USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. I > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
They sailed from Havre de Grace the 18th February, 1562, and in two months reached Florida, at a place which they named Cape François, a little north of the 30th degree north lat. Thence coasting north, they soon entered the mouth of the St. John's, which, be- cause discovered on the first day of May, they called
4 The authorities which I have con- 1567, written by Challus or Challusius sulted for the statements in the remain- of Dieppe. der of this chapter, are the following. All of the above Latin narrations are contained in the second part of De Bry's rare and valuable work, for the loan of which I am indebted to the kindness of the Hon. Mitchell King, of Charles- ton, South Carolina. The account of the four voyages, viz. Ribault first, Laudonnière second, Ri- bault third, Gourgues fourth ; the first three written by René Laudonnière, in Hakluyt, iii. 301-360. London, 1600. This is a translation from the original French work of Basanier Le Moyne's Gallorum in Floridam America pro- vinciam altera navigatio, Duce, Lau- donniero, anno M.D.LXIV.
Brevis Narratio eorum qua in Flo- rida America Provincia, Gallis acci- derunt, etc.
Libellus sive Epistola Supplicatoria, Regi Galliorum Carolo IX. ejusdem nominis oblata, etc. Anno 1565.
De Quarta Gallorum in Floridam Navigatione sub Gourguesio. Anno
Histoire Mémorable du dernier voy- age aux Indes, lieu appelé la Floride, fait par le Capitaine Jean Ribaut, et entrepris par le commandement du Roi, en l'an M.D.LXV. A Lyon, par Jean Savgeain, M.D.LVI.
Coppie d'un Lettre venant de la Flo- ride envoyée à Rouen et depuis au Seigneur d'Eueron ; à Paris, 1565.
La Reprinse de la Floride par le Capitaine Gourgue.
These French works are in the Re- cueil of Ternaux.
33
COLIGNI ON THE SEA-BOARD OF GEORGIA.
the river of May. Here, on a sandy knoll, near the mouth of the river, he erected a pillar of stone, on which were engraved the arms of France, as a memo- rial of their discovery. Coasting northward, they dis- covered " another fair river," the St. Mary's, but which Ribault named the Seine, " because it is very like unto the river of Seine in France." Having searched out this river, they trimmed their sails to voyage toward the north, and to descry the singularities of the coast. They were now upon the sea-board of Georgia, and their course was arrested every few leagues by the rivers and harbours, which demanded their notice ; " for," says he, " it is a country full of havens, rivers, and islands; and it seemeth that men may sail with- out danger through all the country, and never enter into the great sea."
Leaving St. Mary's, they soon cast anchor off the mouth of the Satilla, termed by them the Somne ; and manning two boats, rowed up the river, to examine its banks and hold intercourse with its Indian king. They next discovered the Altamaha, which, when they had viewed it, they called the Loire ; further north, they opened upon Newport river, emptying into Sapelo Sound, which they termed Charente; next, St. Cath- erine's Inlet, which they called the Garonne; then, Osabau Sound, receiving the waters of the Ogeechee river, to which they assigned the name of Gironde ; still onward, they entered the broad mouth of the Sa- vannah, styled by them the river Grande ; thus bestow- ing upon the noble streams of Georgia the names of the beautiful rivers of their own beautiful France. Each of these waters was well explored, and glowingly described.
The remaining part of their narrative has but little
3
34
A COLONY ESTABLISHED NEAR BEAUFORT.
to do with Georgia; but, as illustrating the efforts, with their results, which were made by the Huguenots of France to plant colonies of Reformed Protestants on our southern Atlantic coast, upon each side of our borders, which, had they succeeded, would have altered the entire character of our State, it certainly deserves a record in the history of the most southern colony planted by the English on the American shores.
Having examined the islands and country between St. Helena Sound and Port Royal, Ribault determined to build a fort, and leave a colony near to the spot on which Beaufort now stands. Thirty men, " gentle- men, soldiers, and mariners," with Captain Albert de la Pierria, "a soldier of long experience," at their head, desired to remain; and a small fort, about one hundred feet long and eighty wide, with proportiona- ble flanks, was built and munitioned for their protec- tion. This was the first European fort built in our Union ; and, in honour of the King of France, was named Charles Fort. Ribault arrived in France on the 20th July, 1562, intending to return with addi- · tional stores, and an increased force; but the distracted state of the country prevented his obtaining the requi- site supplies, and this minor design was, for the pres- ent, lost, amid the greater commotions which then rocked the kingdom to its base. Indeed, the very day of his arrival at Dieppe, letters patent were issued by the Parliament of Paris, declaring rebels all Hugue- nots who had taken arms; and this, too, when but three weeks before, they had passed a decree author- ising all persons to take arms and fall upon the Hugue- nots, wherever they could meet with them.
