. The
commandant accordingly resolved to buy the vessel. The generous slaver,
whose reputed avarice nowise appears in the transaction, desired him to
set his own price; and, in place of money, took the cannon of the fort,
with other articles now useless to their late owners. He sent them, too,
a gift of wine and biscuit, and supplied them with provision for the
voyage, receiving in payment Laudonniere's note,--"for which," adds the
latter, "I am until this present indebted to him." With a friendly
leave-taking he returned to his ships and stood out to sea, leaving
golden opinions among the grateful inmates of Fort Caroline.

Before the English top-sails had sunk beneath the horizon, the colonists
bestirred themselves to depart. In a few days their preparations were
made. They waited only for a fair wind. It was long in coming, and
meanwhile their troubled fortunes assumed a new phase.

On the twenty-eighth of August, the two captains, Vasseur and Verdier,
came in with tidings of an approaching squadron. Again the fort was wild
with excitement. Friends or foes, French or Spaniards, succor or death:
betwixt these were their hopes and fears divided. With the following
morning, they saw seven barges rowing up the river, bristling with
weapons and crowded with men in armor. The sentries on the bluff
challenged, and received no answer. One of them fired at the advancing
boats. Still no response. Laudonniere was almost defenceless. He had
given his heavier cannon to Hawkins, and only two field-pieces were
left. They were levelled at the foremost boats, and the word was about
to be given, when a voice from among the strangers called that they were
French, commanded by John Ribaut.

At the eleventh hour, the long-looked-for succors were come. Ribaut had
been commissioned to sail with seven ships for Florida. A disorderly
concourse of disbanded soldiers, mixed with artisans and their families,
and young nobles weary of a two-years' peace, were mustered at the port
of Dieppe, and embarked, to the number of three hundred men, bearing
with them all things thought necessary to a prosperous colony.

No longer in dread of the Spaniards, the colonists saluted the
new-comers with the cannon by which a moment before they had hoped to
blow them out of the water. Laudonniere issued from his stronghold to
welcome them, and regaled them with what cheer he might. Ribaut was
present, conspicuous by his long beard, the astonishment of the Ind