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."
His thoughts were soon to be of other things, for even at this time a
terrible storm which had long been gathering was about to burst upon
this little band of Huguenots. Even as they busied themselves so
happily in restoring their fort and planning a settlement that should
flourish forever as a refuge for the persecuted of their religion, a
powerful enemy, and one who was even more cruel than powerful, was on
the way to destroy it and them. Don Pedro Menendez, with a fleet of
thirty-four ships and three thousand troops, had been sent out to the
New World by the King of Spain. He was ordered to take and hold
possession of all the country then known as Florida, which extended as
far north as the English settlement in Virginia, and had no western
limit. He was to build a fort and found a city; but first of all he
was to discover and destroy the colony of heretics who were reported to
have established themselves within this territory.
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