ESCAPE OF LAUDONNIERE AND OTHERS FROM FORT CAROLINE. ADVENTURES OF THE
FUGITIVES.
The narratives of this event are found singularly full, there being no
less than three accounts by fugitives from the massacre. The most
complete of these is that of Nicolas de Challeux, a native of Dieppe,
which was published in the following year. I have largely transcribed
from this quaint and curious narrative, not only an account of the
fullness of the details, but also for the light it throws upon the
habits of thought and modes of expression of that day, when so much was
exhibited of an external religious faith, and so many were found who
would fight for their faith when they refused to adhere to its
requirements. There are apparent, also, a close study of the Scriptures,
a great familiarity with its language, a frequent use of its
illustrations, and a disposition to attribute all things, with a
reverent piety, to the direct personal supervision of the Almighty. By
the aid of a map of the St. John's River, it will not be difficult to
trace the perilous route of escape pursued by De Challeux and his
companions, over obstacles much magnified by the terror of the moment
and want of familiarity with the country:--
"The number of persons in the fort was two hundred and forty,
partly of those who had not recovered from sea-sickness, partly of
artisans and of women and children left to the care and diligence
of Captain Laudonniere, who had no expectation that it was possible
that any force could approach by land to attack him. On which
account the guards had withdrawn for the purpose of refreshing
themselves a little before sunrise, on account of the bad weather
which had continued during the whole night, most of our people
being at the time in their beds sleeping. The wicket gate open, the
Spanish force, having traversed forests, swamps, and rivers,
arrived at break of day, Friday, the 20th September, the weather
very stormy, and entered the fort without any resistance, and made
a horrible satisfaction of the rage and hate they had conceived
against our nation. It was then who should best kill the most men,
sick and well, women and little children, in such a manner that it
is impossible to conceive of a massacre which could equal this for
its barbarity and cruelty.
"Some of the more active of our people, jumping from their beds,
slipped out and escaped to the vessel in the river. I was myself
surprised, going to my duty with my clasp-knife in my hand; for
upon leaving my cabin, I met the enemy, and saw no other means of
escape but turning my back, and making the utmost possible haste to
lead over the palisades, for I was closely pursued, step by step,
by a pike-man and one with a partisan; and I do not know how it
was, unless by the grace of God, that my strength was redoubled,
old man as I am and grey-headed, a thing which at any other time I
could not have done, for the rampart was raised eight or nine feet;
I then hastened to secrete myself in the woods, and when I was
sufficiently near the edge of the wood at the distance of a good
bow-shot, I turned towards the fort and rested a little time,
finding myself not pursued; and as from this place all the fort,
even the inner-court was distinctly visible to me, looking there I
saw a horrible butchery of our men taking place, and three
standards of our enemies planted upon the ramparts. Having then
lost all hope of seeing our men rally, I resigned all my senses to
the Lord. Recommending myself to his mercy, grace and favor, I
threw myself into the wood, for it seemed to me that I could find
no greater cruelty among the savage beast, than that of our enemy
which I had seen shown towards our people. But the misery and
anguish in which I found myself then, straitened and oppressed,
seeing no longer any means of safety upon the earth, unless by a
special grace of our Lord, transcending any expectation of man,
caused me to utter groans and sobs, and with a voice broken by
distress to thus cry to the Lord:
"'O God of our fathers and Lord of all mercy! who hast commanded us
to call upon Thee even from the depths of hell and the shades of
death, promising forthwith thy aid and succor! show me, for the
hope which I have in Thee, what course I ought to take to come to
the termination of this miserable old age, plunged into the gulf of
grief and bitterness; at least, cause that, feeling the effect of
Thy mercy, and the confidence which I have conceived in my heart
for Thy promises, they may not be snatched from me through fear of
savage and furious wild beasts on one hand, and of our and Thy
enemies on the other, who desire the more to injure us for the
memory of Thy name which is invoked by us than for any other cause;
aid me, my God! assist me, for I am so troubled that I can do
nothing more.'
