AN HISTORICAL SKETCH.


Luna sailed from Vera Cruz with a great expedition com-
prising fifteen hundred soldiers, and a large number of
friars burning with zeal for the conversion of the Indians,
and landed at the Bay of Pensacola (then called Santa
Maria Bay). Almost at the outset a great storm wrecked
the entire fleet and destroyed a large part of the provisions;
but De Luna sent back for more, marched into the interior,
encountered the usual opposition from the natives, lost hun-
dreds of his men by disease, hunger, and fatigue, quarreled
bitterly with his subordinate officers, returned discouraged
to the Bay of Santa Maria, and was finally ordered home
by the Viceroy of Mexico, under whose auspices the expe-
dition had been undertaken.
 This abortive enterprise of De Luna's is noteworthy as
 the last of the Spanish exploring expeditions that visited
 Florida. Two years after its disastrous end a party of
 French Huguenots under Jean Ribault came over, and after
 making land near St. Augustine, coasted northward, en-
 tered the St. John's River (which they named the May),
 and established a short-lived colony at what is now Port
 Royal. In 1564 a larger party of Huguenots under Rene
 de Laudounibre landed at the present site of St. Augustine,
 had a friendly interview with the Indians, and then pro-
 ceeded northward to the St. John's, where they built Fort
 Caroline on what is now St. John's Bluff. As was usually
Sthe case with the French colonists in America, the Hugue-
nots succeeded in establishing amicable relations with the
Indians; but Laudounire's men were soldiers rather than
workmen; they were not prudent in the management of
their supplies, and in 1565 they would have been compelled
to abandon their undertaking but for the timely arrival of
an English fleet under Sir John Hawkins, who not only
generously supplied their more pressing wants but sold them
a small vessel, and a good store of powder and ball. Even


this timely aid, however, did


not dissuade the colonists