Doubtless the last was the conclusive suggestion. The views of Laudonniere were promptly agreed to by his followers; and, sailing back to the river of May, they reached it at daybreak on the 29th June. "Having cast anchor, I embarked all my stuffe and the souldiers of my company, (in the pinnace we may suppose,) to sayle right towards the opening of the river: wherein we entered a good way up, and found a creeke of a reasonable bignisse which invited us to refresh ourselves a little, while wee reposed ourselves there. Afterward, wee went on shore to seeke out a place, plaine, without trees, which wee perceived from the creeke." But this spot, upon examination, does not prove commodious, and it was determined to return to a point they had before discovered when sailing up the river. "This place is joyning to a mountaine (hill), and it seemed unto us more fit and commodious to build a fortresse;..... therefore we took our way towards the forests..... Afterwards, we found a large plaine, covered with high pine trees, distant a little from the other; under which we perceived an infinite number of stagges, which brayed amidst the plaine, athwart the which we passed: then we discovered a little hill adjoyning unto a great vale, very greene and in forme flat: wherein were the fairest meadows of the worlde, and grasse to feede cattel. Moreover, it is environed with a great number of brookes of fresh water, and high woodes which make the vale most delectable to the eye." Laudonniere names this pleasant region after himself, the "_vale of Laudonniere_." They pass through it, and, at length, after temporary exhaustion from fatigue and heat, they recover their spirits, and, penetrating a high wood, reach the brink of the river, and the spot which they have chosen for the settlement. We have preferred, at the risk of being tedious, to quote these details, in order that the modern antiquarian may, if he pleases, seek for the traces of this ancient settlement. The foundation was not laid without due solemnity. Laudonniere remembers that his people are Christians; and, at the break of day, on the 30th June, 1564, the trumpets were sounded, and our Huguenots were called to prayer. The banks of the May, otherwise the St. Johns,[19] then echoed, for the first time, with a hymn of lofty cheer from European voices. [19] "The evidence," says Johnson, however, in an appendix to his life of Greene, "is in favor of the St. Mary's, and would point to the first bluff on the south side of that river." But this is certainly a mistake. The general conviction now is, that our St. John's was the May River of the French.