nisters. But
Villegagnon now imagined himself secure in his colony, and threw off the
mask of toleration. He behaved so tyrannically that many of the Hugonots
were obliged to return to France, and of them he made the most malicious
complaints, and concluded by saying, that they were heretics worthy of
the stake.

[Note 12: Among these was Jean de Lery.]

But nothing is so short-sighted as wickedness. Villegagnon's treachery
was the cause of the ruin of his enterprise. Ten thousand protestants
were ready to embark for Coligny, as the island, now called Villegagnon,
was then named: but the report of those who had returned, stopped them,
and the colony was left in a defenceless state.

At length the attention of the court of Lisbon had been drawn towards
the French settlement, and orders were sent to the Captain General to
examine into its state first, and then, if possible, to take it.

Accordingly, Mem de Sa, accompanied by Nobrega and two other Jesuits,
attacked it in January, 1560, while Villegagnon was absent in France,
and demolished the works, but had not sufficient force to attempt
forming a settlement; and had Villegagnon succeeded in returning with
the recruits he expected, he would have found it easy to re-establish
and perhaps revenge himself. But his bad faith deterred the Hugonots
from joining him, the civil war prevented the government from assisting
him, and the French colony was lost.

In 1564, Estacio de Sa, nephew of Mem, was sent out from Portugal to
form a settlement in Rio, but finding his means inadequate to contend
with the Indians, led on by the few remaining French, he went to San
Vincente for reinforcements; these, however, only enabled him to keep up
the war, and to maintain himself in a post he had fortified[13], not far
from the entrance of the harbour, and near the Sugar-loaf mountain, a
bare and inaccessible rock, which, from a base of about four hundred
feet, shoots up to a thousand in perpendicular height, on the west side
of the bar. He therefore applied to his uncle for succour, who,
collecting what force he could, led them in person, and arrived in the
harbour on the 18th of January, 1567. On the 20th, St. Sebastian's day,
the Indians and French were attacked in their strongest hold, then
called Uracumiri, and having obtained a decisive victory, the French
embarked in the four ships they still possessed, and fled to the coast
of Pernambuco, where they attempted to form a settlement