Ichuse. He announced to the people that he was on his way to Santa
Elena, which Tristan de Luna had made an ineffectual effort to reach.
All who chose were at liberty to accompany him. The desire to evacuate
the country where they had suffered so severely was universal. None
expressed a wish to remain; and Tristan de Luna, seeing himself utterly
abandoned, embarked for Havana with a few servants. Villafañe then took
on board all except a detachment of fifty or sixty men who were left at
Ichuse under Captain Biedma, with orders to remain five or six months;
at the expiration of which time they were to sail away also, in case no
instructions came.
Villafañe, with the “San Juan” and three other vessels and about two
hundred men, put into Havana; but there many of the men deserted, and
several officers refused to proceed.[877]
With Gonzalo Gayon as pilot, Villafañe reached Santa Elena—now Port
Royal Sound—May 27, 1561, and took possession in the name of the
King of Spain. Finding no soil adapted for cultivation, and no port
suitable for planting a settlement, he kept along the coast, doubled
Cape Roman, and landing on the 2d of June, went inland till he reached
the Santee, where he again took formal possession. On the 8th he was
near the Jordan or Pedee; but a storm drove off one of his vessels.
With the rest he continued his survey of the coast till he doubled Cape
Hatteras. There, on the 14th of June, his caravel well-nigh foundered,
and his two smaller vessels undoubtedly perished. He is said to have
abandoned the exploration of the coast here, although apparently it was
his vessel, with the Dominican Fathers, which about this time visited
Axacan, on the Chesapeake, and took off a brother of the chief.[878]
Villafañe then sailed to Santo Domingo, and Florida was abandoned. In
fact, on the 23d of September the King declared that no further attempt
was to be made to colonize that country, either in the Gulf or at
Santa Elena, alleging that there was no ground to fear that the French
would set foot in that land or take possession of it; and the royal
order cites the opinion of Pedro Menendez against any attempt to form
settlements on either coast.[879]
As if to show the fallacy of their judgment and their forecast, the
French (and what was worse, from the Spanish point of view, French
Calvinists) in the next year, under Ribault, took possession of Port
Royal,—the very Santa Elena which Villafañe considered unfitted for
colonization. Here they founded Charlesfort and a settlement, entering
Port Royal less than three months after the Spanish officers convened
in Mexico had united in condemning the country.
Pedro Menendez de Aviles had, as we have seen, been general of the
fleet to New Spain in 1560, and on his return received instructions
to examine the Atlantic coast north of the very spot where the French
thus soon after settled. In 1561 he again commanded the fleet; but on
his homeward voyage a terrible storm scattered the vessels near the
Bermudas, and one vessel, on which his only son and many of his kinsmen
had embarked, disappeared. With the rest of his ships he reached
Spain, filled with anxiety, eager only to fit out vessels to seek his
son, who, he believed, had been driven on the Florida coast, and was
probably a prisoner in the hands of the Indians. At this critical
moment, however, charges were brought against him; and he, with his
brother, was arrested and detained in prison for two years, unable to
bring the case to trial, or to obtain his release on bail.
When Menendez at last succeeded in obtaining an audience of the King,
he solicited, in 1564, permission to proceed with two vessels to
Bermuda and Florida to seek his son, and then retire to his home, which
he had not seen for eighteen years. Philip II. at last consented; but
required him to make a thorough coast-survey of Florida, so as to
prepare charts that would prevent the wrecks which had arisen from
ignorance of the real character of the sea-line. Menendez replied that
his Majesty could confer no higher boon upon him for his long and
successful services on the seas than to authorize him to conquer and
settle Florida.
Nothing could be in greater accordance with the royal views than to
commit to the energy of Menendez[880] the task which so many others
had undertaken in vain. A patent, or _asiento_, was issued March 20,
1565, by the provisions of which Menendez was required to sail in May
with ten vessels, carrying arms and supplies, and five hundred men,
one hundred to be capable of cultivating the soil. He was to take
provisions to maintain the whole force for a year, and was to conquer
and settle Florida within three years; explore and map the coast,
transport settlers, a certain number of whom were to be married;
maintain twelve members of religious Orders as missionaries, besides
four of the Society of Jesus; and to introduce horses, black cattle,
sheep, and swine for the two or three distinct settlements he was
required to found at his own expense.[881] The King gave only the use
of the galleon “San Pelayo,” and bestowed upon Menendez the title
of _Adelantado_ of Florida, a personal grant of twenty-five leagues
square, with the title of Marquis, and the office of Governor and
Captain-General of Florida.
While Menendez was gathering, among his kindred in Asturias and
Biscay, men and means to fulfil his part of the undertaking, the
Court of Spain became aware for the first time that the Protestants
of France had quietly planted a colony on that very Florida coast.
Menendez was immediately summoned in haste to Court; and orders were
issued to furnish him in America three vessels fully equipped, and an
expeditionary force of two hundred cavalry and four hundred infantry.
Menendez urged, on the contrary, that he should be sent on at once
with some light vessels to attack the French; or, if that was not
feasible, to occupy a neighboring port and fortify it, while awaiting
reinforcements. The Government, by successive orders, increased the
Florida armament, so that Menendez finally sailed from Cadiz, June
29, with the galleon “San Pelayo” and other vessels to the number of
nineteen, carrying more than fifteen hundred persons, including farmers
and mechanics of all kinds.
The light in which Spaniards, especially those connected with commerce
and colonies, regarded the Protestants of France was simply that of
pirates. French cruisers, often making their Protestantism a pretext
for their actions, scoured the seas, capturing Spanish and Portuguese
vessels, and committing the greatest atrocities. In 1555 Jacques Sorie
surprised Havana, plundered it, and gave it to the flames, butchering
the prisoners who fell into his hands. In 1559 Megander pillaged Porto
Rico, and John de la Roche plundered the ships and settlements near
Carthagena.[882]
It seems strange, however, that neither in Spain nor in America was it
known that this dreaded and hated community, the Huguenots of France,
had actually, in 1562, begun a settlement at the very harbor of Santa
Elena where Villafañe had taken possession in the name of the Spanish
monarch a year before. Some of the French settlers revolted, and very
naturally went off to cruise against the Spaniards, and with success;
but the ill-managed colony of Charlesfort on Port Royal Sound had
terminated its brief existence without drawing down the vengeance of
Spain.
When the tidings of a French occupancy of Florida startled the Spanish
Court, a second attempt of the Huguenots at settlement had been
made,—this time at the mouth of St. John’s River, where Fort Caroline
was a direct menace to the rich Spanish fleets, offering a safe refuge
to cruisers, which in the name of a pure gospel could sally out to
plunder and to slay. Yet that settlement, thus provoking the fiercest
hostility of Spain, was ill-managed. It was, in fact, sinking, like
its predecessor, from the unfitness of its members to make the teeming
earth yield them its fruits for their maintenance. René Laudonnière,
the commandant, after receiving some temporary relief from the English
corsair Hawkins,[883] and learning that the Spaniards meditated
hostilities, was about to burn his fort and abandon the country, when
John Ribault arrived as commandant, with supplies and colonists, as
well as orders to maintain the post. His instructions from Coligny
clearly intended that he should attack the Spaniards.[884]
The two bitter antagonists, each stimulated by his superiors, were thus
racing across the Atlantic, each endeavoring to outstrip the other,
so as to be able first to assume the offensive. The struggle was to
be a deadly one, for on neither side were there any of the ordinary
restraints; it was to be a warfare without mercy.
After leaving the Canaries, Menendez’ fleet was scattered by storms.
One vessel put back; the flagship and another were driven in one
direction, five vessels in another. These, after encountering another
storm, finally reached Porto Rico on the 9th of August, and found the
flagship and its tender there.[885]
The other ships from Biscay and Asturias had not arrived; but Menendez,
fearing that Ribault might outstrip him, resolved to proceed, though
his vessels needed repairs from the injuries sustained in the storm. If
he was to crush Fort Caroline, he felt that it must be done before the
French post was reinforced; if not, all the force at his disposal would
be insufficient to assume the offensive. He made the coast of Florida
near Cape Cañaveral on the 25th of August; and soon after, by landing
a party, ascertained from the natives that the French post was to the
northward. Following the coast in that direction, he discovered, on
the 28th, a harbor which seemed to possess advantages, and to which he
gave the name of the great Bishop of Hippo, Augustine, who is honored
on that day. Sailing on cautiously, he came in sight of the mouth of
the St. John’s River about two o’clock in the afternoon of the 4th of
September. The ten days he had lost creeping along the coast were fatal
to his project, for there lay the four vessels of Ribault, the flagship
and its consort flinging to the breeze the colors of France.
