Brazil Chosen 



94 THE FEEXCH BLOOD IN AMEEICA 



claimed as a monopoly by Spain and Portugal. The idea 

 of adding to the prosperity of France by increasing her 

 industrial resources aj)pealed to Coligny also, but in his 

 case the religious motive was the dominating one. 



II 



- Brazil was selected as the site for the first Protestant 

 French colony in America, and Dui-and de Villegagnon, 



July, 1555 a soldier of fortune who had j^rofessed the Keformed 



doctrines, was chosen as leader. In July, 1555, the 

 little fleet, consisting of two ships and a transport, set 

 sail from Havre de Grace, carrying several hundred 

 colonists. The character of many of these colonists was 

 not propitious for the success of the venture, for while 

 some were Protestants, including noblemen, soldiers and 

 mechanics, the majority were recruits from the prisons 

 of Paris. So many of them deserted on the way, how- 

 ever, that only eighty were left to complete the voyage, 

 and of these but thirty were artisans. After a long and 

 stormy experience, the adventurers reached the wonder- 

 ful Bay of Rio de Janeiro. Here they landed on an 

 island, constructed huts, and commenced building a fort 

 which they called Fort Coligny. 



Tit^*^ s'^ ^°"" "^^^ condition of the colony was precarious, and un- 

 less fresh supplies of food and reinforcements of men 

 were received from France, the venture would prove 

 a failure. The island was too small to admit of 

 cultivation, and on the mainland the settlers were 

 threatened by the Portuguese, who regarded them as un- 

 lawful invaders of the soil. Many of the colonists re- 

 turned to France in the ships which had brought them 

 over, leaving Villegagnon with a diminished band con- 

 sisting mostly of the convicts he had taken from the 

 prisons. In addition to the dangers of fomine and 

 destruction by the Portuguese, internal dissensions threat- 

 ened the life of the colony. "Villegagnon signalized 

 his new-born Protestantism by an intolerable solicitude 



