The French then endeavored to make some terms for a surrender, with the privilege of ransom. There being many members of noble and wealthy families among them, as much as fifty thousand ducats was offered for a pledge of safety. Menendez would make no pledge, simply sending word that if they desired they could surrender their arms and yield themselves to his mercy, “in order that he might do unto them what should be dictated to him by the grace of God.” The French seem to have had an instinctive feeling that it would fare hard with them should they yield themselves to the Spaniards; yet they were so wholly demoralized and disheartened by the misfortune that had befallen them, that after much delay and parley they finally sent word to Menendez that they were willing to yield themselves to be dealt with as he willed. The French were therefore transported across the sound in parties of ten at a time. As each boat-load was landed, Menendez directed that the prisoners be led behind “the scrub,” and their hands pinioned behind their backs. This course he declared to them to be necessary, as he had but a small number of men in his command, and if left free it would be an easy matter for the French to turn upon him and revenge themselves for the destruction of their fort and Laudonnère’s command. In this manner was secured the whole body of the French who had collected on the southern shore of Matanzas Inlet, to the number of two hundred and eight men. Of this number eight in response to an inquiry declared themselves to be Catholics, and were sent to St. Augustine in the boat. The remainder were ordered to march with the Spanish soldiers on their path back to the settlement. Menendez had sent on in advance an officer and a file of soldiers with orders to wait at a designated spot on the road, and as the parties of Frenchmen came up, to take them aside into the woods and put them to death. In this manner the whole party were killed, and their bodies left on the sands to feed the buzzards. Menendez had hardly returned to St. Augustine before he learned that there was a larger body of Frenchmen assembled at the spot where he had found the first party, who were constructing a raft on which to cross the inlet. Hurrying back with his troops he sent across a boat with a message to the commander, whom he rightly conjectured was Ribault himself, that he had destroyed the fort on the St. Johns, and a body of those who were shipwrecked, and promising him a safe conduct if he wished to cross over and satisfy himself as to the truth of this report. Ribault availed himself of this offer, and was shown the dead bodies of his men who had been so cruelly murdered. He was allowed to converse with one of the prisoners who had been brought in the company of the Spaniards. This man was one of the eight who were Catholics and were spared from the former company.