Menendez’ officers in council were in favor of running back to
Santo Domingo till the whole force was united and ready to assume
the offensive; but Menendez inspired them with his own intrepidity,
and resolved to attack at once. A tremendous thunderstorm prevented
operations till ten at night, when he bore down on the French, and ran
his ship, the “Pelayo,” between the two larger vessels of Ribault. To
his hail who they were and what they were doing there, the reply was
that John Ribault was their captain-general, and that they came to the
country by order of the King of France; and the French in return asked
what ships they were, and who commanded them. To quote his own words,
“I replied to them that I was Peter Menendez, that I came by command of
the King of Spain to this coast and land to burn and hang the French
Lutherans found in it, and that in the morning I would board his ships
to know whether he belonged to that sect; because if he did, I could
not avoid executing on them the justice which his Majesty commanded.
They replied that this was not right, and that I might go without
awaiting the morning.”
[Illustration: FLORIDA.
[This sketch-map of the scene of the operations of the Spanish and
the French follows one given by Fairbanks in his _History of St.
Augustine_. Other modern maps, giving the old localities, are found in
Parkman, Gaffarel etc.—ED.]]
As Menendez manœuvred to get a favorable position, the French vessels
cut their cables and stood out to sea. The Spaniards gave chase,
rapidly firing five cannon at Ribault’s flagship,—which Menendez
supposed that he injured badly, as boats put off to the other vessels.
Finding that the French outsailed him, Menendez put back, intending
to land soldiers on an island at the mouth of the river and fortify a
position which would command the entrance; but as he reached the St.
John’s he saw three French vessels coming out, ready for action.
[Illustration: SITE OF FORT CAROLINE.
[After a map in Fairbanks’s _History of St. Augustine_; but his view of
the site is open to question.—ED.]]
His project was thus defeated; and too wily to be caught at a
disadvantage by the returning French vessels, Menendez bore away to the
harbor of St. Augustine, which he estimated at eight leagues from the
French by sea, and six by land. Here he proceeded to found the oldest
city in the present territory of the United States.
[Illustration: ST. AUGUSTINE.
[This view of Pagus Hispanorum, as given in Montanus and Ogilby,
represents the town founded by Menendez at a somewhat later period, if
it is wholly truthful of any period. The same view was better engraved
at Leide by Vander Aa.—ED.]]
Two hundred mail-clad soldiers, commanded by Captain John de San
Vicente and Captain Patiño, landed on the 6th of September, 1565.
The Indians were friendly, and readily gave the settlers the large
house of one of the caciques which stood near the shore of the river.
Around this an intrenchment was traced; and a ditch was soon dug, and
earthworks thrown up, with such implements as they had at hand, for the
vessel bearing their tools had not yet arrived.
[Illustration: SPANISH VESSELS.
(_From the_ PAGUS HISPANORUM _in Montanus_.)]
The next day three of the smaller vessels ran into the harbor, and
from them three hundred more of the soldiers disembarked, as well as
those who had come to settle in the country,—men, women, and children.
Artillery and munitions for the fort were also landed. The eighth
being a holiday in the Catholic Church,—the Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin,—was celebrated with due solemnity. Mass was offered for the
first time at a spot ever after held in veneration, and where in time
arose the primitive shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Leche.
Then the work of debarkation was resumed; one hundred more persons
landed; and great guns, precious stores of provisions, and munitions
were brought to the new fort.
[Illustration: THE BUILDING OF FORT CAROLINE.]
[Illustration: FORT CAROLINE COMPLETED.
(_Lemoyne, in De Bry._)
[Two pictures of Fort Caroline accompany the _Brevis narratio_ of
Lemoyne,—one the beginning of work upon it, and the other the completed
structure, “a more finished fortification than could possibly have
been constructed, but to be taken as a correct outline,” as Fairbanks
(p. 54) presumes. The engraving of the completed fort is reproduced
in Fairbanks’s _St. Augustine_, Stevens’s _Georgia_, etc. Another and
better view of it, called “Arx Carolina—Charlesfort sur Floride,” was
engraved at Leide by Vander Aa, but it is a question if it be truthful.
No traces of the fort have ever been recorded by subsequent observers,
but Fairbanks places it near a place called St. John’s Bluff, as shown
in the accompanying map. Others have placed it on the Bell River (an
estuary of the St. Mary’s River), at a place Called Battle Bluff. Cf.
Carroll’s _Hist. Coll._, i. p. xxxvi.—ED.]]
Amid all this bustle and activity the Spaniards were startled by the
appearance of two large French vessels[886] in the offing, evidently
ready for action. It was no part of Menendez’ plan to engage them, and
he waited till, about three in the afternoon, they bore away for the
St. John’s. Then he prepared to land in person. As his boat left the
vessel with banners unfurled, amid the thunder of cannon and the sounds
of warlike music, Mendoza Grajales, the first priest of St. Augustine,
bearing a cross, went down at the head of those on shore to meet the
_adelantado_, all chanting the Te Deum. Menendez proceeded at once with
his attendants to the cross, which he kissed on bended knee.
Formal possession of the land was then taken in the name of Philip II.,
King of Spain. The captains of the troops and the officers of the new
colony came forward to take the oath to Peter Menendez de Aviles as
governor, captain-general, and _adelantado_ of Florida and its coasts
under the patents of the Spanish King. Crowds of friendly Indians, with
their chieftains, gathered around.
From them the Spanish commander learned that his position was admirably
taken, as he could, at a short distance, strike the river on which the
French lay, and descend it to assail them. Here then he resolved to
make his position as strong as possible, till the rest of his armament
arrived. His galleon “San Pelayo,” too large to enter the port, rode
without, in danger from the sudden storms that visit the coast, and
from the French. Putting on board some French prisoners whom he had
captured in a boat, he despatched her and another vessel to Santo
Domingo. He organized his force by appointing officers,—a lieutenant
and a sergeant-major, and ten captains. The necessity of horses to
operate rapidly induced him to send two of his lighter vessels to
Havana to seek them there; and by this conveyance he addressed to
Philip II. his first letter from Florida.[887]
The masts of his vessels could scarcely have vanished from the eyes
of the Spanish force, when the French vessels appeared once more, and
nearly captured Menendez himself in the harbor, where he was carrying
to the shore, in the smaller vessels that he had retained, some
artillery and munitions from the galleons. He escaped, however, though
the French were so near that they called on him to surrender. And he
ascribed his deliverance rather to prayer than to human skill; for,
fierce seaman as he was, he was a man of deep and practical religious
feeling, which influenced all his actions.
Menendez’ position was now one of danger. The force at his command
was not large, and the French evidently felt strong enough, and were
determined to attack him. He had acknowledged his inability to cope
with them on the ocean, and could not have felt very sanguine of being
able to defend the slight breastworks that had been thrown up at St.
Augustine.
Fortune favored him. Ribault, after so earnestly determining to
assume the offensive, fatally hesitated. Within two days a tremendous
hurricane, which the practised eye of Menendez had anticipated, burst
on the coast. The French were, he believed, still hovering near, on the
lookout for his larger vessels, and he knew that with such a norther
their peril was extreme. It was, moreover, certain that they could not,
for a time at least, make the St. John’s, even if they rode out the
storm.
This gave him a temporary superiority, and he resolved to seize his
opportunity. Summoning his officers to a council of war, he laid before
them his plan of marching at once to attack Fort Caroline, from which
the French had evidently drawn a part of their force, and probably
their most effective men. The officers generally, as well as the two
clergymen in the settlement, opposed his project as rash; but Menendez
was determined. Five hundred men—three hundred armed with arquebuses,
the rest with pikes and targets—were ordered to march, each one
carrying rations of biscuit and wine. Menendez, at their head, bore
his load like the rest. They marched out of the fort on the 16th of
September, guided by two caciques who had been hostile to the French,
and by a Frenchman who had been two years in the fort. The route proved
one of great difficulty; the rain poured in torrents, swelling the
streams and flooding the lowlands, so that the men were most of the
time knee-deep in water. Many loitered, and, falling back, made their
way to St. Augustine. Others showed a mutinous disposition, and loudly
expressed their contempt for their sailor-general.
