52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGU I bull. 73 
The French names of the coast islands are for the most part 
inferred from a statement by Ribault to the effect that the island 
(or the land assumed by him to be an island) was given the same 
name as the river immediately south of it. 1 Not having access to 
his chart, I have been unable to check up the identification of these 
islands. In his narrative, or the translations of it available, the 
Garonne is omitted from the list of rivers, 1 but I am inclined to 
believe this is accidental. Le Moyne makes another innovation by 
substituting the name Aine [Aisne] for Somme. 2 The writer would 
have attributed this to a mere blunder were it not that in the narra- 
tive of the Gourgues expedition the name Somme is applied to a 
stream between the "Seine" (St. Marys) and the "May" (St. Johns), 
probably the Sarauahi of other French writers, the present Nassau. 3 
Therefore it is possible that some change in nomenclature was made 
by certain of the French explorers. 
Just north of the River Grande Ribault and his companions encoun- 
tered bad weather which made it necessary for them to put out to sea. 
When they came shoreward again the vessel in which Laudonniere sailed 
discovered another river, which they named Belle a Veoir, or Belle 
Voir. Le Moyne gives this as a river encountered south of Port 
Royal, but his text is based on Laudonniere and on a misunder- 
standing of that, so that it may be discarded as authority. For 
instance, where Laudonniere says that from the River Grande they 
explored northward toward the River Jordan, Le Moyne has it that 
they reached that river, and he places it between the Grande and 
" Belle Voir." 4 On his map, however, the Belle Voir does not appear, 
the Grande being next to Port Royal, and the Jordan is correctly 
located north of the latter place. The fact of the matter appears to be 
this. After leaving Ossabaw Sound and having been forced to sea by 
stormy weather, Ribault's vessel passed northward of Broad River, 
discovered one of the rivers flowing into St. Helena Sound and 
named it Belle Voir. But in the meantime one of his other ships had 
gotten into Broad River, and when it rejoined the rest informed 
Ribault of the great advantages of that inlet, with the result that they 
turned back and made their settlement there. Therefore in Ribault's 
narrative the River Belle Voir is placed north of Port Royal. Later, 
when the colonists sent men to Ouade asking for food, they came 
upon a river of fresh water 10 leagues from their fort. This is the 
i French, Hist. Colls. La., 1875, 2d ser., n, p. 183. 
3 Le Moyne, Narr., descr. of illus., p. 2. 
3 Laudonniere, Hist. Not. de la Floride, p. 211; French, Hist. Colls. La., 1809, 2d ser., I, pp. 350-351; 
Ibid., 1875, 2d ser., n, p. 279. The Gourgues narratives give the native name of this stream as Halimacani, 
after a Timucua chief whose town was near the mouth of the St. Johns on the north side, while St. George 
Inlet, or a stream flowing into it, is called Sarabay, the Sarrauahi of earlier French writers. As indicated 
above, I believe the last-mentioned name was originally applied to Nassau Inlet . 
4 Narr. of Le Moyne, desc. of illus., p. 2. 
