Protestant Sea Rovers


tlement in America. De la Ronciere, in his "Histoire de la
Marine Francaise," tells us that Francois Le Clerc, Jacques
de Sores, and Bontemps were also in the service of Queen
Elizabeth, and when the then Earl of Warwick asked for a
pension for them in view of the numerous prizes they had
taken, she replied "Give them their discharge."
 In 1562 Jean Ribaut and Rene de Laudonniere established
the French colony in Northern Florida for Gaspard de Co-
ligny, Admiral of France with the consent of Charles IX. The
admiral sought to plant a colony in the New World as a
refuge for his persecuted people from the religious and civil
wars. In 1564 more colonists were brought to Florida from
France. What the English Puritans did in the 17th century,
Admiral Coligny planned to do with the Huguenots in the
16th. But the colonists were always restless and discontented
because they were for the most part Huguenots only in name
and thought less of escaping religious persecution at home
than of enriching themselves abroad. They were haunted
by stories the Indians told them of lands in the interior where
gold was to be found and about other tales about riches on
the Spanish Main to the south. Some soldiers of the first
group revolted and killed the captain Jean Ribaut had put
in charge of their fort. Then a party of sailors stole two pin-
naces and went off on a buccaneering cruise. Then other
mutineers seized the fort and compelled Laudonniere to give
them written permission to sail in a vessel among the Spanish
settlements in the West Indies and the Spanish Main to seek
provisions by purchase or by piracy. Driven back by the
Spaniards, some were hanged by Laudonniere. In September
1568 the French colonists which included Jean Ribot, four
captains, sailors, male and female colonists with children, 873
in all, were massacred by a Spanish expedition under Menen-
dez de Aviles, captain general of Cuba. After the slaughter
he put up an inscription on the spot with the words, "I do
this not towards Frenchmen but towards Lutherans." Some
of the French had been spared in the massacre, some returned