DC. LII. (Paris, 1664). Abbé Marivault drowned during the embarkation at Honfleur. Balthazar Le Roux de Royville, who led the expedition, was assassinated by the sailors and thrown overboard during the voyage. In September 1652 the expedition reached the tip of the Pointe du Mahury on the Island of Cayenne, where they found the 25 survivors of the earlier settlement. A Monsieur de Navarre was in command of Fort Cépérou. He had arrived there from France about six months earlier, and was a first sergeant. He was promoted to lieutenant for surrendering the fort to the new arrivals. Jean de Laon, a king' engineer, replaced the wooden walls of the fort with a stone bastion called Fort Saint Michel to guard against attacks from the Caribs across the river, and attacks by the English and Dutch. There were violent disputes among the colonists and between them and the local Kalina people. The attempt to found a colony ended in failure. Of the 700 colonists just over 100 survived and escaped to Suriname in January 1654, then to Barbados. The company went bankrupt when it emerged that it was not backed by the king. Interlude A Dutch soldier, Guerin Spranger, obtained a grant from the States General of the Netherlands and established a Dutch colony on Cayenne Island around 1656. He arrived after the French had abandoned the island. The Dutch established plantations and Spranger had begun a profitable trade with the Netherlands when the French decided to regain control, despite being at peace with the Netherlands at the time. Second company The second Compagnie de la France équinoxiale was formed in 1663. The minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert conceived the idea of a new Compagnie de la France équinoxiale, and King Louis XIV of France approved the project. The new company had a capital of 200,000 francs, and all the privileges that had been granted to the first. Antoine Lefèbvre de La Barre, former intendant of the Bourbonnais and a very able man, was appointed governor of Cayenne. He left the port of La Rochelle, France, on 26 February 1664 with two warships and 400 soldiers. He was carried on a fleet commanded by Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy. The expedition included 1,200 settlers. Lefèbvre arrived in Cayenne on 11 May 1664. On 15 May 1664 the Dutch general Spranger agreed to capitulate. Lefèbvre de La Barre established a garrison at Fort