The Spaniards in Florida. Fairbanks George Rainsford

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СКАЧАТЬ poor worms of the earth? Our souls weakened by grief, surrender themselves into thy hands. Oh, Father of Mercy and God of Love, deliver us from this pain of death! or if thou wilt that in this desert we shall draw our last breath, assist us so that death, of all things the most terrible, shall have no advantage over us, but that we may remain firm and stable in the sense of thy favor and good-will, which we have too often experienced in the cause of thy Christ to give way to the spirit of Satan, the spirit of despair and of distrust; for if we die, we will protest now before thy Majesty, that we would die unto thee, and that if we live it may be to recount thy wonders in the midst of the assembly of thy servants.' Our prayers concluded, we marched with great difficulty straight towards the wood, when we came to a great river which ran in the midst of this meadow; the channel was sufficiently narrow but very deep, and ran with great force, as though all the field ran toward the sea. This was another addition to our anguish, for there was not one of our men who would dare to undertake to cross over by swimming. But in this confusion of our thoughts, as to what manner to pass over, I bethought myself of the wood which we had left behind us. After exhorting my comrades to patience and a continued trust in the Lord, I returned to the wood, and cut a long pole, with the good size clasp knife which remained in my hand from the hour the fort was taken; and I returned to the others, who awaited me in great perplexity, 'Now, then, comrades,' said I, 'let us see if God, by means of this stick, will not give us some help to accomplish our path.' Then we laid the pole upon the water, and each one by turn taking hold of the end of the pole, carried it by his side to the midst of the channel, when losing sight of him we pushed him with sufficient force to the other bank, where he drew himself out by the canes and other bushes growing along its borders; and by his example we passed over, one at a time; but it was not without great danger, and not without drinking a great deal of salt water, in such manner that our hearts were all trembling, and we were as much overcome as though we had been half drowned. After we had come to ourselves and had resumed courage, moving on all the time towards the wood, which we had remarked close to sea, the pole was not even needed to pass another creek, which gave us not much less trouble than the first; but by the grace of God, we passed it and entered the wood the same evening, where we passed the night in great fear and trembling, standing about against the trees.

      "And, as much as we had labored, even had it been more, we felt no desire to sleep; for what repose could there be to spirits in such mortal affright? Near the break of day, we saw a great beast, like a deer, at fifty paces from us, who had a great head, eyes flaming, the ears hanging, and the higher parts elevated. It seemed to us monstrous, because of its gleaming eyes, wondrously large; but it did not come near us to do us any harm.

      "The day having appeared, we went out of the wood and returned towards the sea, in which we hoped, after God, as the only means of saving our lives; but we were again cast down and troubled, for we saw before us a country of marsh and muddy quagmires, full of water and covered with briars, like that we had passed the previous day. We marched across this salt marsh; and, in the direction we had to take, we perceived among the briars a body of men, whom we at first thought to be enemies, who had gone there to cut us off; but upon close observation, they seemed in as sad a plight as ourselves, naked and terrified; and we immediately perceived that they were our own people. It was Captain Laudonnière, his servant-maid, Jacques Morgues of Dieppe (the artist), Francis Duval of Rouen, son of him of the iron crown of Rouen, Niguise de la Cratte, Nicholas the carpenter, the Trumpeter of Sieur Laudonnière, and others, who all together made the number of twenty-six men. Upon deliberating as to what we should do, two of our men mounted to the top of one of the tallest trees and discovered from thence one of our vessels, which was that of Captain Maillard, to whom they gave a signal, that he might know that we were in want of help. Thereupon he came towards us with his small vessel, but in order to reach the banks of the stream, it was necessary for us to traverse the briars and two other rivers similar to those which we passed the previous day; in order to accomplish which, the pole I had cut the day before was both useful and necessary, and two others which Sr. de Laudonnière had provided; and we came pretty near to the vessel, but our hearts failed us from hunger and fatigue, and we should have remained where we were unless the sailors had given us a hand, which aid was very opportune; and they carried us, one after the other, to the vessel, on board of which we were all received well and kindly. They gave us bread and water, and we began afterwards, little by little, to recover our strength and vigor; which was a strong reason that we should recognize the goodness of the Lord, who had saved us against all hope from an infinity of dangers and from death, by which we had been surrounded and assaulted from all quarters, to render him forevermore our thanks and praises. We thus passed the entire night recounting the wonders of the Lord, and consoled each other in the assurances of our safety.

      "Daylight having come, Jacques Ribault, Captain of the Pearl, boarded us to confer with us respecting what was to done by us, and what means we should take for the safety of the rest of our men and the vessels. It was then objected, the small quantity of provisions which we had, our strength broken, our munitions and means of defense taken from us, the uncertainty as to the condition of our Admiral, and not knowing but that he had been shipwrecked on some coast a long distance from us, or driven to a distance by the tempest.

      "We thereupon concluded that we could do no better than return to France, and were of the opinion that the company should divide into two parts, the one remaining on board the Pearl, the other under charge of Captain Maillard.

      "On Friday, the twenty-fifth day of the month of September, we departed from this coast, favored by a strong northerly wind, having concluded to return to France, and after the first day our two ships were so far separated that we did not again encounter each other.

      "We proceeded five hundred leagues prosperously, when, one morning about sunrise, we were attacked by a Spanish vessel, which we met as well as we could, and cannonaded them in such sort that we made them subject to our disposal, and battered them so that the blood was seen to overrun the scuppers. We held them then as surrendered and defeated; but there was no means of grappling her, on account of the roughness of the sea for in grappling her there would be danger of our striking together, which might have sunk us; she also, satisfied with the affair, left us, joyful and thanking God that no one of us was wounded or killed in this skirmish except our cook.

      "The rest of our passage was without any renconter with enemies; but we were much troubled by contrary winds, which often threatened to cast us on the coast of Spain, which would have been the finishing touch to our misfortunes, and the thing of which we had the greatest horror. We also endured at sea many other things, such as cold and hunger; for be it understood that we, who escaped from the land of Florida, had nothing else for vestment or equipment, by day or by night, except our shirts alone, or some other little rag, which was a small matter of defence from the exposure to the weather; and what was more, the bread which we eat, and we eat it very sparingly, was all spoilt and rotten, as well also the water itself was all noisome, and of which, besides, we could only have for the whole day a single small glass.

      "This bad food was the reason, on our landing, that many of us fell into divers maladies, which carried off many of the men of our company; and we arrived at last, after this perilous and lamentable voyage, at Rochelle; where we were received and treated very humanely and kindly by the inhabitants of the country and those of the city, giving us of their means, to the extent our necessities require; and assisted by their kindness we were each enabled to return to his own part of the country."5

      Laudonnière's6 narrative speaks more of his own personal escape; and that of Le Moyne7 refers to this description of De Challeux, as containing a full and accurate account of what took place. Barcia mentions De Challeux, very contemptuously as a carpenter, who succeeding badly at his trade, took up that of preaching, but does not deny the truth of his narrative.

      Those who separated from their comrades and threw themselves upon the enemies' mercy, are mentioned by the Spanish writers; but they are silent as to the treatment they received.

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