The Huguenots.— Coligny, designing to found a Huguenot colony and refuge in the New World, sent out a company, in 1562, under Jean Ribaut, who founded the colony of Port Royal, S. C. In 1564, Ribaut's colony hav ing failed, Rene de Laudonniere, in charge of a new company of Huguenots, built Fort Caroline on the Saint John's River. The col ony did not prosper and Laudonniere was about setting out for home, when he was joined by Ribaut and 300 men from France. On 28 Aug. 1565 Pedro Menendez de Avilez at the head of a Spanish expedition cast anchor in the Bay of Saint Augustine. His object was to exterminate the Huguenot settlement. He captured Fort Caroline and put to the sword nearly the entire garrison snot as Frenchmen but as heretics." Menendez thereupon founded Saint Augustine, explored the coast and built forts at San Mateo (Fort Caroline), Avista, Guale and Saint Helena. Menendez returned to Spain in 1567. The brutal murder of the French Huguenots did not long remain un avenged despite the indifference manifested at the French court. Dominique de Gourgues, friend of Jean Ribaut, but probably a Catholic, gathered a body of picked men with the osten sible object of kidnapping slaves on the African coast, keeping the true design to himself until his ships were nearing the coast of Florida. His followers after he made it known to them endorsed the project for revenge and with the aid of the Indians De Gourgues took Fort San Mateo in 1568. On the very spot where Menendez had executed the garrison of Fort Caroline, De Gourgues hanged all of the Span iards that remained after the assault on the fort, and inscribed a tablet of firewood: •1 do not this as unto Spaniards, not as unto Mariners, but as unto Traitors, Robbers, and Murderers.° The Spaniards at Saint Augus tine being in too great force, De Gourgues re frained from attacking them and returned to France, his mission accomplished.
Colonial Period.— After the stirring events just narrated a century elapsed without any attempt being made by the Spaniards to ex tend their settlement beyond the Atlantic coast. The total results of 100 years of Spanish domination were three small fortified posts and a few scattered missions among the ab origines. In 1586 Saint Augustine was burned and destroyed by Sir Francis Drake, and in 1665 English buccaneers under John Davis plundered it. In 1696 the Spaniards, jealous of the extension of the French settlements in Louisiana, turned for the first time toward the Gulf coast and founded Pensacola. French settlements by 1702 limited Florida to the Per dido River on the west while to the north the English colonial grants placed another limita tion on the claims of Spain in that direction. All through the 17th and early 18th centuries the Spaniards in Florida are alleged to have harassed or set on the Indians to harass, the English settlements, especially after Georgia was settled. Saint Augustine was captured and burned by a force from South Carolina in 1702, Spain and Great Britain being then at war. The fort was not reduced, however, and the English withdrew upon the approach of reinforcements to the Spaniards. In 1708
and again in 1722 the Carolinians invaded Florida and in 1740 Gen. James Edward Ogle thorpe, governor of Georgia, attacked Saint Augustine, and made a second attempt in 1745. Pensacola was taken by the French in 1719 and held by them for five years. In 1763 East and West Florida — the latter west of the Apalachicola, and including parts of modern Alabama and Mississippi — were ceded to Great Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Civil government now. displaced the military and a period of great prosperity ensued. Roads were laid out and many of• them built, and in 20 years more than 25,000 white immigrants settled in Florida. During the War of Inde pendence most of the white population of Florida remained loyal to England. Plans were made to invade Georgia and South Carolina, and in 1778 a Florida expedition took part in the siege of Savannah, Ga. In 1779 the Span iards of New Orleans seized the English post in West Florida and took Pensacola in 1781.
In 1783 Florida was retroceded to Spain at the Treaty of Paris. Since that treaty did not guarantee the religious liberty of the English settlers many of the latter withdrew. In 1795 the northern boundary was placed at the line of 31 north latitude by treaty with the United States. In the same year West Florida was sold to France. After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 the United States claimed up to the Perdido as part of "Louisiana)); the claim was not then pressed, for fear of war; but in 1810, the Spanish monarchy being overthrown and the king a prisoner, the United States took possession of all but Mobile, which was occu pied in 1813 at the time of the War with Britain. West Florida was declared an inde pendent State on 26 Sept. 1810 by the settlers, who set up a government and asked for ad mission to the Union. President Madison de clared West Florida under the jurisdiction of the United States, and in 1812 that part of West Florida between the Pearl and Missis sippi Rivers was added to Louisiana and that between the Pearl and Perdido Rivers was in corporated with Mississippi.
During the War of 1812 the English in 1814 landed a garrison at Pensacola, with the con nivance of the Spaniards. Their stay was short, however, as Gen. Andrew Jackson took Pensacola in November 1814. The British next built a fort on the Apalachicola from which Indians and fugitive slaves were sent against the Americans. The so-called Spanish "government" at this time was mere anarchy, partly from there being no stable home gov ernment to control it; Indian bands raided Georgia and escaped over the border, British and Spanish traders intrigued with them, and it was an Alsatia for fugitive slaves which drove the slaveholders wild. Congress author ized Madison to take "temporary possession)) in 1811, but nothing was done; in 1818 Jack son invaded it to punish Spanish assistance to the Seminole raids and the withholding of fugitive slaves, captured Saint Marks and Pen sacola, and hanged Arbuthnot and Ambrister, two British adventurers making profit by fur nishing supplies and possibly other help to the Indians.