many of them, they
arrived, one party at Rochelle, the other at Swansea, in Wales.

In suspense and fear, hourly looking seaward for the dreaded fleet of
John Ribaut, the chaplain Mendoza and his brother priests held watch and
ward at St. Augustine, in the Adelantado's absence. Besides the
celestial guardians whom they ceased not to invoke, they had as
protectors Bartholomew Menendez, the brother of the Adelantado, and
about a hundred soldiers. Day and night, the latter toiled to throw up
earthworks and strengthen their position.

A week elapsed, when they saw a man running towards their fort, shouting
as he ran.

Mendoza went out to meet him.

"Victory! Victory!" gasped the breathless messenger. "The French fort is
ours!" And he flung his arms about the chaplain's neck.

"To-day," writes the latter in his journal, "Monday, the twenty-fourth,
came our good general himself, with fifty soldiers, very tired, like all
those who were with him. As soon as they told me he was coming, I ran to
my lodging, took a new cassock, the best I had, put on my surplice, and
went out to meet him with a crucifix in my hand; whereupon he, like a
gentleman and a good Christian, kneeled down with all his followers, and
gave the Lord a thousand thanks for the great favors he had received
from Him."

In solemn procession, four priests in front chanting the _Te Deum_, the
victors entered St. Augustine in triumph.

On the twenty-eighth, when the weary Adelantado was taking his _siesta_
under the sylvan roof of Seloy, a troop of Indians came in with news
that quickly roused him from his slumbers. They had seen a French vessel
wrecked on the coast towards the south. Those who escaped from her were
some four leagues off, on the banks of a river or arm of the sea, which
they could not cross.

Menendez instantly sent forty or fifty men in boats to reconnoitre.
Next, he called the chaplain,--for he would fain have him at his elbow
to countenance the devilish deeds he meditated,--and embarked, with him,
twelve soldiers, and two Indian guides, in another boat. They rowed
along the channel between Anastasia Island and the main shore; then
landed, struck across the country on foot, traversed plains and marshes,
readied the sea towards night, and searched along-shore till ten o'clock
to find their comrades who had gone before. At length, with mutual joy,
the two parties met, and bivouacked together on the sands. Not far
distant they could see ligh