12

FERDINAND DE SOTO.

monarch a commission for that purpose, together with the government of Cuba. (1537.)

Multitudes of adventurers flocked to his standard. Expectation had been raised to the greatest height by the exaggerated accounts of the wealth of Florida; and men of all classes sold their possessions in Spain to fit themselves out for a conquest which promised to outshine those of Mexico and Peru, in the brilliancy of its results.

Soto selected six hundred of the choicest men for his companions, and sailed to Cuba. (1538.) Here he was joined by other adventurers, and having completed his preparations, he embarked for Florida in May, 1539. Having arrived in the bay of Spiritu Santo, he sent back most of his ships to Havanna, and commenced his march into the interior -a march which has no parallel in the history of adventure. Fired by the example of their countrymen in the more southern regions, the Spaniards advanced as if to certain conquest and wealth. They were abundantly supplied with provisions and munitions of war, horses for the cavalry, and blood-hounds for hunting the natives; and their numbers exceeded those of the armies which had conquered Mexico and Peru. But they were destined for a far different fate. Their grand error, the pursuit of gold, was the source of endless disasters and sufferings.

The Indians, who were determined in their hostility to the invaders, had recourse to stratagem, as well as force, in order to get rid of them. They continually deceived the Spaniards by representing to them that, by continuing their march into the interior, they would at last arrive at a region abounding with gold-and deluded, again and again, by this plausible story, Soto passed onward from tribe to tribe, and from river to river, until his splendid and well appointed army had melted away to a mere handful of men, worn out with sufferings, and destitute of the means of subsistence or defence.

Setting out from the bay of Spiritu Santo in June 1539, they spent the time in wandering through forests and morasses, until October, when they found themselves in the neighbourhood of Appalachee bay.-The men were dispirited, and desirous to return home; but Soto would not hear of such a measure; he sent to Cuba for supplies for the next year's expedition.

În March, 1540, deluded by the promise of an Indian guide to conduct him to a country where gold was abundant, Soto

set forth again and marched towards the north-east, till they reached the Ogechee, and then through the country of the Cherokees, now a part of the gold region; but without discovering any of the precious metal. From Georgia the Spaniards passed into Alabama, and in October fought a severe battle with the Indians, at a town which was then called Mavilla or Mobile, on the Alabama above the junction of the Tombecbee. In this engagement 2,500 Indians are said to have fallen. The town was burned. The Spaniards had 18 killed and 150 wounded, and lost a part of their horses and all their baggage, which was burned in the town.

Having received supplies from Cuba, Soto now marched towards the north and west. In December, 1540, he had reached the upper part of the Mississippi, where he wintered in a deserted town of the Chickasaws. In the spring he demanded of them 200 men, to carry the baggage of the soldiers. The Indians, instead of complying with this unwarrantable requisition, set fire to the town in which the Spaniards were encamped, in the night, and attacked them with great fury. The loss of men in this encounter was trifling, but the Spaniards suffered severely from the destruction of their clothing, their arms, and a part of their horses. The Indians knew not how to follow up their first advantage, and the invaders were soon in a condition to continue their progress to the west.

In April, 1541, Soto discovered the Mississippi, being the first European who visited that river. In June he had crossed it, and reached Missouri; and during the summer he is supposed to have penetrated as far as the highlands of the White river, 200 miles from the Mississippi. Thence he turned towards the south, and passed through Arkansas into Louisiana. His wanderings and contests with the Indians continued until May 21st, 1542, when, worn out with sickness and fatigue, the unfortunate Soto died, on the banks of the great river which he had discovered. To conceal his death from the Indians, his followers sunk the body in the middle of the

stream.

"The discoverer of the Mississippi,' says Bancroft, from whose eloquent history we have condensed this brief account of his expedition- the discoverer of the Mississippi slept beneath its waters. He had crossed a large part of the continent in search of gold, and found nothing so remarkable as his burial place.'

C

14

THE FRENCH IN CAROLINA.

He had been the soul of the enterprise; and when he had perished, the remnant of his followers were only anxious for a safe passage to their countrymen. Under the conduct of Moscoso, their new leader, they attempted to reach Mexico, and marched 300 miles westward from the Mississippi. But the Red river was swollen so as to present an impassable barrier to their further progress, and they were compelled to return and prepare boats for passing down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico-an undertaking of great difficulty and danger, which was not accomplished until July 18th, 1543. Fifty days afterwards the remnant of Soto's splendid company of adventurers, now reduced to 311 in number, arrived at the province of Panuco in Mexico.

Thus far the Spaniards, although they claimed the whole coast of the United States under the name of Florida, had not effected a single settlement on the soil. For some years after Soto's failure the design seems to have been abandoned; until an attempt of the French to establish a colony in Florida awakened the jealousy of the Spaniards; and brought them forward once more, to revive and make good their claim to the land which had cost them so much blood and treasure.

