s wanton] EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 335 
these places probably belonged to the greal Timucua group. The 
De Soto chroniclers are of particular service in giving us an early 
picture of the tribes of this stock toward the western side of the 
peninsula, the later settlements all having been made from the east. 
The next important chapter in the history of Florida is its settle- 
ment by French Huguenots. The first expedition sailed in Feb- 
ruary, 1562, under Jean Ribault, and sighted land on the east coast 
near where St. Augustine now stands. There Ribault opened com- 
munications with the natives, entered the River St. Johns, and after- 
wards sailed on up the coasts of Florida and Georgia until he arrived 
at what is now Broad River, South Carolina. There he established 
a small colony in the neighborhood of the present Beaufort and then 
returned to France. The party left by him succeeded very well for 
a time, but, becoming impatient at his long absence and despairing 
of his return, they finally built a small vessel in which a few of them 
at length reached France after incredible hardships. In 1564 three 
vessels were sent out from Havre under the command of Rene Gou- 
laine de Laudonniere and came in sight of Florida at a point about 
30 leagues south of the entrance to the River St. Johns, which had 
already been named by Ribault the River May. They opened com- 
munications with the Indians almost immediately, and after exploring 
the country in search of a suitable site for an establishment, finally 
picked out a place on the south bank of the St. Johns River and built 
a fort there, which they named Fort Caroline. This fort was occu- 
pied by the French from some time in July, 1564, to September 19, 
1565, when it was captured by the Spaniards under Pedro Menendez 
de Aviles, and the brief French colonial period in Florida and Carolina 
was brought to an end. 1 
During the time of their occupancy the Frenchmen explored the 
country in all directions, and the accounts which they have left, 
supplemented by the drawings of Le Moyne, a member of the second 
expedition, give us more ethnological information regarding the 
ancient Floridians — outside the domain of language — than is pre- 
served from the entire Spanish period. An expedition to avenge 
those Frenchmen who had been put to death by Menendez was 
undertaken in the year 1567 by Dominique de Gourgues and was 
eminently successful, but the Spaniards remained in possession of the 
country and continued to occupy it, with one brief interruption, 
until 1821. 
The Spanish conquest of Florida — both civil and spiritual — 
starting from St. Augustine, proceeded slowly in all directions. The 
Indians were at first hostile, for no nation secured the attachment 
of the natives so quickly as the French; but as the French refugees 
1 Laudonniere, Hist. Not. de La Floride; Le Moyne, Narrative. 
