[149] book was encamped on this plantation for several months during the civil war, and visited the fortifications very frequently. They are built of a kind of concrete made with oyster-shells, and called coquina,this being the material also employed in Spanish buildings of the same period at St. Augustine. There is another similar fortification a little farther up Beaufort River.]
Ii.—Alone in the New world.
[the thirty Frenchmen left behind at port Royal by Ribaut were probably the first Europeans who deliberately undertook to remain without ships upon the Atlantic shore of north America. Parkman says of them, ‘Albert and his companions might watch the receding ships. . . . they were alone in those fearful solitudes. From the north pole to Mexico there was no Christian denizen but they.’—Pioneers of France, p. 35. the following is from the narrative of their adventures written by Laudonniere, who afterwards came to search for them, but did not arrive till they had gone.]our men, after our departure, never rested, but night and day did fortify themselves, being in good hope, that, after their fort was finished, they would begin to discover farther up within the river. It happened one day, as certain of them were in cutting of roots in the groves, that they espied, on the sudden, an Indian that hunted the deer, which, finding himself so near upon them, was much dismayed; but our men began to draw near unto him, and to use him so courteously, that he became assured, and followed them to Charlesfort, where every man sought to do him pleasure. Capt. Albert was very joyful of his coming, which after he had given him a shirt, and some other trifles, he asked him of his dwelling. The Indian answered him, that it was farther up within the river, and that he was vassal
