to go unrevenged. A bold Gascon, Dominic de
Gourgues, in 1567, equipped three ships and set sail for Florida. He
swooped down suddenly, like a falcon on the forts at the mouth of the
St. John's, and putting the occupants to the sword, hanged them in the
forest, inscribing over their dangling corpses, this mocking reply to
the taunt at the Lutherans: "I do this not as unto Spaniards and
sailors, but as unto murderers, robbers and traitors!"

The revenge was merciless; and thus terminated the first chapter in the
history of religious liberty in America. BLOOD stained the earliest
meeting between Catholic and Protestant on the present soil of our
Union!

* * * * *

The power of Spain, the unattractiveness of our coast, the indifferent
climate, and the failure to find wealthy native nations to plunder, kept
the northern part of our continent in the back ground for the greater
part of a century after the voyages of Columbus and Cabot. There were
discouragements at that time for mercantile or maritime enterprise,
which make us marvel the more at the energy of the men who with such
slender vessels and knowledge of navigation, tempted the dangers of
unknown seas.

Emigration from land to land, from neighboring country to neighboring
country, was, at that epoch, a formidable enterprise; what then must we
think of the hardihood, or compulsion, which could either tempt or drive
men, not only over conterminous boundaries, but across distant seas?
Feudal loyalty and the strong tie of family, bound them not only to
their local homes, but to their native land. The lusty sons of labor
were required to till the soil, while their stalwart brethren, clad in
steel, were wandering on murderous errands, over half of Europe,
fighting for Protestantism or Catholicity. Adventure, then, in the shape
of colonization, must hardly be thought of, from the inland states of
the old world; and, even from the maritime nations, with the exception
of Spain and Portugal, we find nothing worthy of record, save the
fisheries on the Banks, the small settlements of the French in Acadia
and along the St. Lawrence, and the holy efforts of Catholic
Missionaries among the Northern Indians. If we did not know their zeal
to have been Christian, it might almost be considered romantic.

Soon after the return of De Gourgues from his revengeful exploit, the
report of the daring deed and its provocation, was spread over Europe,
and e