RIBAULT'S FORTUNES AT SELOOE.
It was on the twenty-eighth of August, the day on which the Spaniards
celebrated the festival of St. Augustine, that the Adelantado entered
the mouth of the Selooe or Dolphin River. He was attracted by the aspect
of the place, and here resolved to establish a settlement and fortress.
He gave the name of the Saint to the settlement. Having landed a portion
of his forces, he found himself welcomed by the savages, whom he treated
with kindness and who requited him with assurances of friendship. From
them he learned something of the French settlements, and of their
vessels at the mouth of the May River, and he resolved to attempt the
surprise of his enemies. We have seen the failure of this attempt.
Disappointed in his first desire, like the tiger who returns to crouch
again within the jungle from which he has unsuccessfully sprung,
Melendez made his way back to the waters of the Selooe, where he
proposed to plant his settlement, and which his troops were already
beginning to entrench. Here he employed himself in taking formal
possession in the name of the King of Spain, and having celebrated the
Divine mysteries in a manner at once solemn and ostentatious, he swore
his officers to fidelity in the prosecution of the expedition, upon the
Holy Sacrament.
It was while most busy with his preparations, that the fleet of Ribault
made its appearance at the mouth of the river. The two heaviest of the
Spanish vessels, being relieved of their armament and troops, which had
been transferred to the land, had been despatched, on the approach of
the threatened danger, with all haste to Hispaniola. The two other
vessels, at the bar or entrance of the harbor, were unequal to the
conflict with the superior squadron of Ribault. Melendez was embarked
in one of them, and the three lighter vessels of the French, built
especially for penetrating shallow waters, were pressing forward to the
certain capture of their prey, for which there seemed no possibility of
escape. Melendez felt all his danger, but he had prepared himself for
a deadly struggle, and was especially confident in the enthusiastic
conviction that himself and his design were equally the concern of
Providence. It would seem that fortune was solicitous to justify the
convictions of so much self-esteem. Ribault's extreme caution in
sounding the bar to which his vessels were approaching, lost him two
precious hours; but for which his conquest must have been certain. There
was no hope, else, unless in some such miraculous protection as that
upon which the Spanish general seemed to count. Had these two vessels
been taken and Melendez a prisoner, the descent upon the dismayed troops
on shore, not yet entrenched, and in no preparation for the conflict
with an equal or superior enemy, and the annihilation of the settlement
must have ensued. The consequence of such an event might have changed
the whole destinies of Florida, might have established the Huguenot
colonies firmly upon the soil, and given to the French such a firm
possession of the land, as might have kept the _fleur-de-lis_ waving
from its summits to this very day. But the miracle was not wanting which
the Spanish Adelantado expected. In the very moment when the hands of
Ribault, were stretched to seize his prizes, the sudden roar of the
hurricane came booming along the deep. The sea rose between the
assailant and his prey,--the storm parted them, and while the feebler
vessels of Melendez, partially under the security of the land, swept
back towards the settlement which he had made on shore, the brigantines
and bateaux of Ribault were forced to rejoin their greater vessels, and
they all bore away to sea before the gale. Under the wild norther
that rushed down upon his squadron, Ribault with a groan of rage and
disappointment, abandoned the conquest which seemed already in his
grasp.
Melendez promptly availed himself of the Providential event, to insist
among his people upon the efficiency of his prayers. They had previously
been desponding. They felt their isolation, and exaggerated its danger.
The departure of their ships for Hispaniola, their frequent previous
disasters, the dispersion of nearly two thirds of the squadron with
which they had left the port of Cadiz, but three months before; the
labors and privations which already began to press upon them with a
novel force; all conspired to dispirit them, and made them despair of
a progress in which they were likely to suffer the buffetings only,
without any of the rewards of fortune;--and when they beheld the
approaching squadron of the French, in force so superior as to leave
no doubt of the capture of their only remaining vessels, they yielded
themselves up to a feeling of utter self-abandonment, to which the
stern, grave self-reliance of Melendez afforded no encouragement. But
when, with broad sweep of arm, he pointed to the awful rising of the
great billows of the sea, the wild raging of cloud and storm in the
heavens, the scudding flight of the trembling ships of Ribault, their
white wings gradually disappearing in distance and darkness like feeble
birds borne recklessly forward in the wild fury of the tempest, he
could, with wonderful potency, appeal to his people to acknowledge the
wonders that the Lord had done for them that day.
"Call you this the cause of our king only, in which we are engaged my
brethren? Oh! shallow vanity! And yet, you say rightly. It is the cause
of our king--the greatest of all kings--the king of kings; and he will
make it triumphant in all lands, even though the base and the timid
shall despair equally of themselves and of Him! We shall never, my
brethren, abandon this cause to which we have sworn our souls, in life
and death, without incurring the eternal malediction of the Most High
God, forever blessed be his name! We are surrounded by enemies, my
friends; we are few and we are feeble; but what is our might, when the
tempest rises like a wall between us and our foes, and in our greatest
extremity, the hand of God stretches forth from the cloud, and plucks
us safely from the danger. Be of good heart, then; put on a fearless
courage; believe that the cause is holy in which ye strive, and the God
of Battles will most surely range himself upon our side!"
Loud cries of exultation from his people answered this address. A
thousand voices renewed their vows of fidelity, and pledged themselves
to follow blindly wherever he should lead. He commanded that a solemn
mass of the Holy Spirit should be said that night, and that all the army
should be present. He vouchsafed no farther words. Nothing, he well
knew, that he could say, could possibly add to the miraculous event that
had saved their vessels, before their own eyes, in the very moment of
destruction. "Our prayers, our faith, my brethren; to these we owe the
saving mercies of the Blessed Jesus!"