The First Protestant Service in North America

At dusk on April 30, 1562, two small vessels anchored off the bar of a river which was unknown to them, but which long afterwards became the St. Johns. Gaspard de Coligny, admiral of France and champion of the cause of the Huguenots, had decided upon America as a refuge from religious strife for his countrymen of the Protestant faith, who at the same time would create a new dominion by colonization, thereby extending the territorial possessions of France. These. two vessels under the command of Jean Ribault, 1 a native of Dieppe and a Huguenot, had been sent to seek a place of settlement for the colony which was to follow. With the expedition went a Protestant minister named Robert