Great Epochs in American History, Vol. II | Page 5

disembarked and threw up a fortification destined
to grow into the town of St. Augustine, the first permanent Spanish
settlement north of the Gulf of Mexico. Various attempts had been
made, and with various motives. The slave-hunter, the gold-seeker, the
explorer had each tried his fortunes in Florida, and each failed. The
difficulties which had baffled them all were at length overcome by the
spirit of religious hatred.
Meanwhile a council of war was sitting at the French settlement,
Charlefort. Ribault, contrary to the wishes of Laudonnière and the rest,
decided to anticipate the Spaniards by an attack from the sea. A few
sick men were left with Laudonnière to garrison the fort; all the rest
went on board. Just as everything was ready for the attack, a gale
sprang up, and the fleet of Ribault, instead of bearing down on St.

Augustine, was straggling in confusion off an unknown and perilous
coast. Menendez, relieved from immediate fear for his own settlement,
determined on a bold stroke. Like Ribault, he bore down the opposition
of a cautious majority, and with five hundred picked men marched
overland through thirty miles of swamp and jungle against the French
fort. Thus each commander was exposing his own settlement in order
to menace his enemies.
In judging, however, of the relative prudence of the two plans, it must
be remembered that an attack by land is far more under control, and far
less liable to be disarranged by unforeseen chances than one by sea. At
first it seemed as if each expedition was destined to the same fate. The
weather was as unfavorable to the Spanish by land as to the French by
sea. At one time a mutiny was threatened, but Menendez succeeded in
inspiring his men with something of his own enthusiasm, and they
persevered. Led by a French deserter, they approached the unprotected
settlement. So stormy was the night that the sentinels had left the walls.
The fort was stormed; Laudonnière and a few others escaped to the
shore and were picked up by one of Ribault's vessels returning from its
unsuccessful expedition. The rest, to the number of one hundred and
forty, were slain in the attack or taken prisoners. The women and
children were spared, the men were hung on trees with an inscription
pinned to their breasts: "Not as to Frenchmen, but as to Lutherans."
The fate of Ribault's party was equally wretched. All were shipwrecked,
but most apparently succeeded in landing alive. Then began a scene of
deliberate butchery, aggravated, if the French accounts may be believed,
by the most shameless treachery. As the scattered bands of shipwrecked
men wandered through the forest, seeking to return to Fort Caroline,
they were mercilessly entrapped by friendly words, if not by explicit
promises of safety. Some escaped to the Indians, a few were at last
spared by the contemptuous mercy of the foes. Those of the survivors
who profest themselves converts were pardoned, the rest were sent to
the galleys. Ribault himself was among the murdered. If we may
believe the story current in France, his head, sawn in four parts, was set
up over the corners of the fort of St. Augustine, while a piece of his
beard was sent as a trophy to the king of Spain....
Dominic de Gourgues had already known as a prisoner of war the
horrors of the Spanish galleys. Whether he was a Huguenot is uncertain.

Happily in France, as the history of that and all later ages proved, the
religion of the Catholic did not necessarily deaden the feelings of the
patriot. Seldom has there been a deed of more reckless daring than that
which Dominic de Gourgues now undertook. With the proceeds of his
patrimony he bought three small ships, manned by eighty sailors and a
hundred men-at-arms. He then obtained a commission as a slaver on
the coast of Guinea, and in the summer of 1567 set sail. With these
paltry resources he aimed at overthrowing a settlement which had
already destroyed a force of twenty times his number, and which might
have been strengthened in the interval....
Three days were spent in making ready, and then De Gourgues, with a
hundred and sixty of his own men and his Indian allies, marched
against the enemy. In spite of the hostility of the Indians the Spaniards
seem to have taken no precaution against a sudden attack. Menendez
himself had left the colony. The Spanish force was divided between
three forts, and no proper precautions were taken for keeping up the
communications between them. Each was successively seized, the
garrison slain or made prisoners, and as each fort fell those in the next
could only make vague guesses as to the extent of the danger. Even
when divided into three the Spanish