s then
built rude boats, floated down the river to the Gulf, steered along the
coast of Texas, and in September, 1543, reached Tampico, in Mexico.

More than half a century had now gone by since the first voyage of
Columbus. Yet not a settlement, great or small, had been established by
Spain within our boundary. Between 1546 and 1561 missionaries twice
attempted to found missions and convert the Indians in Florida, and
twice were driven away. In 1582 others entered the valleys of the Gila
and the Rio Grande, took possession of the pueblos, established
missions, preached the Gospel to the Indians, and brought them under
the dominion of Spain. But when Santa Fe (sahn'-tah fa') was founded, in
1582, the only colony of Spain in the United States, besides the
missions in Arizona and New Mexico, was St. Augustine in Florida.

[Illustration: A Spanish mission]

%14. St. Augustine.%--St. Augustine was founded by the Spaniards in
order to keep out the French, who made two attempts to occupy the south
Atlantic coast. The first was that of John Ribault (ree-bo'). He led a
colony of Frenchmen, in 1562, to what is now South Carolina, built a
small fort on a spot which he called Port Royal, and left it in charge
of thirty men while he went back to France for more colonists. The men
were a shiftless set, depended on the Indians till the Indians would
feed them no longer, and when famine set in, they mutinied, slew their
commander, built a crazy ship and went to sea, where an English vessel
found them in a starving condition, and took them to London.

In 1564 a second party, under Laudonniere (lo-do-ne-ar'), landed at the
St. Johns River in Florida, and built a fort called Fort Caroline in
honor of Charles IX. of France. But the King of Spain, hearing that the
French were trespassing, sent an expedition under Menendez
(ma-nen'-deth), who founded St. Augustine in 1565. There Ribault, who
had returned and joined Laudonniere, attempted to attack the Spaniards.
But a hurricane scattered his ships, and while it was still raging,
Menendez fell suddenly on Fort Caroline and massacred men, women, and
children. A few days later, falling in with Ribault and his men, who had
been driven ashore south of St. Augustine, Menendez massacred 150
more.[1] For this foul deed a Frenchman named Gourgues (goorg) exacted a
fearful penalty. With three small ships and 200 men, he sailed to the
St. Johns River, took and destroyed the fort which the Spaniards