Discovery, settlement, mutiny, desertion and cannibalism – Huguenot-Walloon Commemorative Silver Half Dollar Coin

Today, the Huguenot-Walloon Commemorative Silver Half Dollar Coin remembers the first attempt to found a Protestant colony on the Atlantic coast of the new world.

On May 27, 1562, the first group of Huguenots arrived at Port Royal, South Carolina.

From The South in the Building of the Nation: History of the States by James Curtis Ballagh and Walter Lynwood Fleming, published in 1909:

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Settlement at Fort Royal by the French.

Because of the discoveries made by Verrazano, France laid claim to a large part of the continent of North America.

From King Charles IX, of France, therefore, Admiral Coligny, a leader of the Huguenot party, obtained permission to establish in America a colony of French Protestants.

Two of the King’s ships, filled with veterans and with French gentlemen, set sail in February, 1562, under command of an old Huguenot sea-captain, Jean Ribault.

After crossing the Atlantic, Ribault landed on the shore of a river which he named the May River, because he discovered it on the first day of the month of May. This stream is now known as St. John’s River, in Florida.

From the mouth of the St. John’s, Ribault sailed northward along the Atlantic coast. After a voyage of several days his two vessels entered the mouth of a wide bay on the coast of the present state of South Carolina, and there he cast anchor in a depth of sixty feet of water.

On account of its size and the beauty of the scenery around its shores, the sailors named this bay Port Royal, or royal harbor, and by this name it is called to this day.

When Ribault and his men landed on the banks of the harbor they found a region filled with stately cedars, magnolias and wide-spreading oaks.

The air, moreover, was sweet with the fragrance of the rose and the jasmine.

As the men walked through the forest, wild turkeys in large numbers flew above their heads; partridges and stags were seen on every hand, and the sailors imagined that they heard the cries of bears and leopards and other beasts of prey.

When they cast a net into the waters of the bay they found so many fish that two draughts of the net furnished a day’s food for the crews of both vessels.

Ribault next steered his ships up the stream that flows into Port Royal and took his men ashore, probably upon an island now known as Lemon Island, in Broad River, a few miles from the present town of Beaufort.

Upon that island he set up a stone pillar, engraved with the arms of the King of France, thus claiming the entire country in the name of the French sovereign.

Ribault and his followers then laid the foundations of a fort on Parris Island, and gave it the Latin name Arx Carolana, that is, Fort Charles, after King Charles (Carolus) IX, of France.

Having thus, with due ceremonial, taken possession of the country, Ribault determined to leave a garrison in the fort while he himself returned to France to seek additional settlers.

He therefore made a stirring appeal to his men and, as a result, twenty- six of them volunteered to remain at Port Royal until his return.

Ribault left them a supply of tools, guns and provisions, and on the morning of July 11, 1562, having fired a salute to the flag of France which was waving over Fort Charles, he set forth on the voyage across the Atlantic.

The soil around Fort Charles was fertile, but the men of the garrison, having been trained as soldiers, did not think it necessary to plant corn.

First of all, they completed the fort which Ribault had begun.

Its dimensions, according to the old records which we have, were ninety-six feet in length by seventy- eight feet in width, with flanks in proportion.

After their cannon had been set in position a party of men from the garrison sailed in a pinnace up the Broad River to seek the friendship of the Indians.

Upon the invitation of some of the red chieftains, the Huguenots went ashore and watched the strange ceremonies conducted by some of the Indian priests and warriors, the peculiar rites connected with a religious festival.

The supply of food left by Ribault was soon consumed.

Some of the Frenchmen sailed, however, to the river now called the Savannah, and the Indians of that region filled the pinnace with a supply of millet and beans.

Fire then broke out in a small house within the fort, and their provisions stored therein were destroyed.

The Indians generously helped to rebuild the house and also gave the soldiers another supply of food.

Liberal presents were made to the redmen, and the latter pointed to the fields of growing corn as indicating the certainty of a future supply of bread.

The men of the garrison soon became filled with the spirit of unrest.

When the Indians gave them some pearls and some silver ore, accompanied by the statement that the silver could be found among the mountains to the northward, the soldiers were eager to set out in search of the white metal.

The commander, Captain Albert, who, from the first, had been rigid and harsh in enforcing discipline, grew more stern and severe.

Then the garrison broke out in open mutiny, murdered Captain Albert and appointed Nicholas Barré as commander.

The Huguenots were now anxious to return home, and as the return of Ribault was delayed, they determined to build a small boat and sail back to France.

Resin from the pine and moss from the oak were used in calking the little vessel.

Grass and the inner bark of trees were twisted together to make ropes.

Bedclothes and old shirts were used in making sails.

The cannon and other warlike implements were placed on board the boat, but, strange to say, only a small supply of food was taken.

The sails were raised and, with a favorable breeze, the vessel was soon one-third of the way across the Atlantic.

Then the wind dropped and for many days the boat drifted with the tide.

The supply of food and water failed and the men began to eat their shoes and leathern jackets.

Some of them died of hunger.

A storm burst upon them and wrought so much harm to the vessel that they gave up hope of making further progress in the voyage.

As a last resort, to prolong the life of the majority of the crew, one of their number, chosen by lot, was slain and eaten.

Shortly after this an English vessel came that way, picked up those who were still alive and carried them back to England.

Two years afterward another company of Huguenot colonists under the command of Laudonniere came to the St. John’s River in Florida and there built another Fort Charles.

Then, in 1565, Ribault brought a third group of settlers to the fort on the St. John’s.

A Spanish fleet immediately followed across the Atlantic in pursuit of Ribault.

When the Spaniards arrived at St. John’s River they fell upon the Huguenot settlers, killed all of them because of their hatred towards Protestants, and then built the town of St. Augustine on the Florida coast as an indication of their claim to all of the territory adjacent to the South Atlantic Ocean.

Thus failed the Huguenot plan to establish a settlement on the South Carolina coast. The name Carolana, or Carolina, however, was bestowed by them upon a part of the country near Port Royal. T

his name remained in that region as a memorial of the French King for a hundred years, until English settlers came to lay there the foundation of a great American state.

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The Huguenot-Walloon Commemorative Silver Half Dollar Coin shows with an early 1900s image of Port Royal, South Carolina.

Huguenot-Walloon Commemorative Silver Half Dollar Coin