Of La Roche Ferriere and his adventures, more hereafter.  The young nobles, of whom there were many, were volunteers, who had paid their own expenses, in expectation of a golden harvest, and they chafed in impatience and disgust.  The religious element in the colony—­unlike the former Huguenot emigration to Brazil—­was evidently subordinate.  The adventurers thought more of their fortunes than of their faith; yet there were not a few earnest enough in the doctrine of Geneva to complain loudly and bitterly that no ministers had been sent with them.  The burden of all grievances was thrown upon Laudonniere, whose greatest errors seem to have arisen from weakness and a lack of judgment,—­fatal defects in his position.

The growing discontent was brought to a partial head by one Roquette, who gave out that by magic he had discovered a mine of gold and silver, high up the river, which would give each of them a share of ten thousand crowns, besides fifteen hundred thousand for the king.  But for Laudonniere, he said, their fortunes would all be made.  He found an ally in a gentleman named Genre, one of Laudonniere’s confidants, who, still professing fast adherence to the interests of the latter, is charged by him with plotting against his life.  Many of the soldiers were in the conspiracy.  They made a flag of an old shirt, which they carried with them to the rampart when they went to their work, at the same time wearing their arms, and watching an opportunity to kill the commandant.  About this time, overheating himself, he fell ill, and was confined to his quarters.  On this, Genre made advances to the apothecary, urging him to put arsenic into his medicines; but the apothecary shrugged his shoulders.  They next devised a scheme to blow him up, by hiding a keg of gunpowder under his bed; but here, too, they failed.  Hints of Genre’s machinations reaching the ears of Laudonniere, the culprit fled to the woods, whence he wrote repentant letters, with full confession, to his commander.

Two of the ships meanwhile returned to France,—­the third, the Breton, remaining at anchor opposite the fort.  The malecontents took the opportunity to send home charges against Laudonniere of peculation, favoritism, and tyranny.

Early in September, Captain Bourdet, apparently a private adventurer, had arrived from France with a small vessel.  When he returned, about the tenth of November, Laudonniere persuaded him to carry home seven or eight of the malecontent soldiers.  Bourdet left some of his sailors in their place.  The exchange proved most disastrous.  These pirates joined with others whom they had won over, stole Laudonniere’s two pinnaces, and set forth on a plundering excursion to the West Indies.  They took a small Spanish vessel off the coast of Cuba, but were soon compelled by famine to put into Havana and surrender themselves.  Here, to make their peace with the authorities, they told all they knew of the position and purposes of their countrymen at Fort Caroline, and hence was forged the thunderbolt soon to be hurled against the wretched little colony.