[page 10]
sailors, artisans, servants, and four women. The latter were probably the
first Protestant white women to reach the confines of the present United
States. Although the majority of the colonists were Huguenots, the
avowed purpose of the proposed settlement was non-sectarian. No
ministers were aboard, and a few Catholics accomplished the expedition.

Laudonniere and his colonists were joyfully received by the
natives who lived near the mouth of the St. Johns River. These Indians
had regarded with great reverence and awe the pillar left by Ribaut, had
crowned it with evergreens and about its base placed baskets of fruit and
maize. (The previous year a Spanish captain, De Rejas, had searched for
this pillar in vain, the Indians having hidden it from him). The warmth of
their welcome, combined with the fertile aspect of the countryside,
determined Laudonniere upon establishing his colony in this region.

The site selected for a fort was just west of St. Johns Bluff,
where the ground sloped gradually along the river bank. To the
southward extended an area of rolling, wooded country, called the Vale
of Laudonniere by the new-comers. On the east side of the bluff was a
sheer drop to a little crack from which continuous marshes extended to
the ocean.

Work upon the fortress, which was named Fort Caroline in honor
of King Charles IX, proceeded rapidly, with the natives assisting in the
construction. LeMoyne, an artist and a member of the colony, made a
sketch of the fort and gave the following description: