USA > Florida > Saint Johns County > Saint Augustine > The Spaniards in Florida, comprising the notable settlement of the Hugenots in 1564, and the history and antiquities of St. Augustine, founded a.d. 1565 > Part 5
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ple, for he had among them many of noble blood; and would return or send an answer as to what he would do.
" Three hours afterwards, Jean Ribault returned in the canoe, and said, 'that there were different opinions among his people ; that while some were willing to yield them- selves to his clemency, others were not.' The Adelantado replied ' that it mattered but little to him whether they all came, or a part, or none at all; that they should do as it pleased them, and he would act with the same liberty.' Jean Ribault said to him, ' that the half of the people who were willing to yield themselves to his clemency, would pay him. a ransom of more than 100,000 ducats ; and the other half were able to pay more, for there were among them persons of wealth and large incomes, who had desired to establish estates in this country.' The Adelantado answered him, ' It would grieve me much to lose so great and rich a ran- som, under the necessity I am under for such aid, to carry forward the conquest and settlement of this land, in the name of my king, as is my duty, and to plant here the Holy Evangel.' Jean Ribault considered from this, that with the amount they could all give, he might be induced to spare his own life and that of all the others who were with him, and that they might be able to pay more than 200,000 ducats ; and he said to the Adelantado, 'that he would return with his answer to his people ; that as it was late, he would take it as a favor if he would be willing to wait until the following day, when he would bring their reply as to what they would conclude to do.' The Adelantado said, 'Yes, that he would wait.' Jean Ribault then went back to his people, it being already sunset. In the morning, he returned with the canoe, and surrendered to the Adelantado two royal standards- the one that of the king of France, the other that of the Admiral (Coligny),-and the standards of the company, and a sword, dagger, and helmet, gilded very beautifully ; and also a shield, a pistol, and a commission given him under the high admiral of France, to assure to him his title and possessions.
"He then said to him, 'that but one hundred and fifty of the three hundred and fifty whom he had with him were willing to yield to his clemency, and that the others had withdrawn during the night ; and that they might take the boat and bring those who were willing to come over, and their arms.' The Adelantado immediately directed the cap- tain, Diego Flores Valdes, Admiral of the fleet, that he should bring them over as he had done the others, ten by 4
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ten ; and the Adelantado, taking Jean Ribault behind the sand hills, among the bushes where the others had their hands tied behind them, he said to these and all the others as he had done before, that they had four leagues to go after night, and that he could not permit them to go unbound .; and after they were all tied, he asked if they were Catholics or Lutherans, or if any of them desired to make confession.
"Jean Ribault replied, ' that all who were there were of the new religion,' and he then began to repeat the psalm, ' Domine! Memento ! Mei ;' and having finished, he said, ' that from dust they came and to dust they must return, and that in twenty years, more or less, he must render his final ac- count ; that the Adelantado might do with them as he chose.' The Adelantado then ordered all to be killed, in the same order and at the same mark, as had been done to the others. IIe spared only the fifers, drummers, and trum- peters, and four others who said that they were Catholics, in all, sixteen persons." " Todos los demas fueron degallados,"- "all the rest were slaughtered," is the sententious summary by which Padre de Solis announced the close of the sad career of the gray-haired veteran, the brave soldier, the Ad- miral Jean Ribault, and his companions .*
At some point on the thickly-wooded shores of the Island of Anastasio, or beneath the shifting mounds of sand which mark its shores, may still lie the bones of some of the three hundred and fifty who, spared from destruction by the tem- pest, and escaping the perils of the sea and of the savage, fell victims to the vindictive rancor and blind rage of one than whom history recalls none more cruel, or less humane. But while their bones, scattered on earth and sea, unhonored and unburied, were lost to human sight, the tale of their destruction and sad fate, scattered in like manner over the whole world, has raised to their memory through sympathy with their fate, a memorial which will endure as long as the pages of history.
