-
Fort Caroline National Memorial Park
The Fort Caroline National
Memorial Park is located in Jacksonville, Florida, and was the first
French colony in the United States. The fort started in 1564, as a
place for Huguenots to find refuge in and was there for only one
year before the Spaniards came and destroyed it. It is now the
memorial park. Protestant leader Admiral Gaspard de Coligny led an
expedition into this uncharted territory, accompanied by the Norman
navigator Jean Ribault that stopped on the May River site, which has
now become the St. Johns River, in February, 1562, before heading on
to Port Royal Sound. Today that region is known as Parris Island,
South Carolina, and the French left 28 men to construct a settlement
that became known as Charlesfort. Ribault went back to Europe to get
supplies for the new settlement but somehow was arrested in England
that were in relation to the French Wars of Religion and was unable
to return. The men had neither supplies or leadership and began to
be attacked by the local Native Americans, and eventually only one
would be able to sail back to Europe. While in voyage, the survivors
of the settlement had to resort to cannibalism to survive, and only
one was left, and he was rescued in English waters. During that
period, Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere, who was the second in command
under Ribault on that earlier expedition, led another group of 200
new people to settle in Florida, where they constructed Fort
Caroline on the top of St. Johns Bluff in 1564, the fort being named
after the king, Charles IX. For more than a year, the colonists
would be attacked by Native Americans, starved, and finally
mutinied, which caught the attention of the Spanish authorities who
considered the people something of a challenge to the region which
the Spanish felt they owned. In June of 1565, Ribault was released
from jail and he was sent back to Florida by Coligny with a huge
fleet, and hundreds of soldiers, as well as settlers, taking back
control of the fort. It was a difficult time, as the new appointed
Governor of Florida, Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, had been sent by
Spain to destroy the French settlement and came to the fort just
days after Ribault. The ships of their respective fleets had a short
skirmish, whereupon the Spanish retreated about 35 miles to the
south and started another settlement called St. Augustine. Ribault
decided to chase down the Spanish with some of his ships and the
majority of the troops, but ran into a violent storm that would last
many days; while Menendez girded his pantaloons and headed north
overland with his troops to surprise Fort Caroline. They attacked at
dawn and surprised the garrison that held about 200 to 250 people,
and by the time the fighting was done, only 50 survived. These were
mostly women and children who were then taken prisoners, while some
of the defenders and Laudonniere, escaped, and the remainder were
executed. Ribault's fleet lost most of his ships and many
Frenchmen as well, with Ribault and some of his men were marooned,
but Menendez found them and made them surrender. Ribault thought
that they would be treated fairly, but found out otherwise when they
were all massacred at a place now called Matanzas Inlet, Matanzas
meaning massacres. The massacre of several hundred French
Protestants shocked Europeans even though there were plenty of
bloodbaths happening in Europe at the time. A fort called Fort
Matanzas was built near the site of the bloody massacre, and that
did stop the French from coming down to this area of the Americas.
The Spanish demolished Fort Caroline but did construct a fort of
their own there, and in 1568, Dominique de Gourgues would lead a
French force that attacked, captured and burned the fort
slaughtering every Spaniard in retaliation for the massacre. The
Spanish did rebuild the fort, but then abandoned it the very next
year. The exact location of this fort is not known at the present
time. The original Fort Caroline became a National Memorial in 1950,
and today it contains a scaled down version of the fort, based on
historic renderings, as well as a visitor center.
|