"And while I was making this prayer, traversing the wood, which was
very thick and matted with briars and thorns, beneath the large
trees where there was neither any road nor path, scarcely had I
trailed my way half an hour, when I heard a noise like men weeping
and groaning near me; and advancing in the name of God, and in the
confidence of His succor, I discovered one of our people, named
Sieur de la Blonderie, and a little behind him another, named
Maitre Robert, well known to us all, because he had in charge the
prayers at the fort.
"Immediately afterwards we found also the servant of Sieur d'Ully,
the nephew of M. Lebreau, Master Jaques Trusse, and many others;
and we assembled and talked over our troubles, and deliberated as
to what course we could take to save our lives. One of our number,
much esteemed as being very learned in the lessons of Holy
Scripture, proposed after this manner: 'Brethren, we see to what
extremity we are brought; in whatever direction we turn our eyes,
we see only barbarism. The heavens, the earth, the sea, the forest,
and men,--in brief, nothing favors us. How can we know that if we
yield to the mercy of the Spaniards, they will spare us? and if
they should kill us, it will be the suffering of but a moment; they
are men, and it may be that, their fury appeased, they may receive
us upon some terms; and, moreover, what can we do? Would it not be
better to fall into the hands of men, than into the jaws of wild
beasts, or die of hunger in a strange land?'
"After he had thus spoken, the greater part of our number were of
his opinion, and praised his counsel. Notwithstanding, I pointed
out the cruel animosity still unappeased of our enemies, and that
it was not for any human cause of quarrel, that they had carried
out with such fury their enterprise, but mainly (as would appear by
the notice they had already given us) because we were of those who
were reformed by the preaching of the Gospel; that we should be
cowards to trust in men, rather than in God, who gives life to his
own in the midst of death, and gives ordinarily his assistance when
the hopes of men entirely fail.
"I also brought to their minds examples from Scripture, instancing
Joseph, Daniel, Elias, and the other prophets, as well also the
apostles, as St. Peter and St. Paul, who were all drawn out of much
affliction, as would appear by means extraordinary and strange to
the reason and judgment of men. His arm, said I, is not shortened,
nor in any wise enfeebled; his power is always the same. Do you not
recollect, said I the flight of the Israelites before Pharaoh? What
hope had that people of escaping from the hands of that powerful
tyrant? He had them, as it were, under his heel. Before them they
had the sea, on either side inaccessible mountains.
"What then? He who opened the sea to make a path for his people,
and made it afterwards to swallow up his enemies, can not he
conduct us by the forest places of this strange country? While thus
discoursing, six of the company followed out the first proposition,
and abandoned us to go and yield themselves up to our enemies,
hoping to find favor before them. But they learned, immediately and
by experience, what folly it is to trust more in men than in the
promise of the Lord. For having gone out of the wood, as they
descended to the fort they were immediately seized by the Spaniards
and treated in the same fashion as the others had been. They were
at once killed and massacred, and then drawn to the banks of the
river, where the others killed at the fort lay in heaps. We who
remained in the wood continued to make our way, and drawing towards
the sea, as well as we could judge, and as it pleased God to
conduct our paths and to straiten our course, we soon arrived at
the brow of a mountain and from there commenced to see the sea, but
it was still at a great distance; and what was worse, the road we
had to take showed itself wonderfully strange and difficult. In the
first place, the mountain from which it was necessary for us to
descend, was of such height and ruggedness, that it was not
possible for a person descending to stand upright; and we should
never have dared to descend it but for the hope we had of
sustaining ourselves by the branches of the bushes, which were
frequent upon the side of the mountain, and to save life, not
sparing our hands which we had all gashed up and bloody, and even
the legs and nearly all the body was torn. But descending from the
mountain, we did not lose our view of the sea, on account of a
small wood which was upon a little hill opposite to us; and in
order to go to the wood it was requisite that we should traverse a
large meadow, all mud and quagmire, covered with briars and other
kind of strange plants; for the stalk was as hard as wood, and the
leaves pricked our feet and our hands until the blood came, and
being all the while in water up to the middle, which redoubled our
pain and suffering. The rain came down upon us in such manner from
heaven, that we were during all that time between two floods; and
the further we advanced the deeper we found the water.
