For mine own part, I will not accuse nor excuse any: it sufficeth me to have followed the truth of the history, whereof many are able to bear witness which were there present. I will plainly say one thing, that the long delay that Captain John Ribaut used in his embarking, and the fifteen days that he spent in roving along the coast of Florida before he came to our Fort Caroline, were the cause of the loss that we sustained. For he discerned the coast the 15th of August, and spent the time in going from river to river, which had been sufficient for him to have discharged his ships in, and for me to have embarked myself, to return into France.... He was no sooner departed from us than a tempest took him, which, in fine, wrecked him upon the coast, where all his ships were cast away, and he with much ado escaped drowning, to fall into their hands, which cruelly massacred him and all his company. [The fate of Ribaut at the hands of Menendez, and the terrible vengeance taken on the Spaniards by another Frenchman, Dominic de Gourgues, may be found described in Parkman’s interesting book, “Pioneers of France in the New World.”] BOOK VIII. SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. (A.D. 1583.) Eastward from Campobello Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed: Three days or more seaward he bore, Then, alas! the land-wind failed. Alas! the land-wind failed, And ice-cold grew the night; And nevermore, on sea or shore, Should Sir Humphrey see the light. He sat upon the deck, The Book was in his hand: “Do not fear! Heaven is as near,” He said, “by water as by land!” In the first watch of the night, Without a signal’s sound, Out of the sea, mysteriously, The fleet of Death rose all around. The moon and the evening star Were hanging in the shrouds; Every mast, as it passed, Seemed to rake the passing clouds. They grappled with their prize, At midnight black and cold: As of a rock was the shock; Heavily the ground-swell rolled. Longfellow. SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. THE DEATH OF SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT.