The first Pilgrims to reach America seeking religious freedom were English and settled in Massachusetts. Well, not so fast. Some fifty years before the Mayflower left port, a band of French colonists came to the New World. Like the later English Pilgrims, these Protestants were victims of religious wars, raging across France and much of Europe. And like those later Pilgrims, they too wanted religious freedom and the chance for a new life. But they also wanted to attack Spanish treasure ships sailing back from the Americas.
