Durand de Villegagnon was a knight of Malta, and high in the French naval service ; but having embraced the opinions of the reformers, and being disgusted with. some treatment which he had experienced from his go vernment, he conceived the design of forming a Pro testant establishment in the new world. Ile held out to the French court the mere plan of founding a colony, after the example of the Spaniards and Portuguese. Through the interest of the Admiral de Colligny, who regarded him with favour, and had secretly embraced the same opinions, he obtained the concurrence of Hen ry II. in this undertaking. He procured two or three well equipped vessels, and having filled them with per sons of his own persuasion, set sail for Brasil. Ile land ed at the Rio Janeiro, where lie settled his people, and began to build a fort, which, after the name of his pa tron, he called Fort Coligny. Here he found some Nor mans, who had been thrown by shipwreck upon the same coast, and, having lived some time with the sava ges, were qualified to act as interpreters. Ile then sent back his vessels to receive a new cargo of Protestants,. He transmitted formal dispatches to the French king but those which he wished to be acted upon, were sent to Coligny and his friends at Geneva. A great zeal was immediately kindled for the extension of Calvinism into these remote regions : two ministers, and fourteen stu dents from Geneva, determined to brave all the hard ships of an unknown climate, and of a mode of life wholly different from that to which Europeans were accustom ed. They repaired to the admiral's seat near Chatillon sur l'Oing, where they were received with the highest distinction. The influence of Coligny, and the uneasy situation of the reformers in France, soon swelled their numbers ; and on their road to the place of embarkation at Rouen, new recruits continually presented themselves. Their departure was precipitated by an adventure of no agreeable nature. It having transpired, that they had exceeded the very narrow bounds of the toleration which the law allowed, the Catholic inhabitants of Har fleur, influenced by the most furious intolerance, rose in arms against them ; and a desperate conflict ensued, in which one of their best officers was killed, and the rest were saved, only by setting out instantly, and un der these disastrous circumstances, for the place of their destination.
A violent storm which this expedition met with on its passage, struck with consternation the majority of the passengers, who had not been inured to the sea. After a long delay, however, they arrived off the coast of Bra sil, at about the tenth degree of south latitude. They proceeded along the coast, and after a slight encounter with the Portuguese at Spiritu Santo, reached at length the settlement of their countrymen on the Rio Janeiro. Here they were received with apparent cordiality ; but after the first welcome, they experienced nothing but hard fare and hard labour, which few of them, it is pro bable, were fully prepared to encounter. The Protestant rites, however, were now for the first time celebrated, and with every appearance of zeal and satisfaction on the part of Villegagnon. The Portuguese, meanwhile, seem to have made no efforts to dislodge these intru ders, thinking, perhaps, that there was room enough in the country for both. The advantage of this forbear ance, however, was entirely lost to the new colony, in consequence of its own internal dissensions. We have only the narrative of Lery, who was one of those newly arrived ; but as his statement was never contradicted, considerable credit is attached to it. Villegagnon, it
appears, after having founded his colony upon the ba sis of Protestantism, began himself to entertain doubts upon the most essential principles of that creed. He cherished peculiar scruples upon the subject of the real presence ; and though he could not believe that Christ was really present in the sacraments, yet neither could he be satisfied that he was not. He began also to sus pect that the wine ought to be diluted, and that salt and oil ought to be mingled with the water of baptism ; and having introduced innovations conformable to those opinions, lie soon excited a violent discontent among his followers. Those newly arrived from Geneva, in particular, who were imbued with the most rigid prin ciples of Calvinism, wholly declined participating in these new rites, which they accounted to be rank Pope ry, and clandestinely celebrated the sacrament during the night, as was done by their persecuted brethren in France. Villegagnon, on discovering these proceed ings, was extremely chagrined, and mutual irritation, daily increasing, rose at length to such a pitch, that he resolved to expel them entirely from the fort, and force them to return to their native country: declaring, that if their arrival had caused him much satisfaction, their departure was still more agreeable. The unfortunate Genevese were forced to embark on board a vessel in a very bad state of repair, as well as insufficiently sup plied with provisions. Through the ignorance of the pilot, the voyage was prolonged considerably beyond expectation ; and the crew were destined, in consequence, to experience the utmost extreme of human misery. Long before their arrival off the coast of France, their stock of provisions failed ; and they were assailed by hunger in its most direful form. Their situation is painted in so lively a manner by one of the sufferers. that we shall translate some passages of his narrative. " After having devoured," says he, " all the leather in our vessel, even to the covering of the trunks, we thought ourselves approaching to the last moment of our life ; but necessity suggested to some one the idea of pursuing the rats and mice, and we had the greater hope of taking them easily, because, having no more crumbs, nor any thing to devour, they ran in great num bers, dying of hunger, through the vessel. We pur sued them so carefully, and by so many kind of snares, that very few remained. Even in the night, we sought them with our eyes open, like cats. A rat was more valued than an ox on land. The price rose so high as four crowns. \Ve boiled them in water, with all the intestines, which were eaten as well as the body. The paws were not omitted, nor the other bones, which we found means to soften. The extremity was such, that nothing remained but Brazil-wood, the driest of all woods, which many, however, in their despair, attempted to chew. Carguilleray du Pont, our leader, holding one day a piece in his mouth, said to me with a deep sigh, Alas ! my friend, I have due to me in France a sum of four thousand livres ; and would to God that, after giv ing a discharge for the whole, I held in my hand a penny worth of bread, and a single glass of wine." Several di ed of hunger ; and they had already begun to form the re solution of devouring each other, when Rochelle appear ed in view. They landed ; but a number having, after this long abstinence, devoured food with too eager avidi ty, perished soon after.