OCR Text |
Show 122 " One of the sides that enclosed my court, which I mado very fairc and largt}, renchcd unto the grange of my munitions: and, on tho other side, towarde the river, was mine ownc lodgings, round which were galleries all covered. The principal doorc of my lodging was in the middcst of the great place, and t.he other will! towarde the river. A good distance from the fort, I built. an oven." It will be an employment of curiou.s interest, whenever the people of Florida shall happen upon the true site of the settlement and structure of La.udonnierc, to trace out, in detail, these several localities, and fix them for the benefit of posterity. The work is scarcely beyond the hammer and chisel of some Old Mortality, who has learned to place his affections, and fix his sympathies, upon the achievements of the Past. X. lliSTORICAL SU~l~1ARY. Tuus, then, was founded the second European settlement on the Continent of America. The fortress was named 1~ ... C.AROLIN.:, in honor of the French monarch, whom it was still the policy of the Iluguenots to conciliate. The houses were of frail structure, and thatched with leaves of the palmetto. Tho domain was a narrow one, but it was probably sufficiently wide for the genius of Laudonuicre. lie soon shows himself sensible of all his dignities as the solo representative of his master in the New 'V orld. From his own a.ccount, he docs not appear to have been the proper person for the conduct of so difficult, if not so great, an enterprise. There is no doubt that he was sufficiently brave; but bravery, unsustained by judgment, is at best a doubtful virtue, and, in a situation of great responsibility, is apt to show itself at the expense of all discretion. The object of tho colony of Ltl Caroline was a permanent establishment-a place of refuge from persecution-where the seeds of a new empire might be planted on a basis which should ensure civil liberty to the citizen. The proper aim of such a settlement should have been security, self-mnintcnnncc, and peace with all men. These could only have been found in the eoonomizing of their resources, in the a.pplica- |