Happy Thanksgiving!

Today marks the 450th anniversary of the first Protestant Thanksgiving worship service on North American territory, at Fort Caroline, Florida (near modern-day Jacksonville), on June 30, 1564, by French Huguenot colonists. 

It was in 1562 that the first French Huguenot expedition, organized by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and led by Jean Ribault, landed on the bluffs of the St. John's River, and staked their claim to the site. The second expedition, led by Ribault's second-in-command, René Goulaine de Laudonnière, returned on June 22, 1564, and by June 29, his men had constructed a fort named in honor of King Charles IX of France. The following day, Laudonnière held a service of thanksgiving in which, he wrote, “On the morrow about the break of day, I commanded a trumpet to be sounded, that being assembled we might give God thankes for our favourable and happie arrivall. Then wee sang a Psalme of thanksgiving unto God, beseeching him that it would please him of his grace to continue his accustomed goodness toward his poore servaunts, and ayde us in all our enterprises that all might turne to his glory and the advancement of our king.”

This Thanksgiving service took place 54 years before the Berkeley Hundred Colony, Virginia Thanksgiving celebration (December 19, 1619) and 56 years before the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving celebration at Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, in the autumn of 1621. Although summer may not seem to us today to be the ideal season for thanksgiving, yet we can take every opportunity to remember with gratitude "the grace of God's accustomed goodness to his poor servants," and today, we might give special thanks to him for the legacy of those brave French Huguenots souls who settled in Florida 450 years ago and staked a claim for the banner of Christ in North America. "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thess. 5.18).

Remarkable Providences

Ever since the Great Deluge of Noah's day, storms and other natural calamities have, in God's providence, altered the course of, or left their mark on, church history. Building on a plan and notes compiled by Matthew Poole, Increase Mather and, later, William Turner, wrote accounts of such "remarkable providences." Here are a few notable examples from the Reformation era that I have compiled in my own studies:

• On May 21, 1382 a synod meeting in London, convened for the purpose of condemning the articles of faith propounded by John Wycliffe, was shook by an earthquake. Ever since, that convocation has been known to history as the "Earthquake Synod."

• On July 2, 1505, young Martin Luther, at the time bound for the study of law, was caught up in a frightening thunderstorm while riding a horse on his way back to the University of Erfurt. When a bolt of lightning struck close by, in great fear, he vowed to become a monk, saying: "Help, Saint Anna, I will become a monk." Fifteen days later, he entered the Augustinian Friary, and began the path that would ultimately lead to the Reformation.

• In the summer of 1565, the French Huguenot colony of Fort Caroline, near what would become Jacksonville, Florida, under the command of René de Laudonnière, had suffered famine and illness before being resupplied, first, by English seadog John Hawkins, and finally, by the great French Huguenot naval commander Jean Ribault. In late August, however, almost at the same time as Ribault's arrival, Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés reached the Florida coast with orders to wipe out the "heretics." After a tentative skirmish, Menéndez sailed south and established a base camp at what would become St. Augustine. Against Laudonnière's advice, Ribault took his fleet of ships and most of the soldiers at Fort Caroline, and pursued Menéndez by sea, threatening in a bold gambit to overwhelm Menéndez's forces at St. Augustine. However, a hurricane struck at that very moment, scattering Ribault's fleet, destroying a number of ships, and leaving hundreds of Frenchman stranded on the shore far south of St. Augustine. Meanwhile, in a bold move of his own, Menéndez led his men on a forced overland march northward to Fort Caroline, calculating that the fort would be weak and unmanned, and vulnerable to a surprise attack during a hurricane. He was right, and he massacred most of the remaining colonists on September 20, hanging them under a tree bearing a sign that said they were executed "not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans and heretics". Most of the stranded Frenchmen on the south shore were also later massacred the following month, which put an end to the French Huguenot dream of building a colony in Florida.

• During the Eighty Years' War, the Spanish laid siege to the Dutch city of Leiden, first in 1573, and then again a year later. The Spanish had defeated the forces of William of Orange were strangling Leiden slowly and successfully. The city fathers decided in September 1574 in act of desperation to break the dikes and flood the Spanish army but due to a lack of rain, there was insufficient water to accomplish their design. Finally, storms came in early October that enabled them to break the dikes and flood the Spanish. On October 3, the Spanish lifted the siege and the city was saved. The starving inhabitants were able to eat a dish of Hotchpotch or Hutspot (carrots and onion stew) left behind in haste by the Spanish. William of Orange established the University of Leiden as a gift to the city for its sacrifices during the siege, and to this day, annually on October 3, celebrations are held by the Dutch in remembrance of the Lord's providential deliverance, which include a dish of Hutspot.