The sieges of Orleans, Bourges, and Rouen, and the bloody hostilities raging between the Papists and the
PORT CAROLINE Erected 1561
35
FAMINE. THE COLONISTS SAIL FOR FRANCE.
1131996 1
Huguenots, in which the latter party looked up to the Prince of Condé and Coligni as their leaders, so occu- pied the Admiral that he found no time, amid his warlike pursuits, to send the requisite succours across the Atlantic. The little band left in America soon began to feel the effects of famine, from which they were twice relieved, through the generous assistance of two Indian kings, Oseade and Conexis, whose do- minions, so far as we can judge, bordered on the Savannah river. These twice freighted their pin- naces with corn and beans, and such good things as they possessed, and saved the little colony from the horrors of starvation. But this was not the only diffi- culty. The alleged tyranny of Captain Albert pro- voked a mutiny, that resulted in his death; and Nich- olas Barré, who had probably been with Villegagnon in the expedition which he conducted for Calvin and Coligni to Brazil, in 1553, was chosen in his place.
Finding their subsistence upon the Indians too pre- carious-cultivating not a foot of land themselves, and looking and hoping for supplies from France in vain- they resolved to abandon the fort and return to their native land. In a wretchedly built brigantine, caulked with the moss that so beautifully festoons, with its grey drapery, our seaboard forests, rigged with Indian cord- age, and sails made from their clothes and bedding, they hastily put to sea, vainly hoping to reach France ; and in the intoxication of their joy, at the thought of once more seeing their homes, they neglected to lay in sufficient stores for the uncertain voyage.
A third part of their passage had been prosperously made, when they were becalmed, and for nearly a month scarcely advanced a league a day. The famine from which they had fled on land, pursued them on the
36
DISASTROUS FATE. COLIGNI PERSEVERES.
water; and their shoes, leather jackets, and sea-water, became for a time their food and drink.
Storms arose and nearly sunk their vessel in the waves-head-winds turned them from their course- death lessened their number; and, after being three days without anything to eat or drink, the horrible motion was made, that one should die to sustain the rest: the dire expedient was resolved upon, and the body of Lechau was equally divided among his com- rades. But the sight of land turned their sorrow into joy ; a small English bark supplied them with provis- ions; and of the few survivors, the more feeble were landed in France, and the rest sent to the Queen of England. Thus ended the first European colony in America; a fate too mournful for the cause which originated, and the enterprise which projected, such an undertaking. But, though twice disappointed in his colonial designs, Coligni still clung to his purpose. The cessation of intestine hostilities by the treaty of Amboise, and the nominal favour into which the Ad- miral Coligni had been received at court, enabled him to renew his colonizing scheme ; and he obtained from the young king three ships and fifty thousand crowns, and putting them under command of René de Laudon- nier, despatched them to Florida in April, 1564, which place they reached the following June. They found the memorial pillar set up by Ribault, crowned with garlands of bay, and surrounded by baskets of maize ; and they rejoiced at this token of peace and friendship. In seeking for a place to settle, they visited the mouth of the Satilla river, which flows through Ware, Wayne, and Camden, into St. Andrew's Sound. Here they cast anchor, and went on shore to make discoveries. They were graciously received by the Paraconsty or
37
RENE DE LAUDONNIER VISITS GEORGIA.
chief of the country, a very tall and well-proportioned man. His wife made a present to Laudonnier of some bullets of silver, and he gave him his bow and arrows ; which was a sign of amity and alliance, such as he had before given to Captain John Ribault. " In our dis- coursing with one another," says Laudonnier, " we en- tered into speech as touching the exercise of arms; when the Paraconsty caused a corslet to be set on end, and prayed me to make a proof of our arquebuses and their bows. But this proof pleased him very little ; for as soon as he knew that our arquebuses did easily pierce that, which the utmost force of their bows could not hurt, he seemed to be very sorry, musing with himself how this thing might be done ; nevertheless, going about to dissemble in his mind that which his countenance could not do by any means, he began to fall into another matter, and prayed us very earnestly to stay with him that night in his house or lodging ; affirming that no greater happiness could come unto him than our long abode, which he desired to recom- pense with a thousand presents.""" This is all the description which he leaves us of the natives of Georgia, as they then appeared to European eyes ; for he soon sailed to the river of May, now St. John's, where, with his companions, he determined to settle. On the 30th of June, 1564, at the break of day, the Frenchmen assembled themselves at the sound of the trumpet, that they might praise God for their favoura- ble and happy arrival. They sung a Psalm of thanks- giving, offered up a prayer for aid in their undertaking, and then began the work of building their triangular fortress, which, in honour of their Prince, King Charles,
5 Thevet, in his " Vies des Hommes this Indian prince, whom he styles Illustres," has published a biography of Saturioria.
