A Fifer's Tune

On July 10, 1584, William of Orange was gunned down by Balthasar Gérard, at the Prinsenhof, in what was perhaps the first assassination in history to be committed by firearm. As the great Dutch statesman collapsed, his last words were reportedly, "Mon Dieu, ayez pitié de mon âme; mon Dieu, ayez pitié de ce pauvre peuple" ("My God, have have pity on my soul; my God, have pity on this poor people").

Already a hero to his people for leading them in the great war of independence against Spanish tyranny, a song was composed in his honor as early as 1581, based on an earlier French tune made popular during the 1568 seige of Chartres which was first called "Oh la folle enterprise du Prince de Condé" or "Autre chanson de la ville de Chartres assiégée par le prince de Condé." Wilhelmus van Nassouwe or Het Wilhelmus is said to be the world's oldest national anthem and its words reflect the values of the man and his country.

Alas! my flock. To sever
Is hard on us. Farewell.
Your Shepherd wakes, wherever
Dispersed you may dwell,
Pray God that He may ease you.
His Gospel be your cure.
Walk in the steps of Jesus
This life will not endure.

Unto the Lord His power
I do confession make
That ne'er at any hour
Ill of the King I spake.
But unto God, the greatest
Of Majesties I owe
Obedience first and latest,
For Justice wills it so.

There is a story told about one particular time Het Wilhelmus was played on the other side of the world two years after William's death. Following the August 1585 Treaty of Nonsuch, whereby England officially entered the Eighty Years' War on the side of the Dutch, Sir Francis Drake, having already circumnavigated the earth several years ago, commenced the Anglo-Spanish War by leading the English attack on the Spanish colonial cities of Santo Domingo (in what is now the Dominican Republic) and Cartagena (in what is now Columbia), sacking both before turning northward. After spying a crude fort on the Florida coast (Anatasia Island) in June 1586, Drake and his men decided to investigate. In the course of their reconnaissance, some of his scouts saw a man rowing across the river and heard him playing a certain tune on a fife. It was a tune they recognized and which identified the rower as not a Spaniard but a Protestant. Nicholas Borgoignon, a French fifer and survivor of the Fort Caroline settlement, who had been first imprisoned by the Spanish at St. Augustine some 21 years before in 1565, rowed out to greet the English forces with the news that the Spanish had abandoned their fort, San Juan de Pinos. With the intelligence from Borgoignon, Drake's forces located and marched on the town of St. Augustine, sacked it, burned the fort, and captured a huge treasure chest among other Spanish possessions. It was the Prince of Orange's Song, Het Wilhelmus, that helped to deliver a French Huguenot prisoner and seal the fate of St. Augustine.

Florida's French Huguenots

French Huguenots, not unlike the Jews of the Diaspora, have left their religious, cultural and historical footprint around the world. In La Florida, two separate French Huguenot colonies were established almost exactly 200 years apart, one before the French Huguenot Diaspora (which commenced in 1685, following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes), and one after.

In April 1562, Jean Ribault, under orders by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, first landed on Florida's east coast and soon, after friendly interaction with the native Timucua Indians, claimed territory for the French King, by leaving a statue near what would become Jacksonville, Florida. He sailed north through Georgia waters to establish the first Protestant colony in the United States at Port Royal, South Carolina, before returning to France. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, however, before he reached home. Thus, when Admiral Coligny was ready to send more ships to La Florida, it was Ribault's second-in-command, Lieutenant René Goulaine de Laudonnière, who led the 1564 expedition. Laudonnière established Fort Caroline where Ribault's first statue was built. The first Protestant thanksgiving service in America was held here on June 30, 1564. Laudonnière wrote of the occasion: "We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching Him that it would please His Grace to continue His accustomed goodness toward us."

The full story of this colony, although it only lasted for less than two years, is too long to tell in this brief blog post. It ended effectively when the Spanish founded St. Augustine and massacred the French at Fort Caroline and also, soon after, on the shores of Matanzas. The U.S. National Park Service has established national parks to commemorate both sites, the only U.S. National Parks dedicated to the remembrance of French Huguenot colonists and martyrs.

In 1765, French Huguenot refugees in England petitioned authorities for land in west Florida in which to grow grapes and silkworms (each employed in two industries for which French Huguenots were especially known). Their plans were aided by Monfort Browne, who later became governor of West Florida and served as a high-ranking British officer in the American War of Independence a decade later. A group of around 48 colonists, including Rev. Peter Levrier who served them as pastor and schoolmaster, arrived at Pensacola in January 1766 and soon after established Campbell Town. By 1770, the colony had fizzled out because the land they settled was not fertile, and malaria or yellow fever had likely taken its toll.

Fort Caroline and Campbell Town represent two important, though short-lived, efforts by French Huguenots to settle Florida. Both ended in sadness and disappointment. Therefore, it is not surprising to read the words of a carpenter, Nicolas Le Challeux, who accompanied Jean Ribault on a 1565 expedition and survived the Fort Caroline massacre, returning to France after a brutal voyage home, in a poem he wrote which was first translated into English by Charles E. Bennett (who was the primary influence in the creation of the Fort Caroline National Memorial), Laudonnière & Fort Caroline: History and Documents, p. 164:

OCTET

(By the author when he arrived famished in his home in the town of Dieppe)

Who wants to go to Florida?
Let him go where I have been,
Returning gaunt and empty,
Collapsing from weakness,
The only benefit I have brought back,
Is one good white stick in my hand,
But I am safe and sound, not disheartened,
Let's eat: I'm starving.