ned by La Roquette, that I would
deprive them of this great game, in that I did set them dayly on worke,
not sending them on every side to discover the Countreys; therefore
that it were a good deede to dispatch mee out of the way, and to choose
another Captaine in my place." The soldiers listened too well. They made
a flag of an old shirt, which they carried with them to the rampart
when they went to their work, at the same time wearing their arms; and,
pursues Laudonniere, "these gentle Souldiers did the same for none other
ende but to have killed mee and my Lieutenant also, if by chance I had
given them any hard speeches." About this time, overheating himself, he
fell ill, and was confined to his quarters. On this, Genre made advances
to the apothecary, urging him to put arsenic into his medicine; but the
apothecary shrugged his shoulders. They next devised a scheme to blow
him up by hiding a keg of gunpowder under his bed; but here, too, they
failed. Hints of Genre's machinations reaching the ears of Laudonniere,
the culprit fled to the woods, whence he wrote repentant letters, with
full confession, to his commander.

Two of the ships meanwhile returned to France, the third, the "Breton,"
remaining at anchor opposite the fort. The malcontents took the
opportunity to send home charges against Laudonniere of peculation,
favoritism, and tyranny.

On the fourth of September, Captain Bourdet, apparently a private
adventurer, had arrived from France with a small vessel. When he
returned, about the tenth of November, Laudonniere persuaded him to
carry home seven or eight of the malcontent soldiers. Bourdet left some
of his sailors in their place. The exchange proved most disastrous.
These pirates joined with others whom they had won over, stole
Laudonniere's two pinnaces, and set forth on a plundering excursion to
the West Indies. They took a small Spanish vessel off the coast of Cuba,
but were soon compelled by famine to put into Havana and give themselves
up. Here, to make their peace with the authorities, they told all they
knew of the position and purposes of their countrymen at Fort Caroline,
and thus was forged the thunderbolt soon to be hurled against the
wretched little colony.

On a Sunday morning, Francois de la Caille [13] came to Laudonniere's
quarters, and, in the name of the whole company, requested him to come
to the parade ground. He complied, and issuing forth, his inseparable
Ottigny at his side, he saw