At length it came, and as the sun rose, its earliest beams fell upon seven tall ships riding easily at anchor outside the bar.  From each was displayed in the golden light the fair lily banner of France.

At this glorious sight there was indeed joy on board the ship of Laudonniere.  At last the long-looked-for reinforcements had come.  There was no more talk of mutiny, nor of abandoning the country.  Now the cry was, “Ho for Fort Caroline, and destruction to the savages!”

Crowding all sail upon their newly acquired ship, and with its guns firing salutes of welcome, and banners flung to the breeze from every point, they sailed out over the still tumultuous bar to greet the new-comers from their own land.  It was indeed Admiral Jean Ribault and his fleet of succor for the little colony.  On board his flag-ship Trinity, a joyful meeting took place between him and his trusted lieutenant, the brave Laudonniere, who, supported by Rene de Veaux and Le Moyne, found strength to carry himself thither.

The admiral was highly indignant when he heard of the mutiny, and would have punished the mutineers severely had not Laudonniere pleaded for them, giving their sufferings and their despair of the arrival of reinforcements as their excuse.

The closest attention was paid to the tale of the brave deeds of Rene de Veaux.  At its conclusion the admiral sent for him, and caused him to blush as ruddily as his sun-tanned cheeks would permit, by highly commending the courage and wisdom he had displayed on his journey to the land of the Alachuas.  In conclusion the admiral said, “Did thy years warrant it, thou shouldst receive thy knighthood, for never did squire more worthily earn it.  For the future thy welfare and speedy promotion shall be the especial charge of Jean Ribault.”

For such words as these from such a man, Rene felt that he would gladly face, single-handed, the whole Seminole band; and for the rest of that day he conceived himself to be the happiest boy in the world.

Only one of Admiral Ribault’s ships was of such light draught as enabled her to cross the bar, and so this one, with that of Laudonniere, was obliged to transfer all the newly arrived colonists and supplies to Fort Caroline.  This labor occupied many days, for the three hundred new colonists had brought with them a vast amount of provisions, munitions of war, tools, and articles of every description necessary for the building and equipping of other forts in the New World, and all this had to be brought in over the bar and carried up the river.

When the new-comers first caught sight of the fort they were grievously disappointed to see it dismantled and deserted.  As they approached it more closely they obtained a glimpse of a few savages who were still searching for plunder within its walls, and from these they gained their first impressions of the inhabitants of the New World.

Rene was made very happy by the return to the fort, for he said to himself, “It will soon be time for Micco’s people to come again to their own hunting-grounds.  Then I shall again see Has-se, and mayhap I shall be able to persuade him to go with me some day to France.”