CHAPTER II 

 DISASTROUS ATTEMPTS IN FLORIDA 



I 



Ribauifs Ex- "■ \OUR years after the failure of the colony at Fort 



pedition, 1562 I i 



i— ^ Coliguy, the Admiral again undertook his cher- 

 M ished plan of colonization. Under the leadership 

 of Jean Ribault, who was the greatest navigator and cap- 

 tain of France, and a staunch Huguenot, an expedition 

 sailed from Havre for Florida on the 18th of February, 

 1562. The two ships contained a goodly company of 

 volunteers, and nearly all the soldiers and labourers, as 

 well as the few noblemen, were Calvinists. Ren6 de 

 Laudonniere, next to Ribault, was the leading man among 

 them, while another of the party, Nicholas Barre, had 

 been with Villegagnon in the expedition to Brazil. 



Six weeks after setting out from France the ships made 

 the coast of Florida, and proceeding northward reached 

 River of May the mouth of a large river which was named the River 

 of May (now the St. John' s) because it was the first of 

 May when the voyagers sailed into its welcome calm. 

 Here they landed, and immediately knelt in thanksgiv- 

 ing to God, and in prayer that He would bless their en- 

 terprise and bring to the knowledge of the Saviour the 

 heathen inhabitants of this new world. Thus both these 

 unfortunate colonies were founded in the spirit of evan- 

 gelism and missions. 



The friendly natives who gathered fearlessly about 

 them watched with wonder this ceremony and the further 

 formal proceedings whereby Ribault took possession of the 

 country in the name of the King of France, setting up in 

 evidence a pillar of stone, engraven with the royal arms, 

 upon a small elevation in a grove of cypress and palm 

 trees near the harbour. 



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