The fires of persecution were continually burning, and at length Coligny conceived the noble idea of providing a place of refuge for his Protestant brethren, beyond the Atlantic. The king granted him a commission for that purpose; and early in 1562 [Feb. 28], a squadron, under John Ribault, sailed for America. The little Huguenot fleet touched first near the harbor of St. Augustine, in Florida.' Sailing northward, they saw the mouth of the beautiful St. John's River [May, 1562], and, it being the fifth month of the year, they named it the "River of May." Making their way along the coast, they discovered Port Royal entrance, were charmed with the beauty of the scene, chose the spot for their future home, and built a small fort, which they named Carolina, in honor of the king. Leaving a garrison of twenty-six men to defend it, Ribault went back to France with the ships, for reinforcements. Bitter disappointment ensued. Civil war was raging in France, and Coligny was almost powerless. The reinforcements were not supplied, and the little garrison, though treated with hospitality by the Indians, became very discontented. Despairing of relief, they built a frail vessel, and, with insufficient stores, they embarked for France. Tempests assailed them, and famine was menacing them with death, when they were picked up by an English bark, and conveyed to Great Britain. Thus perished the first seeds of religious freedom which the storms of persecution bore to the New World.

The noble Coligny was not discouraged; and, during a lull in the tempest of civil commotion, another expedition was sent to America, under the command of Laudonniere, who had accompanied Ribault on his first voyage. They arrived in July, 1564, pitched their tents on the banks of the St. John's River (River of May), and built another Fort Carolina. But there were elements of dissolution among these immigrants. Many were idle, vicious, and improvident; and provisions soon became scarce. Under pretext of returning

to France, to escape famine, quite a large party sailed, in December, in one of the vessels. They turned pirates, and depredated extensively upon Spanish property in the West Indies. The remainder became discontented, and were about to embark for France, when Ribault arrived with immigrants and supplies, and took command."

Spanish jealousy and bigotry were now aroused, and when the monarch of Spain, the narrow Philip the Second, heard of the settlement of the French Protestants within his claimed territory, and of the piracies of some of the party, he adopted measures for their expulsion and punishment. Pedro Melendez, a brave but cruel military chief, was appointed Governor of Florida, on condition that he would expel the Frenchmen from the soil, conquer the natives, and plant a colony there within three years. That was an enterprise exactly suited to the character of Melendez. He came with a strong force, consisting of three hundred soldiers furnished by the king, and twenty-two hundred vol

1 Page 42.

2 James Le Moyne, a skillful painter, was sent with this expedition, with instructions to make colored drawings of every object worthy of preservation. His illustrations of the costume and customs of the natives are very interesting, because authentic.

unteers-priests, sailors, mechanics, laborers, women, and children. The fleet was scattered by storms, and with only one third of his original number, Melendez landed in a fine harbor on the coast of Florida. There he laid the foundations of a city, which he named St. Augustine [Sept. 17, 1565], and formally proclaimed the king of Spain to be monarch of all North America. On hearing of the arrival of the Spaniards, a large party of the French, under Ribault, proceeded from the St. John's, by water, to attack them. A tempest wrecked every vessel; and most of the survivors, who fell into the hands of the Spaniards, were put to death. In the mean while, Melendez made his way through the swamps and forests with a strong force, to the defenseless French settlement, where he massacred about nine hundred men, women, and children, and over their dead bodies placed an inscription, avowing that he slew them, not "because they were Frenchmen, but Lutherans." Upon that field of blood the monster erected a cross, and laid the foundation of a Christian church to commemorate the deed!