On the 29th, at the close of the day, he was within a short distance of
the French fort, and halted to rest so as to storm it in the morning.
At daybreak the Spaniards knelt in prayer; then, bearing twenty
scaling-ladders, Menendez advanced, his sturdy Asturians and Biscayans
in the van. Day broke as, in a heavy rain, they reached a height from
which their French guide told them they could see the fort, washed by
the river. Menendez advanced, and saw some houses and the St. John’s;
but from his position could not discover the fort. He would have gone
farther; but the Maese de Campo and Captain Ochoa pushed on till they
reached the houses, and reconnoitred the fort, where not a soul seemed
astir. As they returned they were hailed by a French sentinel, who took
them for countrymen. Ochoa sprang upon him, striking him on the head
with his sheathed sword, while the Maese de Campo stabbed him. He
uttered a cry; but was threatened with death, bound, and taken back.
The cry had excited Menendez, who, supposing that his officers had been
killed, called out: “Santiago! at them! God helps us! Victory! The
French are slaughtered! Don Pedro de Valdes, the Maese de Campo, is in
the fort, and has taken it!”
The men, supposing that the officers were in advance with part of the
force, rushed on till they came up with the returning officers, who,
taking in the situation, despatched the sentry and led the men to the
attack. Two Frenchmen, who rushed out in their shirts, were cut down.
Others outside the fort seeing the danger, gave the alarm; and a man
at the principal gate threw it open to ascertain what the trouble was.
Valdes, ready to scale the fort, saw the advantage, sprang on the man
and cut him down, then rushed into the fort, followed by the fleetest
of the Spanish detachment. In a moment two captains had simultaneously
planted their colors on the walls, and the trumpets sounded for victory.
The French, taken utterly by surprise, made no defence; about fifty,
dashing over the walls of the fort, took to the woods, almost naked,
and unarmed, or endeavored in boats and by swimming to reach the
vessels in the stream. When Menendez came up with the main body, his
men were slaughtering the French as they ran shrieking through the
fort, or came forward declaring that they surrendered. The women, and
children under the age of fifteen, were, by orders of the commander,
spared. Laudonnière, the younger Ribault, Lemoyne, and the carpenter Le
Challeux, whose accounts have reached us, were among those who escaped.
Menendez had carried the fort without one of his men being killed or
wounded. The number of the French thus unsparingly put to the sword
is stated by Menendez himself as one hundred and thirty-two, with ten
of the fugitives who were butchered the next day. Mendoza Grajales
corroborates this estimate. Fifty were spared, and about as many
escaped to the vessels; and some, doubtless, perished in the woods.
The slaughter was too terrible to need depicting in darker colors; but
in time it was declared that Menendez hung many, with an insulting
label: “I do not this to Frenchmen, but to Heretics.” The Spanish
accounts, written with too strong a conviction of the propriety of
their course to seek any subterfuge, make no allusion to any such
act; and the earliest French accounts are silent in regard to it. The
charge first occurs in a statement written with an evident design to
rouse public indignation in France, and not, therefore, to be deemed
absolutely accurate.
No quarter was given, for the French were regarded as pirates; and as
the French cruisers gave none, these, who were considered as of the
same class, received none.
The booty acquired was great. A brigantine and a galiot fell into
the hands of the Spaniards, with a vessel that had grounded. Another
vessel lay near the fort, and Spanish accounts claim to have sunk it
with the cannon of the fort, while the French declare they scuttled
it. Two other vessels lay at the mouth of the river, watching for the
Spaniards, whose attack was expected from the sea, and not from the
land side. Besides these vessels and their contents, the Spaniards
gained in the fort artillery and small-arms, supplies of flour and
bread, horses, asses, sheep, and hogs.[888] Such was the first struggle
on our soil between civilized men; it was brief, sanguinary, merciless.
Menendez named the captured fort San Mateo, from its capture on the
feast of St. Matthew (September 21). He set up the arms of Spain, and
selected a site for a church, which he ordered to be built at once.
Then, leaving Gonçalo de Villaroel in command, with a garrison of three
hundred men, he prepared to march back to St. Augustine with about one
hundred, who composed the rest of the force which had remained with him
till he reached Caroline. But of them all he found only thirty-five
able or willing to undertake the march; and with these he set out,
deeming his presence necessary at St. Augustine. Before long, one of
the party pushed on to announce his coming.
The Spaniards there had learned of the disaster which had befallen
Ribault’s fleet from a Frenchman who was the sole survivor of one small
vessel that had been driven ashore, its crew escaping a watery death
only to perish by the hands of the Indians. The vessel was secured and
brought to St. Augustine. The same day, September 23, a man was seen
running toward the fort, uttering loud shouts. The priest, Mendoza
Grajales, ran out to learn the tidings he bore. The soldier threw his
arms around him, crying: “Victory! Victory! the French fort is ours!”
He was soon recounting to his countrymen the story of the storming of
Caroline. Toward nightfall the _adelantado_ himself, with his little
party, was seen approaching. Mendoza in surplice, bearing a crucifix,
went forth to meet him. Menendez knelt to kiss the cross, and his
men imitated his example; then they entered the fort in procession,
chanting the Te Deum.[889]
Menendez despatched some light boats with supplies to San Mateo; but
the fort there took fire a few days after its capture, and was almost
entirely destroyed, with much of the booty. He sent other light craft
to Santo Domingo with prisoners, and others still to patrol the coast
and seek any signs of the galleon “San Pelayo,” or of the French. Then
he turned his whole attention to work on his fort and town, so as to
be in readiness to withstand any attack from Ribault if the French
commander should return and prove to be in a condition to assail him
while his forces were divided. He also cultivated friendly intercourse
with the neighboring chiefs whom he found hostile to the French and
their allies.
On the 28th, some of the Indians came to report by signs that the
French were six leagues distant, that they had lost their ships, and
that they had reached the shore by swimming. They had halted at a
stream which they could not cross,—evidently Matanzas inlet. Menendez
sent out a boat, and followed in another with some of his officers and
Mendoza, one of the clergymen. He overtook his party, and they encamped
near the inlet, but out of sight. On the opposite side, the light of
the camp-fires marked the spot occupied by the French. The next day,
seeing Menendez, a sailor swam over, and stated that he had been sent
to say that they were survivors of some of Ribault’s vessels which had
been wrecked; that many of their people had been drowned, others killed
or captured by the Indians; and that the rest, to the number of one
hundred and forty, asked permission and aid to reach their fort, some
distance up the coast.
[Illustration: FLORIDA, 1591 (_Lemoyne, in De Bry_).
[This is the only cartographical result of the French occupation. It
is also reproduced in Gaffarel’s _Floride Française_, and in Shipp’s
_De Soto and Florida_. It was literally copied by Hondius in 1607, and
not so well in the Mercator-Hondius _Atlas_ of 1633. Lescarbot followed
it; but in his 1618 edition altered for the worse the course of the St.
John’s River; and so did De Laet. Cf. Kohl, _Maps in Hakluyt_, p. 48,
and Brinton, _Floridian Peninsula_, p. 80, who says (p. 86) that De
Laet was the first to confine the name Florida to the peninsula; but
Thevet seems nearly to do so in the map in his _Cosmographia_, which he
based on Ortelius, a part of which is given in fac-simile in Weise’s
_Discoveries of America_, p. 304; and it seems also to be the case in
the earlier Mercator gores of 1541. The map accompanying Charlevoix’
narrative will be found in his _Nouvelle France_, i. 24, and in Shea’s
translation of it, i. 133.—ED.]]
