University of Virginia Library

19. XVIII.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY.

We have already mentioned that, with the restoration of
Laudonniere to power, and the complete subjection of his
mutineers, he resumed by degrees his projects of exploration and
discovery. Among other places to which he sent his barks, was
the territory of King Audusta, occupying that region in which
Fort Charles had been erected by Ribault, in the first attempt to
colonize in the country. To Audusta, himself, were sent two suits
of apparel, with knives, hatchets and other trifles; “the better,”
as Laudonniere says, “to insinuate myselfe into his friendship.”
To render this hope more plausible, “I sent in the barke, with
Captaine Vasseur, a souldier called Aimon, which was one of those
which returned home in the first voyage, hoping that King
Audusta might remember him.” This Aimon was instructed to
inquire after another soldier named Rouffi, who, it appears, had
preferred remaining in the country, when it had been abandoned
by the colonists under Nicolas Barré.

Audusta received his visitors with great favor,—sent back to
Laudonniere a large supply of “mil, with a certaine quantity of
beanes, two stagges, some skinnes painted after their manner, and
certaine pearles of small value, because they were burnt.” The

old chief invited the Frenchmen once more to remove and plant
in his territories. He proffered to give him a great country, and
would always supply him with a sufficient quantity of grain.
Audusta had known the Frenchmen almost entirely by benefits
and good fellowship. The period of this visit to Audusta, which
was probably in he month of December, is distinguished in the
chronicle of Laudonniere, by expressions of delightful surprise at
the number of stock doves (wild pigeons) which came about the
garrison—“in so greate number, that, for the space of seven
weekes together,” they “killed with harquebush shot at least two
hundred every day.” This was good feeding. On the return of
Capt. Vasseur from his visit to Audusta, he was sent with a present
“unto the widow of Kinge Hiocaia, whose dwelling was
distant from our fort about twelve leagues northward. She
courteously received our men, sent me backe my barkes, full of
mil and acornes, with certaine baskets full of the leaves of
cassine, wherewith they make their drinke. And the place where
this widow dwelleth, is the most plentifull of mil that is in all the
coast, and the most pleasante. It is thought that the queene is
the most beautiful of all the Indians, and of whom they make the
most account: yea, and her subjects honour her so much that
almost continually they beare her on their shoulders, and will not
suffer her to go on foot.”

The visit of Laudonniere, through his lieutenant, was returned,
in a few days, by the beautiful widow, through her Hiatiqui,
“which is as much as to say, her Interpreter.”

Landonniere continued his explorations, still seeking provisions,
and with the view to keeping his people from that idleness which
hitherto had caused such injurious discontents in his garrison.
His barks were sent up May River, to discover its sources, and

make the acquaintance of the tribes by which its borders were occupied.
Thirty leagues beyond the place called Mathiaqua,
“they discovered the entrance of a lake, upon the one side
whereof no land can be seene, according to the report of the
Indians, which had oftentimes climbed on the highest trees in the
country to see land, and notwithstanding could not discerne any.”

These few sentences may assist in enabling the present occupants
of the St. John's to establish the location along that
river, at the period of which we write. The ignorance of the
Indians in regard to the country opposite, along the lake,
indicates equally the presence of numerous tribes, and the absence
of much adventure or enterprise among them—results that would
seem equally to flow from the productive fertility of the soil, and
the abundance of the game in the country. With this account of
it as a terra incognita, the explorers ceased to advance. In returning,
they paid a visit to the island of Edelano—one of those
names of the Indians, which harbors in the ear with a musical
sweetness which commends it to continued utterance. We should
do well to employ it now in connection with some island spot of
rare beauty in the same region.

This island of Edelano is “situated in the midst of the river;
as fair a place as any that may be seene thorow the world; for,
in the space of some three leagues that it may containe, in length
and breadth, a man may see an exceedingly rich countrey and
marvellously peopled. At the coming out of the village of
Edelano, to goe unto the river side, a man must passe thorow an
alley about three hundred paces long and fifty paces broad; on
both sides whereof great trees are planted, the boughes whereof
are tied [blended?] together like an arch, and meet together so
artificially [as if done by art] that a man would thinke it were an

arbour made of purpose, as faire, I say, as any in all Christendom,
although it be altogether naturall.”

