18. The French in Carolina, 1562.--The French next explored the shores of the Carolinas. Ribault (Re'-bo') was the name of their commander. Sailing southward from Carolina, he discovered a beautiful river and called it the River of May. But we know it by its Spanish name of St. Johns. He left a few men on the Carolina coast and returned to France. A year or more these men remained. Then wearying of their life in the wilderness, they built a crazy boat with sails of shirts and sheets and steered for France. Soon their water gave out and then their food. Finally, almost dead, they were rescued by an English ship. [Sidenote: French colonists in Florida.] 19. The French in Florida, 1564-65.--While these Frenchmen were slowly drifting across the Atlantic, a great French expedition was sailing to Carolina. Finding Ribault's men gone, the new colony was planted on the banks of the River of May. Soon the settlers ate up all the food they had brought with them. Then they bought food from the Indians, giving them toys and old clothes in exchange. Some of the colonists rebelled. They seized a vessel and sailed away to plunder the Spaniards in the West Indies. They told the Spaniards of the colony on the River of May, and the Spaniards resolved to destroy it. [Sidenote: Spaniards and Frenchmen.] [Sidenote: End of the French settlement, 1565. _Explorers_, 159-166.] 20. The Spaniards in Florida, 1565.--For this purpose the Spaniards sent out an expedition under Menendez (Ma-nen'-deth). He sailed to the River of May and found Ribault there with a French fleet. So he turned southward, and going ashore founded St. Augustine. Ribault followed, but a terrible storm drove his whole fleet ashore south of St. Augustine. Menendez then marched over land to the French colony. He surprised the colonists and killed nearly all of them. Then going back to St. Augustine, he found Ribault and his shipwrecked sailors and killed nearly all of them. In this way ended the French attempts to found a colony in Carolina and Florida. But St. Augustine remained, and is to-day the oldest town on the mainland of the United States. CHAPTER 3 PIONEERS OF ENGLAND [Sidenote: Hawkins's voyages, 1562-67.] 21. Sir John Hawkins.--For many years after Cabot's voyage Englishmen were too busy at home to pay much attention to distant expeditions. But in Queen Elizabeth's time English seamen began to sail to America. The first of them to win a place in history was John Hawkins. He carried cargoes of negro slaves from Africa to the West Indies and sold them to the Spanish planters. On his third voyage he was basely attacked by the Spaniards and lost four of his five ships. Returning home, he became one of the leading men of Elizabeth's little navy and fought most gallantly for his country. [Illustration: SIR FRANCIS DRAKE.] [Sidenote: Drake on the California coast, 1577-78. _Source-Book_, 9.]