Chapter XIX: First French Attempts to Settle America

CARTIER. During the reign of Francis I, the French made the first
serious attempts to find a westward route to the Far East and to settle
the new lands that seemed to lie directly across the pathway. In 1534
Jacques Cartier was sent with two ships in search of a strait beyond the
regions controlled by Spain or Portugal which would lead into the
Pacific Ocean. Cartier passed around the northern side of Newfoundland
and into the broad expanse of water west of it. This he called the Gulf
of St. Lawrence.

CARTIER AT MONTREAL. Cartier made a second voyage in the following
year, exploring the great river which he called the St. Lawrence. He
went up the river until the heights of Mount Royal or Montreal, as he
called them, appeared on his right hand, and swift rapids in the river
blocked his way in front. The name Lachine rapids, or the China rapids,
which was afterwards given to these, remains to remind us that Cartier
was searching for a passage to China.

THE FIRST WINTER IN CANADA. Cartier spent the severe winter which
followed at the foot of the cliffs which mark the site of the modern
city of Quebec. The expedition returned to France with the coming
of spring.

ATTEMPTS TO PLANT A COLONY AT QUEBEC. Several years later, in 1541,
Cartier and others attempted to establish a permanent settlement on the
St. Lawrence. As it was hard to get good colonists to settle in the cold
climate so far north, the leaders were allowed to ransack the prisons
for debtors and criminals to make up the necessary numbers. They
selected the neighborhood of the cliffs where Cartier had wintered in
1535, where Quebec now stands, as the most suitable place for their
colony. But the settlers were ill-fitted for the hardships of a new
settlement in so cold and barren a country. Diseases and the hostility
of the Indians completely discouraged them, and all gladly returned
to France.

The zeal of the French for American discovery and settlement on the St.
Lawrence ceased with Cartier. His hope that the St. Lawrence would prove
the long-sought passage to China had to be given up, but the river which
he had discovered and so thoroughly explored proved to be a great
highway into the center of North America.

COLIGNY'S PLAN FOR A HUGUENOT COLONY. Nearly thirty years later the
French Protestant leader, Coligny, formed the plan of establishing a
colony in America, which would be a refuge for the Huguenots if their
enemies got the upper hand in France. An expedition left France in 1564,
and selected a site for a settlement near the mouth of the St. Johns
river in Florida. It seemed a good place. A fort, called Fort Caroline,
was quickly built. But the first colonists were not well chosen. They
were chiefly younger nobles, soldiers unused to labor, or discontented
tradesmen and artisans. There were few farmers among them.

THE MISDEEDS OF THE COLONISTS. They spent their time visiting
distant Indian tribes in a vain search for gold and silver, or
plundering Spanish villages and ships in the West Indies. No one thought
of preparing the soil and planting seeds for a food supply. It seemed
easier to rob neighbors. The provisions which they had brought with them
gave out. Game and fish abounded in the woods and rivers about them, but
they were without skill in hunting and fishing. Before the first year
had passed the miserable inhabitants of Fort Caroline were reduced to
digging roots in the forest for food. Starvation and the revenge of
angry Indians confronted them.

RELIEF SENT TO THE COLONY. In August, 1565, just as the
half-starved colonists were preparing to leave the country, an
expedition with fresh settlers--mostly discharged soldiers, a few young
nobles, and some mechanics with their families, three hundred in
all--arrived in the harbor. It brought an abundance of supplies and
other things needed by a colony in a new country. It looked then as
though these Frenchmen would succeed in their plan and establish a
permanent colony in America.

FORT CAROLINE AND THE SPANIARDS. The French had, however, settled
in Florida. Indeed, it would have been difficult to settle in America at
any place along the Atlantic coast without doing so. The Spaniards
regarded all North America from Mexico to Labrador as lying within
Florida. The attempt of the French to settle on the lands claimed by the
king of Spain was sure to bring on a war, sooner or later. The conduct
of the French at Fort Caroline in plundering the Spanish colonies in the
West Indies made all Spaniards anxious to drive out such a nest of
robbers and murderers. Besides, the Spaniards hated Coligny's followers
more than ordinary Frenchmen, because they were Huguenots.

