RIBAUT'S FIRST EXPEDITION

FRANCIS PARKMAN

FRANCIS PARKMAN (1823-1893) was an eminent American historian who wrote mainly of French exploration and settlement in the New World.

NOTE. For years after the discovery of America there were few attempts to colonize the land now occupied by the United States. Spain was seeking gold in Mexico and Peru, while England and France were ab- 5 sorbed by affairs at home. An effort was made to establish a French colony in Brazil, but it was unsuccessful. Cartier's colony in Canada met with a like fate. The following narrative is abridged from Pioneers of France in the New World.

In the year 1562 a cloud of black and deadly portent 10 was thickening over France. Surely and swiftly she glided toward the abyss of the religious wars. None could pierce the future, perhaps none dared to contemplate it: the wild rage of fanaticism and hate, friend grappling with friend, brother with brother, father with son; altars profaned, 15 hearthstones made desolate; the robes of Justice herself bedrenched with murder.

In these days of fear a second Huguenot colony sailed for the New World. Jean Ribaut of Dieppe commanded the expedition. Under him, besides sailors, were a band 20 of veteran soldiers and a few young nobles. Embarked in two of those antiquated craft whose high poops and tub-like proportions are preserved in the old engravings of De Bry, they sailed from Havre on the eighteenth of February, 1562. They crossed the Atlantic, and on the 25

thirtieth of April, in the latitude of twenty-nine and a half degrees, saw the long, low line where the wilderness of waves met the wilderness of woods. It was the coast of Florida. Soon they descried a jutting point, which they 5 called French Cape, perhaps one of the headlands of Matanzas Inlet. They turned their prows northward, skirting the fringes of that waste of verdure which rolled in shadowy undulation far to the unknown West.

On the next morning, the first of May, they found them10 selves off the mouth of a great river. Riding at anchor on a sunny sea, they lowered their boats, crossed the bar that obstructed the entrance, and floated on a basin of deep and sheltered water alive with leaping fish. Indians were running along the beach and out upon the sand bars, beck15 oning them to land. They pushed their boats ashore and

disembarked, sailors, soldiers, and eager young nobles. Corselet and morion, arquebuse and halberd, flashed in the sun that flickered through innumerable leaves, as, kneeling on the ground, they gave thanks to God who had 20 guided their voyage to an issue full of promise.

The Indians, seated gravely under the neighboring trees, looked on in silent respect, thinking that they worshiped the sun. They were in full paint, in honor of the occasion, and in a most friendly mood. With their squaws and 25 children they presently drew near and, strewing the earth with laurel boughs, sat down among the Frenchmen. The latter were much pleased with them, and Ribaut gave the

chief, whom he calls the king, a robe of blue cloth worked in yellow with the royal fleur-de-lis.

But Ribaut and his followers, just escaped from the dull prison of their ships, were intent on admiring the wild scenes around them. Never had they known a fairer May 5 Day. The quaint old narrative is exuberant with delight. The tranquil air, the warm sun, woods fresh with young verdure, meadows bright with flowers; the palm, the cypress, the pine, the magnolia; the grazing deer; herons, curlews, bitterns, woodcock, and unknown waterfowl that 10 waded in the ripple of the beach; cedars bearded from crown to root with long, gray moss; huge oaks smothering in the serpent folds of enormous grapevines ; — such were the objects that greeted them in their roamings, till their new-discovered land seemed "the fairest, fruitfulest, 15 and pleasantest of all the world."

Above all, it was plain to their excited fancy that the country was rich in gold and silver, turquoises and pearls. One of the latter, "as great as an Acorne at ye least," hung from the neck of an Indian who stood near their 20 boats as they reëmbarked. They gathered, too, from the signs of their savage visitors, that the wonderful land of Cibola, with its seven cities and its untold riches, was distant but twenty days' journey by water. In truth, it was on the Gila, two thousand miles off, and its wealth a fable. 25 They named the river the River of May (it is now the St. Johns) and on its southern shore, near its mouth,

they planted a stone pillar engraved with the arms of France. Then, once more embarked, they held their course northward, happy in that benign decree which locks from mortal eyes the secrets of the future. 5 Slowly moving northward, they named each river, or inlet supposed to be a river, after the streams of France. At length, opening betwixt flat and sandy shores, they saw a commodious haven, and named it Port Royal.

On the twenty-seventh of May they crossed the bar 10 and, dreaming nothing of what the rolling centuries should bring forth, held their course along the peaceful bosom of Broad River. When they landed, all was solitude. The frightened Indians had fled, but they lured them back with knives, beads, and looking-glasses, and enticed two. 15 of them on board their ships. Here, by feeding, clothing, and caressing them, they tried to wean them from their fears; but the captive warriors moaned and lamented day and night, till Ribaut, with the prudence and humanity which seem always to have characterized him, gave over 20 his purpose of carrying them to France, and set them ashore again.

Ranging the woods they found them full of game, wild turkeys and partridges, bears and lynxes. Preliminary exploration, not immediate settlement, had been the object 25 of the voyage; but all was still rose-color in the eyes of the voyagers, and many of their number would fain linger in the new Canaan. Ribaut was more than willing to

humor them. He mustered his company on deck and made them a stirring harangue. He appealed to their courage and their patriotism, told them how, from a mean origin, men rise by enterprise and daring to fame and fortune, and demanded who among them would stay behind and 5 hold Port Royal for the king. The greater part came forward, and "with such a good will," writes the commander, "as we had much to do to stay their importunity.'

Thirty were chosen and a fort was forthwith begun about six miles from the site of Beaufort. They named it 10 Charlesfort, in honor of Charles the Ninth. Ammunition and stores were sent on shore, and on the eleventh of June, with his diminished company, Ribaut, again embarking, spread his sails for France.

Ribaut: Jean Ribaut (zhän rẽ bō') was known for his stanch adherence to the Huguenot party, and for his skill as a sailor. Huguenot: French Protestant. Dieppe (dě ěp ́): a French seaport. poop: the high stern

of a vessel. De Bry (brē): a painter and engraver of the sixteenth century. corselet: armor for the body. —mo ́rion: an open helmet. arquebuse (är'qué bŭs): an ancient hand gun. - halberd: a spear and ax combined. - fleur-de-lis (flûr de le'): the emblem of France. It is the conventionalized iris. ye (the): the old printed form of the. It is often wrongly pronounced ye. Ribaut's account of his voyage was translated into English shortly after his return. No record in the original French exists. Cibola (sẽ bỏ lä): a cluster of Indian villages. — Gila (hē ́lä): a river of Arizona. Canaan (kā ́nan): the promised land of the Israelites. · Beaufort (bū ́fĕrt): a seaport of South Carolina, situated upon Port Royal Island. Charles the Ninth: a weak and unhappy king of France. He was under the control of an unscrupulous mother, who was responsible for most of the horrors of his reign.