The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-02-12
The First White Men
On The Chesapeake

HSd1SSC ouSlLSI Willie d ISITlllC SIOILu
made short work of the remaining
French ships.
i Then began the task of rounding up
prisoners from the wrecks and the
Huguenot settlement at Fort Caro-
line. Some two hundred of the half
naked, starving wretches were lined
up. Then, according to the French,
the Spaniards played a game of see
ing who of them "could strike the
best blow with an ak, halberd or
sword, so that within half an hour
the helpless prisoners had all been
murdered in cold blood.
1t is interesting to give, as well as
the French version, an account of the
Spanish chaplain, present at the scene.
1t is but little more humane.
Seeing that all were Lutherans, his
lordship took the resolution of con-
demning them all to death; but as l
was a priest, and as l had the bowels
Of man, 1 prayed him to grant me
one favour, that of not putting to
death those whom we should find to
be Christians. He granted it to me.
l made some examinations. l found
of them ten or twelve whom we car
ried away; all others were executed
because they were Lutherans, enc
mics of our Holy Catholic faith. All
this took place on Saturday, the day
of Saint Michael, the 22nd of Septem-
Der, 1865. A hundred and twelve
Lutherans (which is small estimate)
were then put to death, without count
ing fourteen or fifteen prisoners.
Over them Menendez hung this
cheerful sign: 81 do this not as unto
Frenchmen, but as unto Lutherans."
Such was Christianity in the six
teenth century, when fanaticism was
too often carried to astounding ex-
tremes. Menendez's hatred was the
stronger since he suspected the
French of having killed his son.
But the honor of France was not to
suffer this blow without some retalia-
ton. In 1868 one Chevalier de Courge,
inspired by pamphlet entitled "Sup-
plication of the Widows and Children
of Those Who Had Been Massacred in
Florida" outftted, at his own expense,
vengeance-seeking expedition. AT
ter arriving he enlisted the aid of the
savages, recaptured Fort Caroline
and, on the very spot of the previous
slaughter, he hanged his Spanish
prisoners and showed his delicate gift
for repartee by placing there sign
with this inscription: 81 do this not
as unto Spaniards, nor as unto mari
ners, but as unto traitors, robbers,
and murderers." Then the French,
not being bent on colonization so far
south, sailed away and left Menendez
in undisturbed possession of the land.
There Spain stayed until Andrew
Jackson's day.
Out of all this bloody background
emerged the first attempt at estab-
fishing colony in the country about
the Chesapeake whose shores, years
later, were to seek to give shelter to
all regardless of religion.
***
AS Governor of Florida, which he
was now made, Menendez readily saw
the advisability of establishing a min
iature naval base somewhere further
north than his garrison at st. Angus
tine, for the purpose of betterprotect-
ing the slowly moving treasure ships
on their course. If Americas "cold"
motherly wilderness could not pro-
duce riches, which was Spain's in
genuous idea in that day, they at
least could help guard SPANS wealth
obtained elsewhere.
His first step in this direction was
the erection of a fortifcation at Santa
Elena, now Port Royal, in South
Carolina. Yet he was not satisfied
with this situation; it was to be only
a step toward the establishment of
colony farther north. The real objec-
tive was great bay of which he had
heard-possibly visited-where ships
sometimes put in to make repairs, or
to seek shelter from the furious
storms off Hatteras. That bay we
know today as the Chesapeake.
Just who first made this use of the
bay is not known: nor is how, or
when, it received it's various names
recorded in history. Sufficient to say,
that they all give the impression of
its being considered haven of shell
ter. One map, attributed to some I'M
known geographer of about 1910,
shows it as Madre DIES Aquas Mother
of Waters); a later one names it the
Bay de Saint Maria (strange harbin-
ger of the first Calvert settlement, st.
Mary's), and another, some forty
years after, calls it the Chesepioco
Sinus. This last map alone indicates
some familiarity with the region, for
the name was in all probability taken
from the Chesepian Indians, who lived
near the bay country. Yet we have
much more definite information on
which to base the assertion that the