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Updated: June 25, 2025
In 1562 the French Huguenot party, headed by Coligny, made another attempt to secure themselves a refuge in the New World. Two ships set sail under the command of Jean Ribault, a brave and experienced seaman, destined to play a memorable and tragic part in the history of America.
All the others were executed, because they were Lutherans and enemies of our Holy Catholic faith. Francisco Lopez de Mendoza was the chaplain of the expedition. His account is printed in "Old South Leaflets." These ships, commanded by Ribault, seven in number, with 500 men besides families of artizans on board, had arrived at the mouth of the St. John's River on August 29, 1565.
After we were al come to the ship, I comforted them as well as I could, and sent back the boat againe with speed to see if they could find yet any more. After I was come into the ship called the Greyhound, captaine Iames Ribault and captaine Valuot came to see me: and there we concluded to returne into France.
Ribault himself was among the murdered. If we may believe the story current in France, his head, sawn in four parts, was set up over the corners of the fort of St. Augustine, while a piece of his beard was sent as a trophy to the king of Spain.... Dominic de Gourgues had already known as a prisoner of war the horrors of the Spanish galleys. Whether he was a Huguenot is uncertain.
No allusion to the discovery, by any of them, occurs until several years after the work of Ramusio was published, when for the first time it is mentioned in the account written by Ribault, in 1563, of his voyage to Florida and attempted colonization at Port Royal in South Carolina, in the previous year.
Just, however, as all the preparations for departure were made, the long-expected help came. Ribault arrived from France with a fleet of seven vessels containing three hundred settlers and ample supplies. This arrival was not a source of unmixed joy to Laudonnière. His factious followers had sent home calumnious reports about him, and Ribault brought out orders to send him home to stand his trial.
Ribault does not seem to have set out with any definite scheme of colonization, but rather, like Amidas and Barlow, to have contented himself with preliminary exploration. In April he landed on the coast of Florida.... After he had laid the foundations of a fort, called in honor of the king Charlefort, Ribault returned to France.
One of these last, it is said, can be traced on Paris Island, and is claimed by some antiquaries to be the Charles Fort built by Ribault. There are the well-preserved walls of one upon the plantation of John J. Smith on Port Royal Island, a few miles south of Beaufort, now called Camp Saxton, and recently occupied by Colonel Higginson's regiment. It is built of cemented oyster-shells.
There Ribault, who had returned and joined Laudonnière, 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.
It was indeed Admiral Jean Ribault and his fleet of succor for the little colony. On board his flag-ship Trinity, a joyful meeting took place between him and his trusted lieutenant, the brave Laudonniere, who, supported by Réné de Veaux and Le Moyne, found strength to carry himself thither.
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