ce pais-la"). In
the discussion that ensued between the courts of Paris and
Madrid, the queen mother never denied that the colonists went
not only with her knowledge, but with her consent. In fact,
she repudiated with scorn and indignation a suggestion of the
possibility that such considerable bodies of soldiers and
sailors could have left her son's French dominions without the
royal privity (Ibid., 427).

[Sidenote: 1562.]

The first expedition, under Jean Ribault, in 1562, was little
more than a voyage of discovery. The main body promptly
returned to France, the same year, finding that country rent
with civil war. The twenty-six or twenty-eight men left behind
to hold "Charlesfort" (erected probably near the mouth of the
South Edisto river, in what is now South Carolina),
disheartened and famishing, nevertheless succeeded in
constructing a rude ship and recrossing the Atlantic in the
course of the next year.

[Sidenote: 1564.]

A second expedition (1564), under Rene de Laudonniere, who had
taken part in the first, was intended to effect a more
permanent settlement. A strong earthwork was accordingly
thrown-up at a spot christened "Caroline," in honor of Charles
the Ninth, and the colony was inaugurated under fair auspices.
But improvidence and mismanagement soon bore their legitimate
fruits. Laudonniere saw himself constrained to build ships for
a return to Europe, and was about to set sail when the third
expedition unexpectedly made its appearance (August 28, 1565),
under Ribault, leader of the first enterprise.

[Sidenote: 1565.]

[Sidenote: Massacre by Menendez.]

Unfortunately the arrival of this fresh reinforcement was
closely followed by the approach of a Spanish squadron,
commanded by Pedro Menendez, or Melendez, de Abila, sent by
Philip the Second expressly to destroy the Frenchmen who had
been so presumptuous as to settle in territories claimed by
his Catholic Majesty. Nature seemed to conspire with their own
incompetency to ruin the French. The French vessels, having
gone out to attack the Spaniards, accomplished nothing, and,
meeting a terrible storm, were driven far down the coast and
wrecked. "Caroline" fell into the hands of Menendez, and its
garrison was mercilessly put to death. The same fa