Not long after Gasca surrendred the Command of Peru to the Learned Cianca, and carried an unvaluable Treasure to Germany, for the Emperor Charles, who gave him in requital for his faithful Service, the Bishoprick of Valentia.
Sect. XII.
The Expeditions of John Stade, and Nicholas Durando Villegagnon.
Stade taken by the Cannibals.
About the same time that Gasca arriv’d in Spain, John Stade had the Command His strange Entertainment amongst them. over a small Fort rais’d of Stone and Earth, on the Island Maro, adjacent to Brasile, because the Salvage People of Tupin Imba sail’d twice a year from the Countrey of Brikioka, to Maro, at the time when the Plant Abbati was ripe, of which they made the Liquor that they generally drink at their Humane Banquets: They also landed on Maro about the Bratti-Fishing. This Bratti is a Fish of a very delicious taste, either caught in Nets, or shot by the Tupin Imba, and carried to their several Habitations. Against these People Stade kept a continual Guard, when Heliodorus Hesse, Son to Eobanus Hesse, the famous Latin Poet in Germany, came to visit him. Stade to entertain his Guest the better, went into the Woods to hunt for Venison, where he was taken by the Tupin Imba, of which the King march’d in the Rear with a great Palm-Tree Club, and carried him towards the Sea side, that he, with others that waited on the Shore, might make up a Kawewipepicke (that is, A Feast of Rosted Men) But because Stade being a German of a large Body, well-skinn’d, young, plump and fat, they all concluded to spare this Dainty, and carry him alive to Brikioka, that with such a Banquet they might highly caress their Wives: But the Journey being long, and a just melancholy possessing him with fear, and the terror of certain death, and to be Food for such ravenous Cannibals, so macerated and consum’d him, that he was almost dwindled away to Skin and Bone; whereupon thinking him thus lean to make but few savory Morsels, they chang’d their resolutions, and growing better acquainted, he having learn’d their Tongue, and being able to discourse with them, they lik’d his company so well, that they let him live amongst them. Nine years Stade had been a Slave amongst these Man-eaters, when the French coming thither, bought him for a few Trifles, and carried him to Normandy, where landing Anno 1555. he went from thence to Hamburgh, being his Native Countrey.
Durande’s Expedition.
Dissention in the new Colony.
Wickedness of Cointak against the Ministers.
Durande drowns three Religious Men.
Nicholas Durande a Frenchman set Sail from Havre de Grace, at the same time when Stade came thither. This Durande having lost a Castle in Brittain, to the great prejudice of the French, out of a pretence of advancing their Affairs, and to fill up their almost exhausted Treasury, reported, That the Spanish and Portuguese Forces were driven out of India, where they had gather’d so much Wealth; and it would certainly redound to the Honor and Profit of France, if they could become Masters of the Gold and Silver Mines. King Henry the Second approving of the Proposal, and the more because the Admiral Gasper Coligni was also very earnest, looking upon it as a safe Retreat for the Protestants, at that time cruelly persecuted: and Durande, sensible of the Admirals thoughts, privately inform’d him, That in his American Design he chiefly aim’d to plant a True Church of God in America, where the Professors might enjoy themselves peaceably. This Report being spread amongst those that call’d themselves Protestants, (fled from Switzerland in great numbers to France) made many of them venture upon the Design; who having fitted themselves, and setting sail with three Ships, after some time arriv’d on the Coast of Brasile, and landed on the Rock-Island, in the Haven Januario: Here Durande built several Watch-houses, and the Fort Coligni, which he fortified with a considerable number of Guns: Not long after he writ to John Calvin, That he would please to furnish this new Plantation in Brasile with good and able Teachers of the Gospel; which Request being immediately taken into serious consideration by the Classes, one Philip Corguileray, a Gentleman near Geneva, set Sail out of the Haven Honfleurs, with three Ships, freighted with some Provisions, several Persons of divers Trades, and two Ministers, Peter Richer, and William Chartier: But he had scarce made Africa, when they began to have a scarcity of Victuals; wherefore they turn’d their Design of setling the Gospel in America, to Pyracy, where they made small scruple or difference, whether Friends or Foes, but made Prize of all they could light upon, though indeed their Ministers both preach’d and perswaded the contrary, amongst whom a Controversie happening, put other Business into their Heads; for one John Cointak, formerly a Parisian Sorbonist, was also amongst those that remov’d from Geneva, who pretended that Coligni had promis’d him a Ministers place, so soon as he landed at Brasile; but Richer and Chartier, not satisfied that there was any such Promise, and consequently thinking themselves not obliged by his bare Assertion, told him, That themselves being able, under God, to perform the Work, they needed no such Coadjutor: This bred so great a Rancor between them, that Cointak accus’d them for teaching false Doctrine, and chiefly that they did not mix the Wine at their Sacraments with Water, which Father Clemens had strictly commanded. Durande, being prevail’d on by the Cardinal of Lorein, joyn’d with Cointak, and thereupon so sharply persecuted the Protestants, that he starv’d several of them, which others to escape fled to the Brasilians: Nay, he took John Du Bordell, Matthias Vermeil, and Peter Bourdon, out of their Sick-Beds, and tying their Hands and Feet, threw them headlong from a Rock into the Sea: Soon after which, the bloody Persecutor return’d with ill success to France, where he wrote a Book against the Reform’d Religion; but all the Honor which he gain’d was, that all Parties on both sides accounted him a distracted Person.