Heroes of discovery in America . hem upon the coast, every vessel beingwrecked. Most of the men reached the shore, but theentire fleet fell a prey to the waves. The Spanishships escaped with much less loss. It was a terrible misfortune for the Huguenots, whowere now at the mercy of their foes. Menendez ledhis men overland upon their fort, attacked and cap-tured it, and put to death every soul found in it, notonly the soldiers, but the aged and sick, the womenand children, nearly two hundred in all being ruth-lessly massacred. Only Laudonniere and a fewothers, who had fled to the woods, escaped
Heroes of discovery in America . hem upon the coast, every vessel beingwrecked. Most of the men reached the shore, but theentire fleet fell a prey to the waves. The Spanishships escaped with much less loss. It was a terrible misfortune for the Huguenots, whowere now at the mercy of their foes. Menendez ledhis men overland upon their fort, attacked and cap-tured it, and put to death every soul found in it, notonly the soldiers, but the aged and sick, the womenand children, nearly two hundred in all being ruth-lessly massacred. Only Laudonniere and a fewothers, who had fled to the woods, escaped. Some ofthese gave themselves up to the Spaniards and wereinstantly murdered. The others succeeded in reach-ing two small French vessels still in the harbor, and inthe end made their way to France with the story of themassacre. Meanwhile Ribault and his shipwrecked men wereseeking to make their way through the forest towardsFort Carolina, of the fate of whose garrison they knewnothing. A party of them, about two hundred in num-. IN AMERICA 143 ber, were met by messengers from Menendez whilehalting at Matanzas Inlet, with promises of safety andgood treatment if they should surrender. They werealso told of the capture of the fort. There seemed butone thing to do, if they would escape starvation. Theyyielded and were ferried across the stream, ten at atime. As each detachment landed they were led be-hind a sand hill and their hands tied behind theirbacks. When they were all thus helplessly in the hands oftheir foes they were questioned, and those who saidthey were Catholics or mechanics were led aside. Thena signal from Menendez was given, the trumpetssounded, the drums were beaten, and the Spanish sol-diers, sword in hand, fell upon the helpless captives,cutting them down until not a man of them remainedalive and the soil was deeply stained with their blood. We do this to you not as Frenchmen, but as Luth-erans, said the ruthless Menendez. A day or two later Ribault, with three
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectexplorers, bookyear19
