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Page 4
Short as was the time since they had been discovered off Seloy, swift
runners had already conveyed the great tidings of their coming to Micco,
the chief of this part of the country, and he and his people were thus
prepared to greet them upon their arrival. When R�n� and his uncle,
followed by a company from the ships, landed, they were received with
shouts and extravagant gestures of joy by the friendly Indians, and
conducted by them to the top of a hill upon which Admiral Ribault had set
a pillar of stone engraved with the French coat of arms. They found it
twined with wreaths of flowers, and surrounded by baskets of maize,
quivers of arrows, and many other things that the kindly Indians took
this means of offering to their white friends.
Not far from this point Laudonniere selected the site of his fort, and
work upon it was immediately begun. He named it Fort Caroline, in honor
of King Charles IX of France, and about it he hoped to see in time a
flourishing colony of French Huguenots.
After all the stores and munitions had been landed from the ships, they
sailed for France, leaving the little company of white men the only ones
of their race in all that vast unknown wilderness. As Laudonniere
remained in command of Fort Caroline, R�n� de Veaux of course remained
with him, and thus became the hero of the surprising adventures that will
be related in the chapters that follow.
CHAPTER II
A WONDERFUL DELIVERANCE
The building of Fort Caroline occupied about three months; and during
this time the friendly Indians willingly aided in the work of preparing
the tree-trunks which, set on end, were let deep into the earth close
beside one another, and in digging the wide moat that surrounded the
whole. A heavy embankment of earth was thrown up on the inner side of
the palisade of tree-trunks, and upon this were mounted a number of great
guns.
During the time thus occupied, R�n� de Veaux became acquainted with
Micco's son, a young Indian of about his own age, named Has-se, which
means a sunbeam, and a strong friendship was speedily cemented between
them. They saw each other daily, and each learned the language of the
other.
After the ships had sailed away R�n�'s uncle found time, even in the
midst of his pressing duties, to attend to the lad's education; and every
morning was devoted to lessons in fencing, shooting the cross-bow, and in
military engineering. The evenings were passed with the good Jacques Le
Moyne the artist, who was a very learned man, and who taught R�n� Latin,
and how to draw.
Although his mornings and evenings were thus occupied, R�n� had his
afternoons to himself, and these he spent in company with his friend
Has-se, who instructed him in the mysteries of Indian woodcraft. Now it
happened that while Has-se was a merry, lovable lad, he had one bitter
enemy in the village. This was a young man somewhat older than himself,
named Chitta, which means the snake. Their quarrel was one of long
standing, and nobody seemed to know how it had begun; but everybody said
that Chitta was such a cross, ugly fellow that he must needs quarrel with
somebody, and had chosen Has-se for an enemy because everybody else loved
him.
One afternoon Has-se asked R�n� to go out on the river with him in his
canoe, as he had that to tell him which he did not wish to run any risk
of being overheard by others. R�n� willingly agreed to go with him, and
taking his cross-bow and a couple of steel-tipped bolts, he seated
himself in the bow of the light craft, which Has-se paddled from the
stern. Going for some distance down the river, they turned into a small
stream from the banks of which huge, moss-hung oaks and rustling
palm-trees cast a pleasant shade over the dark waters. Here the canoe
was allowed to drift while Has-se unburdened his mind to his friend.
It seemed that the day of the Ripe Corn Dance, the great feast day of his
tribe, was set for that of the next full moon. On this day there was to
be a series of contests among the lads of the village to decide which of
them was most worthy to become Bow-bearer to Micco, their chief and his
father. This was considered a most honorable position to occupy, and he
who succeeded in winning it and filling it satisfactorily for a year was,
at the expiration of that time, granted all the privileges of a warrior.
The contests were to be in shooting with bows and arrows, hurling the
javelin, running, and wrestling. Has-se had set his heart upon obtaining
this position, and had long been in training for the contests. His most
dreaded rival was Chitta; and, while Has-se felt ready to meet the snake
in the games of running, shooting, and hurling the javelin, he feared
that with his greater weight the latter would prove more than a match for
him in wrestling. Could Ta-lah-lo-ko advise and help him in this matter?
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