a voyage to the East Indies by way of the Cape of Good Hope, sailed so far westward as to touch the coast of southern Brazil. A fort was built, in which a few men were left, and gradually, during the succeeding years, small Portuguese settlements spread along the coast. From time to time this coast was visited by the French, mainly on piratical enterprises, and a state of war existed for years between the French and Portuguese in the waters of Brazil. In 1555, Coligny sent a colony to this region under Villegagnon, a French adventurer. It was established on an island in the Bay of Rio Janeiro. But the place proved so unsuitable, the colony was made up of such disreputable and vicious elements, and the leader proved so worthless and treacherous, that the settlement, after languishing for four years, yielded to an attack from the Portuguese, and was swept out of existence.

In 1562, Coligny made a second effort to establish a refuge for French Protestants in America. An expedition was sent to Florida under command of John Ribaut. He reached the coast in May, and discovered a stream which he called the River of May (now St. John's River). Proceeding thence to Port Royal, near the southern border of Carolina, he erected a fort, and left twenty-six men, returning to France for emigrants and supplies. The promised re-inforcement not arriving, the colonists abandoned the fort and embarked for home in a brigantine of their own construction. Like the Brazilian colonists, they had not taken the trouble to cultivate the soil, and were driven by famine from America to encounter a worse famine at sea. They were saved from death by an English vessel which they fortunately met off the coast of England.

In 1564 another expedition was sent out by Coligny, and a colony established on the St. John's River under Laudonniere, one of Ribaut's original company. It was managed with the same improvidence as the former ones, and to escape starvation a party of the emigrants embarked for France. But instead of returning they commenced a career of piracy against the Spaniards. The remainder were on the point of leaving the country, when Ribaut appeared, with seven vessels and about six hundred emigrants. Meanwhile, news had arrived in Spain that a party of French heretics had settled in Florida, which was claimed as Spanish territory. Menendez, who had already established a reputation for brutality in America, was sent out to extirpate them. Up to this point the conflicts of Europeans upon American soil had been with the natives, with the exception of the piratical proceedings above adverted to. Now the wars of Europeans with one another were about to be inaugurated in a brutal massacre, the story of which we give in the graphic account of Walter Besant, selected from his "Gaspard de Coligny."]

THE expedition under Menendez consisted of an army of two thousand six hundred soldiers and officers. He sailed straight for Florida, intending to attack Fort Caroline with no delay. In fact, he sighted the mouth of the port two months after starting; but, considering the position occupied by the French ships, he judged it prudent to defer the attack, and make it, if possible, from the land.

A council of war was held in Fort Caroline, presided over by Ribaut. Laudonniere proposed that, while Ribaut held the fort with the ships, he, with his old soldiers, who knew the country well, aided by the Floridans as auxiliaries, should engage the Spaniards in the woods and harass them by perpetual combats in labyrinths to which they were wholly unaccustomed. The advice was good, but it was not followed. Ribaut proposed to follow the Spanish fleet with his own, -- lighter and more easily handled, -- fall on the enemy when the soldiers, were all disembarked, and, after taking and burning the ships, to attack the army.