"And then thinking that the last period of our lives had come, we
all embraced each other, and with a common impulse, we commenced to
sigh and cry to the Lord, accusing our sins and recognizing the
weight of his judgment upon us. 'Alas! Lord,' said we, 'what are we
but poor worms of the earth? Our souls weakened by grief, surrender
themselves into thy hands. Oh, Father of Mercy and God of Love,
deliver us from this pain of death! or if thou wilt that in this
desert we shall draw our last breath, assist us so that death, of
all things the most terrible, shall have no advantage over us, but
that we may remain firm and stable in the sense of thy favor and
good-will, which we have too often experienced in the cause of thy
Christ to give way to the spirit of Satan, the spirit of despair
and of distrust; for if we die, we will protest now before thy
Majesty, that we would die unto thee, and that if we live it may be
to recount thy wonders in the midst of the assembly of thy
servants.' Our prayers concluded, we marched with great difficulty
straight towards the wood, when we came to a great river which ran
in the midst of this meadow; the channel was sufficiently narrow
but very deep, and ran with great force, as though all the field
ran toward the sea. This was another addition to our anguish, for
there was not one of our men who would dare to undertake to cross
over by swimming. But in this confusion of our thoughts, as to what
manner to pass over, I bethought myself of the wood which we had
left behind us. After exhorting my comrades to patience and a
continued trust in the Lord, I returned to the wood, and cut a long
pole, with the good size clasp knife which remained in my hand from
the hour the fort was taken; and I returned to the others, who
awaited me in great perplexity, 'Now, then, comrades,' said I, 'let
us see if God, by means of this stick, will not give us some help
to accomplish our path.' Then we laid the pole upon the water, and
each one by turn taking hold of the end of the pole, carried it by
his side to the midst of the channel, when losing sight of him we
pushed him with sufficient force to the other bank, where he drew
himself out by the canes and other bushes growing along its
borders; and by his example we passed over, one at a time; but it
was not without great danger, and not without drinking a great deal
of salt water, in such manner that our hearts were all trembling,
and we were as much overcome as though we had been half drowned.
After we had come to ourselves and had resumed courage, moving on
all the time towards the wood, which we had remarked close to sea,
the pole was not even needed to pass another creek, which gave us
not much less trouble than the first; but by the grace of God, we
passed it and entered the wood the same evening, where we passed
the night in great fear and trembling, standing about against the
trees.
"And, as much as we had labored, even had it been more, we felt no
desire to sleep; for what repose could there be to spirits in such
mortal affright? Near the break of day, we saw a great beast, like
a deer, at fifty paces from us, who had a great head, eyes flaming,
the ears hanging, and the higher parts elevated. It seemed to us
monstrous, because of its gleaming eyes, wondrously large; but it
did not come near us to do us any harm.
"The day having appeared, we went out of the wood and returned
towards the sea, in which we hoped, after God, as the only means of
saving our lives; but we were again cast down and troubled, for we
saw before us a country of marsh and muddy quagmires, full of water
and covered with briars, like that we had passed the previous day.
