Ten days before the coming of Rene he had arrived off San Augustin,
where the Spaniards, supposing his ships to be that of their own
nation, had fired a salute of welcome from the guns of their newly
erected fort.
As De Gourges deemed this place too strong for him to attack, and as he
only wished to recover that which had belonged to the French, he had
not tarried there, but had sailed northward to the River of May, the
name of which the Spaniards had changed to Rio de San Mateo.
He found its entrance guarded by two small forts, one on either side,
which Menendez had built after his capture of Fort Caroline. As the
French ships were of too great draught to cross the bar, De Gourges had
organized an expedition of small boats, and had carried these works,
one after another, by assault.
Having thus effected a landing, and being joined by a large body of
Indians, who had joyfully hailed him as a deliverer from Spanish
cruelties, he had marched to the attack of Fort San Mateo, by which
name Fort Caroline was now called.
Through a series of blunders on the part of its Spanish commandant he
had been able to capture this fort with comparative ease. By the aid
of powder and fire the walls of all these forts had been levelled with
the ground, and their total destruction effected.
Having thus accomplished the main objects of his expedition, De Gourges
had regained his ships, and sailed still farther northward, to the deep
harbor in which Rene had discovered him, and in which he was now
preparing for the homeward voyage.
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