Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

10 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
rations in Florida.* Bishop Stevens doubtless consulted this work in
writing his excellent history of Georgia, for he therein gives an account
of the expedition telling how the names of French rivers were bestowed
upon the streams of this state, giving them the earliest names by which
they were known beyond the Atlantic. Says he: t " The expedition
sailed from Havre de Grace on February 18, 1562, and in two months
reached Florida, at a place which they named Cape Francois. Thence
coasting north, they soon entered the -mouth of the St. John's which,
because discovered on the first day of May, they called the River of
May. Here, on a sandy knoll, they erected a pillar of stone, on which
was engraved the arms of France. Coasting still northward, they dis
covered the St. Mary's, which Ribault named the Seine, because it was
' like unto the River of Seine in France.' Leaving St. Mary's, they soon
cast anchor off the mouth of the Satilla, termed by them the Somme; and
manning two boats they rowed up the river to examine its banks and
to hold converse with the Indian king. They next discovered the Alta-
maha, which they called the Loire ; further north, they came to Newport
River, emptying into Sapelo Sound, which they termed Charente; next,
St. Catharine's Inlet, which they called the Garonne; then Ossabaw
Sound, receiving the waters of the Ogeechee River, to which they
assigned the name of Gironde; and still further on they entered the
broad mouth of the Savannah, styled by them the River Grande; thus
bestowing upon the noble streams of Georgia the names of the beautiful
rivers of France. Each of these waters was well explored and glowingly
described.''
But Ribault's colony of Huguenots was doomed to extinction. Two
years later, Laudonnier, on visiting Fort Charles, found the settlement
deserted. But testifying with a mute eloquence to the character of the
early French settlers he found wreathed with garlands a stone pillar
inscribed with the arms of France. At the foot of this shrine were offer
ings made by the natives, bespeaking the veneration in which they held
this pathetic memorial of the Huguenots. Laudonnier.did not attempt
to rebuild Fort Charles, deterred no doubt by the hapless fate of his
fellow countrymen. But skirting the Georgia coast he landed at, the
mouth of the St. John's River, then called the River May, where he
erected a fort which he called Fort Caroline. In token of the jurisdic
tion of France, he there planted a stone column bearing the royal arms.
With seven vessels, in 1565, Ribault returned to America and took
command of the colony at Fort Caroline. But the appearance of a
Spanish squadron, dispatched with orders to kill all the Protestants in
the settlement, caused him to put to sea with great loss. To explain this
unexpected check to the enterprising Huguenots, Spain, having learned
of these French settlements on the coast, had commissioned Menendez,
with a large force, to settle Florida. He executed the commission by a
relentless and thorough massacre of the inhabitants and every vestige
of the French settlement was obliterated. Captain Ribault was himself
among the slain. Leaving there a Spanish garrison, Menendez moved
farther on down the coast, where he constructed a fort; and here, on
* "True and Last Discoverie of Florida made by John Ribault, in the year 1562."
t "History of Georgia," Wm. Bacon Stevens, Vol. I, pp. 30-38.