The Adelantado returned that night to St. Augustine, where, says his apologist, some persons censured him for his cruelty. Others commended what he had done, as the act of a good general, and said that even if they had been Catholics, he could not have done more justly than he had done for them ; for with the few provisions that the Adelan- tado had, either the one or the other people would have had to perish with hunger, and the French would have destroyed our people : they were the most numerous.t
* Barcia, p. 89. + Barcia, p. 89.
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We have still to trace the fate of the body of two hundred, who retired from Ribault after his final determination to surrender to the tender mercies of Menendez. As we are already aware, it comprised the elite of his force, men of standing and rank, and whose spirits had retained energy to combat against the natural discouragements of their po- sition ; and they adopted the nobler resolve of selling their lives, at least with their swords in their hands.
De Solis proceeds to give the following further account of them :--
"Twenty days subsequently to the destruction of these, some Indians came to the Adelantado, and informed him by signs, that eight days' journey from here to the southward, near the Bahama Channel, at Canaveral, a large number of people, brethren of those whom the General had caused to be killed, were building a fort and a vessel. The Adelan- tado at once came to the conclusion, that the French had retired to the place where their vessels were wrecked, and where their artillery and munitions, and provisions were, in order to build a vessel and return to France to procure suc- cor. The General thereupon dispatched from St. Augus- tine to St. Matteo, ten of his soldiers, conveying intelligence of what had taken place, and directing that they should send to him one hundred and fifty of the soldiers there, with the thirty-five others who remained when he returned to St. Augustine, after taking the fort. The master of the camp immediately dispatched them, under command of Cap- tains Juan Velez de Medrano and Andrez Lopez Patrio; and they arrived at St. Augustine on October 23d. On the 25th, after having heard mass, the Adelantado departed for the coast, with three hundred men, and three small vessels to go by sea with the arms and provisions ; and the vessels were to go along and progress equally with the troops; and each night when the troops halted, the vessels also anchored by them, for it was a clear and sandy coast.
"The Adelantado carried in the three vessels provisions for forty days for three hundred men, and one day's ration was to last for two days ; and he promised to do everything for the general good of all, although they might have to undergo many dangers and privations; that he had great hope that he would have the goodness and mercy of God to aid him in carrying through safely this so holy and pious an undertaking. He then took leave of them, leaving most of them in tears, for he was much loved, feared, and respected by all .*
* Barcia, p. 89.
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"The Adelantado, after a wearisome journey, marching on foot himself the whole distance, arrived in the neighbor- hood of the French camp on All Saints Day, at daylight, guided by the Indians by land, and the three vessels under the command of Captain Diego de Maya. As soon as the French descried the Spaniards, they fled to their fort, with- out any remaining. The Adelantado sent them a trum- peter, offering them their lives, that they should return and should receive the same treatment as the Spaniards. One hundred and fifty came to the Adelantado ; and their leader, with twenty others, sent to say that they would sooner be devoured by the Indians, than surrender themselves to the Spaniards. The Adelantado received those who surren- dered, very well, and having set fire to the fort, which was of wood, burned the vessel which they were building, and buried the artillery, for the vessels could not carry them."
De Solis here closes his account of the matter; but from other accounts we learn that the Adelantado kept his faith on this occasion with them, and that some entered his ser- vice, some were converted to his faith, and others returned to France; and thus ended the Huguenot attempt to colo- nize the shores of Florida.
There are several other accounts of the fate of Ribault and his followers, drawn from the narratives of survivors of the expedition, which, without varying the general order of events, fill in sundry details of the massacres. The main point of difference is, as to the pledges or assurances given by Menendez. The French accounts say that he pledged his faith to them that their lives should be spared .* It will be seen that the Spanish account denies that he did so, but makes him use language subject to misconstruction, and calculated to deceive them into the hope and expectation of safety. I do not see that in a Christian or even moral view there is much difference between an open breach of faith and the breach of an implied faith, particularly when it was only by this deception that the surrender could have been accomplished. Nor could Menendez have had a very deli- cate sense of the value of the word of a soldier, a Christian, and a gentleman, when, as his apologist admits, he did di- rectly use the language of falsehood, to induce them to sub- mit to the degradation of having their hands tied.
