French Huguenots landed near this site on May 1, 1562, seeking escape from religious persecution in Western Europe, and established La Caroline in June 1564, living as colonists on the land until 1565. Between May 1562 and September 1565, they established many firsts, including the first Protestant prayer on American soil, offered by Jean Ribault; the first settlement of men and women seeking religious freedom; the first Colonial Thanksgiving, celebrated June 30, 1564; the presence of the first known commercial artist of North America, Jacques le Moyne, who documented native Timucua life; the first recorded birth of a European child in the continental United States; the first international port of trade, when Englishman John Hawkins exchanged goods with La Caroline's leader, Rene de Laudonniere; and, with the 1565 Spanish attack on the colony, the first battle between European forces on soil that later became the United States. The August 1565 Spanish attack on La Caroline failed, but as the French pursued the settlement's defense, their forces were separated and their ships destroyed in a storm. Most of the shipwrecked Frenchmen were massacred by the Spanish at Matanzas Inlet after refusing to renounce their religious beliefs. In September, the Spanish again attacked the colony, leaving few survivors. The dead included La Caroline colonists who perished on September 20 at the St. Johns River and Jean Ribault and his men, who died at Matanzas defending the colony on September 29 and October 12, 1565. The colony's legacy was later characterized as setting a new pattern for religious freedom in America.
