348 THE FRENCH BLOOD IN AI^IERICA 



1629 



DeSauce's 

 Venture 



Unfit Site 



II 



After the fall of La Rochelle, the Baron De Sauce, a 

 hero of the defense of that city under the Duke of Rohan, 

 took refuge in England, and in 1629 begged permission 

 of the government to establish a colony of Huguenots in 

 Virginia "to cultivate vines and to make silke and salt 

 there." The request was favourably received and he was 

 given letters of denization for himself and son in order 

 that he might return to France in safety to get his family 

 and property. Careful preparations were made, and in 

 due course of time the expedition sailed for Virginia. It 

 landed safely on the southern side of the James River and 

 a settlement was commenced in what is now the county 

 of Nansemond, then known as '' Southampton Hundred," 

 a patent of 200,000 acres granted several years be- 

 fore. 



No records of this colony have been discovered, and its 

 fate is a matter of conjecture. Says Colonel R. L. Maury, 

 who has carefully examined the Virginia records, ' ' I 

 have not been able to learn further of this colony ; mani- 

 festly it did not flourish, and must have soon dispersed, 

 having left no enduring memorial." 



The place chosen for this abortive attempt at coloniza- 

 tion was perhaps the worst that could have been selected 

 in all Virginia. In 1698, Col. William Byrd, in helping the 

 government to locate the band who finally settled at Man- 

 akin Town ( about twenty miles above Richmond, on the 

 James River), wrote of '^Southampton Hundred," 'Hhat 

 part is according to its name, for the most part low 

 swampy ground, unfit for planting and Improvement and 

 ye air of it very moist and unhealthy so that to send 

 French thither that came from a dry and serene Clymate 

 were to send them to their death, and that would very 

 ill answer his Maj'tys charitable intentions." 



The settlers did not all jx'rish, however, for Huguenot 

 names became frequent in the records of Norfolk 

 County. 



