In Search of Mademoiselle

by George Gibbs

I could see that the Fort was erected in a careful manner though sadly out of repair. It was built in the form of a triangle and surrounded by a trench, the side toward the river enclosed with a palisade of planks of timber after the manner in which gabions are made. In the middle was a great court eighteen paces long and upon one side of this, the “corps de garde.” Opposite to it, the living house. Laudonnière, asked us to his lodging-place and gave us a wine fermented from the grape of the country, most soothing to the palate and livening to the vitals.

Under the close questioning of the Admiral, Laudonnière related the events of the past few months, showing the sad straits into which his people had fallen for lack of food and munitions. He told of the mutiny of his men and how he had intended entering two of his smaller vessels and returning to France. The Admiral found that the charges against him were untrue, and offered him a high command. But Captain Laudonnière was disconsolate, saying that his honor had been touched and that he must soon return to France to defend himself against his enemies.

We talked far into the night, Vasseur, Verdier and De Brésac, three lieutenants of the garrison with whom I had much talk, giving me a fair good idea of the country and people. It seemed that Laudonnière had no need to have given up so easily. It was hard to see how, in a country abounding in animals good to eat, in fish and in fruit and corn, they should have been reduced to such distress as they were in. There are beasts of every kind, and Sir John Hawkins has said that there are lions and tigers as well as unicorns, but I saw none of these, though there were crocodiles in great abundance.

Vasseur told me a habit of the natives who when they travel have a kind of herb dried, which they put in an earthen cup and set a-fire. Then they suck the smoke of this through a cane or reed and it has a strange and pleasing effect, satisfying their hunger so that they can live four or five days without meat or drink. Some of the company had come to use this herb and had grown to like it well, though at first it made them much inward discomfort. All of these things are known in England now, for Sir Walter Raleigh hath brought this custom of tobacco smoking into the court.

In the morning the three smaller vessels of the fleet came up, bringing the greater number of the colonists, among them the Sieur de la Notte and his family, and by the end of the day the rest had landed. Rude sheds of cedar stripping were built and a tolerable sheltered place was thus made to house the men until better quarters should be provided. During the first nights the women were given the barracks of the company of Laudonnière, who, for the time being, shared the lot of the newcomers. For Mistress Diane de la Notte nothing was too good, Réné de Laudonnière himself turning over to her and to Madame two rooms of his quarters. After seeing to their comfort I set about to aid in landing the munitions of war. This was safely done by the end of the second day and the new ordnance was mounted upon the battlements which thus commanded the river for a great distance. The shed now gave place to a stronger construction under the bastions and all worked with so great a vigor that new life animated the poor fort which but a few days before had come nigh to being deserted. Never had the prospects of the colony been brighter, and it seemed as if at last Fortune was smiling upon their efforts, which under careful management were about to be crowned with success.

’Tis a strange thing how misfortune doth pursue even when all else in nature seems to smile. It was, I think, at midnight of the fifth day that the first great shadow fell upon the luckless settlement. We were sitting around the council table in the barracks discussing the plans of Laudonnière for the extension of the colony. Ribault sat at the end of the table, his brows knit in deep thought, his hands clasped upon the table and his beard falling down to his lap. He was much perturbed over a report which had come to him that two sails had been sighted far out to sea just as the night was falling. From time to time he would nod to one or the other, but he spoke little. At his right were Laudonnière, Vasseur, Verdier, the Swiss, Arlac, Ottigny, and Satouriona the great Carib chief with whom the Admiral was bent upon making a friendship. At his left were Saint Marie, Yonville and La Grange. Yonville was speaking of the magic mine of gold and silver that La Roquette had found which would yield ten thousand crowns apiece for every colonist and fifteen hundred thousand crowns for the King. The Admiral listened gravely, but he was a practical man and had no such flighty notions as these young gentlemen.

I tired at last of listening to their vaporings and moved to one of the casements where I sat listening and looking out into the night, drinking in the perfumes of the forest which the breezes of the sea were wafting toward me. Outside all was quiet save for the call of a night bird or the cry of some beast of prey as it prowled on its midnight hunt. The rain had fallen so that the odor was almost overpowering, and it was damp out toward the sea, where the clouds hung heavily with but a slight break overhead. There was a glimmer here and there from the water under the bastions. Down near the river’s mouth I fancied I could see the twinkling of the lanthorns upon the Trinity as she swung to the tide; but the ships were almost too far away for that. My thoughts turned to Diane and I wondered—

But as I looked into the distance toward where the ships should lay, there came suddenly two flashes of light, one beside the other, like lightning and yet not to be mistaken. I started, with an exclamation, straining my eyes, my heart beating furiously. Then clear and distinct as though but half a league away there came the sound of cannon shots!

Ribault and his officers sprang to where I stood, breathless, all a-fever with the excitement of the moment. They had not long to wait. For again the flashes came, by twos and threes, and then by broadsides, the echoes coming up the river like the roaring of distant thunder. There was commotion outside and the sentry opened the door crying “The Spaniards! The Spaniards!”