• In August 1588, the 'invincible' Spanish Armada of Philip II threatened to bring the undeclared Anglo-Spanish war to the British seacoast by invading England in retaliation for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, the previous year. The fleet had assembled at Gravelines, France, when it was attacked by English fire ships. With the winds against them, the Spanish ships were forced to sail north, while pursued by the English. The Spanish intended to sail around the British isles, but were pushed off course by the Gulf Stream and unusually powerful storms that devastated the armada. With many of its ships having lost its anchors in the Battle of Gravelines, a number of them were lost at sea or forced to run aground off the coast of Ireland, where Spanish forces were slaughtered by the English or died of starvation. Thousands of men were killed, after the remainder of the armada limped home, Philip is reported to have said, "I sent the Armada against men, not God's winds and waves." The English attributed their great victory to the "Protestant Wind," as described in a seal commemorating the event: "Flavit Jehovah et Dissipati Sunt" ("Jehovah blew with His wind and they were scattered").

• On June 2, 1609, the Sea Venture set sail with six other ships from Plymouth, England, on a mission to resupply the Jamestown, Virginia colony, with colonists and provisions. However, on July 24, the ship ran into a strong storm, possibly a hurricane, separating it from the other ships. After fighting the storm for several days, the Sea Venture ran aground at Bermuda on July 28, 1609, from which the English settlement of this island is dated. All 150 souls on board (and one dog) were saved, but were stranded on the island for nine months. The settlers were forced to salvage the Sea Venture and build two new ships, the Deliverance and Patience, in order to reach their ultimate destination: Jamestown. While on Bermuda, John Rolfe lost his wife and son. Later, he went on to found Virginia's tobacco industry and marry the Indian princess Pocahontas. The arrival of the Sea Venture's settlers helped the Jamestown colony, which was in imminent danger of collapse due to starvation. The story of the shipwreck of the Sea Venture, as recounted by William Strachey, is believed to serve as the origin of William Shakespeare's famous play, The Tempest.

• In August 1635, as Richard Mather and his family were on board the vessel James, along with one hundred others, fleeing persecution in England and aiming to settle in Puritan Massachusetts, they were overtaken by the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635. It is reckoned by historians to have been a Category 4 hurricane when it struck Long Island, New York, and a Category 3 when the storm made landfall along the border of Rhode Island and Connecticut, with the eye of the storm eventually passing between Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts. Many stories are told about this storm, including the tale of how Thacher Island got its name (from the sole survivor, Anthony Thacher, of a small bark, which shipwrecked on that island during the tempest), but the story of the James is perhaps most memorable because of Richard's account, and the fact that his survival led to the founding of the Mather dynasty (Increase was born after his parents' safe arrival in New England). While off the Isles of Shoals, at the border of modern New Hampshire and Maine, the James was buffeted so strongly by what is believed to be the strongest hurricane ever to hit New England, that it was in danger of foundering. The storm was written about by John Winthrop and William Bradford, as well as Richard Mather, who recorded the event in his journal, along with, in later accounts, his future progeny, Increase Mather and Cotton Mather. Richard wrote in his journal for August 15, 1635 (as recorded by Cotton):

