The Spaniards in Florida. Fairbanks George Rainsford

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СКАЧАТЬ a frequent use of its illustrations, and a disposition to attribute all things, with a reverent piety, to the direct personal supervision of the Almighty. By the aid of a map of the St. John's River, it will not be difficult to trace the perilous route of escape pursued by De Challeux and his companions, over obstacles much magnified by the terror of the moment and want of familiarity with the country: —

      "The number of persons in the fort was two hundred and forty, partly of those who had not recovered from sea-sickness, partly of artisans and of women and children left to the care and diligence of Captain Laudonnière, who had no expectation that it was possible that any force could approach by land to attack him. On which account the guards had withdrawn for the purpose of refreshing themselves a little before sunrise, on account of the bad weather which had continued during the whole night, most of our people being at the time in their beds sleeping. The wicket gate open, the Spanish force, having traversed forests, swamps, and rivers, arrived at break of day, Friday, the 20th September, the weather very stormy, and entered the fort without any resistance, and made a horrible satisfaction of the rage and hate they had conceived against our nation. It was then who should best kill the most men, sick and well, women and little children, in such a manner that it is impossible to conceive of a massacre which could equal this for its barbarity and cruelty.

      "Some of the more active of our people, jumping from their beds, slipped out and escaped to the vessel in the river. I was myself surprised, going to my duty with my clasp-knife in my hand; for upon leaving my cabin, I met the enemy, and saw no other means of escape but turning my back, and making the utmost possible haste to lead over the palisades, for I was closely pursued, step by step, by a pike-man and one with a partisan; and I do not know how it was, unless by the grace of God, that my strength was redoubled, old man as I am and grey-headed, a thing which at any other time I could not have done, for the rampart was raised eight or nine feet; I then hastened to secrete myself in the woods, and when I was sufficiently near the edge of the wood at the distance of a good bow-shot, I turned towards the fort and rested a little time, finding myself not pursued; and as from this place all the fort, even the inner-court was distinctly visible to me, looking there I saw a horrible butchery of our men taking place, and three standards of our enemies planted upon the ramparts. Having then lost all hope of seeing our men rally, I resigned all my senses to the Lord. Recommending myself to his mercy, grace and favor, I threw myself into the wood, for it seemed to me that I could find no greater cruelty among the savage beast, than that of our enemy which I had seen shown towards our people. But the misery and anguish in which I found myself then, straitened and oppressed, seeing no longer any means of safety upon the earth, unless by a special grace of our Lord, transcending any expectation of man, caused me to utter groans and sobs, and with a voice broken by distress to thus cry to the Lord:

      "'O God of our fathers and Lord of all mercy! who hast commanded us to call upon Thee even from the depths of hell and the shades of death, promising forthwith thy aid and succor! show me, for the hope which I have in Thee, what course I ought to take to come to the termination of this miserable old age, plunged into the gulf of grief and bitterness; at least, cause that, feeling the effect of Thy mercy, and the confidence which I have conceived in my heart for Thy promises, they may not be snatched from me through fear of savage and furious wild beasts on one hand, and of our and Thy enemies on the other, who desire the more to injure us for the memory of Thy name which is invoked by us than for any other cause; aid me, my God! assist me, for I am so troubled that I can do nothing more.'

      "And while I was making this prayer, traversing the wood, which was very thick and matted with briars and thorns, beneath the large trees where there was neither any road nor path, scarcely had I trailed my way half an hour, when I heard a noise like men weeping and groaning near me; and advancing in the name of God, and in the confidence of His succor, I discovered one of our people, named Sieur de la Blonderie, and a little behind him another, named Maitre Robert, well known to us all, because he had in charge the prayers at the fort.

      "Immediately afterwards we found also the servant of Sieur d'Ully, the nephew of M. Lebreau, Master Jaques Trusse, and many others; and we assembled and talked over our troubles, and deliberated as to what course we could take to save our lives. One of our number, much esteemed as being very learned in the lessons of Holy Scripture, proposed after this manner: 'Brethren, we see to what extremity we are brought; in whatever direction we turn our eyes, we see only barbarism. The heavens, the earth, the sea, the forest, and men, – in brief, nothing favors us. How can we know that if we yield to the mercy of the Spaniards, they will spare us? and if they should kill us, it will be the suffering of but a moment; they are men, and it may be that, their fury appeased, they may receive us upon some terms; and, moreover, what can we do? Would it not be better to fall into the hands of men, than into the jaws of wild beasts, or die of hunger in a strange land?'

      "After he had thus spoken, the greater part of our number were of his opinion, and praised his counsel. Notwithstanding, I pointed out the cruel animosity still unappeased of our enemies, and that it was not for any human cause of quarrel, that they had carried out with such fury their enterprise, but mainly (as would appear by the notice they had already given us) because we were of those who were reformed by the preaching of the Gospel; that we should be cowards to trust in men, rather than in God, who gives life to his own in the midst of death, and gives ordinarily his assistance when the hopes of men entirely fail.

      "I also brought to their minds examples from Scripture, instancing Joseph, Daniel, Elias, and the other prophets, as well also the apostles, as St. Peter and St. Paul, who were all drawn out of much affliction, as would appear by means extraordinary and strange to the reason and judgment of men. His arm, said I, is not shortened, nor in any wise enfeebled; his power is always the same. Do you not recollect, said I the flight of the Israelites before Pharaoh? What hope had that people of escaping from the hands of that powerful tyrant? He had them, as it were, under his heel. Before them they had the sea, on either side inaccessible mountains.

      "What then? He who opened the sea to make a path for his people, and made it afterwards to swallow up his enemies, can not he conduct us by the forest places of this strange country? While thus discoursing, six of the company followed out the first proposition, and abandoned us to go and yield themselves up to our enemies, hoping to find favor before them. But they learned, immediately and by experience, what folly it is to trust more in men than in the promise of the Lord. For having gone out of the wood, as they descended to the fort they were immediately seized by the Spaniards and treated in the same fashion as the others had been. They were at once killed and massacred, and then drawn to the banks of the river, where the others killed at the fort lay in heaps. We who remained in the wood continued to make our way, and drawing towards the sea, as well as we could judge, and as it pleased God to conduct our paths and to straiten our course, we soon arrived at the brow of a mountain and from there commenced to see the sea, but it was still at a great distance; and what was worse, the road we had to take showed itself wonderfully strange and difficult. In the first place, the mountain from which it was necessary for us to descend, was of such height and ruggedness, that it was not possible for a person descending to stand upright; and we should never have dared to descend it but for the hope we had of sustaining ourselves by the branches of the bushes, which were frequent upon the side of the mountain, and to save life, not sparing our hands which we had all gashed up and bloody, and even the legs and nearly all the body was torn. But descending from the mountain, we did not lose our view of the sea, on account of a small wood which was upon a little hill opposite to us; and in order to go to the wood it was requisite that we should traverse a large meadow, all mud and quagmire, covered with briars and other kind of strange plants; for the stalk was as hard as wood, and the leaves pricked our feet and our hands until the blood came, and being all the while in water up to the middle, which redoubled our pain and suffering. The rain came down upon us in such manner from heaven, that we were during all that time between two floods; and the further we advanced the deeper we found the water.

      "And then thinking that the last period of our lives had come, we all embraced each other, and with a common impulse, we commenced to sigh and cry to the Lord, accusing our sins and recognizing the weight of his judgment upon us. 'Alas! Lord,' said we, 'what are we СКАЧАТЬ