LE MOYNE SKETCHES
For a detailed description
of the Timucua Indians we are indebted to a
French artist named Jaques le Moyne.
Hugenot Lutherans, led by Jean Ribaut, fled
French persecution in 1562 and built Fort Caroline
in Florida at the mouth of a north-flowing
stream they called River of May. The Spanish
later named it Rio San Mateo, then San Juan
(St. John). The project ended in disaster when
Ribaut returned to France for supplies. He
was arrested |
|
for taking part
in the Protestant Reformation and allowed to
take refuge in England. Starving colonists,
believing themselves forgotten, constructed
flimsy ships and set out across the Atlantic.
Only the crew of one craft survived by drawing
lots and eating the loser. A second attempt
to establish a French Hugenot colony, at the
place we now call Jacksonville, was mounted
in 1564 by Rene de Laudonniere. He brought
Le Moyne along to record New World scenes for
the Protestants back home.
|
| FORTIFIED TOWNS AMONG FLORIDIANS
--- The Indians are accustomed to build their
fortified towns as follows: A position is selected
near the channel of some swift stream. They level
it as even as possible and then dig a ditch in
a circle around the site, in which they set thick
round pales close together to twice the height
of a man. They carry this paling some ways past
the beginning of it, spiral wise, to make a narrow
entrance admitting not more than two persons
abreast. The course of the stream is also diverted
to this entrance. At each end of it they are
accustomed to erect a small round building, each
full of cracks and holes and built, considering
their means, with much elegance. In these they
station as sentinels men who can smell the traces
of an enemy at a great distance, and who, as
soon as they perceive such traces, set off to
discover them. As soon as they find them they
set up a cry which summons those within the town
to the defence, armed with bows and arrows and
clubs. The chief's dwelling stands in the middle
of the town and is partly underground in consequence
of the sun's heat. Around this are the houses
of the principal men, all lightly roofed with
palm branches. |
previous page
