The Spanish accounts, though agreeing as regards the facts with those of their enemies, take a very different theoretical view. In them, Aviles is a model of Christian virtue and valor, somewhat stern now and then, it is true, but not more so than the Church permitted against such stiff necked heretics. The massacre of the Huguenots is excused with cogent reasoning; indeed, what need of any excuse for exterminating this nest of pestilent unbelievers? Could they be ignorant that they were breaking the laws of nations by settling on Spanish soil? The Council of the Indies argue the point and prove the infringement in a still extant document.[37] Did they imagine His Most Catholic Majesty would pass lightly by this taunt cast in the teeth of the devoutest nation of the world? The best known witness on their side is Don Solis de Meras. His _Memorial de todas las Jornadas y Sucesos del Adelantado Pedro Menendez de Aviles_, has never been published separately, but all the pertinent portions are given by Barcia in the _Ensayo Cronologico para la Historia de la Florida_, with a scrupulous fidelity (sin abreviar su contexto, ni mudar su estilo). It was apparently written for Aviles, from the archives of whose family it was obtained by Barcia. It is an interesting and important document, the work of a man not unaccustomed to using the pen. Better than it, however, and entering more fully into the spirit of the undertaking, is the memoir of Lopez de Mendoza Grajales,[38] chaplain to the expedition, and a most zealous hater of heretics. He does not aim at elegance of style, for he is diffuse and obscure, nor yet at a careful historical statement, for he esteems lightly common facts, but he does strive to show how the special Providence of God watched over the enterprise, how divers wondrous miracles were at once proof and aid of the pious work, and how in sundry times and places God manifestly furthered the holy work of bloodshed. A useful portion of his memoir is that in which he describes the founding of St. Augustine, entering into the movements of the Spaniards with more detail than does the last-mentioned writer. When the massacre of the 19th September, 1565, became known in Europe, “the French were wondrously exasperated at such cowardly treachery, such detestable cruelty.”[39] Still more bitterly were they aroused when they learned the inexcusable butchery of Ribaut and his men. These had been wrecked on the Floridian shore, and with difficulty escaped the waves only to fall into the hands of more fell destroyers on land. When this was heard at their homes, their “widows, little orphan children, and their friends, relatives and connections,” drew up and presented to Charles IXL., a petition,[40] generally known as the _Epistola_ _Supplicatoria_, setting forth the facts of the case and demanding redress.