In 1564 a group of Norman Huguenots under the leadership of Jean Ribault established the small colony of Fort Caroline on the banks of the St. Johns River in what is today Jacksonville, Florida. The effort was the first at any permanent European settlement in the present-day continental United States, but survived only a short time. A September 1565 French naval attack against the new Spanish colony at St. Augustine failed when its ships were hit by a hurricane on their way to the Spanish encampment at Fort Matanzas. Hundreds of French soldiers were stranded and surrendered to the numerically inferior Spanish forces led by Pedro Menendez. Menendez proceeded to massacre the defenseless Huguenots, after which he wiped out the Fort Caroline garrison.