"The Lord had not yet done with us, nor had he let us see all his power and goodness, which he would have us take the knowledge of. And therefore about break of day he sent a most terrible storm of rain and easterly wind, whereby we were, I think, in as much danger as ever people were. When we came to land, we found many mighty trees rent in pieces in the midst of the bole, and others turned up by the roots, by fierceness thereof. We lost in that morning three anchors and cables; one having never been in the water before; two were broken by the violence of the storm, and a third cut by the sea-men in extremity of distress, to save the ship and their and our lives. And when our cables and anchors were all lost, we had no outward means of deliverance, but by hoisting sail, if so be we might get to sea, from among the islands and rocks where we were anchored. But the Lord let us see that our sails could not help us neither, no more than the cables and anchors; for by the force of the wind and storm, the sails were rent asunder, and split in pieces, as if they had been but rotten rags; so that of divers of them there was scarce left so much as an hand's-breadth that was not rent in pieces or blown away into the sea; so that at that time all hope that we should be saved, in regard of any outward appearance, was utterly taken away; and the rather, because we seemed to drive with full force of wind directly upon a mighty rock, standing out in sight above water; ao that we did but continually wait, when we should hear and feel the doleful crushing of the ship upon the rock. In this extremity and appearance of death, as distress and distraction would suffer us, we cried unto the Lord, and he was pleased to have compassion upon us; for by his over-ruling providence, and his own immediate good hand, he guided the ship past the rock, asswaged the violence of the sea and of the wind. It was a day much to be remembered, because on that day the Lord granted us as wonderful a deliverance as, I think, ever any people had felt. The sea-men confessed they never knew the like. The Lord so imprint the memory of it in our hearts, that we may be the better for it, and be careful to please him, and to walk uprightly before him as long as we live! and I hope we shall not forget the passages of that morning until our dying day. In all this grievous storm, my fear was the less, when I considered the clearness of my calling from God this way. And in some measure (the Lord's holy name be blessed for it!) he gave us hearts contented and willing that he should do with us and cure what he pleased, and what might be most for the glory of his name; and in that we rested ourselves. But when news was brought us into the gun-room that the danger was past, Oh! how our hearts did then relent and melt within us! We burst out into tears of joy among ourselves, in love unto the gracious God, and admiration of his kindness, in granting to his poor servants such an extraordinary and miraculous deliverance, his holy name be blessed for evermore."

• When Queen Mary of Modena, wife of James II, gave birth in June 1688 to a son, James (who would later be known as 'The Old Pretender'), all of England feared that the royal succession would become a Catholic dynasty, instead of passing the throne to his daughter Mary, wife of William of Orange. It was then that William began to plan, with the aid of a group of prominent Englishmen known as the Immortal Seven, to invade England and depose James II, thus ensuring that England would remain a Protestant nation. His fleet assembled at Hellevoetsluis that autumn but were prevented from crossing over by the 'popish wind' that for which Catholics all over Europe were praying. However, in October, the southwestly popish wind finally became an eastern Protestant Wind, thus enabling William's fleet to sail to England, bearing the standard of William which read "Pro Religione et Libertate" ("For Liberty and [the Protestant] Religion"), while working against James. William and his fleet landed, after another change in the winds favorable to his cause, at Brixham, England, on November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day, referring to another notable providential deliverance in British history), 1688 and marched toward London. James fled England in December, and Parliament declared that he had effectively abdicated the throne, after which William & Mary were crowned joint rulers of England. The English Bill of Rights then ensured that England would remain Protestant from henceforth.

Remember Me, O Lord

The greatest commander in the French navy in the middle of the sixteenth century was the Huguenot, Jean Ribault. He returned to Florida to keep a fledgling Protestant colony alive in August 1565, but as providence would have it, the ruthless Spanish Adelantado Pedro Menéndez arrived at virtually the same time in Florida, founding St. Augustine, and attacking Fort Caroline in the space of mere days that September. Having massacred its inhabitants, a hurricane scattered Ribault's fleet at sea, and the shipwrecked remnants trudged the seashore northward on foot, arriving in separate groups at a place that would become known as "Matanazas" (Spanish for "massacre"). The first contingent of around 150 sailors sought mercy from the Spanish but Menéndez was vague, promising them only whatever mercy God would direct of him. His "mercy" led to the slaughter of most, with only a handful of professed Catholics, artisans and musicians spared. Days later, Ribault and his men arrived at the very same spot. Charles Bennett records what happened next, on October 12, 1565, relying upon the deposition of a Spanish eyewitness for many details of this account, Laudonniere & Fort Caroline: History and Documents, pp. 42-43:

Solis de Meras, a Spanish priest and eyewitness to the scene, described the massacre in the following words:

The Adelantado [Menéndez], taking Jean Ribault behind the sand hills, among the bushes where the others had their hands tied behind them, he said to these and all others as he had done before, that they had four leagues to go after night, and that he could not permit them to go unbound; and after they were all tied, he asked if they were Catholics or Lutherans, or if any of them desired to make confession.

Jean Ribault replied, "that all who were there of the new religion," and he then began to repeat the psalm, "Domine! Memento Mei"; and having finished, he said, "that from dust they came and to dust they must return, and that in twenty years, more or less, he must render his final account; and that the Adelantado might do with them as he chose." The Adelantado then ordered all to be killed, and in the same order and at the same mark, as had been done to the others. He spared only the fifers, drummers and trumpeters, and four others who said that they were Catholics.27

The man who actually killed Ribault first inquired of him whether the French commander did not expect his soldiers to obey orders. Ribault answered, "Yes." Then the Spaniard said, "I propose to obey the orders of my commander also. I am ordered to kill you." The psalm that Ribault recited before the dagger was thrust into his body was the 132nd Psalm which begins, "Lord, remember David"; but Ribault began it, according to an eyewitness, with "Lord, remember me."

