Pioneers of France in the New World | Page 6

the state of his health has exacted throughout an extreme caution
in regard to mental application, reducing it at best within narrow and
precarious limits, and often precluding it. Indeed, for two periods, each
of several years, any attempt at bookish occupation would have been
merely suicidal. A condition of sight arising from kindred sources has
also retarded the work, since it has never permitted reading or writing
continuously for much more than five minutes, and often has not
permitted them at all. A previous work, "The Conspiracy of Pontiac,"
was written in similar circumstances.
The writer means, if possible, to carry the present design to its
completion. Such a completion, however, will by no means be essential
as regards the individual volumes of the series, since each will form a
separate and independent work. The present work, it will be seen,
contains two distinct and completed narratives. Some progress has been
made in others.
Boston. January 1,1865.

Part One
HUGOENOTS IN FLORIDA

PREFATORY NOTE TO THE
HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA.
The story of New France opens with a tragedy. The political and
religious enmities which were soon to bathe Europe in blood broke out
with an intense and concentrated fury in the distant wilds of Florida. It
was under equivocal auspices that Coligny and his partisans essayed to
build up a Calvinist France in America, and the attempt was met by all
the forces of national rivalry, personal interest, and religious hate.
This striking passage of our early history is remarkable for the fullness
and precision of the authorities that illustrate it. The incidents of the
Huguenot occupation of Florida are recorded by eight eye-witnesses.

Their evidence is marked by an unusual accord in respect to essential
facts, as well as by a minuteness of statement which vividly pictures
the events described. The following are the principal authorities
consulted for the main body of the narrative.
Ribauld, 'The Whole and True Discovery of Terra Florida,' This is
Captain Jean Ribaut's account of his voyage to Florida in 1562. It was
"prynted at London," "newly set forthe in Englishe," in 1563, and
reprinted by Hakluyt in 1582 in his black-letter tract entitled 'Divers
Voyages.' It is not known to exist in the original French.
'L'Histoire Notable de la Floride, mise en lumiere par M. Basanier'
(Paris, 1586). The most valuable portion of this work consists of the
letters of Rene de Laudonniere, the French commandant in Florida in
1564-65. They are interesting, and, with necessary allowance for the
position and prejudices of the writer, trustworthy.
Challeux, Discours de l'Histoire de la Floride (Dieppe, 1566). Challeux
was a carpenter, who went to Florida in 1565. He was above sixty years
of age, a zealous Huguenot, and a philosopher in his way. His story is
affecting from its simplicity. Various editions of it appeared under
various titles.
Le Moyne, Brevis Narratio eorum qucs in Florida Americce Provincia
Gallis acciderunt. Le Moyne was Laudonniere's artist. His narrative
forms the Second Part of the Grands Voyages of De Bry (Frankfort,
1591). It is illustrated by numerous drawings made by the writer from
memory, and accompanied with descriptive letter-press.
Coppie d'une Lettre venant de la Floride (Paris, 1565). This is a letter
from one of the adventurers under Laudonniere. It is reprinted in the
Recueil de Pieces sur la Floride of Ternaux.-Compans. Ternaux also
prints in the same volume a narrative called Histoire memorable du
dernier Voyage faict par le Capitaine Jean Ribaut. It is of no original
value, being compiled from Laudonniere and Challeux.
Une Bequete au Roy, faite en forme de Complainte (1566). This is a
petition for redress to Charles the Ninth from the relatives of the French
massacred in Florida by the Spaniards. It recounts many incidents of
that tragedy.
La Reprinse de la Floride par le Cappitaine Gourgue. This is a
manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale, printed in the Recueil of
Ternaux-Compans. It contains a detailed account of the remarkable

expedition of Dominique de Gourgues against the Spaniards in Florida
in 1567-68.
Charlevoix, in his Histoire de la Nouvelle France, speaks of another
narrative of this expedition in manuscript, preserved in the Gourgues
family. A copy of it, made in 1831 by the Vicomte de Gourgues, has
been placed at the writer's disposal.
Popeliniere, De Thou, Wytfleit, D'Aubigne De Laet, Brantome,
Lescarbot, Champlain, and other writers of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, have told or touched upon the story of the
Huguenots in Florida; but they all draw their information from one or
more of the sources named above.
Lettres et Papiers d' Estat du Sieur de Forguevaulx (Bibliotheque
Nationale). These include the correspondence of the French and
Spanish courts concerning the massacre of the Huguenots. They are
printed by Gaffarel in his Histoire de le Floride Francaise.
The Spanish authorities