A BACKWARD GLANCE. 37 



attempts, finally built Fort Caroline, on the St. John's 

 River, at a point, it is supposed, now called St. John's Bluff. 



All this stirred up the Spaniards once more, and under a 

 fierce, bigoted leader, Don Pedro Menendez, an expedition 

 was fitted out to drive the accursed heretics out of Florida. 

 This force landed at St. Augustine, as Menendez named 

 the settlement he at once founded as a basis of supplies, 

 and thus, in the year 1565, was started the first settlement 

 in Florida, and the oldest in the United States. 



The French commander, Ribault, hearing of his ene- 

 mies' approach, resolved to become the assailant. Taking 

 five hundred men, and leaving less than one hundred in 

 the fort, he sailed for St. Augustine ; but before reaching 

 the mouth of that river a storm drove his ships out to sea, 

 and then drove them on shore, leaving them total wrecks, 

 and himself and his men three hundred miles from their 

 fort. 



After nine days of constant marching and hardships 

 they arrived in sight of their longed-for haven, to see the 

 Spanish flag floating over the rampart! It was a cruel 

 blow. 



Ribault justly distrusted the assurances of Menendez ; 

 but his men were worn out, unable to retreat, unable to 

 fight, and the only thing left to do he did — surrendered to 

 Menendez, on his promise of safety. Then the treacherous 

 Spaniards, taking their prisoners into the fort (from across 

 the river), thirty at a time, tied their hands behind their 

 backs and mercilessly slaughtered them, heaping useless 

 cruelties and indignities upon them, while the military 

 band played its loudest and merriest to drown the cries for 

 mercy. 



And so the poor Frenchmen were murdered, each de- 

 tachment ignorant of the fate of its predecessors. Ribault, 

 pleading for his men, was stricken down, stabbed in the 



