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Menendez
de Aviles, PEDRO, naval officer; born in Aviles, Spain,
in 1519; entered the Spanish naval service in his youth. After
successfully battling with French corsairs, Philip II. of Spain
appointed him captain-general of the India fleet. Menendez carried
that monarch to England to marry Queen Mary, and took him back on
his return. In 1565 Philip made him governor of
Florida; and just before he
was to depart the King was informed of the
Huguenot settlement there, and fitted out an expedition for
their destruction. Menendez sailed with thirty-four vessels, bearing
2,600 persons — farmers, mechanics, soldiers, and priests. Arriving
at Porto Rico with a small part of his force, Menendez heard of the
reinforcements Ribault had taken to
Florida, and he immediately went to the mouth of the St. John with
Philip's cruel order to murder all the
Huguenots. Failing to catch the French fleet that escaped from
the St. John, Menendez landed farther southward, built a fort, and
founded ST. AUGUSTINE. Marching overland, he attacked and captured
the French Fort Carolina, putting nearly the whole of the garrison
to death. Only seventy of the colonists escaped, and some of the
prisoners were hanged.

MENENDEZ'S EXPEDITION ON ITS WAY TO THE NEW
WORLD
Ribault's ships
that went out to drive Menendez from
St. Augustine were wrecked, and
a portion of the crew, with Ribault, falling into the hands of the
Spaniards, were nearly all put to death. These outrages were avenged
by a Frenchman named De Gourgues. In 1570 Menendez sent a colony of
Jesuits to establish a mission near Chesapeake Bay. They were
massacred by Indians. In 1572 he explored the Potomac and the
Chesapeake Bay, and was preparing to colonize that region, when his
King appointed him commander of a fleet against the Low Countries.
While preparing for this expedition he died, in Santander, Sept. 17,
1574. See FLORIDA;
HUGUENOTS.

DE GOURGUES AVENGING THE MASSACRE
OF THE HUGUENOTS BY MENENDEZ.
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