Fort de la Caroline

St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest continuously inhabited European city in North America. This Spanish town was founded by Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles in August of 1565. St Augustine is more than 40 years older than the English colonies of Jamestown, Virginia (1607), Bermuda (1608) and Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620).

But Spain was not the first European power to attempt colonization in North America. A French expedition of a few ships was organized by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and led by navigator Jean Ribault. This little fleet landed on the Florida coast in February, 1562. They erected a monument, claimed the territory for their king and sailed on to present-day Parris Island, South Carolina. Here, Ribault erected a second monument establishing a northern border of a territory they named New France. Ribault’s men built a fort called Charlesfort, named for their king, Charles IX. Leaving twenty-eight men to defend the fort, Ribault and the remainder of his crew returned to Europe for additional supplies and settlers. However, Ribault was arrested and imprisoned in England where he languished for a year. As the months went by, the French manning Charlesfort grew desperate. Their supplies were dwindling, forcing the French to rely on trade with the natives to obtain food. The natives did not grow large surpluses of food and grew angry when the hungry Frenchmen demanded the very food from their mouths. After a year of no relief ships, the desperate men of Charlesfort decided to sail back to Europe. They built an open boat and shoved off. During their voyage, starvation and thirst reduced them to cannibalism before the survivors were rescued in English waters. Meanwhile, René Goulaine de Laudonnière, Ribault's second-in-command on the 1562 expedition, commanded a fleet of ships carrying 200 new settlers back to Florida. Construction of a new settlement, Fort de la Caroline, atop St. Johns Bluff, on the St John's river was begun on June 22, 1564. For a year, the men and women of this new colony suffered from hunger, Indian attacks, and mutiny. The colonist did not clear land to plant crops. They were promised that France would provide all the craftsmen, tools, food, livestock, arms and munitions the colony needed. The colonists only task was to search for sources of gold, silver and precious stones. These treasures must exist in Florida in great abundance as they did in the Spanish colonies of Peru and Mexico! Well, they did not! Unfortunately, while the French settlers were searching for Florida gold, the Spanish court learned of Fort de la Caroline. Spain would not tolerate a foreign colony lying so close to the route of their annual Spanish treasure fleet. The Spanish sent a fleet of ships to destroy Fort de la Caroline and execute most of its' inhabitants. Once this was accomplished, the Spanish founded a town nearby and named it St Augustine!

The Voyageur

Animal furs were a valuable product of North America in the 17th century. The economy of New France (Quebec Province, Canada today) depended on the yearly collection and export of furs to France. You’d think the furs would be valued as a source of leather or a luxury item when fashioned into beautiful fur coats, stoles and gloves. Instead, it was the undercoat of the Beaver hair that was most prized as it was removed and processed into very fine, waterproof felt. This felt was fashioned into waterproof hats that were a stylish and very expensive accessory for well-dressed European gentlemen and ladys.

In North America, crews of French, French-Canadians and American Indians paddled 30’ birch-bark canoes, filled with up to three tons of supplies, into the back country. Thier job was to restock a chain of fortified trading posts the French had built throughout the Great Lakes and along major rivers. These posts secured the French fur-trade region.

The canoe men were called “voyageurs”, which means “travelers”. Their strength and endurance is legendary. They worked up to 14 hours a day, paddling 55 strokes per minute as they sang lively songs. Some days they could move their canoes up to 100 miles. When they could go no further by water, they portaged (carried) their canoes and supplies over dry land that separated the lakes and rivers they traveled. Few voyagers could swim. Many drowned in wild, white-water rapids or in sudden violent rain squalls as they were crossing the Great Lakes. It has been said that their huge Birch Bark canoes were so fragile that one large wave would snap them in half. Hence, if the weather was threatening, the voyageurs would wait ashore.

A bundle of furs weighed about 90 lbs. Bundles of trade goods were packed to weigh the same. A routine portage meant each voyageur must carry 2 bundles (180 pounds) at a time, across rugged, sometimes muddy trails. Every ½ mile or so the men set down their bundles and ran back for 2 more.

There were two categories of voyageurs: the pork eaters (mangeurs de lard)) and the winterers (hivernants).The men who paddled from Montreal to the rendezvous at Grand Portage and returned to civilization lived on a diet of salt pork. . . so were called pork eaters. Some men transported merchandise deeper into the wilderness, remained at a winter outpost and lived “off the land”. These men were called “winterers”. Winterers traded for furs in native villages and in the spring transported the furs to a rendezvous post.The furs were transported from these rendezvous posts to Montreal and Quebec where they were shipped to France