Nor, considered in its broader aspects, is it a matter of any
* Such was the understanding of those who then wrote in reference to the transaction, as Barcia admits.
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consequence whether he gave his word or no; nor does it lessen the enormity of his conduct, had they submitted themselves in the most unreserved manner to his discretion. France and Spain were at peace; no act of hostility had been committed by the French toward the Spaniards ; and Ribault asked only to be allowed to pass on. In violation alike of the laws of war and the law of humanity, he first induced them to surrender, to abide what God, whose holy name he invoked, should put into his heart to do, and then cajoling them into allowing their hands to be tied, he or- dered them to be killed, in their bonds as they stood, de- fenseless, helpless, wrecked, and famished men. It would have been a base blot upon human nature, had he thus served the most savage tribe of nations, standing on that far shore, brought into the common sympathy of want and suf- fering. The act seems one of monstrous atrocity, when com- mitted against the people of a sister nation.
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CHAPTER IX.
FORTIFYING OF ST. AUGUSTINE-DISAFFCTIONS AND MU- TINIES-APPROVAL OF MENENDEZ' ACTS BY THE KING OF SPAIN. 1565-1568.
DURING the time of the several expeditions 'of the Ade- lantado against the French Huguenots, the fortification and strengthening of the defenses of the settlement at St. Augustine had not been neglected. The fort, or Indian council-house, which had been first fortified, seems to have been consumed in the conflagation spoken of; and there- upon a plan of a regular fortification or fort was marked out by Menendez ; and, as there existed some danger of the return of the French, the Spaniards labored unceasingly with their whole force, to put it in a respectable state of de- fense. From an engraving contained in De Bry, illustrating the attack of Sir Francis Drake, twenty years afterwards, this fort appears to have been an octagonal structure of logs, and located near the site of the present fort, while the set- tlement itself was probably made in the first instance, at the lower'end of the peninsula, near the building now called " the powder-house."
He also established a government for the place, with civil and military officials, a hall of justice, etc.
All of these matters were arranged by Menendez before his expedition against the French at Canaveral, of whom one hundred and fifty returned with him, and were received upon an equal footing with his own men, the more distin- guished being received at his own table upon the most friendly terms ; a clemency which, with a knowledge of his character, can only be ascribed to motives of policy. The position of the French at Canaveral was probably inaccessi- ble, as they had their arms, besides artillery brought from the vessels; and the duplicity which had characterized his success with their comrades, was out of the question here ; the French could therefore exact their own terms, and un- shackled could forcibly resist any attempt at treachery.
The addition of this number to his force lessened the already diminished supply of provisions which Menendez had brought with him ; and want soon began to threaten his camp. He sent as many of his soldiers as he could into
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camp at San Matteo, and endeavored to draw supplies from the Indians ; but unfortunately for him, the country between the St. Johns and St. Augustine was under the rule of the Indian Chief, Satouriara, the friend (and ally of the French), whose hostility the Spaniards were never able to overcome. Satouriara and his followers withdrew from all peaceable intercourse with the Spaniards, and hung about their path to destroy, harrass, and cut them off upon every possible occasion.
The winter succeeding the settlement of the Spaniards at St. Augustine, was most distressing and discouraging to them. The lack of provisions in their camp drove them to seek, in the surrounding country, subsistence from the roots and esculent plants it might afford, or to obtain in the neigh- boring creeks, fish and oysters; but no sooner did a Spaniard venture out alone beyond the gates of the fort, than he was grasped, by some unseen foe, from the low underbrush and put to death, or a shower of arrows from some tree-top was his first intimation of danger; if he discharged his arque- buse towards his invisible assailants, others would spring upon him before he could reload his piece; or, if he at- tempted to find fish and oysters in some quiet creek, the noiseless canoe of an Indian would dart in upon him, and the heavy war-club of the savage descending upon his un- protected head, end his existence. Against such a foe, no de- fense could avail; and it is related that more than one hun- dred and twenty of the Spaniards were thus killed, including Captain Martin de Ochoa, Captain Diego de Hevia, Fer- nando de Gamboa, and Juan Menendez, a nephew of the Adelantado, and many others of the bravest and most dis- tinguished of the garrison.
