DISASTROUS ATTEMPTS IN FLOEIDA 103 



taught me that we may uot build with high stages iu this 

 country, by reason of the winds whereunto it is subject. 

 One of the sides that enclosed my court, which I made 

 very fair and large, reached unto the range of my mu- 

 nitions, and, on the other side, towards the river, was 

 mine own lodging, round about which were galleries, all 

 covered. One principal door of my lodging wtis in the 

 midst of the great place, and the other was towards the 

 river. A good distance from the fort, I built an oven, to 

 avoid the danger against fire, because the houses are of 

 palm-leaves, which will soon be burned after the fire 

 catcheth hold of them, so that, with much ado, a man 

 shall have leisure to quench them. Lo, here, in brief, the 

 description of oiu- fortress, which I named Caroline, in Fort Caroline 

 honour of oui' prince, King Charles. 



. . . In the meanwhile, I was uot able, with the 

 same store of victuals which I had, so well to proportion 

 out the travel upon the ships which we built to retui-n 

 into France ; but that, in the end, we were constrained to 

 endure extreme famine, which continued among us all Famine 

 the month of May ; for, in this latter season, neither 

 maize, nor beans, nor mast, was to be found in the 

 villages, because they had employed all for to sow their 

 fields, insomuch that we were constrained to eat roots, 

 which the most part of our men pounded in the mortars 

 (which I had brought with us to beat gunpowder in), and 

 the grain which came to us from other places. Some took 

 the wood of esquine, beat it, and made meal thereof, 

 which they boiled with water, and eat it ; others went, 

 with their harquebuses, to seek to kill some fowl. Yea, 

 this misery was so great, that one was found that gathered 

 up, among the filth of my house, all the fish bones that he 

 could find, which he dried and beat into powder, to make 

 bread thereof. 



. . . I leave it to your cogitation to think how near 

 it went to our hearts to leave a place abounding in riches 

 (as we were thoroughly informed thereof), in coming 