Leaving the island of Edelano, thus equally famous for its
beauties of nature and name, our voyagers proceeded “to
Eneguape, then to Chilily, from thence to Patica, and lastly they
came unto Coya.” This place seems to have been, at this period,
one of the habitations of the powerful king Olata Utina. In the
name Olata, we find an affix such as is common to the Seminoles
and Creeks of the present day. Holata, as we now write the
word, is evidently the Olata of Laudonniere. It was probably a
title rather than a name.[1] Olata Utina received his visitors with
great favor, as he had always done before; and six of them were
persuaded to remain with him, in order the better to see the
country, while their companions returned to La Caroline. Some
of these remained with the Indian monarch more than two months.
One of them, named Groutald, a gentleman who had taken great
pains in this exploration, reported to Laudonniere that he had
never seen a fairer country. “Among other things, he reported
to me that he had seene a place, named Hostaqua, and that the
king thereof was so mighty, that he was able to bring three or four
thousand savages into the field.” Of this king we have heard
before. It was the counsel of Monsieur Groutald to Laudonniere
that he should unite in a league with this king, and by this means
reduce the whole country into subjection. “Besides, that this
king knew the passages unto the mountaine of Apalatci, which
the Frenchmen desired so greatly to attaine unto, and where the
enemy of Hostaqua made his abode, which was easie to be subdued,
if so be wee would enter into league together.” Hostaqua

sent to Laudonniere “a plate of a minerall that came out of this
mountaine,—out of the foote whereof”—such was the glowing
account given by the Indian monarch—“there runneth a streame
of golde or copper.” The process by which the red-men obtain
the pure treasures of this golden stream was an exceedingly
primitive one, and reminds us of the simple process of gathering
golden sands in California. “They dig up the sand with an
hollow and drie cane of reed, until the cane be full; afterward
they shake it, and find that there are many small graines of
copper and silver among this sand; which giveth them to understand
that some rich mine must needs be in the mountaine.”
Laudonniere is greatly impressed by this intelligence, “and
because the mountaine was not past five or six days journey from
our fort, lying towards the north-west, I determined, as soone as
our supply should come out of France, to remove our habitation
unto some river more towards the north, that I might be nearer
thereunto.”

An incident, which occurred about this time, still further increased
the appetites of Laudonniere. He had suffered, and
indeed sent, certain favorite soldiers to go into several parts of
the country, among the savage tribes with whom he kept terms of
amnesty and favor, in order that they should acquire as well a
knowledge of the Indian language as of the country. One of
these was named Peter Gambier. This man had rambled
somewhat farther than his comrades. He had shared in all the
more adventurous expeditions of the Indians, and had succeeded
in gathering a considerable quantity of gold and silver, all of
which was understood to have been directly or indirectly from the
Indians, who dwelt at the foot of the Apalachian Mountains.
These were tribes of the Cherokee nation, with whom the Indian

nations along the sea-board were perpetually at war. Full of
news, and burdened with his treasure, Peter Gambier prepared to
return to La Caroline. He had made his way in safety until he
reached the beautiful island with the beautiful name, Edelano,
lying in the midst of but high up May River. On the same
stream which was occupied by his countrymen, in force, the
thoughtless soldier conceived himself to be quite safe. He was
hospitably entertained by the chief or king of Edelano, and a
canoe was accorded him, with two companions, with whom to
descend the river to the fort. But the improvident Frenchman,
allowed his precious treasures to glitter in the eyes of his host.
He had not merely gold and silver, but he had been stocked with
such European merchandises as were supposed most likely to
tempt the savages to barter. A portion of this stock remained
in his possession. The natural beauties of the island which they
occupied had not softened the hearts of the savages with any just
sense of humanity. They were as sensible to the auri sacra
fames as were the Europeans, and just as little scrupulous, we
shame to say it, in gratifying their appetites as their pale-faced
visitors. The possessions of the Frenchmen were sufficient to
render the Mico of Edelano indifferent to all considerations of
hospitality, and the two Indians whom he lent to Gambier were
commissioned to take his life. Thus, accompanied by his assassins,
he entered the canoe, and they were in progress down the
river, when, as the Frenchman stooped over some fish which he
was seething in the boat, the red-men seized the opportunity to
brain him with their stone hatchets, and possess themselves of
his treasures. When the tidings came to Laudonniere, he was
not in a situation to revenge the crime; but the large acquisitions
of gold and silver procured by his soldier, as reported to him,
confirmed him in his anxiety to penetrate these tantalizing
realms, in which the rivers ran with such glittering abundance
from rocks whose caverns promised to outvie all that Arabian
story had ever fabled of the magical treasures of Aladdin.

