The Lily and the Totem; or, The Huguenots in Florida
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XIII.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY.
The policy of Laudonniere, influenced by the judgment of AlphonseD'Erlach suffered the proceedings of the conspiracy to pass withoutfarther scrutiny. His chief care was to provide against future attemptsof the same character. He had been for some time past engaged, amongother labors, in putting the fortress in the best possible order, andhe now strenuously addressed all his efforts to the completion of thiswork. A portion of his force was employed in sawing plank, and gettingout timber; others were engaged in making brick for buildings, at ornear an Indian village called Saravahi, which stood about a league and ahalf from the fort, upon an arm of the same river; others were employedin gathering food, and still other parties in exploring the Indiansettlements for traffic. Le Genre, meanwhile, wrote to Laudonniere, inrepentant language, from the neighboring forests. He had taken shelteramong the red-men,--probably of the tribes of Satouriova, at present theenemy of the Frenchmen. He admitted that he deserved death, but declaredhis sorrow for his crime and entreated mercy. But his professions didnot soothe or deceive his superior. About this time, a vessel withsupplies arrived from France which enabled Laudonniere to senddespatches home, containing a full narrative of the events which hadpassed. It was the misfortune of the garrison to have received anaddition by the arrival of this vessel. Six or seven of the mostrefractory of the soldiers of the garrison were put on board ship, andothers left in their place with our captain. These proved in the end,quite as mischievous as those which he had dismissed. They leagued withthe old discontents of the colony. They stole the barks and boats of thegarrison, ran away to sea, and became picaroons, seizing, among others,upon a Spanish vessel of the Island of Cuba, from which they gathered aquantity of gold and silver. Laudonniere proceeded to build other boats;which were seized when finished by the leaders of a new conspiracy,among whom were La Fourneaux, Stephen le Genevois, and others who weredistinguished in this manner before. They finally seized Laudonniere inperson, and extorted from him a privateer's commission. Then, compellinghim to yield up artillery, guns, and the usual munitions of war,together with Trenchant, his most faithful pilot, they hurried away tosea under the command of one of his sergeants, Bertrand Conferrant,while La Croix became their ensign. Thus was the commandant of LaCaroline stripped of every vessel of whatever sort, his storesplundered, and his garrison greatly lessened by desertions, while selectdetachments of his men, under favorite lieutenants, were engaged in newexplorations among the red-men of the country. Our detailed narrative ofthese proceedings will employ the following chapters.