thirty-six degrees and forty minutes, and as including islands; of two rivers which it receives, he calls the north-eastern one Salt river, the other the river of the Holy Ghost; the cape to the north of it, which he places in the latitude of thirty-seven degrees, he names Cape St. John. The bay of St. Mary is marked on all Spanish maps, after the year 1549. But as yet not a Spanish fort was erected on the Atlantic coast, not a harbor was occupied, not one settlement was begun. The first permanent establishment of the Spaniards in Florida was the result of jealous bigotry.

For France had begun to settle the region with a colony of Protestants; and Calvinism, which, with the special co-operation of Calvin himself, had for a short season occupied the coasts of Brazil and the harbor of Rio Janeiro, was now to be planted on the borders of Florida. Coligny had long desired to establish a refuge for the Huguenots and a Protestant French empire in America. Disappointed in his first effort by the apostasy and faithlessness of his agent, Villegagnon, he still persevered, moved alike by religious zeal and by a passion for the honor of France. The expedition which he now planned was intrusted to the command of John Ribault, of Dieppe, a brave man, of maritime experience, and a firm Protestant; and was attended by some of the best of the young French nobility, as well as by veteran troops. The feeble Charles IX. conceded an ample commission, and in February, 1562, the squadron set sail for the shores of North America. Land was first made by the voyagers in the latitude of St. Augustine; the noble river which we call the St. John's was named the river of May, from the month in which it was discovered. The land seemed rich in gold, silver, and pearls, and its caterpillars were taken for "fairer and better silkworms" than those of Europe. As they sailed toward the north, three streams were named the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne. In searching for the Jordan, they came "athwart a mightie river," which they called Port Royal. Casting anchor at ten fathom of water, Ribault landed with a party at Hilton Head, where they saw "high oaks and an infinite store of cedars," and heard "the voices of stags and divers other sorts of beasts." Some who threw nets wondered at the num

ber of fish which they caught. After sheltering his ships in the sound, he explored the country on Broad river many leagues high, and was at first feared and then welcomed by the red men whom he chanced to meet. The stags were of "singular fairness and bigness." Palm-trees abounded. A stone engraven with the arms of France was set up to mark possession of the country, and a party of twenty-six was left on the bank of Beaufort river to hold it. Their earth-work fort may have stood on the first firm land of Port Royal island above Archer's creek; in honor of Charles IX. it was named Carolina.

In July, Ribault and the ships arrived safely in France. But the fires of civil war had been kindled in all the provinces of the kingdom; and the promised re-enforcements for Carolina were never levied. The situation of the garrison became precarious. The natives were friendly, but the soldiers themselves were insubordinate, and dissensions prevailed. The commandant at Carolina repressed the turbulent spirit with arbitrary cruelty, and lost his life in a mutiny which his ungovernable passion had provoked. The new commander succeeded in restoring order. But the love of his native land is a passion easily revived in the breast of a Frenchman; and in 1563 the company embarked in such a brigantine as they could themselves put together. Intoxicated with joy at the thought of returning home, they had neglected to provide sufficient stores, and they were overtaken by famine at sea. A small English bark which boarded their vessel, setting the most feeble on shore upon the coast of France, carried the rest to the queen of England.

After the treacherous peace between Charles IX. and the Huguenots, Coligny renewed his solicitations for the colonization of Florida. The king gave consent; in 1564 three ships were conceded for the service; and Laudonnière, who, in the former voyage, had been upon the American coast, a man of great intelligence, though a seaman rather than a soldier, was appointed to lead forth the colony. Emigrants readily appeared, for the climate of Florida was so celebrated that, according to rumor, the duration of human life was doubled under its genial influences; and men still dreamed of rich mines of gold in the interior. Coligny was desirous of obtain

ing accurate descriptions of the country; and James le Moyne, called De Morgues, an ingenious painter, was commissioned to execute colored drawings of the objects which might engage his curiosity. A voyage of sixty days brought the fleet, by the way of the Canaries and the Antilles, to the shores of Florida in June. The harbor of Port Royal, rendered gloomy by recollections of misery, was avoided; and, after searching the coast, and discovering places which were so full of amenity that melancholy itself could not but change its humor as it gazed, the followers of Calvin planted themselves on the banks of the river May, near St. John's bluff: They sung a psalm of thanksgiving, and gathered courage from acts of devotion. The fort now erected was named Carolina. The result of this attempt to procure for France immense dominions at the south of our republic through the agency of a Huguenot colony, has been very frequently narrated; it forms a dark picture of malignant and merciless bigotry.

