The History of Saint Augustine, Florida

by William W. Dewhurst

Fearing lest Ribault should have escaped destruction in the storm, and returning, should make an attack during his absence, Menendez hurried back to St. Augustine. He took with him only fifty men, the rest being left under the command of his son-in-law, De Valdez, who was ordered to build a church on the site selected by Menendez, and marked by the erection of crosses. After the completion of the church, De Valdez was to use every effort to strengthen the captured fort.

Arriving at St. Augustine, Menendez was hailed as conqueror, and having been escorted into the place by the priests and people who had been left behind, a solemn mass was repeated, and a Te Deum chanted to celebrate the victory.

Several of Ribault’s vessels were wrecked between Mosquito and Matanzas inlets. Strange as it may appear, in the destruction of the whole fleet but one life was lost from drowning. It now often happens on the sandy portion of the Florida coast, that vessels will be driven high upon the beach by the force of the swell, and there left by the receding tide in a sound condition.

About two hundred men had collected on the southern barrier at Matanzas Inlet, while a larger party with Ribault were gathered on the same barrier, further to the south. The Indians soon after reported to Menendez a large body of men at an inlet four leagues south which they were unable to cross. He therefore marched with a body of forty men for the inlet, and arrived at Matanzas the same evening. His course was probably down the beach on Anastatia Island, as the account speaks of his ordering the boats to keep abreast of him on the march.

Having come to the mouth of the inlet one of the Frenchmen swam across, and reported that the party there assembled belonged to one of the vessels of Ribault’s fleet. Menendez returned the man in a boat, and offered a pledge of safety to the French captain and four or five of his lieutenants who might choose to cross over and hold an interview. Upon this pledge the captain crossed over in the boat with four of his companions. These begged of Menendez that he would provide them with boats that they might cross that inlet and the one at St. Augustine, and return to their fort, twenty leagues to the north. Upon this Menendez informed them of the capture of the fort and the destruction of the garrison. The captain thereupon besought that they be furnished with a vessel to return to France, observing that the French and Spanish kings were loving brothers and the two nations at peace. Menendez, in reply, asked if they were Catholics; to which it was answered that they were of the New Religion. Then Menendez answered that if they had been Catholics he would feel that he was serving his king in doing them kindness, but Protestants he considered as enemies against which he should wage war unceasingly, both against them, and against all that should come into the territory of which he was adelantado, having come to these shores in the service of his king, to plant the Holy Faith, in order that the savages might be brought to a knowledge of the Holy Catholic religion.

Upon hearing this, the captain and his men desired to return and report the same to their companions, and were accordingly sent back in the boat. Soon after observing signals or signs from the opposite shore, the boat was sent over to know what was their pleasure.

The French then endeavored to make some terms for a surrender, with the privilege of ransom. There being many members of noble and wealthy families among them, as much as fifty thousand ducats was offered for a pledge of safety. Menendez would make no pledge, simply sending word that if they desired they could surrender their arms and yield themselves to his mercy, “in order that he might do unto them what should be dictated to him by the grace of God.” The French seem to have had an instinctive feeling that it would fare hard with them should they yield themselves to the Spaniards; yet they were so wholly demoralized and disheartened by the misfortune that had befallen them, that after much delay and parley they finally sent word to Menendez that they were willing to yield themselves to be dealt with as he willed. The French were therefore transported across the sound in parties of ten at a time. As each boat-load was landed, Menendez directed that the prisoners be led behind “the scrub,” and their hands pinioned behind their backs. This course he declared to them to be necessary, as he had but a small number of men in his command, and if left free it would be an easy matter for the French to turn upon him and revenge themselves for the destruction of their fort and Laudonnère’s command. In this manner was secured the whole body of the French who had collected on the southern shore of Matanzas Inlet, to the number of two hundred and eight men. Of this number eight in response to an inquiry declared themselves to be Catholics, and were sent to St. Augustine in the boat. The remainder were ordered to march with the Spanish soldiers on their path back to the settlement. Menendez had sent on in advance an officer and a file of soldiers with orders to wait at a designated spot on the road, and as the parties of Frenchmen came up, to take them aside into the woods and put them to death. In this manner the whole party were killed, and their bodies left on the sands to feed the buzzards.

Menendez had hardly returned to St. Augustine before he learned that there was a larger body of Frenchmen assembled at the spot where he had found the first party, who were constructing a raft on which to cross the inlet. Hurrying back with his troops he sent across a boat with a message to the commander, whom he rightly conjectured was Ribault himself, that he had destroyed the fort on the St. Johns, and a body of those who were shipwrecked, and promising him a safe conduct if he wished to cross over and satisfy himself as to the truth of this report. Ribault availed himself of this offer, and was shown the dead bodies of his men who had been so cruelly murdered. He was allowed to converse with one of the prisoners who had been brought in the company of the Spaniards. This man was one of the eight who were Catholics and were spared from the former company.

Ribault endeavored to negotiate for the ransom of himself and his men, offering double the sum before named by the French captain, but Menendez refused to listen to any terms except an unconditional surrender. After ineffectually offering a ransom of 200,000 ducats, the French admiral returned to his party, and informed them of the demands of the Spaniard. In spite of the terrible fate of their comrades, which should have served as a warning of what awaited themselves, one hundred and fifty of the company, including Ribault, decided to surrender to the Spanish captain.

These were transported to the island and disposed of in the same manner as the former body of prisoners, saving only a few musicians, and four soldiers who claimed to be Catholics—in all, sixteen persons. Two hundred of the French refused to trust themselves to the Spaniards, preferring the chances of preserving their lives on the inhospitable beach until they could find a way to escape to a more friendly country. These retreated back to their wrecked ships, and began to construct a fort and a small vessel to return to France, or at least to leave the fatal shores of Florida.