Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-04-01

OIueTS, Luo nOlu A4uSueho1 10 '''oNS
corruption of the German word Eagonots,
which means confederates. 1t is highly prob
able, from all the circumstances, that the
name is in some way or other derived from
either Hugo or his gate.
We may safely say that in no land have
Protestants been so prosecuted as in France:
The reformation commenced in that ill-tated
land in the city of Paris, with the conversion
of one Lefevre Professor in the University,
and student William Farel. From this Pc
riod to the present moment, spirit OF perse-
cution has been rife in France. At the time
of the reformation, and consequently at the
period of the settlement of South Carolina un'
der Charles the Ninth, the French people were
brutally immoral. The dark deeds of Nero
and Diocletian were eclipsed by the French
prosecutors. The mind shudders at the remem-
brance of St. Barthclomew's day. By sa,
tanically devised and hellishly executed plan,
not less than thirty thousand-probably one
hundred thousand citizens-men, women and
children, we're brutally murdered This was
on the 24th of August, 1872. Not less bar,
barous was the prosecutions which were con-
Quoted during the reign of Louis the Four
teenth, to which we will refer in the proper
place. These prosecutions drove some of the
best men in the nation to seek homes in other
lands. All that could, came to America.
Thus it may we'll be said, that the United
States became, in time, the home Of the perse-
cuted Of every religious creed.
When Ribault returned to France, having
left, as mentioned before, twenty.six men in
charge of the fort, he found France distracted
with civil commotion. Coligni was not able
to assist the colony for two years. A treaty,
in the meantime, was entered into between the
Huguenots and Catholics, which enabled Co.
ligni, in 1864, to send another colony to the
New World. Rene Laudonniere was chosen
to conduct The expedition, and early in the
year he set out with three ships, and on the
25th of June, landing was effected on the
St. Johns river. The Indians had not for
gotten Ribault They conducted him to a
pillar that Ribault had erected to perpetuate
his discovery. The honor of being the spot
on which this pillar was erected, is claimed
by three several islands-Paris, Lemon and
Beaufort. On the first there are some re-
mains of an ancient structure, which may be
the debris of Fort Charles. The Indians
showed their love and respect for the memory
of Ribault and his colony, by GROWING this
pillar with flowers and heaping up baskets OF
provisions at its base. Laudonniere was sent
out principally to supply the wants of the
colony attempted to be planted by Ribault.
Its tragical fate had, as yet, not reached
France. From the Indians this was learned.
Laudonniere, for some reason, determined to
abandon the spot selected by Ribault, and
commenced the work of settlement at a
point on the St. Johns river, within the pres
ent limits of the State of Florida. This,
however, does not detract from the interest
which we should have in this undertaking.
AS South Carolinians, our interest in the
colony of Laudonniere is increased, when we
remember the great likeness existing between
it and the colony planted-by Charles the Sec
ond, of England, in 1870; and especially its
likeness to those who cast in their lots with
the colony of Charles, in 1885. We should
also feel an interest in this colony, from the
fact that the early boundaries of South Caro-
lima included nearly all the present State OF
Florida on the south, and extended as tar
north as the northern limits of the State OF
Tennessee. 1t included all the territory be-
tween twenty.nine degrees and thirty-six de,
grees thirty minutes, north latitude, from the
Atlantic on the east, to the Pacific on the
west Hence, Laudonniere planted his colo
nv in what was once Carolina.
Laudonniere had visited the country and
seems to have given the utmost credence to
the stories told about the Fountain of Youth.
In fact, he seems to have gone farther than to
give an assent to the ridiculous absurdity ;
for he says that he had seen Indians who
were more than two hundred years old, still
in the bloom and vigor of manhood. This
strange delusion of the old Huguenot is only
explained by remembering that men suffer
their hopes and fears to control their judg-
ments, and often to get the better of their
senses. Hence, wiser and more experienced
men than Laudonniere have sometimes re-
ported that they saw what they only wished to
see and that they heard what they wished to
hear.
Amongst the first things done by Laudon-
Mere, after selecting place for settlement,
was the erection of fortifcation. A minute
description of this fort has been preserved.
1t was triangle, one side of which faced the
river. On the south side was the magazine.
1t was simple in its construction, being merely
an embankment of sand held together by sods
Of grass and logs of wood. The side facing
the river was lined with planks, and otherwise
strengthened by driving stakes in the ground.
The embankment Was made nine feet high.
The work completed, it was named LA Caro-
line," in honor Of Charles the Ninth Of France.
The Indians treated the newcomers with
the same kindness which they exercised to-
ward Ribault and his men. No doubt the
colonists promised themselves happy future.
They were free from the troubles that had 80
long and so grievously harrassed them in
their native land. Whatever may have been
their dreams of future bliss and quiet, they
found their. new home any thing else but
pleasant, and more tragical end awaited
them than befell Ribault's colony at Fort
Charles.
AS might have been expected, many of the
coonists were idle and dissolute They, by
their unrighteous acts, provoked the Indians
to acts of hostility. Laudonnere lowered
himself, by his conduct, toward these be-
nighted people, Soon the colonists com.
menced quarelling amongst themselves. They
had breathed the air of civil war from their
youths and although they had left France
and crossed the Atlantic and taken up their
abode on the shores of the New World, they
retained the same spirit of contention which
they had before quitting their native land
A plan was concerted for degrading Laudon-
Mere Two soldiers-one by the name of La
Roquette and the other by the name of La
Genre-attempted frstto poison Laudonniere
Failing in this they attempted to kill him by
exploding the powder in the pot. In this they
failed also. In short time these desperadoes
we're joined by several others, evil disposed and
ineuho, dinate like themselves. LaudOnniere