The colonists seem to have expected to live on the provisions left within the fort until the return of the fleet from France. When the weeks passed by and their supplies began to be exhausted, with no sign of relief from France, the colonists began to be disobedient, quarrelsome, and unmanageable. In the company was one Laclerc, a licentious demagogue. This Laclerc, being opposed by Albert in his attempt to reduce certain of the Indians to slavery, raised a mutiny, in which the captain lost his life. After the death of Albert, the Indians refused to supply the colony with provisions, and their situation became so serious that they resolved to desert the country, and if possible return to France. Choosing one of their number as captain, they set to work to build a small ship and collect a store of provisions. Having succeeded in constructing a small vessel, calked with moss and rigged with cordage made from fibrous plants, they set the sails made from their garments, and embarked to cross the wide ocean in a craft that had neither the capacity nor equipment for a coasting voyage. Soon after putting to sea they became becalmed, and continued so for twenty days, by which time they had been reduced to a starving condition. So great was their necessity that they were about to cast lots for a victim, whose flesh should support life in the rest, when Laclerc the mutineer, offered himself as the victim. So desperate was their strait that his offer was accepted and his flesh distributed among the company. Life being sustained, they were soon after relieved from the repetition of such a shocking tragedy, being picked up by a passing vessel and taken to England. Having been brought before Queen Elizabeth, they gave such an account of Florida as to excite in her a great interest in the country. CHAPTER VI. SECOND HUGUENOT SETTLEMENT UNDER LAUDONNÈRE. Coligni and the Protestants had not forgotten the forsaken colony, nor relinquished their intention of providing a refuge in America. After two years Coligni succeeded in obtaining authority to send three ships to the succor of the colony in Florida. A company equal to the capacity of the ships quickly volunteered for the enterprise, of whom a large number belonged to families of good blood. Having been well equipped with arms, provisions, tools, and seeds for agriculture, the fleet sailed under the command of Captain Renè Laudonnère, who had accompanied Ribault on the former expedition.