Fate of the Shipwrecked French
No word had yet been received as to Ribault’s fleet, which had been caught in the storm off St. Augustine. His ships, driven aground many miles down the coast, were being pounded to pieces in the surf. Most of the men aboard had reached shore safely with their arms. Hungry and constantly harassed by Indians, they were endeavoring to make their way up the beaches back to their fort. How they longed to be back in their beloved France!
Four days after Menéndez returned from Fort Caroline, Indians made known by signs that a party of men were marooned on the shores of an inlet fifteen miles south of St. Augustine. He immediately set out with a small force of soldiers and, on reaching the inlet at dawn, saw two hundred Frenchmen gathered on the opposite shore. One of their number swam across the inlet and was told to inform his comrades of Fort Caroline’s fate. They at first refused to believe that the Spaniards could have taken it, but as proof were shown captured French arms and clothing. Fruitless parleys followed. Faced with starvation or probable death at the hands of the Indians, the entire French band unconditionally surrendered.
A boat was sent over to bring back their weapons and standards. Then the French captives were ferried across the inlet ten at a time. As each group landed, their hands were bound behind them with matchcords, and they were led up the beach out of sight and hearing behind high dunes. As they reached a fatal line drawn by Menéndez in the sand, their captors slew them with swords and daggers, and then returned to the inlet to escort another group of ten to their doom. Only a few were spared.
About two weeks later another party of Frenchmen, who had been shipwrecked farther down the coast, arrived at the same inlet. Some eighty, including their brave leader, Jean Ribault, gave themselves up and were disposed of in the same manner as before. A number refused to place themselves at the Spaniards’ mercy and withdrew to the south. When Menéndez returned to St. Augustine his brother-in-law, Solis de Merás, observed that “some people considered him cruel, and others that he had acted as a very good captain should.”
The Spanish word Matanzas, meaning slaughters, became the name of the inlet near which the massacres occurred.
Fort Matanzas stands near the inlet, where the French were slain.
Other Difficulties
The French attempt to occupy Florida was thus effectively shattered. Other difficulties threatened the permanence of its settlement and remained to be overcome—the unyielding wilderness, the treacherous Indians, the colonists’ lust for gold, and hunger, that cause of so many early colonizing failures. Food supplies diminished with each passing day. The buildings at Fort Caroline, renamed San Mateo by the Spaniards, accidentally burned down with all their contents shortly after its capture. The other vessels of the Spanish fleet, scattered by the storm while crossing the Atlantic, failed to arrive with expected supplies and reinforcements. To relieve the situation Menéndez decided to go to Cuba for aid. On his way down the coast he picked up the remaining French survivors, who were too few to prove a threat and were kindly treated.