upon Fort Caroline.

In the meantime word had been sent to the fort by Admiral Ribault of
the coming of the Spanish fleet, when it was first sighted, and
Laudonniere had collected his entire force at the mouth of the river,
and planted there a number of heavy guns. Here he proposed to dispute
the landing of the enemy, and if possible to prevent his crossing the
bar, just inside of which he had anchored his two small vessels, so
that their guns commanded the narrow channel.

When Menendez returned from his unsuccessful pursuit of Ribault's
ships, and saw these warlike preparations, he felt that it would be
unwise to attempt to land his troops through the surf, or to force the
passage of the bar, and so he ordered his captains to proceed southward
to the River of Dolphins. When it was reached, the smaller vessels
crossed the bar at its mouth, and came to anchor opposite the Indian
village of Seloy, where Rene de Veaux had first set foot upon the soil
of the New World, and where he had received the name of Ta-lah-lo-ko.

Here Menendez determined to build his fort, and found a city which he
hoped to make the capital of a great and glorious kingdom, and from
which he proposed to conduct operations against the Huguenots of Fort
Caroline. On the day after his arrival he landed with the greatest
pomp and ceremony, and claimed possession of the country in the name of
the King of Spain. As he did so all the cannon of the ships lying in
the river were discharged at once with a mighty roar, which was
answered by a distant booming from those anchored far out at sea. At
the same time all the trumpets were sounded, and the air was filled
with the exulting shouts of the soldiers, and with hymns of praise
chanted by a great company of priests. At the same moment the great
stag that stood in front of the council-house of the Indians was torn
down from the tall pole on which it was uplifted, and the cross was
raised in its place.

So terrified were the simple-minded Indian inhabitants of the village
by this sacrilege, and the great noise of the rejoicings, that they
knew not which way to turn or flee, until they were seized by the
brutal soldiers, and either killed or set to work with the negro slaves
brought from the West Indies in throwing up fortifications. After thus
taking possession of the country, Menendez proclaimed that the new
city, founded upon the smoking blood-stained ruins of the pleasant
little Indian village of