RENE LAUDONNIERE a.d. 



1565. 

 store of rosen to bray the vessels : wherein he used such 

 diligence, that in lesse then 3 weekes he gathered 2 hogs- Two hogsheads 

 heads of the same together. There remained now but '^f^osen. 

 the principal, which was to recover victuals to sustaine 

 us while our worke endured : which I undertooke to doe 

 with ye rest of my company & the Mariners of the ship. 

 To this end I embarked my selfe making up the thirtieth [HI. 342.] 

 in my great barke, to make a voyage of forty or fifty 

 leagues, having with us no provision at all of victuals : 

 whereby it may easily be gathered how simply those of 

 our Fort were provided. True it is that certaine souldiers 

 being better husbandes then the rest, and having made 

 some provision of mast, solde a little measure thereof for 

 lifteene and twentie sous unto their companions. During 

 our voyage we lived of nothing else but raspices, of a 

 certaine round graine little and blacke, and of the rootes 

 of palmitos which we got by the river sides : wherein 

 after we had sayled a long time in vaine, I was con- 

 strained to returne to the Fort : where the souldiers 

 beginning to be wearie of working, because of the ex- 

 treme famine which did consume them, assembled them- 

 selves and declared unto me, that seeing we could get 

 no victuals of the Indians, it was expedient for the saving 

 of their lives, to seaze upon the person of one of the 

 Kings of the Countrie : assuring themselves that one 

 being taken, the subjects would not suffer our men to 

 want victuals. I made them answere that this enterprise 

 was not rashly to be attempted : But that wee ought to 

 have good regarde unto the consequence that might insue 

 thereof. Hereupon they replyed unto me, that seeing 

 the time was past of our succour from France, & that 

 we were resolved to abandon the Countrie, that there was 

 no danger to constraine the Savages to furnish us with 

 victuals : which for the present I would not grant unto 

 them, but promised them assuredly that I would send 

 to advertise the Indians that they should bring me 

 victuals for exchange of marchandise and apparell : which 

 they also did for the space of certaine daies, during which 



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