38
VOYAGE OF PEDRO MELENDEZ DE AVILEZ.
they also named Fort Carolina. The remaining his- tory of these adventurers must be briefly told. While the brave and generous Coligni was thus endeavour- ing to found in these regions an asylum for the Hugue- nots, the haughty bigotry of Spain could not brook even a transatlantic resting-place for the enemies of her faith.
A crusade was planned by Philip II. against the unoffending Protestants; and with an army of over twenty-six hundred men, and a fleet of eleven ships, Pedro Melendez de Avilez sailed to Florida. In his voyage he lost over one-half of his fleet, but this did not deter him from his boastful design, for he had still five vessels and one thousand men.6
It was on St. Augustine's day, in the Romish calendar, (August 28th, 1565,) that Melendez discovered the coast
6 There are three Spanish accounts from a manuscript in the royal library. of this expedition, viz. : 1st, in the En- sayo Chronologico para la Historia de la Florida, written nominally by Don Gabriel de Cardenas z Cano, but in reality by Andreas Gonzales Barchia. 2. A Memoir inserted in Barchia's work written by De Solis de las Meras, a brother-in-law of Melendez, and an eye witness of the massacre of Ribault. 3. Memoir de l'heureux resultat et du bon Voyage que Dieu, notre Seigneur, a bien vouler accorder à la Flotte qui partit de la ville de Cadiz pour se ren- dre à la côte et dans la province de la Floride, et dont était général l'illustre Seigneur Pero Melendez de Aviles, commandeur de l'ordre de Saint Jac- ques, etc. Par Francisco Lopez de Mendoza, chapelaine de l'expedition. This latter account Ternaux in his Recueil, (having translated it into French,) publishes for the first time
Since this chapter was written, I have perused the life of Ribault by Professor Sparks, in vol. vii., new series, Ameri- can Biography. This admirable me- moir, compiled entirely from original sources, must be considered as the standard account of the events and fortunes of these colonists. Having consulted all the authorities which he quotes except two, his " Life " furnishes me with no additional particulars pro- per to be introduced into this brief chapter.
The assigning of the French names to the rivers of Georgia was done after careful consultation of old authorities, especially " Hondios his Map of Florida," in Purcha's Pilgrims, vol. iii. p. 869, 1625, where the rivers are all put down, though without geographical accuracy.
.
-
39
THE CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE FOUNDED.
of Florida ; the same day on which Ribault, with a fleet of seven vessels, arrived at Fort Charles from France. But he did not discover the French fleet until the 4th of September, when they ran in near the bar, and dropped their anchors within speaking distance of the ships of Ribault.
A sullen silence on both sides was at length broken - by a hailing from the Spanish admiral as to their nation and religion. The reply from the ships, that they were French and Lutherans, drew out the rankling vengeance of the Spaniards; and in answer to the question, who he was, and what his business, he replied : " I am Me- lendez of Spain, sent with strict orders from my king to gibbet and behead all the Protestants in these regions. The Frenchman who is a Catholic I will spare: every heretic shall die."
As soon as day dawned, the French, who had loosed their sails during the night, and had gotten all things in readiness, cut their cables and ran out to sea. The Spaniards pursued till towards evening, when they tacked, and stood in to the land. The French also hove about, and now pursued the pursuers, who did not return to the river of May, but to the beautiful stream and harbour which they had a few days before seen ; and which, in honour of the saint on whose day they discovered land, they had named St. Augustine. Here, on the 8th of September, 1565, with all the im- posing ceremonies of the papal church, conducted by Mendoza, the chaplain of the expedition, with masses and processions, with festive and solemn pomp, the foundations of the first city in America, St. Augustine, were laid. Philip II. was proclaimed monarch of North America, and the continent was taken possession of in the name of the King of Spain.
40
MELENDEZ MAKES WAR UPON THE FRENCH.
