Influence of France on Florida
By Jerry Wilkinson
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       After the many attempts to settle Florida by the Spanish, it was beginning to seem like a hopeless goal. Almost as on cue after Tristan de Luna's failure in 1559, France had three ships en route to Florida by February 1562. Although France never owned Florida, she did have some effect on south Florida and the Keys. Some of the escaped Huguenots were captured in the vicinity of the Keys. A concurrent event in time is that William Shakespeare was born two years later on April 23, 1564.
       French Huguenot Admiral Gaspard de Coligny sent Admiral Jean Ribault to North America. He landed at the mouth of a river they named "Mai" (the St. Johns River of Jacksonville) because they landed in the month of May. Ribault's arrival also provided the first Protestant prayer offered up on North America. The Indians were friendly to Ribault. He then sailed north and established a small settlement near present-day Port Royal, South Carolina and returned to France. At this time, all of the southeastern United States was called Florida.
       In 1564 one of Ribault's officers, Rene Laudonniere, was sent back from France with 300 men and four women. They built Fort Caroline six miles up the St. Johns River. Again, the Indians welcomed the returning Frenchmen who survived with the help of Timucuan Indian's grain, fruit and wild game. With this apparent success, Laudonniere called for music and a feast to celebrate their good fortune on June 30, 1564. Of this celebration he wrote: "We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching Him that it would please His Grace to continue His accustomed goodness toward us." This was 57 years before the better known Thanksgiving celebration at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Laudonniere retrieved two Spanish sailors thought to have been ship wrecked with Fontaneda from the Indians in 1564.
       The following year, French Admiral Ribault sailed again with seven more ships to reinforce the French colony. Meanwhile back in Catholic Spain, the news of the French Huguenots (Protestant Lutherans) establishing a colony in Spanish Florida was not received well. Spanish King Philip II reversed his position on not settling Florida and Pedro Menendez de Aviles was sent to the same area to destroy the "heretical" Frenchmen.
        After the many attempts to settle Florida by the Spanish, it was beginning to seem like a hopeless goal. Almost as on cue after Tristan de Luna's failure in 1559, France had three ships en route to Florida by February 1562. It had little effect on south Florida and the Keys. Some of the escaped Huguenots were captured in the vicinity of the Keys. A concurrent event in time is that William Shakespeare was born two years later on April 23, 1564.
       In 1564 one of Ribault's officers, Rene Laudonniere, was sent back from France with 300 men and four women. They built Fort Caroline six miles up the St. Johns River. Again, the Indians welcomed the returning Frenchmen who survived with the help of Timucuan Indian's grain, fruit and wild game. With this apparent success, Laudonniere called for music and a feast to celebrate their good fortune on June 30, 1564. Of this celebration he wrote: "We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching Him that it would please His Grace to continue His accustomed goodness toward us." This was 57 years before the better known Thanksgiving celebration at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Laudonniere retrieved two Spanish sailors thought to have been ship wrecked with Fontaneda from the Indians in 1564.
       The following year, French Admiral Ribault sailed again with seven more ships to reinforce the French colony. Meanwhile back in Catholic Spain, the news of the French Huguenots (Protestant Lutherans) establishing a colony in Spanish Florida was not received well. Spanish King Philip II reversed his position on not settling Florida and Pedro Menendez de Aviles was sent to the same area to destroy the "heretical" Frenchmen.
        Menendez arrived shortly after the French ships of Ribault with Spain's largest force yet, 1,504 men in 19 ships. The French were not expecting a naval battle, so Menendez chose to challenge the French immediately. Not prepared to do battle, French Admiral Ribault immediately got under sail, but a storm wrecked his fleet at sea. Spanish Menendez then chose not to attack, sailed south to St. Augustine, then marched back over land to capture the French Fort Caroline completely by surprise. He renamed it San Mateo, which is now Jacksonville. Menendez got word of the wrecked French ships and slaughtered the two groups of the helpless Frenchmen stranded along the Florida coasts. The location was named Matanzas for the slaughter of the Frenchmen. This slaughter of Frenchmen could have mistakenly gave the name Matanza (slaughter) to early Indian Key. 
       The French were outraged over this slaughter by the Spanish. Seven months later in 1567, French Dominque de Gorgues retaliated. He hanged all the Spanish in San Mateo, and renamed it Fort Caroline. Menendez, who was away exploring and expanding St. Augustine, escaped. Menendez was the rescuer of the 30-year old Fontaneda. The bloody rivalry between the French and Spanish forces lasted for three years in northeast Florida.
        In 1586, the English made their first move on Florida when, by pillage and fire, the aforementioned Sir Francis Drake destroyed St. Augustine; however, it was sometime later that the English took any major interest in Florida. Please remember, all this happened before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620. The history of Florida started very early, but developed very slowly.
       The French-Spanish-English fight over the possession of Florida continued, but the Indians lost every time. Diseases from all parts of Europe were quickly taking their toll on the native population. The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620 and settlements north of Florida were started.
       This ushered in the thirteen English colonies with Georgia as the last. By 1660, the population of the north was 80,000. By 1700, it was 250,000. 
       The French shifted their attention to present-day Louisiana, where D'Iberville and De Bienville established French settlements. The Spanish, in an attempt to stabilize this intrusion by the French, established a settlement in Pensacola in 1698. In one sense, they re-established it, as Tristan de Luna had already done so in 1559.
       At the beginning of the 1700s there were two significant settlements in Florida, Pensacola and St. Augustine, and they were both Spanish. The 13 English Colonies to the north had about 250,000 people. Some of the Creek Indian Nation migrated down into north Florida due to westward expansion by the English settlers. These Creeks became known as Seminoles. They soon spread as far south as Key West. In the Bahamas, wrecking had gone from privateering to pirating. Cuba's population had grown to 50,000 and its economy suffered by Spain's many wars. Nothing much was going on down in the Keys except shipwrecks, many of which still lay along the reefs. No doubt, there was somewhat of a fishing and lumbering industry. Key West was a natural deep-water seaport for foreign ships to anchor and avoid Havana. Fresh water could be obtained by digging a seepage hole in the ground.  However, no permanent community is known to have been established.
       New Orleans was founded in 1718 and in September 1719, the French fleet arrived at Mobile, Alabama. De Bienville seized the opportunity to capture Pensacola from the Spanish. Pensacola was destroyed and the Spanish captives were sent to Havana, where they were traded for French captives. The Spanish negotiated a treaty for the return of Pensacola to Spain on March 27, 1721. Florida as a colony was never owned by the French, as it was later by the English; however France, who had excellent relations with the Indians, did not lack the will to own it. 
       During this period, a French priest who was shipwrecked in the Keys gave his account at the hands of the Keys' Indians. Traveling from Mississippi, the French ship Adour ran aground some where in the Keys. The priest, Pierre de Charlevoix, and survivors while rowing ashore were met by friendly Indians. The cacique used a Spanish name, Don Antonio and offered to help guide the Frenchmen to St. Augustine. Reconsidering his offer, Don Antonio waited for his "King", a Don Diego, who did not wish to become involved with the Frenchmen. The ship was refloated and the Frenchmen were permitted to sail away on their own.
       As a result of the Seven Years War in Europe, and the French and Indian War in America, the Treaty of Paris of 1763 ceded France's Louisiana to Spain, France's Canada to England and Spain's Florida to England. We bid adieu to the French in Florida and hello to the English. The French never made any impact in the Keys unless the names Tavernier and Indian Key are also considered and this appears to be in name only.
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