Scarcely had this event taken place, when the war was renewed
between Olata Utina and Potanou. The former applied for
assistance to Laudonniere, who, adopting the policy of the
“Spaniards, when they were imployed in their conquests, who
did always enter into alliance with some one king to ruine
another,” readily sent him thirty arquebusiers, under Lieutenant
Ottigny. These, with three hundred Indians, led by Utina,
penetrated the territories of Potanou, and had a severe fight,
which lasted for three hours, with the people of that potentate.
“Without doubt, Utina had been defeated, unlesse our harquebusiers
had borne the burthen and brunt of all the battell, and
slaine a great number of the soldiers of Potanou, upon which occasion
they were put to flight.” The lieutenant of the French
would have followed up the victory, but Utina, the Paracoussi,
had gathered laurels quite enough for a single day, and was
anxious to return home to show his scalps and enjoy his triumphs
among his people. His tribes and villages were assembled at his
return, and, for several days, nothing but feasts, songs and
dances, employed the nation. Ottigny returned to the fort, after
two days spent in this manner with Utina, and his return was
followed by visits from numerous other chiefs, nearer neighbors
than Utina, and enemies of that savage, who came to expostulate
with Laudonniere against his lending succor to a prince who was
equally faithless and selfish. They, on the other hand, entreated
him to unite with them in the destruction of one who was a common
enemy. This application had been made to him before;

but his policy had been rather to maintain terms of alliance,
offensive and defensive, with a powerful chieftain, at some little
distance, than to depend wholly upon others more near at hand.
This policy was again drawn from that of the Spaniard. He was
soon to be taught how little was the reliance which he could place
in any of the forest tribes. He was about to suffer from those
deficiencies and evils which were due to his anxious explorations
of the country, when his people had been much better employed
in the wholesome labors of the field, in the very eye of the
garrison.

It was the custom of the Indian tribes, after the gathering and
storing away of their harvests, to commence hunting with the first
fall of the leaves, probably about the middle of September. The
chase, during this period, was seldom such as to carry them far
from the fields which they had watched during the summer.
Near at hand, for a season at least, the game was in sufficient
quantity to supply their wants. But, as the season advanced,
and towards the months of January, February and March, they
gradually passed into the deeper thickets, and disappeared from
their temporary habitations. During this period, they build up
new abodes, which are equally frail, in the regions to which they
go, and which are contiguous to the hunting-grounds which they
are about to penetrate. To these retreats the whole tribe retires;
and hither they carry all the commodities which are valuable in
their eyes. Their summer dwellings are thus as completely
stripped as if the region were abandoned forever.

This removal, for which their previous experience should
sufficiently have prepared our Frenchmen, was yet destined to
have for them some very pernicious results. We have seen that
certain subsidies of corn and beans had been procured from

various tribes and nations; enough, according to Laudonniere, to
serve them until the arrival of expected succors from France.
But, calculating on these succors, and confident of their arrival
during the month of April, our Frenchmen had become profligate
of their stores. April found them straitened for provisions, and
not an Indian could be seen. April passed slowly and brought no
succor. With the month of May the Indians had returned to their
former abodes; but, by this time, their remaining stock of grain
had mostly found its way into the ground, in the setting of another
crop. From the savages, accordingly, nothing but scanty
supplies of fish could be procured, without which, says Laudonniere,
“assuredly wee had perished from famine.” Of the
incompetence of this captain, and the wretched order which
prevailed among his garrison, his incapacity and other incompetence,
this statement affords sufficient proof. They neither tilled
the earth for its grain, nor sounded the river for its finny tribes;
though these realms were quite as much under their dominion as
that of the savages; but they relied solely upon this capricious
and inferior race, in the exploration of land and sea, for maintaining
them against starvation.

May succeeded to April, and still in vain did our Frenchmen
look forth upon the sea, for the ships of their distant countrymen.
June came, and their wants increased. They fell finally into
famine, of which Laudonniere himself affords us a sufficiently impressive
picture.

“We were constrayned to eate rootes, which the most part of
our men punned in the mortars which I had brought with me to
beate gunnepowder in, and the graine which came to us from
other places. Some tooke the wood of esquine, (?) beate it, and
made meale thereof, which they boiled with water, and eate it.