While the Spaniards were thus refreshing themselves after their tempestuous voyage, the French, at Fort Car- oline were divided, and alarmed. Ribault, with nearly all the ships, sailed away on the 10th of September, and left only eighty-six persons, some of them women and children, with Laudonnier, to defend the fort.
With revolting atrocities, Melendez made war upon the feeble French. The fortress was betrayed into his hands, and easily taken. Laudonnier, with others, made their escape; the rest were slain, some in their beds, so sudden was the attack ; and their bodies were hung upon gibbets, and over them Melendez placed the in- scription, "I do this, not as unto Frenchmen, but as unto Lutherans!" Laudonnier, with the little remnant of his party, reached Wales in November, and thence passed over to London and Paris; while the ships of Ribault were mostly wrecked by a severe tempest soon after leaving Fort Caroline, and all who escaped the waves were massacred by the Spaniards, except ten or twelve who professed themselves Papists. Thus, as Laudonnier well says, did Ribault beget his own un- doing ; for had he, as soon as he reached the coast, on the 14th day of August, embarked the men at the fort, and departed, he would have had ample time to have escaped the Spanish fleet, which did not arrive until two weeks after. This delay put them in the power of Melendez, and dyed the last pages of their history with blood.
But the ruthless butcheries of the Spaniards were soon to be avenged. The French king refusing to pun- ish this breach of international faith, though strongly petitioned to do so by the relatives of those who had fallen in Florida ; a gallant soldier, Dominique de Gour- gues, whose abilities had been tested by twenty-five
41
DE GOURGUES RETALIATES ON THE SPANIARDS.
years of service in the army and navy of France, as well at home as in Africa and Brazil, determined to avenge the death of his countrymen, though he lived and died in the Romish Church.
His zeal was shown in spending his own fortune in fitting out his little fleet, and his courage in facing not only the storms and dangers of three thousand miles of ocean, but daring, on his own responsibility, and with an inferior force, to meet the arms and entrench- ments of the cruel Spaniards. With three ships, eighty sailors, and one hundred and fifty soldiers and volun- teers, he set sail from Bordeaux, on the 22d of August, 1567. He masked his design under a commission from De Montluc, the king's lieutenant in Guienne, for the purpose of trading on the coast of Africa. Having spent some little time there, he suddenly steered away for America, and touching at Cuba, reached Florida in the spring of 1568. He landed at the mouth of the St. Mary's river, and having learned from the friendly savages the number, nature and position of the Spanish forts and forces, he attacked them with such skill and energy, as to capture all their fortresses; and upon the boughs of the same trees whereon the Spaniards had hung the French, Gourgues now suspended the Spaniards, placing over them, in imitation of Melendez, an inscription : " I do this, not as unto Spaniards, nor as unto mariners, but as unto traitors, robbers, and murderers !" With a force too small to maintain his conquests, he razed the forts, and, satisfied with his revenge, set sail on the 3d May, 1568, and soon arrived in France, having lost only one pinnace and a few men in all the expedition.
Proud of his enterprise, he sought the king, to tell him of his success, and to urge him to conquer the
.
42
ECCLESIASTICAL PERSECUTIONS.
country to his crown. But the court of Spain demand- ed him of the French monarch, and offered a large sum for his head ; so that, unprotected by his own sover- eign, and hunted by another, his life was only saved by flight and secretion. He died in 1582, at Tours, on his way to take command of the fleet of Don Antonio, fitting out in the service of Elizabeth of England, for the recovery of the crown of Portugal from the hands of Philip II .; feared by the Spaniards for his bravery, and esteemed by the queen for his virtues.
Shortly after, the Admiral Coligni was assassinated during the dreadful massacre of the Protestants on St. Bartholomew's day; and with him perished, for the time, all attempts to plant the French flag on the southern shores of North America.
Ecclesiastical persecution originated the first settle- ment in America by the French, and the first by the Spaniards. The French were driven from their homes by fire and sword, and edicts of the severest rigour ; the Spaniards came hither for the purpose of exter- minating the former, and levelling their forts in the dust. Both professed to act under pious impulses ; but the French came to save themselves-the Spaniards to destroy others ; the one to find an asylum of peace, the other to perpetuate the horrors of relentless war. Had Charles IX. possessed but the spirit of a man, he would have resented this inhuman havoc, supported his forlorn colony, and thus maintained his right to North America by the occupancy of its territories. But his imbecile mind was a stranger to the first impulse of moral courage ; and he lost New France, because he dared not sustain it.
