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Show 358 TilE LILY AND Til£ TOTEM. were immediately puslJed up tho stream, and succeeded in picking up the swimmers, and, finally, when J,audonnicre and his faithful companions were both about to sink, in extricating them from their marshy place of refuge. Eighteen or twenty of the fugitives (among wl10m was the celebrated painter, Jaques le Moyno de Morgues, to whom we owe mostly the illustrations of J~loridian scenery, costume, and lineaments prcseFVcd in De Dry and other collections) were rescued in this manner, and conveyed on board the ships. 'l'hese, with Laudonnicrc, subsequently made their way, after many disasters, perils of the sea and laud, a detention in England, where they w·crc again indebted to the humanity of the English for succor and sympathy. An artful attempt was made by Melendez to obtain possession of these vessels, but he was btlilled. They sailed from the river of l\Jny on the 25th September, 1565, thus abandoning forcYcr the design of planting themselves and their religion permanently in Florida. Let us now look to tho farther proceedings of the conquerors in possession of their prize! CHAPTER VII. A:sn now, it falls to our lot to record the most cruel passage in all this history; to relate the mournful and terrible fate which befel the wretched Huguenots taken at the capture of La Caroline, and the sanguinary deed by which the Spanish chief, through a gloomy fanaticism, stained foully the honorable fame which his skill and courage in arms might have ensured to his memory. All resist- TilE FATt OF LA CAROLIN"t:. 359 av.cc having ceased on the part of lhc llugucnots of La Caroline, the standard of Castile lras unrolled from its battlements, instead of the white folds and tho smiling lilies of France. 'l'he name of the fortress was solemnly changed to San 1\Tatheo, the day on which they found themselves in its possession being that which W!lS dedicated to the honor of that saint, 'fhe arms of l~ranee and of Coligny, which surmounted the gateways of the place, w·cre erased and those of Spain were graven there instead, and the keep· ing of the fortress was assigned to a garrison of three hundred men, under the command of Gonzalo de VillaroCI. These duties occupied but little time, and did not iotcrferc with otlJcr performances of the Adclantado, which he thought not the less conspicuous among the duties required at his hands. His prisoners were brought before him. These were, perhaps, not so numerous, though forming n fair proportion of the number left by Itibaalt in the garrison. It is perhaps fortunate tlul. no greater number had been left, since, in all probability, the same want of watch and caution by which the fortress had been lost, would have equally been shown, with any numbers, under such an easy commandant as Laudonnicre, aod in tho particular circumstances which had taken place. Of these prisoners many were women nod children. W c have seen that Laudonnicrc succeeded in rescuing some twenty persons. Several had fled to the forests and taken she~tcr with the tribes of neighboring Indians. In some few instances, the red·men protected them with fidelity. But in the greater number of cases, terrified by the sudden appearance and the strength of the Spaniards, they bad yielded up the fugitives at the fierce demand of the Adelantado. Others of the miserable Huguenots, warned by the Indians that they could no longer harbor, |
