CHAPTER I 

 VILLEGAGNON'S FAILURE IN BRAZIL 



T 



HE earliest efforts to settle a body of French coiigny-s 



. Colonization 



Protestants in the New W orld were inspired by scheme 



and Purpose 



Admiral Coliguy, more than a century before 

 the Pilgrims lauded at Plymouth, and before the bitter 

 religious persecutions had begun in France. Admiral 

 Coligny was easily the greatest Frenchman of the age in 

 far-seeing statesmanship, as he was in character the most 

 resolute, high-minded and sagacious, and in looking at 

 the conditions of France he saw clearly the dangers 

 which threatened her and the people he loved. In 

 establishing a Protestant colony he aimed at founding a 

 refuge for the Protestants wherein they would be free 

 from the persecutions which he realized must soon de- 

 scend upon them with fury, for there was every indica- 

 tion that the tempest of hatred was about to bm^st. The His pian 

 bitterness and malignancy of the Romish clergy were al- 

 ready being aroused to feverish activity by the growth 

 and success of the Reformed Church. Their hatred was 

 only intensified by the fact that the virtues and sobriety 

 of the Huguenot ministers threw into unpleasant relief 

 their own utter lack of conscience and morals; the 

 Christian and self-sacrificing character of their adver- 

 saries served only to heighten their rage. Their open 

 advocacy in Parliament of introducing the Spanish In- 

 quisition to cope with heretics gave Coligny his strongest 

 impulse towards founding a Protestant colony, and he 

 straightway sought the ear of Henry II. Henry's consent 

 was gained, for to him the project appealed as an oppor- 

 tunity for winning to France a share of the rich domain 



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