The French began settling in the present-day United States beginning in 1562 with the Jean Ribault and René Goulaine de Laudonnière expeditions establishing Charlesfort on present-day Paris Island and later Fort Caroline near present-day Jacksonville in 1565. In response to this new settlement, Spanish officials sent Pedro Menéndez de Aviles to Florida the following year to destroy the French Huguenot settlements along the southeastern coast; which he succeeded in doing with determined and deadly expediency, thus starting a centuries long struggle for control of “La Florida.” These early colonization attempts by both the French and Spanish during the latter half of the 16^th century present a fascinating chapter in the history of European settlement in North America as these people were some of the first to make contact with the numerous native communities who had occupied the land for millennia. Presented in this volume is the first English translation of French historian Charles de La Roncière’s Floride Française: Scénes de la Vie Indienne (1928): a fascinating narrative history of the first French settlements along with hand-colored reproductions of Dutch engraver Theodore deBry’s famous images of Indian life.  Edited by Benjamin S. DiBiase.