USA > Florida > Saint Johns County > Saint Augustine > The history and antiquities of the city of St. Augustine, Florida, founded A.D. 1565. Comprising some of the most interesting portions of the early history of Florida > Part 3
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accomplish our path.' Then we laid the pole upon the water, and each one by turn taking hold of the end of the pole, carried it by his side to the midst of the channel, when losing sight of him we pushed him with sufficient force to the other bank, where he drew himself out by the canes and other bushes growing along its borders; and by his example we passed over, one at a time; but it was not without great danger, and not without drinking a great deal of salt water, in such manner that our hearts were all trembling, and we were as much overcome as though we had been half drowned. After we had come to ourselves and we had resumed courage, moving on all the time towards the wood, which we had remarked close to the sea, the pole was not even needed to pass another creek, which gave us not much less trouble than the first; but, by the grace of God, we passed it and entered the wood the same evening, where we passed the night in great fear and trembling, standing about against the trees.
" And, as much as we had labored, even had it been more, we felt no desire to sleep ; for what repose could there be to spirits in such mortal affright ? Near the break of day, we saw a great beast, like a deer, at fifty paces from us, who had a great head, eyes flaming, the ears hanging, and the higher parts
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elevated. It seemed to us monstrous, because of its gleaming eyes, wondrously large ; but it did not come near to do us any harm.
" The day having appeared, we went out of the wood and returned towards the sea, in which we hoped, after God, as the only means of saving our lives ; but we were again cast down and troubled, for we saw before us a country of marsh and muddy quagmires, full of water and covered with briars, like that we had passed the previous day. We marched across this salt marsh ; and, in the direction we had to take, we perceived among the briars a body of men, whom we at first thought to be enemies, who had gone there to cut us off; but, upon close observation, they seemed in as sad a plight as ourselves, naked and terrified; and we im- mediately perceived that they were our own people. It was Captain Laudonnière, his servant-maid, Jacques Morgues of Dieppe (the artist), Francis Duval of Rouen, son of him of the iron crown of Rouen, Niguise de la Cratte, Nicholas the carpenter, the Trumpeter of Sieur Laudonniere, and others, who all together made the number of twenty-six men. Upon deliberating as to what we should do, two of our men mounted to the top of one of the tallest trees and discovered from thence one of our vessels, which was that of Captain Maillard, to whom they
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gave a signal, that he might know that we were in want of help. Thereupon he came his small vessel, but in order to reach the banks of the stream, it was necessary for us to traverse the briars and two other rivers similar to those which we passed the previous day ; in order to accomplish which, the pole I had cut the day before was both useful and necessary, and two others which Sr. de Laudonnière had provided ; and we came pretty near to the vessel, but our hearts failed us from hunger and fatigue, and we should have remained where we were unless the sailors had given us a hand, which aid was very opportune; and they carried us, one after the other, to the vessel, on board of which we were all received well and kindly. They gave us bread and water, and we began afterwards, little by little, to recover our strength and vigor; which was a strong reason that we should recognize the good- ness of the Lord, who had saved us against all hope from an infinity of dangers and from death, by which we had been surrounded and assaulted from all quarters, to render him forevermore our thanks and praises. We thus passed the entire night re- counting the wonders of the Lord, and consoled each other in the assurances of our safety.
" Daylight having come, Jacques Ribault, Captain of the Pearl, boarded us to confer with us respecting
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what was to be done by us, and what means we should take for the safety of the rest of our men and the vessels. It was then objected, the small quantity of provisions which we had, our strength broken, our munitions and means of defense taken from us, the uncertainty as to the condition of our Admiral, and not knowing but that he had been shipwrecked on some coast a long distance from us, or driven to a distance by the tempest. .
"We thereupon concluded that we could do no better than return to France, and were of the opinion . that the company should divide into two parts, the one remaining on board the Pearl, and the other under charge of Captain Maillard.
