“I saved,” writes Menendez, “the lives of two young gentlemen of about eighteen years of age, as well as of three others, the fifer, the drummer, and the trumpeter; and I caused Jean Ribaut with all the rest to be passed under the knife, judging this to be expedient for the service of God our Lord, and of your Majesty.  And I consider it great good fortune that he (Jean Ribaut) should be dead, for the King of France could effect more with him and five hundred ducats than with other men and five thousand, and he would do more in one year than another in ten, for he was the most experienced sailor and naval commander ever known, and of great skill in this passage to the Indies and the coast of Florida.  He was, besides, greatly liked in England, in which kingdom his reputation is such that he was appointed Captain-General of all the British fleet against the French Catholics in the war between England and France some years ago.”

Such is the sum of the Spanish accounts,—­the self-damning testimony of the author and abettors of the crime.  A picture of lurid and awful coloring; and yet there is reason to believe that the truth was more hideous still.  Among those spared was one Christophe le Breton, who was carried to Spain, escaped to France, and told his story to Challeux.  Among those struck down in the carnage was a sailor of Dieppe, stunned and left for dead under a heap of corpses.  In the night he revived, contrived to draw his knife, cut the cords that bound his hands, and make his way to an Indian village.  The Indians, though not without reluctance, abandoned him to the Spaniards.  The latter sold him as a slave; but on his way in fetters to Portugal, the ship was taken by the Huguenots, the sailor set free, and his story published in the narrative of Le Moyne.  When the massacre was known in France, the friends and relatives of the victims sent to the King, Charles IX., a vehement petition for redress; and their memorial recounts many incidents of the tragedy.  From these three sources is to be drawn the French version of the story.  The following is its substance:—­

Famished and desperate, the followers of Ribaut were toiling northward to seek refuge at Fort Caroline, when they found the Spaniards in their path.  Some were filled with dismay; others, in their misery, almost hailed them as deliverers.  La Caille, the sergeant-major, crossed the river.  Menendez met him with a face of friendship, and protested that he would spare the lives of the shipwrecked men, sealing the promise with an oath, a kiss, and many signs of the cross.  He even gave it in writing, under seal.  Still, there were many among the French who would not place themselves in his power.  The most credulous crossed the river in a boat.  As each successive party landed, their hands were bound fast at their backs; and thus, except a few who were set apart, they were all driven towards the fort, like cattle to the shambles, with curses and scurrilous