Gaspard de Coligny, admiral of France, conceived the design of establishing a colony of French Protestants in America; which should afford a refuge to those who were persecuted for their religious opinions, during the civil wars with which his country was disturbed in the reign of Charles IX. He obtained a commission for this purpose from the king; and intrusted the expedition to John Ribault, who sailed with a squadron in February, 1562.

Having arrived on the coast of Florida in the latitude of St. Augustine, Ribault explored the coast, discovered the river St. Johns, which he called the river of May, and visited Port Royal entrance near Beaufort, and having left a colony of 26 persons at a fort which he named Carolina in honour of Charles IX., he returned to France. The civil wars in that kingdom being revived, no reinforcements were sent out to the colony, and it was speedily abandoned.

On the return of peace (1564,) Coligny was enabled to send out a new expedition under Laudonniere, an able and intelligent commander, who arrived on the coast of Florida in June, began a settlement on the river May, and erected a new Fort Carolina, many leagues to the south of its predecessor. Here they had to encounter the usual hardships and privations of

MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH.

15

settlers in a new country, till December of the same year, when a part of the colonists, under pretence of escaping from famine, obtained permission from Laudonniere to equip two vessels and sail for Mexico. But instead of doing so, they began to capture Spanish vessels. They were taken and punished, as pirates.

When the colony was nearly exhausted by the scarcity of food, relief was brought by the fleet of Sir John Hawkins, who furnished a supply of provisions, and made the offer of one of his vessels to convey the French to their own country. Just as they were preparing to embark, Ribault arrived with a reinforcement, and ample supplies of every kind.

The colony had now a fair prospect of ultimate success. But it had been planted in a territory to which the Spanish had a prior claim, which, although dormant, was by no means extinct. An expedition was soon fitted out for the occupation of Florida; and its departure from Spain was hastened by the report, that the country was already in possession of a company of settlers doubly obnoxious to the Spaniards on account of their nation and their religion. They were not only Frenchmen, but Protestants.

This expedition, commanded by Pedro Melendez, came in sight of the Florida shore in August, 1565. A few days afterwards Melendez discovered and named the harbour of St. Augustine, and learned the position of the French. Before attacking them, he landed at St. Augustine, and took possession of the continent in the name of the king of Spain, and laid the foundation of the town. This interesting event took place on the 8th of September, 1565; more than forty years before the settlement of Jamestown in Virginia. St. Augustine can, therefore, boast a higher antiquity than the Ancient Dominion.

Meanwhile the French, having learned the arrival of their enemies, nearly all abandoned the settlement on the river May, embarked in their fleet, and were shipwrecked on the coast. The remnant were attacked and massacred by the Spaniards, who, in honour of the saint on whose festival the victory had been obtained, gave the river May the name of St. Matheo, or St. Matthew. Those Frenchmen, who had survived the shipwreck of the fleet, surrendered to Melendez on a promise of safety; but they were nearly all put to death, many of them were hung on gibbets with the inscription over their heads, 'Not as Frenchmen but as Protestants.' A few catholics were saved from the massacre. After thus extirpat

16

MASSACRE OF THE SPANIARDS.

ing the French colony, the Spaniards sailed for their native country, leaving a force in possession of the settlement.

As the French government took no measures for punishing this aggression, Dominic de Gourgues, a French officer of some distinction, fitted out an expedition of three ships and one hundred and fifty men at his own cost, (1568,) for the express purpose of avenging his murdered countrymen. He surprised the forts on the river St. Matheo, and captured a considerable number of prisoners, who were forthwith hanged upon trees with the inscription over their heads, 'I do not this as unto Spaniards or mariners, but as unto traitors, robbers, and murderers.' He then embarked without attempting to keep possession of his conquest. His acts were disavowed by the French government, and the Spaniards continued to hold the colony.

Thus it appears, that up to the year 1568, the Spaniards were the only nation holding possessions within the territory at present belonging to the united States. It was nearly forty years after this that England began the settlement of Virginia.

CHAPTER IV.

ENGLAND ATTEMPTS TO COLONISE THE UNITED STATES.

THE fisheries of Newfoundland appear to have been visited frequently, if not annually, by the English as well as the French navigators, during the early part of the sixteenth century; and both nations cherished the design of founding colonies in North America. We have already shown that Nova Scotia was settled by the French in 1605, and Canada in 1608.

Previous to these settlements the English were by no means inactive in the career of western adventure. The discovery of a north-west passage to India was a favourite project with them, notwithstanding the failure of the Cabots in attempting it.

An expedition for this purpose was fitted out by Martin Frobisher, under the patronage of Dudley, Earl of Warwick, in 1576. It consisted of two small barks, of twenty and twenty-five tons burden, one of which was lost on the outward passage. With the remaining vessels Frobisher pursued his