" On Friday, the twenty-fifth day of the month of September, we departed from this coast, favored by a strong northerly wind, having concluded to return to France, and after the first day our two ships were so far separated that we did not again encounter each other. We proceeded five hundred leagues prosperously, when, one morning about sunrise, we were attacked by a Spanish vessel, which we met as well as we could, and cannonaded them in such sort that we made them subject to our disposal, and bat- tered them so that the blood was seen to overrun the scuppers. We held them then as surrendered and defeated; but there was no means of grappling
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her, on account of the roughness of the sea, for in grappling her there would be danger of our striking together, which might have sunk us; she also, satis- fied with the affair, left us, joyful and thanking God that no ones of us was wounded or killed in this skirmish except our cook.
" The rest of our passage was without any rencon- ter with enemies; but we were much troubled by contrary winds, which often threatened to cast us on the coast of Spain, which would have been the fin- ishing touch to our misfortunes, and the thing of which we had the greatest horror. We also endured at sea many other things, such as cold and hunger ; for be it understood that we, who escaped from the land of Florida, had nothing else for vestment or equipment, by day or by night, except our shirts alone, or some other little rag, which was a small matter of defense from the exposure to the weather; and what was more, the bread which we eat, and we eat it very sparingly, was all spoilt and rotten, as well also the water itself was all noisome, and of which, besides, we could only have for the whole day a single small glass.
"This bad food was the reason, on our landing, that many of us fell into divers maladies, which carried off many of the men of our company ; and we arrived at last, after this perilous and lamentable voyage, at
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Rochelle; where we were received and treated very humanely and kindly by the inhabitants of the country and those of the city, giving us of their means, to the extent our necessities required ; and : assisted Ky their kindness we were each enabled to ' return to his own part of the country.""
Laudonnière'st narrative speaks more of his own ' personal escape; and that of Le Moynet refers to this description of De Challeux, as containing a full and accurate account of what took place. Barcia men- tions De Challeux very contemptuously as a carpen- ter, who succeeding badly at his trade took up that of preaching, but does not deny the truth of his narrative. Those who separated from their com- rades and threw themselves upon their enemies' mercy, are mentioned by the Spanish writers; but . they are silent as to the treatment they received. 1
* Ternaux Compans. t Hakluyt.
# Brevis Narratio.
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Fort George Island
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JOHNS
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Light House
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Point
Supposed.
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Site of Kit Caroline
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ENTRANCE OF ST JOHNS RIVER.
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CHIAPTER VI.
SITE OF FORT CAROLINE, AFTERWARDS CALLED SAN MATTEO.
Ir might naturally be supposed that a spot sur- rounded with so many thrilling and interesting asso- ciations, as the scene of the events we have just related, would have been commemorated either by tradition or by ancient remains attesting its situation. But, in truth, no recognized point now bears the appel- lation of Fort Caroline, and the antiquary can point at this day to no fosse or parapet, no crumbling bastion, no ancient helm or buckler, no shattered and corroded garniture of war mingled with the bones of the dead, as evidencing its position.
A writer who has himself done more to rescue from oblivion the historical romance of the South than any other,* has well said, "It will be an em- ployment of curious interest, whenever the people of Florida shall happen upon the true site of the settlement and structure of Laudonnière, to trace
* W. Gilmore Simms, Esq.
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out in detail these several localities, and fix them for the benefit of posterity. The work is scarcely beyond the hammer and chisel of some Old Mortality, who has learned to place, his affections and fix his sympathies upon the achievements of the past."
With a consciousness of our unfitness to establish absolutely memorial so interesting as the site of Fort Caroline must ever be, I shall endeavor to locate its position, upon the basis of reasons entirely satis- factory to myself, and measurably so, I trust, to others.
