The needs of the abandonment of the colony did not reach France till long after the event.  Before its arrival a fleet was sent out to the relief of the colony.  Three ships were dispatched, the largest of a hundred and twenty tons, the least of sixty tons, under the command of Rene Laudonniere, a young Poitevin of good birth.  On their outward voyage they touched at Teneriffe and Dominica, and found ample evidence at each place of the terror which the Spaniards had inspired among the natives.  In June the French reached the American shore south of Port Royal.  As before, their reception by the Indians was friendly.  Some further exploration failed to discover a more suitable site than that which had first presented itself, and accordingly a wooden fort was soon built with a timber palisade and bastions of earthen work.  Before long the newcomers found that their intercourse with the Indians was attended with unlooked-for difficulties.  There were three tribes of importance, each under the command of a single chief, and all more or less hostile to the other.  In the South the power of the chiefs seems to have been far more dreaded, and their influence over the national policy more authoritative than among the tribes of New England and Canada.  Laudonniere, with questionable judgment, entangled himself in these Indian feuds, and entered into an offensive alliance with the first of these chiefs whom he encountered, Satouriona....

A new source of trouble, however, soon beset the unhappy colonists.  Their quarrels had left them no time for tilling the soil, and they were wholly dependent on the Indians for food.  The friendship of the savages soon proved but a precarious means of support.  The dissensions in the French camp must have lowered the new-corners in the eyes of their savage neighbors.  They would only part with their supplies on exorbitaut terms.  Laudonniere himself throughout would have adopted moderate and conciliatory measures, but his men at length became impatient and seized one of the principal Indian chiefs as a hostage for the good behavior of his countrymen.  A skirmish ensued, in which the French were victorious.  It was clear, however, that the settlement could not continue to depend on supplies extorted from the Indians at the point of the sword.  The settlers felt that they were wholly forgotten by their friends in France, and they decided, tho with heavy hearts, to forsake the country which they had suffered so much to win....

Just, however, as all the preparations for departure were made, the long-expected help came.  Ribault arrived from France with a fleet of seven vessels containing three hundred settlers and ample supplies.  This arrival was not a source of unmixed joy to Laudonniere.  His factious followers had sent home calumnious reports about him, and Ribault brought out orders to send him home to stand his trial.  Ribault himself seems to have been easily persuaded of the falsity of the charges, and prest Laudonniere to keep his command; but he, broken in spirit and sick in body, declined to resume office.