Menendez's expedition of 1565 followed the earlier Spanish
expeditions by Ponce de Leon, Narvaez and De Soto. It sailed from
Cadiz and comprized eleven ships. Twenty-three other vessels
followed, the entire company numbering 2,646 persons. The aim
of Menendez was to begin a permanent settlement in Florida. On
arrival he found a colony of French Huguenots already in
possession, having been there three years. A conflict was
inevitable, and one which forms a most melancholy chapter in the
early history of American colonization. Menendez hanged Huguenots,
"not as Frenchmen, but as heretics," while Gourgues hanged
Spaniards "not as Spaniards, but as traitors, robbers and
murderers." After the conflicts closed the Spaniards maintained
themselves in St. Augustine until 1586, when St. Augustine was
completely destroyed by Sir Francis Drake. Two years later the
Armada of Spain was overthrown in the English Channel, largely as
the work of Drake.

[3] In the valley of the St. Lawrence as described in Volume I.

[4] St. Quentin is a town in northeastern France, near which on
August 10, 1557, the army of Philip II, Spain, won a great victory
over the combined armies of France and England.




II

MENDOZA'S ACCOUNT OF THE MASSACRE[1]