225 



DIEPPE. 



Although at first a fishing-village, Dieppe in the natural process 

 of events became a great maritime town ; and, when Francis I. 

 visited the place, he was, no doubt, surprised to find himself 

 entertained magnificently at the expense of a single individual. 

 The national marine did not exist, and yet this host of a monarch 

 swept the seas with his own ships, and treated as an equal with 

 the other sea-kings of the time. 



The Dieppais are even supposed to have been the pioneers of 

 the discoveries of the moderns in Africa; and, nearly a century 

 before the expedition of Vasco de Gama to India, they had 

 formed settlements in latitudes where no stranger-flag had waved 

 since the days of the PhcEnicians. At a later date, Anher and 

 Verazan, two mariners of Dieppe, founded Quebec; in 1520, 

 the brothers Parmentier discovered the island of Fernambourgh ; 

 and the Dieppais captain, Ribaud, was the first Frenchman who 

 landed in Florida. 



The expedition of Ribaud was undertaken under the auspices 

 of the Admiral Coligney ; who, perhaps, flattered himself that 

 his new colonies might, one day, serve as cities of refuge for his 

 Protestant brethren. Philip II. of Spain, however, recollecting 

 that half a century before some Spaniards had disembarked in 

 Florida, claimed the country as his own, sent a fleet to recover 

 it, attacked and beat the colonists, and hung those whom the 

 sword had spared. It may be supposed that this summary 

 process gave a little umbrage to the French king : not at all ; 

 for the Spaniards had taken care to inscribe on the gibbets of his 

 subjects, *' not as Frenchmen^ but as herpetics.'* 



The affair, however, did not rest here. An individual called 

 Domenique de Gourgues brooded over the outrage till his brain 

 began to burn with the enthusiam which is sometimes called 

 frenzy, and sometimes heroism. He sold his possessions, made 

 proselytes to the cause of vengeance, fitted out an expedition, 

 sailed to Florida, and exterminated the new colonists — writing 

 upon the gibbets of those who did not perish by the sword, 

 " Not as Spaniards^ but as assassins." On his return to France, 

 he had very nearly lost his head for this criminal audacity. 



In the port of Dieppe there are still occasionally vessels of 

 considerable burthen; but, with the exception now and then of 

 a timber-ship from the north, or a brigantine or two from New- 



VOL. VII. — 1836. EE 



