Early Settlement: Charlesfort and Fort Caroline

France's first efforts at planting settlements and outposts in North America were colossal failures.  Because Natives may have played a part in the eventual demise of these two colonies, we'll consider them here.

In the later half of the 16th century, France was entangled in a bitter series of religious wars between the predominantly Catholic population and French Protestants known as Huguenots.  With conditions becoming more desperate for Protestants, prominent Huguenots began to look toward North America as a possible refuge.  Among these was Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, who had access to the ships and supplies any would-be colony would need in order to thrive.  De Coligny chose another prominent Huguenot and experienced navigator, Jean Ribault, to head the colony.  In February, 1562, Ribault arrived off the coast of what is Florida near the mouth of the St. John's River and encountered the Timucuans, who at the time were friendly enough that he got to know one of their leaders, Saturiwa, and returned with drawings and written accounts of these Natives as some of their customs, including the use of Black Drink.

Ribault decided not to construct his colony there, sailed on up the coast and chose a site on today's Parris Island off what is now South Carolina to build Charlesfort, named after Charles IX of France.  Ribault then returned to France to gather more supplies and colonists.  Back at Charlesfort, everything that could go wrong, did.  The remaining supplies were destroyed in a suspicious fire.  Captain Albert de la Pierria was a strict disciplinarian and very soon his men were in a state of mutiny and fighting amongst one another.  Neither were the local Natives inclined to be helpful in providing food or guides.  They were already well acquainted with the dangers associated with being to friendly to Europeans, including death, diseases, or being sold or used as slaves.  Pierria's men had no choice but to try to sail back to France, with no compass, and little in the way of rations or water.  On the way across the Atlantic, all but one of the men died and the survivor resorted to cannibalism to survive.  A Spanish patrol under Hernando de Manrigue de Rojas happened to make landfall at Parris Island, destroyed Charlesfort, captured a single Frenchman who had defected to the Natives, and founded Fort St. Elena on the site. 

Not to be outdone, de Coligny and Ribault tried again.  Ribault became ill during the windup to the journey and his second in command, Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere led a group of 200 settlers back to the original Florida site, where they constructed Fort Caroline in June 1564.  Caroline was a feminine version of Carolus, Latin for Charles.  Meanwhile, just up the coast, the Spanish were in process of building St. Augustine, and considered this upstart French colony to be trespassing while Protestant, a double sin in their eyes.  English explorer John Hawkins arrived at Fort Caroline in 1565 and found that the settlers had picked up from the Natives the habit of smoking tobacco.  Hawkins took some for himself and introduced it to England, though the craze wouldn't catch on there until a few decades later.   After Hawkins left the usual troubles set in, lack of provisions, mutiny, and quickly souring relations with the Timucuans after foodstuffs were demanded from them. 

Ribault, who had been captured while trying to lead a relief force back to the colony and held prisoner in England for several months, was released and returned to the colony with a larger force or men and more provisions, also arriving in 1565.  Meanwhile, the Spanish colony had acquired a new governor, Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, also with a force of men and explicit orders from his king, Phillip II, who did not like France or Protestants, to remove the French colony.  Ribault confronted Menendez on the open sea where a violent storm, possibly a hurricane, scattered his ships, giving Menendez enough time to attack Fort Caroline.  There were 250 settlers at the fort, including women and children.  The Spanish spared the lives of the women and children, who were taken as slaves.  The men were massacred after being given the chance to convert and refusing.  Laudonniere and a handful of men escaped, taking shelter with the Timucuans and later escaped on a ship left by Hawkins. 

Menendez then returned his attention to what remained of Ribault's fleet, badly battered by the storm, calling on them to surrender.  Ribault somehow believed the Spaniards would give his men the honors of war and not kill them, but he was mistaken.  He and all his men were given the choice to either convert or die, which they refused, and were then killed.  The Spanish destroyed Fort Caroline and built Fort Matanzas instead.  In April 1568, Dominique de Guoges led a relief party looking for Fort Caroline.  He attacked Fort Matanzas and killed its Spanish defenders in retaliation for the loss of Fort Caroline, but then decided to return to France without attempting to resettle the area. 

Today, the National Park Service maintains a model of what Fort Caroline would have looked like near the site where the original was believed to have been, though alternate locations have been proposed.