Others went with their harquebusies to seeke to kill some foule.
Yea, this miserie was so great, that that one was founde that had
gathered up all the fish-bones that he could finde, which he dried
and beate into powder to make bread thereof. The effects of
this hidious famine appeared incontinently among us, for our bones
eftsoones beganne to cleave so neare unto the skinne, that the
most part of the souldiers had their skinnes pierced thorow with
them in many partes of their bodies, in such sort that my greatest
feare was, least the Indians would rise up against us, considering
that it would have beene very harde for us to have defended ourselves
in such extreme decay of all our forces, besides the scarsitie
of all vittualls, which fayled us all at once. For the very river
had not such plentie of fish as it was wont, and it seemed that
the very land and water did fight against us.” In this condition
were they till the beginning of June. “During which time,”
says the chronicler, further—“the poore souldiers and handicraftsmen
became as feeble as might be, and being not able to
worke, did nothing but goe, one after another, as centinels, unto
the clift of an hill, situate very neare unto the fort, to see if they
might discover any French ship.”

But their watchings still ended with disappointment. Thus
was the hope with which the heart sickens, deferred too long.
No ships greeted their famishing eyes, and they at length appealed
to their commander, in a body, to take measures for returning
to France, and abandoning the colony,—“considering that if wee
let passe the season to embarke ourselves, wee were never like to
see our country;” and alleging, plausibly enough, that new
troubles had probably broken out in France, which was the
reason that they had failed to receive the promised succors.
Laudonniere lent an easy ear to their demands. He, himself, was

probably quite as sick of the duties, to which he was evidently
unequal, as were his followers. It was, perhaps, prudent to submit
to those for whom he could no longer provide. The bark
“Breton” was fitted up, and given in charge to Captain Vasseur;
and, as this vessel could carry but a small portion of the colony,
it was determined to build a “faire ship,” which the shipwrights
affirmed could be made ready by the 8th of August. “Immediately
I disposed of the time to worke upon it. I gave charge to
Monsieur de Ottigny, my lieutenant, to cause timber necessary
for the finishing of bothe the vessels to be brought, and to Monsieur
D'Erlach, my standard-bearer, to goe with a barke a league
off from the forte, to cut down trees fit to make plankes.”
Sixteen men, under the charge of a sergeant, were set “to labour
in making coals; and to Master Hence, keeper of the artillery,”
was assigned the task of procuring rosin to bray the vessels.
“There remained now but the principal, [object,] which was to
recover vittualls, to sustain us while the worke endured.”
Laudonniere, himself, undertook to seek for this supply. He
embarked with thirty men in the largest of his vessels, with the
purpose of running along the coast for forty or fifty leagues. But
his search was taken in vain. He procured no supplies. He
returned to the fort only to defraud the expectations of his people,
who now grew desperate with hunger and discontent. They
assembled together, riotously, and, with one voice, insisted that
the only process by which to extort supplies from the savages was
to seize upon the person of their kings.

To this, at first, Laudonniere would not consent. The enterprise
was a rash one. The consequences might be evil, in regard
to any future attempts at settlement. He proposed one more trial
among them, and sent despatches communicating his desire to

traffic for food with the surrounding tribes. The Indians were
not averse to listen. But they knew the distress under which
the Frenchmen suffered, and were prepared to turn it to account.
They came into the garrison with small supplies of grain and fish,
enough to provoke appetite rather than to satisfy it. For these
they demanded such enormous prices, as, if conceded, would have
soon exhausted all the merchandise of the garrison. With one
hand they extended their produce, while the other was stretched
for the equivalent required. Knowing the desperation of the
Frenchmen, they took care, while thus tantalizing their hopes and
hunger, to keep out of reach of shot of arquebuse. In this way,
they took the very shirts from the backs of the starving soldiers.
When Laudonniere remonstrated against their prices, their
answer was a bitter mockery.

“Very good,” said the savages, “if thou make such great
account of thy merchandise, let it stay thy hunger. Do thou eat
of it and we will eat of our fish.” This reply would be cheered
with their open-throated laughter. The old ally of the French,
the Paracoussi Utina, mocked them in like manner. His subjects
followed his example; and, in the end, goaded to madness, Laudonniere
resolved on adopting the course which his people had
counselled; that, by which, taking one of their kings prisoner,
food could be extorted for his ransom. The ingratitude of Utina,
for past services, a recent attempt which he had made to employ
the French soldiers in his own conquests, while professing to lead
them only where they should find provisions, and the supposed
extent of his resources, pointed him out to all parties as the
proper person upon whom to try the experiment, on a small scale,
which Cortez and Pizzarro had used, on a large one, in the conquest
of Peru and Mexico.