would permit, by highly
commending the courage and wisdom he had displayed on his journey to
the land of the Alachuas. In conclusion the admiral said, "Did thy
years warrant it, thou shouldst receive thy knighthood, for never did
squire more worthily earn it. For the future thy welfare and speedy
promotion shall be the especial charge of Jean Ribault."

For such words as these from such a man, Rene felt that he would gladly
face, single-handed, the whole Seminole band; and for the rest of that
day he conceived himself to be the happiest boy in the world.

Only one of Admiral Ribault's ships was of such light draught as
enabled her to cross the bar, and so this one, with that of
Laudonniere, was obliged to transfer all the newly arrived colonists
and supplies to Fort Caroline. This labor occupied many days, for the
three hundred new colonists had brought with them a vast amount of
provisions, munitions of war, tools, and articles of every description
necessary for the building and equipping of other forts in the New
World, and all this had to be brought in over the bar and carried up
the river.

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 V