The account given by Laudonniere himself, the leader of the Huguenots, by whom Fort Caroline was constructed, is as follows :- After speaking of his arrival at the mouth of the river, which had been named the River May by Ribault, who had entered it on the first day of May, 1562, and had therefore given it that name, he says, "Departing from thence, I had not sailed three leagues up the river, still being followed by the Indians, crying still, 'amy,' 'amy,' that is to say, friend, but I dis- covered an hill of meane height, neare which I went on land, harde by the fieldes that were sowed with mil, at one corner whereof there was an house, built for their lodgings which keep and garde the mil. * * Now was I determined to searche out the qualities of the hill. Therefore I went right
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to the toppe thereof; where we found nothing else but cedars, palms, and bay trees of so sovereign odor that Balme smelleth not more sweetly. The trees were environed around about with vines bearing grapes, in such quantities that the number would suffice to make the place habitable. Besides the fertilitie of the soyle for vines, one may see mesquine wreathed about the trees in great quantities. Touch- ing the pleasure of the place, the sea may be seen plain enough from it; and more than six great leagues off, towards the River Belle, a man may behold the meadows, divided asunder into isles and islets, enter- lacing one another. Briefly, the place is so pleasant, that those which are melancholicke, would be inforced to change their humour.
" Our fort was built in form of a triangle; the side towards the west, which was toward the land, was inclosed with a little trench and raised with turf made in the form of a battlement, nine feet high ; the other side, which was towards the river, was inclosed with a palisade of planks of timber, after the manner that Gabions are made; on the south line, there was a kind of bastion, within which I caused an house for the munition to be made. It was all builded with fagots and sand, saving about two or three foote high, with turfes whereof the battlements were made. In the middest, I caused a great court to be made of
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eighteen paces long, and the same in breadth. In the middest whereof, on the one side, drawing towards the south, I builded a corps de garde and an house on the other side towards the north. * *
One of the sides that inclosed my court, which I made very faire and large, reached unto the grange of my munitions; and on the other side, towards the river, was mine own lodgings, round which were galleries all covered. The principal doore of my lodging was in the middest of the great place, and the other was towarde the river. A good distance from the fort I built an oven."
Jacob Le Moyne, or Jacques Morgues, as he is sometimes called, accompanied the expedition ; and his Brevis Narratio contains two plates, representing the commencement of the construction of Fort Car- oline, and its appearance when completed. The latter represents a much more finished fortification 1 than could possibly have been constructed, but may be taken as a correct outline, I presume, of its gen- eral appearance.
Barcia, in his account of its capture, describes neither its shape nor appearance, but mentions the - parapet nine feet high, and the munition house and store house.
From the account of Laudonnière and Le Moyne, it was situated near the river, on the slope or nearly
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at the foot of a hill .* Barcia speaks of its being behind a hill, and of descending towards it. The clerical-carpenter, Challeux, speaks of being able, after his escape, to look down from the hill he was on, into the court of the fort itself, and seeing the massacre of the French. As he was flying from the fort towards the sea, and along the river, and as the Spaniards came from a southeast direction, the fort must have been on the westerly side of a hill, near the river.
The distance is spoken of as less than three leagues by Laudonnière. Hawkins and Ribault say, the fort was not visible from the mouth of the river. It is also incidentally spoken of in Barcia as being two leagues from the bar. Le Challeux, in the narrative of his escape, speaks of the distance as being about two leagues. In the account given of the expedition of De Gourgues, it is said to be, in general terms, about one or two leagues above the forts afterwards constructed on each side of the mouth of the river; and it is also mentioned in De Gourgues, that the fort was at the foot of a hill, near the water, and could be overlooked from the hill. The distance from the mouth of the river, and the nature of the ground where the fort was built, are thus made suf-
* Laudonnière says, "joignant la montagne."
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ficiently definite to enable us to seek a location which shall fulfill both these conditions. It is hardly necessary to remark, that there can be no question but that the fort was located on the south or easterly side of the river, as the Spaniards marched by land from St. Augustine, in a northwesterly direction to Fort Caroline.