Menendez told him that he had captured the fort and put all to the
sword. Then, after asking whether they were Catholics or Lutherans, and
receiving the reply, the Spaniard sent the sailor to his companions,
to say that if they did not give up their arms and surrender, he would
put them all to the sword. On this an officer came over to endeavor
to secure better terms, or to be allowed to remain till vessels could
be obtained to take them to France; but Menendez was inexorable. The
officer pleaded that the lives of the French should be spared; but
Menendez, according to Mendoza, replied, “that he would not give them
such a pledge, but that they should bring their arms and their persons,
and that he should do with them according to his will; because if he
spared their lives he wished them to be grateful to him for it, and if
he put them to death they should not complain that he had broken his
word.” Solis de Meras, another clergyman, brother-in-law of Menendez,
and in St. Augustine at the time, in his account states that Menendez
said, “That if they wished to lay down their colors and their arms, and
throw themselves on his mercy, they could do so, that he might do with
them what God should give him the grace to do; or that they could do as
they chose: for other truce or friendship could not be made with him;”
and that he rejected an offer of ransom which they made.
Menendez himself more briefly writes: “I replied that they might
surrender me their arms and put themselves under my pleasure, that
I might do with them what our Lord might ordain; and from this
resolution I do not and will not depart, unless our Lord God inspired
me otherwise.” The words held out hopes that were delusive; but the
French, hemmed in by the sea and by savages, saw no alternative.
They crossed, laid down their arms, and were bound, by order of
Menendez,—ostensibly to conduct them to the fort. Sixteen, chiefly
Breton sailors, who professed to be Catholics, were spared; the rest,
one hundred and eleven in all, were put to death in cold blood,—as
ruthlessly as the French, ten years before, had despatched their
prisoners amid the smoking ruins of Havana, and, like them, in the name
of religion.[890]
Ribault himself, who was advancing by the same fatal route, was
ignorant alike of the fall of Caroline and of the slaughter of the
survivors of the advanced party; he too hoped to reach Laudonnière.
Some days after the cruel treatment of the first band he reached
the inlet, whose name to this day is a monument of the bloody
work,—Matanzas.
The news of the appearance of this second French party reached
Menendez on the 10th of October,—at the same time almost as that of
the destruction of Fort San Mateo and its contents by fire, and while
writing a despatch to the King, unfolding his plan for colonizing and
holding Florida, by means of a series of forts at the Chesapeake, Port
Royal, the Martyrs, and the Bay of Juan Ponce de Leon. He marched
to the inlet with one hundred and fifty men. The French were on the
opposite side, some making a rude raft. Both parties sounded drum and
trumpet, and flung their standards to the breeze, drawing up in line of
battle. Menendez then ordered his men to sit down and breakfast. Upon
this, Ribault raised a white flag, and one of his men was soon swimming
across. He returned with an Indian canoe that lay at the shore, and
took over La Caille, an officer. Approaching Menendez, the French
officer announced that the force was that of John Ribault, viceroy
for the French king, three hundred and fifty men in all, who had been
wrecked on the coast, and was now endeavoring to reach Fort Caroline.
He soon learned how vain was the attempt. The fate of the fort and of
its garrison, and the stark bodies of the preceding party, convinced
him that those whom he represented must prepare to meet a similar fate.
He requested Menendez to send an officer to Ribault to arrange terms
of surrender; but the reply was that the French commander was free to
cross with a few of his men, if he wished a conference.
When this was reported to him, the unfortunate Ribault made an effort
in person to save his men. He was courteously received by Menendez,
but, like his lieutenant, saw that the case was hopeless. According
to Solis de Meras, Ribault offered a ransom of one hundred and fifty
thousand ducats for himself and one part of his men; another part,
embracing many wealthy nobles, preferring to treat separately. Menendez
declined the offer, expressing his regret at being compelled to forego
the money, which he needed. His terms were as enigmatical as before. He
declared, so he himself tells us, “that they must lay down their arms
and colors and put themselves under my pleasure; that I should do with
their persons as I chose, and that there was nothing else to be done or
concluded with me.”
Ribault returned to his camp and held a council with his officers. Some
were inclined to throw themselves on the mercy of Menendez; but the
majority refused to surrender. The next morning Ribault came over with
seventy officers and men, who decided to surrender and trust to the
mercy of the merciless. The rest had turned southward, preferring to
face new perils rather than be butchered.
The French commander gave up the banner of France and that of Coligny,
with the colors of his force, his own fine set of armor, and his seal
of office. As he and his comrades were bound, he intoned one of the
Psalms; and after its concluding words added: “We are of earth, and to
earth we must return; twenty years more or less is all but as a tale
that is told.” Then he bade Menendez do his will. Two young nobles, and
a few men whom Menendez could make useful, he spared; the rest were at
once despatched.[891]
The French who declined to surrender retreated unpursued to Cañaveral,
where they threw up a log fort and began to build a vessel in order to
escape from Florida. Menendez, recalling some of the men who remained
at San Mateo, set out against them with one hundred and fifty men,
three vessels following the shore with one hundred men to support his
force. On the 8th of November apparently, he reached the fort. The
French abandoned it and fled; but on promise that their lives should
be spared, one hundred and fifty surrendered. Menendez kept his word.
He destroyed their fort and vessel; and leaving a detachment of two
hundred under Captain Juan Velez de Medrano to build Fort Santa Lucia
de Cañaveral in a more favorable spot, he sailed to Havana. Finding
some of his vessels there, he cruised in search of corsairs—chiefly
French and English—who were said to be in great force off the coast
of Santo Domingo, and who had actually captured one of his caravels;
he was afraid that young Ribault might have joined them, and that he
would attack the Spanish posts in Florida.[892] But encountering a
vessel, Menendez learned that the King had sent him reinforcements,
which he resolved to await, obtaining supplies from Campechy for his
forts, as the Governor of Havana refused to furnish any.
The Spaniards in the three Florida posts were ill-prepared for even a
Florida winter, and one hundred died for want of proper clothing and
food. Captain San Vicente and other malcontents excited disaffection,
so that mutinies broke out, and the insurgents seized vessels and
deserted. Fort San Mateo was left with only twenty-one persons in it.
In February, 1566, Menendez explored the Tortugas and the adjacent
coast, seeking some trace of the vessel in which his son had been lost.
His search was fruitless; but he established friendly relations with
the cacique Carlos, and rescued several Spanish prisoners from that
cruel chief, who annually sacrificed one of them.
Meanwhile the French fugitives excited the Indians who were friendly
to them to attack the Spanish posts; and it was no longer safe for
the settlers to stir beyond the works at San Mateo and St. Augustine.
Captain Martin de Ochoa, one of the bravest and most faithful officers,
was slain at San Mateo; and Captain Diego de Hevia and several others
were cut off at St. Augustine. Emboldened by success, the Indians
invested the latter fort, and not only sent showers of arrows into it,
but by means of blazing arrows set fire to the palmetto thatching of
the storehouses. The Spaniards in vain endeavored to extinguish the
flames; the building was consumed, with all their munitions, cloth,
linen, and even the colors of the _adelantado_ and the troops. This
encouraged the Indians, who despatched every Spaniard they could reach.
Menendez reached St. Augustine, March 20, to find it on the brink of
ruin. Even his presence and the force at his command could not bring
the mutineers to obedience. He was obliged to allow Captain San Vicente
and many others to embark in a vessel. Of the men whom at great labor
and expense he had brought to Florida, full five hundred deserted.
After their departure he restored order; and, proceeding to San Mateo,
relieved that place. His next step was to enter into friendly relations
with the chief of Guale, and to begin a fort of stockades, earth, and
fascines at Port Royal which he called San Felipe. Here he left one
hundred and ten men under Stephen de las Alas. From this point the
adventurous Captain Pardo, in 1566 and the following year, explored
the country, penetrating to the silver region of the Cherokees, and
visiting towns reached by De Soto from Cofitachiqui to Tascaluza.[893]
Returning to St. Augustine, Menendez transferred the fort to its
present position, to be nearer the ship landing and less exposed to
the Indians. All the posts suffered from want of food; and even for the
soldiers in the King’s pay the _adelantado_ could obtain no rations
from Havana, although he went there in person. He obtained means to
purchase the necessary provisions only by pledging his own personal
effects.