We marched across this salt marsh; and, in the direction we had to
take, we perceived among the briars a body of men, whom we at first
thought to be enemies, who had gone there to cut us off; but upon
close observation, they seemed in as sad a plight as ourselves,
naked and terrified; and we immediately perceived that they were
our own people. It was Captain Laudonniere, his servant-maid,
Jacques Morgues of Dieppe (the artist), Francis Duval of Rouen, son
of him of the iron crown of Rouen, Niguise de la Cratte, Nicholas
the carpenter, the Trumpeter of Sieur Laudonniere, and others, who
all together made the number of twenty-six men. Upon deliberating
as to what we should do, two of our men mounted to the top of one
of the tallest trees and discovered from thence one of our vessels,
which was that of Captain Maillard, to whom they gave a signal,
that he might know that we were in want of help. Thereupon he came
towards us with his small vessel, but in order to reach the banks
of the stream, it was necessary for us to traverse the briars and
two other rivers similar to those which we passed the previous day;
in order to accomplish which, the pole I had cut the day before was
both useful and necessary, and two others which Sr. de Laudonniere
had provided; and we came pretty near to the vessel, but our hearts
failed us from hunger and fatigue, and we should have remained
where we were unless the sailors had given us a hand, which aid was
very opportune; and they carried us, one after the other, to the
vessel, on board of which we were all received well and kindly.
They gave us bread and water, and we began afterwards, little by
little, to recover our strength and vigor; which was a strong
reason that we should recognize the goodness of the Lord, who had
saved us against all hope from an infinity of dangers and from
death, by which we had been surrounded and assaulted from all
quarters, to render him forevermore our thanks and praises. We thus
passed the entire night recounting the wonders of the Lord, and
consoled each other in the assurances of our safety.
"Daylight having come, Jacques Ribault, Captain of the Pearl,
boarded us to confer with us respecting what was to done by us, and
what means we should take for the safety of the rest of our men and
the vessels. It was then objected, the small quantity of provisions
which we had, our strength broken, our munitions and means of
defense taken from us, the uncertainty as to the condition of our
Admiral, and not knowing but that he had been shipwrecked on some
coast a long distance from us, or driven to a distance by the
tempest.
"We thereupon concluded that we could do no better than return to
France, and were of the opinion that the company should divide into
two parts, the one remaining on board the Pearl, the other under
charge of Captain Maillard.
"On Friday, the twenty-fifth day of the month of September, we
departed from this coast, favored by a strong northerly wind,
having concluded to return to France, and after the first day our
two ships were so far separated that we did not again encounter
each other.
"We proceeded five hundred leagues prosperously, when, one morning
about sunrise, we were attacked by a Spanish vessel, which we met
as well as we could, and cannonaded them in such sort that we made
them subject to our disposal, and battered them so that the blood
was seen to overrun the scuppers. We held them then as surrendered
and defeated; but there was no means of grappling her, on account
of the roughness of the sea for in grappling her there would be
danger of our striking together, which might have sunk us; she
also, satisfied with the affair, left us, joyful and thanking God
that no one of us was wounded or killed in this skirmish except our
cook.
"The rest of our passage was without any renconter with enemies;
but we were much troubled by contrary winds, which often threatened
to cast us on the coast of Spain, which would have been the
finishing touch to our misfortunes, and the thing of which we had
the greatest horror. We also endured at sea many other things, such
as cold and hunger; for be it understood that we, who escaped from
the land of Florida, had nothing else for vestment or equipment, by
day or by night, except our shirts alone, or some other little rag,
which was a small matter of defence from the exposure to the
weather; and what was more, the bread which we eat, and we eat it
very sparingly, was all spoilt and rotten, as well also the water
itself was all noisome, and of which, besides, we could only have
for the whole day a single small glass.
"This bad food was the reason, on our landing, that many of us fell
into divers maladies, which carried off many of the men of our
company; and we arrived at last, after this perilous and lamentable
voyage, at Rochelle; where we were received and treated very
humanely and kindly by the inhabitants of the country and those of
the city, giving us of their means, to the extent our necessities
require; and assisted by their kindness we were each enabled to
return to his own part of the country."[5]
Laudonniere's[6] narrative speaks more of his own personal escape; and
that of Le Moyne[7] refers to this description of De Challeux, as
containing a full and accurate account of what took place. Barcia
mentions De Challeux, very contemptuously as a carpenter, who succeeding
badly at his trade, took up that of preaching, but does not deny the
truth of his narrative.
Those who separated from their comrades and threw themselves upon the
enemies' mercy, are mentioned by the Spanish writers; but they are
silent as to the treatment they received.