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The River St. Johns is one of the largest rivers, in point of width, to be found in America," and is more like an arm of the sea than a river ; from its mouth for a distance of fifteen miles, it is spread over exten- sive marshes, and there are few points where the channel touches the banks of the river. At its mouth it is comparatively narrow, but immediately extends itself over wide-spread marshes ; and the first headland or shore which is washed by the channel is a place known as St. John's Bluff. Here the river runs closely along the shore, making a bold, deep channel close up to the bank. The land rises ab- ruptly on one side, into a hill of moderate height, covered with a dense growth of pine, cedar, &c. This hill gently slopes to the banks of the river, and runs off to the southwest, where, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, a creek discharges itself into the river, at a place called the Shipyard from time im- memorial.
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I am not aware that any remains of Fort Caroline,
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or any old remains of a fortress, have ever been dis- covered here; but it must be recollected that this fort was constructed of sand and pine trees, and that three hundred years have passed away, with their storms and tempests, their rains and destructive influences-a period sufficient to have destroyed a work of much more durable character than sandy entrenchments and green pine stakes and timbers. Moreover, it is highly probable, judging from present appearances, that the constant abrasion of the banks still going on has long since worn away the narrow spot where stood Fort Caroline. It is also to be remarked, that as there is no other hill, or high land, or place where a fort could have been built, between St. John's Bluff and the mouth of the river, so it is also the fact, that there is no point on the south side of the river where the channel touches high land, for a distance by water of eight or ten miles above St. John's Bluff.
The accompanying diagram and map will illustrate this point more fully, and starting at St. John's Bluff, the track of the fugitives, as they crossed the several creeks, is easily followed, until they reached the vessels at the mouth of the river.
The evidence in favor of the location of Fort Car- oline at St. John's Bluff is, I think, conclusive and irresistible, and accords in all points with the descrip-
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tions given as to distance, topography, and points of view.
It is within the memory of persons now living,* that a considerable orange grove and somewhat extensive buildings, which existed at this place, then called San Vicente, have been washed into the river, leaving at this day no vestiges of their existence. It has been occupied as a Spanish fort within fifty years; yet so rapid has been the work of time and the elements, that no remains of such occupation are now to be seen.
The narratives all speak of the distance from the mouth of the river as about two leagues ; and in speaking of so short a distance the probability of exactness is much greater than when dealing with longer distances.
As to the spot itself, it presents all the natural features mentioned by Laudonnière ; and it requires but a small spice of enthusiasm and romance that it be recognized as a "goodlie and pleasante spotte," by those who might like the abundance of the wild grapes and the view of the distant salt meadows, with their "iles and islets, so pleasante that those which are melancholicke would be inforced to change their humour."
* Col. T. D. Hart ; Mrs. James Smith.
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It is but proper, however, to say, that at a plan- tation known as Newcastle there is a high range of ground, and upon this high ground the appearance of an old earth-work of quadrangular form; but this point is distant some six leagues from the mouth of the river, is flanked by a deep bay or marsh to the southeast, and the work is on the top of the hill and not at its foot, is quadrangular and not trian- gular, and is a considerable distance from the water. These earth-works, I am satisfied, are Spanish or English remains of a much later period.
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CHAPTER VII.
MENENDEZ'S RETURN TO ST. AUGUSTINE-SHIPWRECK OF RI- BAULT-MASSACRE OF PART OF IIIS COMMAND-A. D. 1565.
AFTER an ineffectual attempt to induce those in the small vessels of the French to surrender, failing in this, the General concluded to return to St. Au- gustine, and send two of his vessels to the mouth of the river to intercept them.
Some of the fugitives from the fort fled to the Indians ; and ten of these were given up to the Spaniards, to be butchered in cold blood, says the French account,-to be sent back to France, says the Spanish chronicle.
The 24th September being the day of St. Matthew, the name of the fort was changed to that of San Matheo, by which name it was always subsequently called by the Spaniards; and the name of St. Matthew was also given by them to the river, now called St. Johns, on which it was situated.
The Spaniards proceeded at once to strength ..
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the fortress, deepening and enlarging the ditch, and raised and strengthened the ramparts and walls in such manner, says the boastful Mendoza, " that if the half of all France had come to attack it, they could not have disturbed it;" a boast upon which the easy conquest of it by De Gourgues, three years subse- quently, affords an amusing commentary. They also constructed, subsequently, two small forts at the mouth of the river, one on each side, which proba- bly were located the one at Batten Island and the other at Mayport.