The French were hospitably welcomed by the natives; a monument, bearing the arms of France, was crowned with laurels, and its base encircled with baskets of corn. What need is there of minutely relating the simple manners of the red men, the dissensions of rival tribes, the largesses offered to the strangers to secure their protection or their alliance, the improvident prodigality with which careless soldiers wasted the supplies of food; the certain approach of scarcity; the gifts and the tribute levied from the Indians by entreaty, menace, or force? By degrees the confidence of the red men was exhausted; they had welcomed powerful guests, who promised to become their benefactors, and who now robbed their humble granaries.

But the worst evil in the new settlement was the character of the emigrants. Though patriotism and religious enthusiasm had prompted the expedition, the inferior class of the colonists was a motley group of dissolute men. Mutinies were frequent. The men were mad with the passion for sudden wealth; and in December a party, under the pretence of desiring to escape from famine, compelled Laudonnière to sign an order permitting their embarkation for New Spain. No sooner were they possessed of this apparent sanction of the

chief than they began a career of piracy against the Spaniards. The act of crime and temerity was soon avenged. The pirate vessel was taken, and most of the men disposed of as prisoners or slaves. The few that escaped in a boat sought shelter at Fort Carolina, where Laudonnière sentenced the ringleaders to death.

During these events the scarcity became extreme; and the friendship of the natives was forfeited by unprofitable severity. March of 1565 was gone, and there were no supplies from France; April passed away, and the expected recruits had not arrived; May brought nothing to sustain the hopes of the exiles, and they resolved to attempt a return to Europe. In August, Sir John Hawkins, the slave merchant, arrived from the West Indies. He came fresh from the sale of a cargo of Africans, whom he had kidnapped with signal ruthlessness; and he now displayed the most generous sympathy, not only furnishing a liberal supply of provisions, but relinquishing a vessel from his own fleet. The colony was on the point of embarking when sails were descried. Ribault had arrived to assume the command, bringing with him supplies of every kind, emigrants with their families, garden-seeds, implements of husbandry, and the various kinds of domestic animals. The French, now wild with joy, seemed about to acquire a home, and Calvinism to become fixed in the inviting regions of Florida.

But Spain had never abandoned her claim to that territory, where, if she had not planted colonies, she had buried many hundreds of her bravest sons. Should the proud Philip II. abandon a part of his dominions to France? Should he suffer his commercial monopoly to be endangered by a rival settlement in the vicinity of the West Indies? Should he permit the heresy of Calvinism to be planted in the neighborhood of his Catholic provinces? There had appeared at the Spanish court a commander well fitted for reckless acts. Pedro Melendez de Aviles, often, as a naval officer, encountering pirates, had become inured to acts of prompt and unsparing vengeance. He had acquired wealth in Spanish America, which was no school of benevolence, and his conduct there had provoked an inquiry, which, after a long arrest, ended in

his conviction. The heir of Melendez had been shipwrecked among the Bermudas; the father desired to return and search among the islands for tidings of his only son. Philip II. suggested the conquest and colonization of Florida; and in May, 1565, a compact was framed and confirmed by which Melendez, who desired an opportunity to retrieve his honor, was constituted the hereditary governor of a territory of almost unlimited extent.

On his part he stipulated, at his own cost, in the following May, to invade Florida with five hundred men; to complete its conquest within three years; to explore its currents and channels, the dangers of its coasts, and the depth of its havens; to establish a colony of at least five hundred persons, of whom one hundred should be married men; with twelve ecclesiastics, besides four Jesuits. He further engaged to introduce into his province all kinds of domestic animals and five hundred negro slaves. The sugar-cane was to become a staple of the country.

The king, in return, promised the undertaker various commercial immunities; the office of governor for life, with the right of naming his son-in-law as his successor; an estate of twenty-five square leagues in the immediate vicinity of the settlement; a salary of two thousand ducats, chargeable on the revenues of the province; and a fifteenth part of all royal perquisites.

Meantime, news arrived, as the French writers assert through the treachery of the court of France, that the Huguenots had made a plantation in Florida, and that Ribault was preparing to set sail with re-enforcements. The cry was raised that the heretics must be extirpated; and Melendez readily obtained the forces which he required. More than twenty-five hundred persons-soldiers, sailors, priests, Jesuits, married men with their families, laborers, and mechanics, and, with the exception of three hundred soldiers, all at the cost of Melendez-undertook the invasion. The trade-winds of July bore them rapidly across the Atlantic, but a tempest scattered the fleet on the way; it was with only one third part of his forces that Melendez reached the harbor of St. John in Porto Rico. But he esteemed celerity the secret of success; and,