Before his return there came a fleet of seventeen vessels, bearing
fifteen hundred men, with arms, munitions, and supplies, under Sancho
de Arciniega. Relief was immediately sent to San Mateo and to Santa
Elena, where most of the soldiers had mutinied, and had put Stephen
de las Alas in irons, and sailed away. Menendez divided part of his
reinforcements among his three posts, and then with light vessels
ascended the St. John’s. He endeavored to enter into negotiations with
the caciques Otina and Macoya; but those chiefs, fearing that he had
come to demand reparation for the attacks on the Spaniards, fled at his
approach. He ascended the river till he found the stream narrow, and
hostile Indians lining the banks. On his downward voyage Otina, after
making conditions, received the _adelantado_, who came ashore with only
a few attendants. The chief was surrounded by three hundred warriors;
but showed no hostility, and agreed to become friendly to the Spaniards.
On his return Menendez despatched a captain with thirty soldiers and
two Dominican friars to establish a post on Chesapeake Bay; they were
accompanied by Don Luis Velasco, brother of the chief of Axacan, who
had been taken from that country apparently by Villafañe, and who had
been baptized in Mexico. Instead, however, of carrying out his plans,
the party persuaded the captain of the vessel to sail to Spain.
Two Jesuit Fathers also came to found missions among the Indians; but
one of them, Father Martinez, landing on the coast, was killed by the
Indians; and the survivor, Father Rogel, with a lay brother, by the
direction of Menendez began to study the language of the chief Carlos,
in order to found a mission in his tribe. To facilitate this, Menendez
sent Captain Reynoso to establish a post in that part of Florida.[894]
News having arrived that the French were preparing to attack Florida,
and their depredations in the Antilles having increased, Menendez
sailed to Porto Rico, and cruised about for a time, endeavoring to meet
some of the corsairs. But he was unable to come up with any; and after
visiting Carlos and Tequeste, where missions were now established,
he returned to St. Augustine. His efforts, individually and through
his lieutenants, to gain the native chiefs had been to some extent
successful; Saturiba was the only cacique who held aloof. He finally
agreed to meet Menendez at the mouth of the St. John’s; but, as the
Spanish commander soon learned, the cacique had a large force in
ambush, with the object of cutting him and his men off when they
landed. Finding war necessary, Menendez then sent four detachments,
each of seventy men, against Saturiba; but he fled, and the Spaniards
returned after skirmishes with small bands, in which they killed thirty
Indians.
Leaving his posts well defended and supplied, Menendez sailed to Spain;
and landing near Coruña, visited his home at Aviles to see his wife and
family, from whom he had been separated twenty years. He then proceeded
to Valladolid, where, on the 20th of July, he was received with honor
by the King.
During his absence a French attack, such as he had expected, was made
on Florida. Fearing this, he had endeavored to obtain forces and
supplies for his colony; but was detained, fretting and chafing at the
delays and formalities of the _Casa de Contratacion_ in Seville.[895]
An expedition, comprising one small and two large vessels, was fitted
out at Bordeaux by Dominic de Gourgues, with a commission to capture
slaves at Benin. De Gourgues sailed Aug. 22, 1567, and at Cape Blanco
had a skirmish with some negro chiefs, secured the harbor, and sailed
off with a cargo of slaves. With these he ran to the Spanish West
Indies, and disposed of them at Dominica, Porto Rico, and Santo
Domingo, finding Spaniards ready to treat with him. At Puerto de la
Plata, in the last island, he met a ready confederate in Zaballos, who
was accustomed to trade with the French pirates. Zaballos bought slaves
and goods from him, and furnished him a pilot for the Florida coast.
Puerto de la Plata had been a refuge for some of the deserters from
Florida, and could afford definite information. Here probably the idea
of Gourgues’ Florida expedition originated; though, according to the
bombastic French account, it was only off the Island of Cuba that De
Gourgues revealed his design. He reached the mouth of the St. John’s,
where the French narratives place two forts that are utterly unknown
in Spanish documents, and which were probably only batteries to cover
the entrance. Saluted here as Spanish, the French vessels passed on,
and anchored off the mouth of the St. Mary’s,—the Tacatacuru of the
Indians. By means of a Frenchman, a refugee among the Indians, Gourgues
easily induced Saturiba, smarting under the recent Spanish attack, to
join him in a campaign against San Mateo. The first redoubt was quickly
taken; and the French, crossing in boats, their allies swimming,
captured the second, and then moved on Fort San Mateo itself. The
French account makes sixty men issue from each of what it calls forts,
each party to be cut off by the French, and then makes all of each
party of sixty to fall by the hands of the French and Indians, except
fifteen or thereabout kept for an ignominious death.
Gourgues carried off the artillery of the fort and redoubts; but before
he could transport the rest of his booty to the vessels, a train left
by the Spaniards in the fort was accidentally fired by an Indian who
was cooking fish; the magazine blew up, with all in it. Gourgues hanged
the prisoners who fell into his hands at San Mateo, and descending the
river, hanged thirty more at the mouth, setting up an inscription: “Not
as to Spaniards, but as to Traitors, Robbers, and Murderers.” Returning
to his vessels, he hoisted sail on the 3d of May, and early in June
entered the harbor of La Rochelle. His loss, which is not explained, is
said to have been his smallest vessel, five gentlemen and some soldiers
killed.[896]
[Illustration: WYTFLIET, 1597.
[Cf. the “Florida et Apalche” in Acosta, German edition, Cologne, 1598
(also in 1605); that of Hieronymus Chaves, given in Ortelius, 1592; and
later the maps of the French cartographer Sanson, showing the coast
from Texas to Carolina.—ED.]]
When Gourgues made his descent, Menendez was already at sea, having
sailed from San Lucar on the 13th of March, with abundant supplies and
reinforcements, as well as additional missionaries for the Indians,
under Father John Baptist Segura as vice-provincial. After relieving
his posts in Florida and placing a hundred and fifty men at San Mateo,
he proceeded to Cuba, of which he had been appointed governor. To
strengthen his colony, he solicited permission to colonize the Rio
Pánuco; but the authorities in Mexico opposed his project, and it
failed. The Mississippi, then known as the Espiritu Santo, was supposed
to flow from the neighborhood of Santa Elena, and was depended on as
a means of communication.[897] The next year the _adelantado_ sent
a hundred and ninety-three persons to San Felipe, and eighty to St.
Augustine. Father Rogel then began missions among the Indians around
Port Royal; Father Sedeño and Brother Baez began similar labors on
Guale (now Amelia) Island, the latter soon compiling a grammar and
catechism in the language of the Indians. Others attempted to bring the
intractable chief Carlos and his tribe within the Christian fold. Rogel
drew Indians to his mission at Orista; he put up houses and a church,
and endeavored to induce them to cultivate the ground. But their
natural fickleness would not submit to control; they soon abandoned
the place, and the missionary returned to Fort San Felipe. A school
for Indian boys was opened in Havana, and youths from the tribes of
the coast were sent there in the hope of making them the nucleus of
an Indian civilization. In 1570 Menendez, carrying out his project of
occupying Chesapeake Bay, sent Father Segura with several other Jesuits
to establish a mission at Axacan, the country of the Indian known as
Don Luis Velasco, who accompanied missionaries, promising to do all
in his power to secure for them a welcome from his tribe. The vessel
evidently ascended the Potomac and landed the mission party, who then
crossed to the shores of the Rappahannock. They were received with
seeming friendship, and erected a rude chapel; but the Indians soon
showed a hostile spirit, and ultimately massacred all the party except
an Indian boy. When Menendez returned to Florida from Spain in 1572,
he sailed to the Chesapeake, and endeavored to secure Don Luis and his
brother; but they fled. He captured eight Indians known to have taken
part in the murder of the missionaries, and hanged them at the yard-arm
of his vessel.[898]
From this time Menendez gave little personal attention to the affairs
of Florida, being elsewhere engaged by the King; and he died at
Santander, in Spain, Sept. 17, 1574, when about to take command of an
immense fleet which Philip II. was preparing. With his death Florida,
where his nephew Pedro Menendez Marquez[899] had acted as governor,
languished. Indian hostilities increased, San Felipe was invested,
abandoned, and burned, and soon after the Governor himself was
slain.[900] St. Augustine was finally burned by Drake.
CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.