In all these voyages the sea-board of Georgia was well explored, but no settlement was made; though a
43
PROGRESS OF ENTERPRISE.
few miles north of the Savannah, and a few miles south of the St. Mary's, the French and the Spaniards had erected forts and planted colonies. Thus, the western, middle, northern, and south-eastern portions of Geor- gia had been traversed by the representatives of the two great European powers nearly three centuries ago. But though all the coast of the northern conti- nent had been explored by different voyagers, and though various attempts at colonization had been made on its shores, yet along that fifteen hundred miles of sea-board, there was at this time founded but one city, St. Augustine ; and there was colonized but one people, the Spaniards. The age of inaction soon passed away; the spirit of enterprise, so long wasted by European wars, crowded the highway of the Atlan- tic with the fleets of American adventurers ; and soon the wild and rock-bound coasts of the north, and the fair and fragrant lowlands of the south, smiled into beauty beneath the hand of culture and the arts of peace.
CHAPTER IV.
-
ABORIGINES IN GEORGIA.
THE history of those who peopled this country on its first discovery by Europeans, must ever be a sub- ject of peculiar interest. A great change has been wrought in the condition of the Indians within the last two hundred years. Once their broad hunting ground was washed by the waters of the Atlantic on the east, and the Pacific on the west, and spread from the dreary pines of the north to the jessamine-scented forests of the south.
They lived in their native wildness, amid the sub- lime solitudes of America; now hunting the timid deer-now paddling the birch canoe-now dancing at their simple festivals-now going forth, painted and plumed for battle-or now, gathered around their council fires, to the grave debates of chiefs and war- riors.
According to the statements of early writers, the number of Indians in and around Georgia was once very great; though it is somewhat difficult, at this dis- tance of time, and with the imperfect records which we possess, to separate them with much accuracy into
.
45
CHARACTER OF THE ABORIGINES.
their several tribes, or define their respective bounda- ries. They were eminently a shifting population ; having few local ties-settling themselves for a season or two-raising their rude wigwams-planting a crop -reaping its harvest-and then, by the love of adven- turė or the fortunes of war, led away to other lands, to be as soon again removed from these. Some, indeed, had more fixed abodes, though the general habits of all were migratory and unsettled. It will be needless to recapitulate here, descriptions already given of the character and condition of the Indians when first vis- ited by the Europeans. Simple in their manners, superstitious in their customs, warlike in their actions, they strangely mingled the barbarities of the savage, with the artlessness of nature's untutored children. With minds of strong powers and original thought, they wasted them upon the groveling sensualities of savage life. With affections warped by the dark superstitions of their religion, they worshipped with bloody rites, and were devout through fear. With no permanent abode, they wandered and warred under their ancient leaders, and founded a society, based on the physical supremacy of martial prowess. Thus they met the Europeans. They first beheld them as dei- ties ;1 they received them as gods ; but intercourse soon stripped the white man of his supposed divinity, and they saw in him a being like themselves, only more steeped in crime, because possessing greater means and agencies of guilt. And, surely, there can be no moral deformity more loathsome, than that created by engrafting upon savage character the vices of civilized society. The progeny of these blended crimes, like
1 Irving's Columbus, i. 104. Du Simitière MSS. in New York Historical Collection, new series, i. 273.
46
THE YAMASSEES ATTACK THE SPANIARDS.
the union of the " sons of God" with the " daughters of men," is, indeed, giant-like in turpitude and sin. Such it proved to be in America. At the period of the settlement of Georgia, several tribes occupied what now constitutes its territory. Along the Savannah river were the Yamassees,2 a large and powerful tribe, which, for many years from the settling of Carolina, were in friendly alliance with the colonists. Archdale, who entered upon the government of Carolina in 1695, describes them as " good friends, and useful neigh- bours of the English." It was only recently, however, that they had become such ; having renounced their allegiance to the Spaniards in 1680, when the Gov- ernor of St. Augustine ordered the execution of one of their chiefs ; by which the feelings of the tribe were so wrought upon, that six years after they made a general attack upon the Spaniards, and drove them within the walls of the castle, and became such mor- tal enemies to them, that they never gave a Spaniard quarter.3 Then they proffered their friendship and services to the Carolinians, and proved themselves allies, by the valuable service they rendered Carolina in the attack upon St. Augustine by Governor Moore in 1702; and also in his war upon the Tuscaroras, (who then lived between the Savannah and the Altamaha,) whose towns he laid in ashes, killing many of the peo- ple in battle, or carrying them away to Charleston to be sold as slaves. The Yamassees were regarded by the Carolinians as peculiarly inimical to the Spaniards ;
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.