Charles the Ninth of France was not only a weak monarch, but an enemy to the Huguenots. He therefore took no steps to avenge the outrage, perpetrated under the sanction of the bigot of Spain. But one of his subjects, a fiery soldier of Gascony, named Dominic de Gourges, obtained permission to inflict retribution. He had suffered Spanish bondage and Spanish cruelty, and panted for revenge. He fitted out three ships at his own expense, and with one hundred and fifty men, sailed for Florida. He attacked the Spaniards upon the St. John's, surprised and captured Fort Carolina, which they occupied, made two hundred prisoners, and hanging his captives upon the trees almost upon the spot where his countrymen had been murdered, he placed over them the inscription—"I do not this as unto Spaniards or mariners, but unto traitors, robbers, and murderers." Too weak to brave the vengeance of Melendez, who was at St. Augustine, De Gourges immediately left the coast, and returned to France. The natives were delighted at seeing their common enemies thus destroying each other. The Spaniards, however, held possession, and a Spanish settlement was ever afterward maintained at St. Augustine, except during a few years.

It was now more than three quarters of a century since Columbus discovered the West India Islands, and yet no real progress toward a permanent European settlement, within the domain of the United States, had been made. Although the English seem not to have wholly relinquished the idea of planting settlements in America, it was not until the twentieth year of the brilliant reign of Queen Elizabeth, and almost eighty years after the discovery of the continent by Cabot, that healthy efforts to found colonies in the New World, were made. Sir Martin Frobisher3 (an eminent navigator) and others had

1 The Protestants were often called by the general name of Lutherans, because the later Reformation was commenced by the bold opposition of Martin Luther to the corrupt practices of the Romish Church. Note 14, page 62. 2 Page 46.

3 Born in Yorkshire, England; was trained in the navigator's art; made several voyages for discovery; and died of wounds received in a naval battle near Brest, on the French coast, in 1594.

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explored the north-western coast of North America, to the dreary region north of Hudson's Bay,' in search of precious metals and a north-west passage to India, but without beneficial results. Newfoundland was visited every year by numerous English and French fishing-vessels, and the neighboring continent was frequently touched by the hardy mariners. Yet no feasible plans for colonization were matured. Finally, when the public mind of England was turned from the cold regions of Labrador and the fancied mineral wealth in its rugged mountains, to the milder South, and the more solid benefits to be derived from plantations than min s, a new and brilliant era in the history of civilization began. This change was produced incidentally by the Huguenot adventurers.* The remnant of Coligny's first colony, who were picked up at sea and taken to England, informed the queen of the glory of the climate, and the fertility of the soil of Carolina. When De Gourges returned from his foray upon the Spaniards, Walter Raleigh, then a young man of much promise, was learning the art of war with Coligny, in France, and he communicated to his friends in England that chevalier's account of Florida, which was yet a wilderness free for the sons of toil. Enterprise was powerfully aroused by the promises of that warm and beautiful land, and the Protestants feeling of England was strongly stirred by the cruelties of Melendez. These dissimilar, but auxiliary causes, produced great effects, and soon many minds were employed in planning schemes for colonizing the pleasant middle regions of North America. The first healthy plan for settlement there was proposed by the learned Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a step-brother of Walter Raleigh. He had served with honor in the wars of Ireland, France, and the Low Countries, and then was not only practically engaged in maritime affairs, but had written and published a treatise on the north-west passage to India. Having lost money in a vain endeavor to transmute baser metals into gold, he resolved to attempt to retrieve his fortune by planting a colony in the New World. In June, 1578, he obtained a liberal patent or grant from the queen. Raleigh gave him the aid of his hand and fortune; and early in 1579, Gilbert sailed for America, with a small squadron, accompanied by his step-brother. Heavy storms and Spanish war-vessels compelled them to return, and the scheme was abandoned for a time. Four years afterward [1583] Gilbert sailed with another squadron; and after a series of disasters, he reached the harbor of St. John's, Newfoundland. There he set up a pillar with the English arms upon it, proclaimed the sovereignty of his queen, and then proceeded to explore the coast southward. After being terribly beaten by tempests off the shores of Nova Scotia and Maine, and losing his largest ship, he turned his vessel toward England. At midnight, in September, during a gale, his own little bark of ten tons went down, with all on board, and only one vessel of the expedition returned to England to relate the dreadful narrative.

G

The melancholy fate of the second expedition did not dismay the heart of

1 Note 8, page 59. 4 Page 51.

2 Page 47.

9 Page 50.

• Note 14, page 62.

6 Note 2, page 40.