sad results.

The Spaniards numbered about six hundred combatants, and the French
about the same; but arrangements had been made for further accessions to
the Spanish force, to be drawn from Santo Domingo and Havana, and these
were daily expected.

It was the habit of those days to devolve almost every event upon the
ordering of a special providence; and each nation had come to look upon
itself almost in the light of a peculiar people, led like the Israelites
of old by signs and wonders; and as in their own view all their actions
were directed by the design of advancing God's glory as well as their
own purposes, so the blessing of Heaven would surely accompany them in
all their undertakings.

So believed the crusaders on the plains of Palestine; so believed the
conquerors of Mexico and Peru; so believed the Puritan settlers of New
England--alike in their Indian wars and their oppressive social
polity--and so believed, also, the followers of Menendez and of Ribault;
and in this simple and trusting faith, the worthy chaplain gives us the
following account of the miraculous escape and deliverance of a portion
of the Spanish fleet:

"God and his Holy Mother have performed another great miracle in our
favor. The day following the landing of the General in the fort he said
to us that he was very uneasy, because his galley and another vessel
were at anchor, isolated and a league at sea, being unable to enter the
port on account of the shallowness of the water, and that he feared that
the French might come and capture or maltreat them. As soon as this idea
came to him he departed, with fifty men, to go on board of his galleon.
He gave orders to three shallops which were moored in the river to go
out and take on board the provisions and troops which were on board the
galleon. The next day, a shallop having gone out thither, they took on
board as much of the provisions as they could, and more than a hundred
men who were in the vessel, and returned toward shore; but half a league
before arriving at the bar they were overtaken by so complete a calm
that they were unable to proceed farther, and thereupon cast anchor and
passed the night in that place.

"The day following, at break of day, they raised anchor as ordered by
the pilot, as the rising of the tide began to be felt. When it was
fully light they saw astern of them, at the poop of the vessel, two
French ships which during the night had been in search of them. The
enemy