In this crisis of affairs, the Governor concluded to go to Cuba himself, to obtain relief for his colony. He in the meantime established a fort at St. Lucia, near Canaveral. A considerable jealousy seems to have existed on the part of the governor of Cuba; and he received Menendez with great coolness, and in reply to his appeals for aid, only of- fered an empty vessel. In this emergency, Menendez con- templated, as his only means of obtaining what he wished, to go upon a filibustering expedition against some Portu- guese and English vessels which were in those waters. While making preparations to do this, four vessels of the fleet with which he had left Spain, and which had been supposed lost, arrived; and after dispatching a vessel to Campeachy for provisions, he commenced his return voyage to his colony,
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delaying however for a time in South Florida, to seek intel- ligence among the Indians of his lost son.
In the meantime his garrisons at St. Augustine and San Matteo had mutinied, and were in open revolt; provisions had become so scarce that twenty-five reals had been given for a pound of biscuit, and but for the fish they would have starved. They plundered the public stores, imprisoned their officers, and seized upon a vessel laden with provisions which had been sent to the garrison. The Master of the Camp succeeded in escaping from confinement and releasing his fellow prisoners, by a bold movement cut off the inter- course between the mutineers on board the vessel and those on shore, and hung the Sergeant Major, who was at the head of the movement. The Commandant then attempted to attack those in the vessel, and was nearly lost with his com- panions, by being wrecked on the bar. The vessel made sail to the West India Islands. The garrison at San Matteo took a vessel there and come around to St. Augustine, but arrived after their accomplices had left.
Disease had already begun to make its ravages, and added to the general wish to leave the country; which all would then have done had they had the vessels in which to embark. They used for their recovery from sickness, the roots of a native shrub, which produced marvelous cures.
At this period Menendez returned to the famished garri- son, but was forced to permit Juan Vicente, with one hun- dred of the disaffected, to go to St. Domingo by a vessel which he dispatched there for supplies; and it is said that the governors of the islands where they went, harbored them, and that of some five hundred who on different occa- sions deserted from the Adelantado, and all of whom had been brought out at his cost, but two or three were ever re- turned to him; while the deserters putting their own con- struction upon their acts, sent home to the king of Spain criminations of the Adelantado, and represented the con- quest of Florida as a hopeless and worthless acquisition ; that it was barren and swampy, and produced nothing.
After this defection, Menendez procceded along the coast to San Matteo, and thence to Guale, Amelia, and adjoining islands, Orista and St. Helena; made peaceful proposals to the Indian tribes, lectured them upon theology, and planted a cross at their council-houses. The cacique of Guale asked Menendez how it was " that he had waged war upon the other white men, who had come from the same country as himself?" He replied, " that the other white people were
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bad Christians, and believers in lies; and that those whom he had killed, deserved the most cruel death, because they had fled their own country, and came to mislead and deceive the caciques and other Indians, as they had already before misled and deceived many other good Christians, in order that the devil may take possession of them." While at St. Helena he succeeded in obtaining permission of the Indians to erect a fort there, and he left a detachment. On his re- turn he also erected fort San Felipe, at Orista; and after setting up a cross at Guale, the cacique demanded of him, that as now they had become good Christians, he should cause rain to come upon their fields ; for a drought had con- tinued eight months. The same night a severe rain-storm happened, which confirmed the faith of the Indians, and gained the Adelantado great credit with them. While here, he learned that there was a fugitive Lutheran among the Indians, and he took some pains to cause to be given to the fugitive hopes of good treatment if he would come into the Spanish post at St. Helena, while he gave private directions that he should be killed, directing his lieutenant to make very strange of his disappearance; an incident very illus- trative of the vindictiveness and duplicity of Menendez .*
He returned to St. Augustine, and was received with great joy, and devoted himself to the completion of the fort, which was to frighten the savages, and enforce respect from stran- gers. It was built, it is said, where it now stands, donde este ahora, (1722.)
