[2] Charlevoix describes Ribault as “un ancien officier de marine,” and speaks of him as a man of experience and “Zélé Huguenot.” Of his vessels, on this expedition, he says that they belonged to the class called “Roberges, et qui differoient peu des Caravelles Espagnoles
.”
[3] Laudonniere, in Hakluyt, gives the regal title among the Floridians as Paracoussi. Charlevoix writes the word Paraousti, or Paracousti; “et ausquels les Castillans donnent le titre général de Caciques.” Mico, in subsequent periods, seems to have been the more popular title among the Florida Indians, signifying the same thing, or its equivalents, Chief, Prince, or Head Warrior.
[4] “A quatorze lienes de la Riviere de Mai, il en trouva une troisiéme
qu’il nomma la Seine.”—Charlevoix’s New France. Liv. 1, p. 39.
[5] Charlevoix seems to afford a sufficient sanction for the claim of Laudonniere, in behalf of the gentle blood among the followers of Ribault. He says “Il avoit des esquipages choisis, et plusieurs volontaires
, parmi lesquels il y avoit quelques gentilshommes.” And yet Ribault should have known better than anybody else the quality of his armament. Certainly, the good leaven, as the result showed, was in too small a proportion to leaven the whole colony.
[6] Charlevoix, in his “Fastes Chronologiques,” preparatory to his work on New France, locates Charles Fort, under Ribault, near to the site of the present city of Charleston. In his “Histoire Generale,” and in the map which illustrates this narrative, however, he concurs in the statement of the text. He also names the North Edisto the St. Croix.
[7] The name in Charlevoix is written Andusta, but this is most probably an error of the press. Laudonniere in Hackluyt uniformly uses the orthography which we adopt, and which furnishes a coincidence so really striking in the preservation of a name so nearly the same in sound, to this very day, in the same region.
[8] A remark of Charlevoix, which accords with the experience of all early travellers and explorers among the American Indians, is worthy to be kept in remembrance, as enabling us to account for that frequent contradiction which occurs in the naming of places and persons among the savages. He records distinctly that each canton or province of Florida bore, among the red-men, the name of the ruling chief. Now, as a matter of course where the tribes are nomadic, the names of places continually underwent change, according to that of the tribe by which the spot was temporarily occupied.