Ribault (or Ribaut), Jean (1520?–1565), a French colonizer in the New World. In 1562 Ribault with 150 Huguenots (French Protestants) landed at the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Florida. Sailing north, they established a colony near what is now Port Royal, South Carolina. Ribault, himself a Huguenot, sailed back to France for fresh provisions and new colonists, but was prevented from returning by the outbreak of a religious war in France. When he failed to return, the colonists went back to France. Another group of Huguenots established Fort Caroline (near present-day Jacksonville, Florida). Ribault brought them reinforcements in 1565, but the Spanish, fearing a Protestant settlement and French rivalry, killed him and destroyed the colony.