The colony left at St. Helena mutinied almost immedi- ately, and seizing a vessel sent with supplies, sailed for Cuba, and were wrecked on the Florida Keys, where they met at an Indian town the mutineers who had deserted from the fort at St. Matteo : these had been also wrecked there.
The garrison again becoming much straitened for provi- sions, the Adelantado, in June, was obliged to go to Cuba for succor. He was received with indifference, and his wishes unheeded. He applied to the governor of Mexico, and others who happened to be there, and who had the power of assisting him ; from all he received no encourage- ment, but the advice to abandon his enterprise. He at last pawned his jewels, the badge of his order, and his valuables, thus obtaining five hundred ducats ; with which he pur- chased provisions, and set sail on his return, with only sixty- · five men.
But just at this period succor came to the famished
* Ensay. Cron. 110.
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troops ; a fleet of seventeen vessels arrived with fifteen hun- dred men from Spain, under Juan de Avila, as admiral. By this means all the posts were succored and reinforced, and the enterprise saved from destruction; for the small supplies brought by Menendez would have been soon ex- hausted, and further efforts being out of his power, they would have been forced to withdraw from the country.
The admiral of the fleet also had entrusted to him for the Adelantado a letter from the king, written on the 12th of May, 1566, which, among other matters, contained the fol- lowing royal commendation of the acts of Menendez. "Of the great success which has attended your enterprise, we have the most entire satisfaction, and we bear in memory the loyalty, the love, and the diligence, with which you have borne us service, as well as the dangers and perils in which you have been placed ; and as to the retribution you have visited upon the Lutheran pirates who sought to oc- cupy that country, and to fortify themselves there, in order to disseminate in it their wicked creed, and to prosecute there their wrongs and robberies, which they have done and were doing against God's service and my own, we be- lieve that you did it with every justification and propriety, and we consider ourself to have been well served in so doing."*
To this commendation of Philip II., it is unnecessary to add any comment, save that no other action could have been expected of him. And of Charles the Ninth, of France, the Spanish historian says that he treated the me- morial of the widows and orphans of the slain with con- tempt, "considering their punishment to have been just, in that they were equally enemies of Spain, of France, of the Church, and of the peace of the world."
During the absence of Menendez to inspect his posts, disaffection again broke out; and finding his force too nu- merous, he with sixteen vessels went upon a freebooting expedition to attack pirates. He failed to meet with any ; but having learned that a large French fleet was on its way, he visited and fortified the forts on the islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico, and again returned to Flor- ida ; the expected French fleet never having arrived. About this time, a small vessel brought from Spain three learned and exemplary priests; one of whom, Padre Martinez, landed upon the coast with some of the crew, and being unable to regain the vessel, coasted along to St. George
* Ensayo: Cron. 115.
.. ...
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Island, where he was attacked and murdered by the Indians, with a number of his companions.
The following year was principally occupied by Menendez, n strengthening his fortifications at his three forts, in visit- ing the Indian chiefs at their towns, and exploring the country. One of his expeditions went as far north as the thirty-seventh degree of latitude by sea, and another went to the foot of the Apalachian Mountains, about one hun- dred and fifty leagues, and established a fort. The former was about the mouth of the Chesapeake, called the Santa Maria,* and the land expedition, probably to the up-country of Georgia, in the neighborhood of Rome.
All attempts at pacifying their warlike neighbor were as fruitless as their attempts to subjugate him; whether in artifice and duplicity, in open warfare, or secret ambush, he was more than equal to the Adelantado, and was a worthy ancestor of the modern Seminole,-never present when looked for, and never absent when an opportunity of striking a blow occurred.
The Adelantado having had built an extremely slight vessel of less than twenty tons, called a frigate, concluded to visit Spain, and ran in seventeen days to the Azores, sailing seventy leagues per day, an exploit not often equaled in modern times. He was received with great joy in Spain, and the king treated him with much consideration. The Adelantado felt great anxiety to return to his colony, and deprecated the delays of the court, fearing the result of the indignation at his cruelty to the Huguenots, which, says his chronicler, increased day by day.t
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