According to some early accounts, Ribault's beard and a piece of his skin were sent to Philip II and the Frenchman's head was cut into four parts, which were penetrated by lances and raised at each corner of the Spanish fort at St. Augustine. In reporting to King Philip II, Menéndez stated: "I think it great good fortune that this man be dead, for the King of France could accomplish more with him and fifty thousand ducats than with other men and five hundred thousand ducats; and he could more in one year, than another in ten...."

Francis Parkman adds to the account of Ribault's final moments, including the fact that Ribault recited his psalm after the manner of the Huguenots, in French, rather than Latin, thus, Pioneers of France in the New World, pp. 143-144:

At length the transit was finished. With bloodshot eyes and weapons bared, the Spaniards closed around their victims.

"Are you Catholics or Lutherans? and is there any one among you who will go to confession?"

Ribault answered, "I and all here are of the Reformed Faith."

And he recited the Psalm, "Domine, memento mei."1

"We are of the earth," he continued, "and to earth we must return; twenty years more or less can matter little;"2 and, turning to the Adelantado, he bade him do his will.

The stony-hearted bigot gave the signal; and those who will may paint to themselves the horrors of the scene.

1 "L'auteur a voulu dire apparemment, Memento Domine David, D'ailleurs Ribaut la recita sans doute en Francais, a la maniere des Protestas." -- Hist. Gen. des Voyages, XIV, 446.

2 "Dijo; que de Tierra eran, y que en Tierra se avian de bolver; e veinte Anos mas, o menos, todo era una Cuenta." Solis, 89.

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.

First Protestant Colony in America

It wasn't Jamestown, Virginia or Plymouth, Massachusetts. While the first Protestant colony in the Western Hemisphere was the 1555-1567 French Huguenot settlement at France Antarctique at what is now modern-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the first Protestant colony in North America was another (1562-1563) French Huguenot settlement, Charlesfort, located on Parris Island, South Carolina.

The first European flag to fly over South Carolina shores was the French flag of Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who landed at Cape Fear, North Carolina, in 1524, and sailed south before turning north again towards New York and Newfoundland. South Carolina was visited by Spanish explorers Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526 and Hernando de Soto in 1540.

But it was not until 1562 that French Huguenot explorer Jean Ribault, sent by Gaspard de Coligny (who organized the France Antarctque expedition), arrived first near Jacksonville, Florida, and then sailed north to discover christen Port Royal Sound, established the first Protestant colony in America on what is now Parris Island. He not only named the colony after his king, Charles IX of France, but also the territory (the Carolinas take their name from Charles IX of France as well as Charles I and Charles II of England). He left 30 men there before returning to France. After troubles with Indians and starvation, the surviving colonists abandoned the settlement in 1563 and sailed home, finally being rescued off the coast of England, surviving after a notable case of cannibalism. Spanish explorer Hernando Manrique de Rojas arrived at the site in the spring of 1564 and supposedly wiped out any trace of the French settlement. Ribault, meanwhile, had been imprisoned in England, and was unable to attempt a resupply of Charlesfort, but his lieutenant, René Goulaine de Laudonnière, lead a new expedition at nearly the same time that de Rojas was returning to Cuba, that settled Fort Caroline, near Jacksonville, whereupon he learned about the events at Charlesfort.

Fort Caroline was destroyed by the Spanish in 1565, led by Adelantado Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, founder of St. Augustine, Florida. Menéndez then established a new colony at the site of Charlesfort, which he called Santa Elena. From this fort, the settlements in North Carolina (Fort San Juan, near Morganton, NC, 1566-1568, which preceded the Roanoke Island settlements of Sir Richard Grenville and Sir Walter Raleigh by several years) and Virginia (the Jesuit Ajacán Mission thought to be located near the York River, 1570-1572) were established. Indians destroyed Santa Elena in 1576. A French ship, Le Prince, sank at near Charlesfort/Santa Elena in 1577, and later that year, the Spanish returned to occupy the site again until 1587, at which time it was completely abandoned, although French Huguenots returned to nearby Beaufort, South Carolina in the 17th century.

In the 1990s, French artifacts found on Parris Island confirmed the location of Charlesfort. Scientists continue to learn more about the first Protestant colony in America, an important chapter in our history of which much more needs to be told.