MENENDEZ. At the time the news reached Spain of Coligny's
settlement at Fort Caroline, a Spanish nobleman, Pedro Menendez, was
preparing to establish a colony in Florida, and thus after a long delay
carry out the task which De Soto had vainly attempted. Menendez was
naturally as eager as the king to drive out the French intruders. So an
expedition larger than was planned at first was hurried off. Menendez
was to do three things: drive the French out, conquer and Christianize
the Indians, and establish Spanish settlements in Florida.

THE DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH FLEET. Menendez with a part of his fleet
arrived before Fort Caroline just one week after the relief expedition
which Coligny had sent over came into harbor. His ships attacked and
scattered those of the French. The vessels of the French for the most
part sought refuge on the high seas. They were too swift to be
overtaken, but no match for the Spanish in battle. Menendez decided to
wait for the rest of his ships before making another attack on Fort
Caroline. Meanwhile he sailed southward along the coast for fifty miles
till he came to an inlet. He called the place St. Augustine.

ST. AUGUSTINE FOUNDED. A friendly Indian chief readily gave his
dwelling to the Spaniards. It was a huge, barn-like structure, made of
the entire trunks of trees, and thatched with palmetto leaves. Soldiers
quickly dug a ditch around it and threw up a breastwork of earth and
small sticks. The colonists who came with Menendez landed and set about
the usual work of founding a settlement. Such was the beginning of the
Spanish town of St. Augustine, founded in 1565, and the oldest town in
the United States.

FRENCH SAIL TO ATTACK ST. AUGUSTINE. Both sides prepared for a
terrible struggle, the French at Fort Caroline and the Spaniards in
their new quarters at St. Augustine. The French struck the first blow. A
few of the weaker and the sick soldiers were left at Fort Caroline to
stand guard with the women and children. The main body aboard the ships
advanced by sea to attack St. Augustine, but a furious tempest scattered
and wrecked the French fleet before it arrived.

MENENDEZ DESTROYS FORT CAROLINE. Menendez now took advantage of the
storm to march overland to Fort Caroline, wading through swamps and
fording streams amid a fearful rain and gale. His drenched and hungry
followers fell like wild beasts upon the few French left in the fort.
About fifty of the women and children were spared to become captives. As
many men escaped in the forests around the fort, but the greater part
were killed.

CAPTURE OF THE SHIPWRECKED FRENCH. The French fleet had been
wrecked off the coast of Florida a dozen miles south of St. Augustine. A
few days later Menendez discovered some survivors wandering along the
coast, half starved, trying to live on the shell-fish they found on the
beach, and slowly and painfully working their way back toward Fort
Caroline. The Frenchmen begged Menendez to be allowed to remain in the
country till ships could be sent to take them off, but he was unwilling
to make any terms with them.

MURDER OF THE CAPTIVES. The unhappy Frenchmen were taken prisoners,
and, a few hours later, put to death. Other shipwrecked refugees were
captured a few days later, and these suffered the same fate. Nearly
three hundred perished in this cold-blooded manner. It was a merciless
deed, and yet such was the character of all warfare at the time.
Menendez believed that he was doing his duty. Nor did the king of Spain
think Menendez unduly cruel, for when he heard the story of the fate of
the Frenchmen of Fort Caroline he sent this message to Menendez: "Say to
him that, as to those he has killed, he has done well; and as to those
he has saved, they shall be sent to the galleys."

QUESTIONS

1. Who was the leader in the first French efforts to explore and
settle in North America? Find as many reasons as possible why France
had not tried to settle in America before. What parts of the
continent did Cartier become interested in? Why was he specially
interested in St. Lawrence region?

2. How did Montreal get its name? Why was the name, Lachine rapids,
given to the rapids above Montreal on the St. Lawrence river?

3. Why did Cartier fail in his attempts to plant a French colony in
North America? How much had he and his friends accomplished for
France in North America?

4. Why did Coligny later wish to establish a colony in America?
Where did his people try to settle? Find the place on the map.
Give several reasons why they soon got into trouble with
the Spaniards.

5. What did the king of Spain send Menendez to Florida to do? What
things did he accomplish? Why do we specially remember St.
Augustine? Find it on the map.

EXERCISES

1. Examine the map of North America in 1541. What parts
of North America were known? What parts were unknown? Can you see
why the explorers would search each bay or inlet or great river?

2. Find how far into the continent of North America the French
explored the St. Lawrence river, that is, the distance from
Newfoundland to Montreal by using the scale of miles on a map in one
of your geographies.

_Important Date_: 1565. The founding of St. Augustine.