DISCOVERY 8c SETTLEMENTSBOOK I. 
it was solemnly agreed on both sides, that the commander of the 
fort, should supply them with a vessel to return to France; but 
he no sooner got these unfortunate people in his power, than re¬ 
gardless of humanity and justice, he caused them to be barba¬ 
rously butchered. 
Such is the tragic fate of these early colonies ; the story is 
related by Charlevoix, with minute detail, in his loose and ram* 
bling way. This writer expresses the strongest indignation at 
the abominable and atrocious conduct of the Spaniards, and de° 
nies in the strongest terms that Spain ever had any just 
right to this country. 
France and Spain were at this moment in profound peace, 
nor does this outrage, seem in the least to have excited the in¬ 
dignation of the former, owing to the circumstance of the unfor* 
tunate victims having been protestants and heretics. But it was 
left to a private gentleman, to avenge the indignity offered to his 
country, and to chastise the barbarous usurpers of Florida. This 
was the Chevalier de Gourgues a map who in those times had 
distinguished himself in various countries for that romantic va* 
lour, which was then so highly esteemed; the indignation which 
he felt for the insult offered his country was heightened by a 
sense of personal wrongs, having been for many years confined 
in Spanish prisons. Under pretence of forming an expedition to 
Africa, he raised at his own expense and with the assistance of 
his friends, a considerable armament and steered for Florida. On 
his arrival-he was joined by the Indians who had become greatly 
dissatisfied with the Spaniards, stormed St. Matteo, and carri¬ 
ed it with little difficulty. The greater part of the garrison was 
killed in the assault, the remainder were taken to the same tree 
bn which the French had been hanged, and in the execution of 
a severe but not unjust retaliation, served in the same manner, 
the former inscription being replaced by one to this effect— not 
AS SPANIARDS, BUT AS MURDERERS AND CUT-THROATS'. Having 
destroyed the fort, and completed the object of his expedition, 
he soon after embarked; St. Augustin was considered as too 
formidable for his party. 
The attention of France seems to have been altogether with¬ 
drawn from this quarter of the continent, during an interval of 
