The Lily and the Totem; or, The Huguenots in Florida

by William Gilmore Simms

  CHAPTER II.

  RIBAULT'S FORTUNES AT SELOOE.

  It was on the twenty-eighth of August, the day on which the Spaniardscelebrated the festival of St. Augustine, that the Adelantado enteredthe mouth of the Selooe or Dolphin River. He was attracted by the aspectof the place, and here resolved to establish a settlement and fortress.He gave the name of the Saint to the settlement. Having landed a portionof his forces, he found himself welcomed by the savages, whom he treatedwith kindness and who requited him with assurances of friendship. Fromthem he learned something of the French settlements, and of theirvessels at the mouth of the May River, and he resolved to attempt thesurprise of his enemies. We have seen the failure of this attempt.Disappointed in his first desire, like the tiger who returns to crouchagain within the jungle from which he has unsuccessfully sprung,Melendez made his way back to the waters of the Selooe, where heproposed to plant his settlement, and which his troops were alreadybeginning to entrench. Here he employed himself in taking formalpossession in the name of the King of Spain, and having celebrated theDivine mysteries in a manner at once solemn and ostentatious, he sworehis officers to fidelity in the prosecution of the expedition, upon theHoly Sacrament.

  It was while most busy with his preparations, that the fleet of Ribaultmade its appearance at the mouth of the river. The two heaviest of theSpanish vessels, being relieved of their armament and troops, which hadbeen transferred to the land, had been despatched, on the approach ofthe threatened danger, with all haste to Hispaniola. The two othervessels, at the bar or entrance of the harbor, were unequal to theconflict with the superior squadron of Ribault. Melendez was embarkedin one of them, and the three lighter vessels of the French, builtespecially for penetrating shallow waters, were pressing forward to thecertain capture of their prey, for which there seemed no possibility ofescape. Melendez felt all his danger, but he had prepared himself fora deadly struggle, and was especially confident in the enthusiasticconviction that himself and his design were equally the concern ofProvidence. It would seem that fortune was solicitous to justify theconvictions of so much self-esteem. Ribault's extreme caution insounding the bar to which his vessels were approaching, lost him twoprecious hours; but for which his conquest must have been certain. Therewas no hope, else, unless in some such miraculous protection as thatupon which the Spanish general seemed to count. Had these two vesselsbeen taken and Melendez a prisoner, the descent upon the dismayed troopson shore, not yet entrenched, and in no preparation for the conflictwith an equal or superior enemy, and the annihilation of the settlementmust have ensued. The consequence of such an event might have changedthe whole destinies of Florida, might have established the Huguenotcolonies firmly upon the soil, and given to the French such a firmpossession of the land, as might have kept the _fleur-de-lis_ wavingfrom its summits to this very day. But the miracle was not wanting whichthe Spanish Adelantado expected. In the very moment when the hands ofRibault, were stretched to seize his prizes, the sudden roar of thehurricane came booming along the deep. The sea rose between theassailant and his prey,--the storm parted them, and while the feeblervessels of Melendez, partially under the security of the land, sweptback towards the settlement which he had made on shore, the brigantinesand bateaux of Ribault were forced to rejoin their greater vessels, andthey all bore away to sea before the gale. Under the wild northerthat rushed down upon his squadron, Ribault with a groan of rage anddisappointment, abandoned the conquest which seemed already in hisgrasp.

  Melendez promptly availed himself of the Providential event, to insistamong his people upon the efficiency of his prayers. They had previouslybeen desponding. They felt their isolation, and exaggerated its danger.The departure of their ships for Hispaniola, their frequent previousdisasters, the dispersion of nearly two thirds of the squadron withwhich they had left the port of Cadiz, but three months before; thelabors and privations which already began to press upon them with anovel force; all conspired to dispirit them, and made them despair ofa progress in which they were likely to suffer the buffetings only,without any of the rewards of fortune;--and when they beheld theapproaching squadron of the French, in force so superior as to leaveno doubt of the capture of their only remaining vessels, they yieldedthemselves up to a feeling of utter self-abandonment, to which thestern, grave self-reliance of Melendez afforded no encouragement. Butwhen, with broad sweep of arm, he pointed to the awful rising of thegreat billows of the sea, the wild raging of cloud and storm in theheavens, the scudding flight of the trembling ships of Ribault, theirwhite wings gradually disappearing in distance and darkness like feeblebirds borne recklessly forward in the wild fury of the tempest, hecould, with wonderful potency, appeal to his people to acknowledge thewonders that the Lord had done for them that day.

  "Call you this the cause of our king only, in which we are engaged mybrethren? Oh! shallow vanity! And yet, you say rightly. It is the causeof our king--the greatest of all kings--the king of kings; and he willmake it triumphant in all lands, even though the base and the timidshall despair equally of themselves and of Him! We shall never, mybrethren, abandon this cause to which we have sworn our souls, in lifeand death, without incurring the eternal malediction of the Most HighGod, forever blessed be his name! We are surrounded by enemies, myfriends; we are few and we are feeble; but what is our might, when thetempest rises like a wall between us and our foes, and in our greatestextremity, the hand of God stretches forth from the cloud, and plucksus safely from the danger. Be of good heart, then; put on a fearlesscourage; believe that the cause is holy in which ye strive, and the Godof Battles will most surely range himself upon our side!"

  Loud cries of exultation from his people answered this address. Athousand voices renewed their vows of fidelity, and pledged themselvesto follow blindly wherever he should lead. He commanded that a solemnmass of the Holy Spirit should be said that night, and that all the armyshould be present. He vouchsafed no farther words. Nothing, he wellknew, that he could say, could possibly add to the miraculous event thathad saved their vessels, before their own eyes, in the very moment ofdestruction. "Our prayers, our faith, my brethren; to these we owe thesaving mercies of the Blessed Jesus!"