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Leaving three hundred soldiers as a garrison under his son-in-law, De Valdez, Master of the Camp, who was now appointed Governor of the fort, Menendez marched for St. Augustine, beginning now to feel considerable anxiety lest the French fleet, escaping from the tempest, might return and visit upon his own garrison at St. Augustine, the fate of Fort Car- olinc. IIe took with him upon his return but fifty soldiers, and, owing to the swollen waters, found great difficulty in retracing his route. When within a league of St. Augustine, he allowed one of the soldiers to go forward to announce his victory and safe return.
The garrison at St. Augustine had been in great anxiety respecting their leader, and from the accounts given by those who had deserted, they had feared-
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the total loss of the expedition. The worthy Chap- lain thus describes the return of Menendez :-
"The same day, being Monday, we saw a man coming, crying out loudly. I myself was the first to run to him for the news. He embraced me with transport, crying, 'Victory ! Victory ! The French fort is ours.' I promised him the present which the bearer of good news deserves, and gave him the best in my power.
" At the hour of vespers our good General arrived, with fifty foot-soldiers very much fatigued. As soon as I learned that he was coming, I ran home and put on a new soutain, the best which I had, and a sur- plice, and going out with a crucifix in my hand, I went forward to receive him; and he, a gentleman and a good Christian, before entering kneeled and all his followers, and returned thanks to the Lord for the great favours which he had received. My companions and myself marched in front in proces- sion chanting, so that we all returned with the great- est demonstrations of joy."
When about to dispatch the two vessels in his harbor to the St. John's, to cut off the French ves- sels he had left there, he was informed that two sail had already been seen to pass the bar, supposed to contain the French fugitives.
Eight days after the capture of Fort Caroline, a
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fire broke out in the quarters of St. Augustine, which destroyed much treasure and provisions, and the origin of which was doubtful, whether to be ascribed to accident or design. Much disaffection prevailed among the officers and soldiers, and the fire was looked upon with pleasure by some, as having a ten- dency to hasten their departure from a spot which offered few temptations or rewards, compared with Mexico or Peru.
On the very day of Menendez's return, a French- man was discovered by a fishing party on Anastasia Island, who, being taken, said he was one of a party of eighteen, sent in a small vessel, some days before, to reconnoitre the Spanish position; that they had been unable to keep the sea, and had been thrown ashore, about four leagues below, at the mouth of a river ; that the Indians attacked and killed three of their number, and they thereupon escaped.
Menendez dispatched a captain and fifty men, to get off the vessel and capture any of the French who might be found. On their arrival at the place, they found that all the French had been killed by the Indians; but they succeeded in getting off the vessel. Menendez, feeling uneasy in reference to their encounter with the Indians, had followed on after the expedition, in company with the worthy Chaplain, to whom his promenade among the briars,
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* vines, prickly cedars, chaparral, and prickly pears of Anastasia, seems to have been a true via dolorosa.
Upon their arrival, they found a considerable body of French upon the south side of an inlet, whose fires indicated their position.
The four vessels of Ribault, which had gone in pursuit of the Spaniards at St. Augustine, had been overtaken by the storm, and after keeping to sea with incredible effort, had been finally driven ashore upon the shoals of Canaveral,* with but little loss of life but a total loss of every thing else; they were thus thrown on shore without shelter from the eléments, famished with hunger, borne down by disappointment, and utterly dispirited and demoral- ized. They were consumed, also, by the most pain- ful uncertainty. Marching to the northward along shore, they discovered a skiff, and resolved to send a small number of persons in it, to make their way by sea to Fort Caroline, to bring succor to them from there. This boat succeeded in reaching the St. John's, where they were informed, by friendly In- dians, of the fate which had befallen the fort; and subsequently they fell in with a Frenchman who had escaped, who related to them the whole disaster.
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