OUR account of the voyages of Ponce de Leon is mainly from the
_cédulas_ to him and official correspondence, correcting Herrera,[901]
who is supposed by some to have had the explorer’s diary, now lost.
Oviedo[902] mentions Bimini[903] as forty leagues from Guanahani. The
modern edition[904] of Oviedo is vague and incorrect; and gives Ponce
de Leon two caravels, but has no details. Gomara[905] is no less
vague. Girava records the discovery, but dates it in 1512.[906] As
early as 1519 the statement is found that the Bay of Juan Ponce had
been visited by Alaminos, while accompanying Ponce de Leon,[907]—which
must refer to this expedition of 1513. The “Traza de las costas”
given by Navarrete (and reproduced by Buckingham Smith),[908] with
the Garay patent of 1521, would seem to make Apalache Bay the western
limit of the discoveries of Ponce de Leon, of whose expedition and
of Alaminos’s no report is known. Peter Martyr[909] alludes to it,
but only incidentally, when treating of Diego Velasquez. Barcia, in
his _Ensayo cronológico_,[910] writing specially on Florida, seems to
have had neither of the patents of Ponce de Leon, and no reports; and
he places the discovery in 1512 instead of 1513.[911] Navarrete[912]
simply follows Herrera.
In the unfortunate expedition of Cordova Bernal Diaz was an actor,
and gives us a witness’s testimony;[913] and it is made the subject
of evidence in the suit in 1536 between the Pinzon and Colon
families.[914] The general historians treat it in course.[915]
The main authority for the first voyage of Garay is the royal letters
patent,[916] the documents which are given by Navarrete[917] and in
the _Documentos inéditos_,[918] as well as the accounts given in Peter
Martyr,[919] Gomara,[920] and Herrera.[921]
Of the pioneer expedition which Camargo conducted for Garay to make
settlement of Amichel, and of its encounter with Cortés, we have the
effect which the first tidings of it produced on the mind of the
Conqueror of Mexico in his second letter of Oct. 30, 1520; while in
his third letter he made representations of the wrongs done to the
Indians by Garay’s people, and of his own determination to protect
the chiefs who had submitted to him.[922] For the untoward ending of
Garay’s main expedition, Cortés is still a principal dependence in his
fourth letter;[923] and the official records of his proceedings against
Garay in October, 1523, with a letter of Garay dated November 8, and
evidently addressed to Cortés, are to be found in the _Documentos
inéditos_,[924] while Peter Martyr,[925] Oviedo,[926] and Herrera[927]
are the chief general authorities. Garay’s renewed effort under his
personal leadership is marked out in three several petitions which he
made for authority to colonize the new country.[928]
[Illustration: AYLLON’S EXPLORATIONS.
[This sketch follows Dr. Kohl’s copy of a map in a manuscript atlas
in the British Museum (no. 9,814), without date; but it seems to be a
record of the explorations (1520) of Ayllon, whose name is corrupted
on the map. The map bears near the main inscription the figure of a
Chinaman and an elephant,—tokens of the current belief in the Asiatic
connections of North America. Cf. Brinton’s _Floridian Peninsula_,
p. 82, 99, on the “Traza de costas de Tierra Ferme y de las Tierras
Nuevas,” accompanying the royal grant to Garay in 1521, being the
chart of Cristóbal de Tobia, given in the third volume of Navarrete’s
_Coleccion_, and sketched on another page of the present volume
(_ante_, p. 218) in a section on “The Early Cartography of the Gulf of
Mexico and adjacent Parts,” where some light is thrown on contemporary
knowledge of the Florida coast.—ED.]]
Of the preliminary expedition on the Atlantic coast of Gordillo and
the subsequent attempt of his chief, Ayllon, to settle in Virginia,
there is a fund of testimony in the papers of the suit which Matienzo
instituted against Ayllon, and of which the greater part is still
unprinted; but a few papers, like the complaint of Matienzo and some
testimony taken by Ayllon when about to sail himself, can be found in
the _Documentos inéditos_.[929] As regards the joint explorations of
the vessels of Gordillo and Quexos, the testimony of the latter helps
us, as well as his act of taking possession, which puts the proceeding
in 1521; though some of Ayllon’s witnesses give 1520 as the date.
Both parties unite in calling the river which they reached the San
Juan Bautista, and the _cédula_ to Ayllon places it in thirty-five
degrees. Navarrete in saying they touched at Chicora and Gualdape
confounds the first and third voyages; and was clearly ignorant of the
three distinct expeditions;[930] and Herrera is wrong in calling the
river the Jordan,[931]—named, as he says, after the captain or pilot
of one of the vessels,—since no such person was on either vessel,
and no such name appears in the testimony: the true Jordan was the
Wateree (Guatari).[932] That it was the intention of Ayllon to make the
expedition one of slave-catching, would seem to be abundantly disproved
by his condemnation of the commander’s act.[933]
Ayllon, according to Spanish writers, after reaching the coast in
his own voyage, in 1526, took a northerly course. Herrera[934] says
he attempted to colonize north of Cape Trafalgar (Hatteras); and the
_piloto mayor_ of Florida, Ecija, who at a later day, in 1609, was sent
to find out what the English were doing, says positively that Ayllon
had fixed his settlement at Guandape. Since by his office Ecija must
have had in his possession the early charts of his people, and must
have made the locality a matter of special study, his assertion has far
greater weight than that of any historian writing in Spain merely from
documents.[935] It is also the opinion of Navarrete[936] that Ayllon’s
course must have been north.
Oviedo[937] does not define the region of this settlement more closely
than to say that it was under thirty-three degrees, adding that it is
not laid down on any map. The Oydores of Santo Domingo, in a letter to
the King in 1528,[938] only briefly report the expedition, and refer
for particulars to Father Antonio Montesinos.[939]
The authorities for the voyage of Gomez are set forth in another
volume.[940]
* * * * *
Upon the expedition of Narvaez, and particularly upon the part taken in
it by Cabeza de Vaca, the principal authority is the narrative of the
latter published at Zamora in 1542 as _La relacion que dio Aluar Nuñez
Cabeça de Vaca de lo acaescido en las Indias en la armada donde yua por
gouernador Pãphilo de narbaez_.[941] It was reprinted at Valladolid in
1555, in an edition usually quoted as _La relacion y comentarios[942]
del governador Aluar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca de lo acaescido en las dos
jornadas que hizo á los Indios_.[943] This edition was reprinted
under the title of _Navfragios de Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca_, by
Barcia (1749) in his _Historiadores primitivos_,[944] accompanied by
an “exámen apologético de la historia” by Antonio Ardoino, which
is a defence of Cabeza de Vaca against the aspersions of Honorius
Philoponus,[945] who charges Cabeza de Vaca with claiming to have
performed miracles.
[Illustration: AUTOGRAPH OF NARVAEZ (_From Buckingham Smith_).]
The _Relacion_, translated into Italian from the first edition, was
included by Ramusio in his _Collection_[946] in 1556. A French version
was given by Ternaux in 1837.[947] The earliest English rendering,
or rather paraphrase, is that in Purchas;[948] but a more important
version was made by the late Buckingham Smith, and printed (100 copies)
at the expense of Mr. George W. Riggs, of Washington, in 1851, for
private circulation.[949] A second edition was undertaken by Mr. Smith,
embodying the results of investigations in Spain, with a revision
of the translation and considerable additional annotation; but the
completion of the work of carrying it through the press, owing to
Mr. Smith’s death,[950] devolved upon others, who found his mass of
undigested notes not very intelligible. It appeared in an edition of
one hundred copies in 1871.[951] In these successive editions Mr. Smith
gave different theories regarding the route pursued by Cabeza de Vaca
in his nine years journey.[952]
[Illustration: AUTOGRAPH OF CABEZA DE VACA (_From Buckingham Smith_).]
