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.