La Salle's colonists attempt for several days…
March 1685 CE
La Salle's colonists attempt for several days to salvage the tools and provisions that had been loaded on L’Aimable, but a bad storm prevents them from recovering more than food, cannons, powder, and a small amount of the merchandise.
When the ship sinks on March 7, the Karankawa help themselves to much of the wreckage.
As French soldiers approach the Native American village to retrieve their supplies, the villagers hide.
On discovering the deserted village, the soldiers not only reclaim the looted merchandise but also take animal pelts and two canoes.
The angry Karankawa attack, killing two Frenchmen and injuring others.
Beaujeu, having fulfilled his mission in escorting the colonists across the ocean, returns to France aboard the Joly in mid-March 1685.
Many of the colonists choose to return to France with him, leaving approximately one hundred and eighty.
Although Beaujeu delivers a message from La Salle requesting additional supplies, French authorities, now at peace with Spain, will never respond.
The remaining colonists suffer from dysentery and venereal diseases, and people die daily.
Those who are fit help build crude dwellings and a temporary fort on Matagorda Island.
La Salle on March 24, takes fifty-two men in five canoes to find a less exposed settlement site.
They find Garcitas Creek, which has fresh water and fish, with good soil along its banks, and name it Rivière aux Boeufs for the nearby buffalo herds.
Fort Saint Louis is to be constructed on a bluff overlooking the creek, one and a half leagues from its mouth.
Two men die, one of a rattlesnake bite and another from drowning while trying to fish.
The Karankawa sometimes surround the camp at night and howl, but the soldiers can scare them away with a few gun shots.