The documents[953] which Mr. Smith adds to this new edition convey
but little information beyond what can be gathered from Cabeza de
Vaca himself. He adds, however, engravings of Father Juan Xuarez and
Brother Juan Palos, after portraits preserved in Mexico of the twelve
Franciscans who were first sent to that country.[954]
Some additional facts respecting this expedition are derived at second
hand from a letter which Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes wrote after their
arrival in Mexico to the _Andiencia_ of Hispaniola, which is not now
known, but of which the substance is professedly given by Oviedo.[955]
The Bahia de la Cruz of Narvaez’ landing, made identical with Apalache
Bay by Cabot, is likely to have been by him correctly identified, as
the point could be fixed by the pilots who returned with the ships to
Cuba, and would naturally be recorded on the charts.[956] Smith[957]
believed it to be Tampa Bay. The _Relacion_ describes the bay as one
whose head could be seen from the mouth; though its author seems in
another place to make it seven or eight leagues deep.[958] Narvaez and
his party evidently thought they were nearer Panuco, and had no idea
they were so near Havana. Had they been at Tampa Bay, or on a coast
running north and south, they can scarcely be supposed to have been
so egregiously mistaken.[959] If Tampa was his landing place, it is
necessary to consider the bay where he subsequently built his boats as
Apalache Bay.[960] Charlevoix[961] identifies it with Apalache Bay,
and Siguenza y Gongora finds it in Pensacola.[962]
Of the expedition of Soto we have good and on the whole satisfactory
records. The Concession made by the Spanish King of the government of
Cuba and of the conquest of Florida is preserved to us.[963] There are
three contemporary narratives of the progress of the march. The first
and best was printed in 1557 at Evora as the _Relaçam verdadeira dos
trabalhos [=q] ho gouernador dō Fernādo de Souto e certos fidalgos
portugueses passarom no descobrimēto da provincia da Frlorida_. _Agora
nouamente feita per hū fidalgo Deluas._[964] It is usually cited in
English as the “Narrative of the Gentleman of Elvas,” since Hakluyt
first translated it, and reprinted it in 1609 at London as _Virginia
richly valued by the Description of the Mainland of Florida, her
next Neighbor_.[965] It appeared again in 1611 as _The worthye and
famous Historie of the Travailles, Discovery, and Conquest of Terra
Florida_, and was included in the supplement to the 1809 edition
of the Collection of Hakluyt. It was also reprinted from the 1611
edition in 1851 by the Hakluyt Society as _Discovery and Conquest of
Florida_,[966] edited by William B. Rye, and is included in Force’s
_Tracts_ (vol. iv.) and in French’s _Historical Collections of
Louisiana_ (vol. ii. pp. 111-220). It is abridged by Purchas in his
_Pilgrimes_.[967]
[Illustration: YO EL REY.
[The sign-manual of Charles V. to the _Asiento y Capitulacion_ granted
to De Soto, 1537, as given by B. Smith in his _Coleccion_, p.
146.—ED.]]
Another and briefer original Spanish account is the _Relacion del
suceso de its jornada que hizo Hernando de Soto_ of Luys Hernandez de
Biedma, which long remained in manuscript in the Archivo General de
Indias at Seville,[968] and was first published in a French version
by Ternaux in 1841;[969] and from this William B. Rye translated it
for the Hakluyt Society.[970] Finally, the original Spanish text,
“Relación de la Isla de la Florida,” was published by Buckingham Smith
in 1857 in his _Coleccion de varios documentos para la historia de la
Florida_.[971]
In 1866 Mr. Smith published translations of the narratives of the
Gentleman of Elvas and of Biedma, in the fifth volume (125 copies) of
the Bradford Club Series under the title of _Narratives of the Career
of Hernando de Soto in the Conquest of Florida, as told by a Knight
of Elvas, and in a Relation_ [presented 1544] _by Luys Hernandez de
Biedma_.
[Illustration: AUTOGRAPH OF BIEDMA.
From the _Coleccion_, p. 64, of Buckingham Smith.]
The third of the original accounts is the _Florida del Ynca_ of
Garcilasso de la Vega, published at Lisbon in 1605,[972] which he
wrote forty years after Soto’s death, professedly to do his memory
justice.[973] The spirit of exaggeration which prevails throughout the
volume has deprived it of esteem as an historical authority, though
Theodore Irving[974] and others have accepted it. It is based upon
conversations with a noble Spaniard who had accompanied Soto as a
volunteer, and upon the written but illiterate reports of two common
soldiers,—Alonzo de Carmona, of Priego, and Juan Coles, of Zabra.[975]
Herrera largely embodied it in his _Historia general_.
Still another account of the expedition is the official Report which
Rodrigo Ranjel, the secretary of Soto, based upon his Diary kept on
the march. It was written after reaching Mexico, whence he transmitted
it to the Spanish Government. It remained unpublished in that part of
Oviedo’s _History_ which was preserved in manuscript till Amador de los
Rios issued his edition of Oviedo in 1851. Oviedo seems to have begun
to give the text of Ranjel as he found it; but later in the progress
of the story he abridges it greatly, and two chapters at least are
missing, which must have given the wanderings of Soto from Autiamque,
with his death, and the adventures of the survivors under Mosçoso. The
original text of Ranjel is not known.
These independent narratives of the Gentlemen of Elvas, Biedma,
and Ranjel, as well as those used by Garcilasso de la Vega, agree
remarkably, not only in the main narrative as to course and events, but
also as to the names of the places.
There is also a letter of Soto, dated July 9, 1539, describing his
voyage and landing, which was published by Buckingham Smith in 1854
at Washington,[976] following a transcript (in the Lenox Library) of
a document in the Archives at Simancas, and attested by Muñoz. It is
addressed to the municipality of Santiago de Cuba, and was first made
known in Ternaux’s _Recueil des pièces sur la Floride_. B. F. French
gave the first English version of it in his _Historical Collections of
Louisiana_, part ii. pp. 89-93 (1850).[977]
[Illustration: THE MISSISSIPPI, SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
[This sketch is from a copy in the Kohl Washington Collection, after
a manuscript atlas in the Bodleian. It is without date, but seemingly
of about the middle of the sixteenth century. The “B. de Miruello”
seems to commemorate a pilot of Ponce de Leon’s day. The sketch of the
Atlantic coast made by Chaves in 1536 is preserved to us only in the
description given by Oviedo, of which an English version will be found
in the _Historical Magazine_, x. 371.—ED.]]
The route of De Soto is, of course, a question for a variety of
views.[978] We have in the preceding narrative followed for the
track through Georgia a paper read by Colonel Charles C. Jones, Jr.,
before the Georgia Historical Society, and printed in Savannah in
1880,[979] and for that through Alabama the data given by Pickett in
his _History of Alabama_,[980] whose local knowledge adds weight to his
opinion.[981] As to the point of De Soto’s crossing the Mississippi,
there is a very general agreement on the lowest Chickasaw Bluff.[982]
We are without the means, in any of the original sources, to determine
beyond dispute the most northerly point reached by Soto. He had
evidently approached, but had learned nothing of, the Missouri River.
Almost at the same time that Soto, with the naked, starving remnant
of his army, was at Pacaha, another Spanish force under Vasquez de
Coronado, well handled and perfectly equipped, must in July and August,
1541, have been encamped so near that an Indian runner in a few days
might have carried tidings between them. Coronado actually heard of his
countryman, and sent him a letter; but his messenger failed to find
Soto’s party.[983] But, strangely enough, the cruel, useless expedition
of Soto finds ample space in history, while the well-managed march of
Coronado’s careful exploration finds scant mention.[984] No greater
contrast exists in our history than that between these two campaigns.
* * * * *
A sufficient indication has been given, in the notes of the preceding
narrative, of the sources of information concerning the futile attempts
of the Spaniards at colonization on the Atlantic coast up to the time
of the occupation of Port Royal by Ribault in 1562. Of the consequent
bloody struggle between the Spanish Catholics and the French Huguenots
there are original sources on both sides.
On the Spanish part we have the _Cartas escritas al rey_ of Pedro
Menendez (Sept. 11, Oct. 15, and Dec. 5, 1565), which are preserved
in the Archives at Seville, and have been used by Parkman,[985] and
the _Memoria del buen suceso i buen viage_ of the chaplain of the
expedition, Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales.[986] Barcia’s _Ensayo
cronológico_ is the most comprehensive of the Spanish accounts, and he
gives a large part of the _Memorial de las jornadas_ of Solis de Meras,
a brother-in-law of Menendez. It has never been printed separately;
but Charlevoix used Barcia’s extract, and it is translated from Barcia
in French’s _Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida_ (vol.
ii. p. 216). Barcia seems also to have had access to the papers of
Menendez,[987] and to have received this Journal of Solis directly from
his family.
On the French side, for the first expedition of Ribault in 1562 we
have the very scarce text of the _Histoire de l’expédition Française
en Floride_, published in London in 1563, which Hakluyt refers to as
being in print “in French and English” when he wrote his _Westerne
Planting_.[988] Sparks[989] could not find that it was ever published
in French; nor was Winter Jones aware of the existence of this 1563
edition when he prepared for the Hakluyt Society an issue of Hakluyt’s
_Divers Voyages_ (1582), in which that collector had included an
English version of it as _The True and Last Discoverie of Florida,
translated into Englishe by one Thomas Hackit_, being the same text
which appeared separately in 1563 as the _Whole and True Discovery of
Terra Florida_.[990]
At Paris in 1586 appeared a volume, dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh,
entitled, _L’histoire notable de la Floride, ... contenant les trois
voyages faits en icelle par certains capitaines et pilotes François
descrits par le Capitaine Laudonnière, ... à laquelle a esté adjousté
un quatriesme voyage fait par le Capitaine Gourgues, Mise en lumiere
par M. Basanier_. This was a comprehensive account, or rather
compilation, of the four several French expeditions,—1562, 1564, 1565,
1567,—covering the letters of Laudonnière for the first three, and
an anonymous account, perhaps by the editor Basanier, of the fourth.
Hakluyt, who had induced the French publication, gave the whole an
English dress in his _Notable History, translated by R. H._, printed in
London in 1587,[991] and again in his _Principall Navigations_, vol.
iii., the text of which is also to be found in the later edition and in
French’s _Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida_ (1869), i.
165.[992]
[Illustration: ROUTE OF DE SOTO (_after Delisle_),—WESTERLY PART.
[This map of Delisle, issued originally at Paris, is given in the
Amsterdam (1707) edition of Garcilasso de la Vega’s _Histoire des Incas
et de la conquête de la Floride_, vol. ii; cf. _Voyages au nord_,
vol. v., and Delisle’s _Atlas nouveau_. The map is also reproduced
in French’s _Historical Collections of Louisiana_, and Gravier’s _La
Salle_ (1870). Other maps of the route are given by Rye, McCulloch, and
Irving; by J. C. Brevoort in Smith’s _Narratives of Hernando de Soto_,
and in Paul Chaix’ _Bassin du Mississipi au seizième siècle_.
Besides the references already noted, the question of his route has
been discussed, to a greater or less extent, in Charlevoix’ _Nouvelle
France_; in Warden’s _Chronologie historique de l’Amérique_, where
the views of the geographer Homann are cited; in Albert Gallatin’s
“Synopsis of the Indian Tribes” in the _Archæologia Americana_, vol.
ii.; in Nuttall’s _Travels in Arkansas_ (1819 and 1821); in Williams’s
_Florida_ (New York, 1837); in McCulloch’s _Antiquarian Researches
in America_ (Baltimore, 1829); in Schoolcraft’s _Indian Tribes_,
vol. iii.; in Paul Chaix’ _Bassin du Mississipi au seizième siècle_;
in J. W. Monette’s _Valley of the Mississippi_ (1846); in Pickett’s
_Alabama_; in Gayarré’s _Louisiana_; in Martin’s _Louisiana_; in
_Historical Magazine_, v. 8; in _Knickerbocker Magazine_, lxiii. 457;
in _Sharpe’s Magazine_, xlii. 265; and in Lambert A. Wilmer’s _Life
of De Soto_ (1858). Although Dr. Belknap in his _American Biography_
(1794, vol. i. p. 189), had sought to establish a few points of De
Soto’s march, the earliest attempt to track his steps closely was
made by Alexander Meek, in a paper published at Tuscaloosa in 1839 in
_The Southron_, and reprinted as “The Pilgrimage of De Soto,” in his
_Romantic Passages in Southwestern History_ (Mobile, 1857), p. 213.
Irving, in the revised edition of his _Conquest of Florida_, depended
largely upon the assistance of Fairbanks and Smith, and agrees mainly
with Meek and Pickett. In his appendix he epitomizes the indications
of the route according to Garcilasso and the Portuguese gentleman.
Rye collates the statements of McCulloch and Monette regarding the
route beyond the Mississippi, and infers that the identifying of the
localities is almost impossible. Chaix (_Bassin du Mississipi_) also
traces this part.—ED.]]
[Illustration: ROUTE OF DE SOTO (_after Delisle_),—EASTERLY PART.]
Jacques Lemoyne de Morgues, an artist accompanying Laudonnière, wrote
some years later an account, and made maps and drawings, with notes
describing them. De Bry made a visit to London in 1587 to see Lemoyne,
who was then in Raleigh’s service; but Lemoyne resisted all persuasions
to part with his papers.[993] After Lemoyne’s death De Bry bought them
off his widow (1588), and published them in 1591, in the second part
of his _Grands voyages_, as _Brevis narratio_.[994]
One Nicolas le Challeux, or Challus, a carpenter, a man of sixty, who
was an eye-witness of the events at Fort Caroline, and who for the
experiences of Ribault’s party took the statements of Dieppe sailors
and of Christopher le Breton, published a simple narrative at Dieppe
in 1566 under the title of _Discours de l’histoire de la Floride_,
which was issued twice,—once with fifty-four, and a second time
with sixty-two, pages,[995] and the same year reprinted, with some
variations, at Lyons as _Histoire mémorable du dernier voyage fait par
le Capitaine Iean Ribaut en l’an MDLXV_ (pp. 56).[996]
It is thought that Thevet in his _Cosmographie universelle_ (1575) may
have had access to Laudonnière’s papers; and some details from Thevet
are embodied in what is mainly a translation of Le Challeux, the _De
Gallorum expeditione in Floridam anno MDLXV brevis historia_, which was
added (p. 427) by Urbain Chauveton, or Calveton, to the Latin edition
of Benzoni,—_Novæ novi orbis historiæ tres libri_, printed at Geneva in
1578 and 1581,[997] and reproduced under different titles in the French
versions, published likewise at Geneva in 1579, 1588, and 1589.[998]
There is a separate issue of it from the 1579 edition.[999]
It was not long before exaggerated statements were circulated, based
upon the representations made in _Une requête au roi_ (Charles IX.) of
the widows and orphans of the victims of Menendez, in which the number
of the slain is reported at the impossible figure of nine hundred.[1000]
Respecting the expedition of De Gourgues there are no Spanish
accounts whatever, Barcia[1001] merely taking in the main the French
narrative,—in which, says Parkman, “it must be admitted there is a
savor of romance.”[1002] That Gourgues was merely a slaver is evident
from this full French account. Garibay notes his attempt to capture at
least one Spanish vessel; and he certainly had on reaching Florida two
barks, which he must have captured on his way. Basanier and many who
follow him suppress entirely the slaver episode in this voyage. All the
De Gourgues narratives ignore entirely the existence of St. Augustine,
and make the three pretended forts on the St. John to have been of
stone; and Prévost, to heighten the picture, invents the story of the
flaying of Ribault, of which there is no trace in the earlier French
accounts.
There are two French narratives. One of them, _La reprinse de la
Floride_, exists, according to Gaffarel,[1003] in five different
manuscript texts.[1004] The other French narrative is the last paper
in the compilation of Basanier, already mentioned. Brinton[1005] is
inclined to believe that it is not an epitome of the _Reprinse_, but
that it was written by Basanier himself from the floating accounts of
his day, or from some unknown relater. Charlevoix mentions a manuscript
in the possession of the De Gourgues family; but it is not clear which
of these papers it was.
The story of the Huguenot colony passed naturally into the historical
records of the seventeenth century;[1006] but it got more special
treatment in the next century, when Charlevoix issued his _Nouvelle
France_.[1007] The most considerable treatments of the present century
have been by Jared Sparks in his _Life of Ribault_,[1008] by Francis
Parkman in his _Pioneers of France in the New World_,[1009] and by Paul
Gaffarel in his _Histoire de la Floride Française_.[1010] The story has
also necessarily passed into local and general histories of this period
in America, and into the accounts of the Huguenots as a sect.[1011]
[Illustration]