ding
down the moonlit waters of the Ohio, amid the magnificent desert of
Kentucky. Behind them was a fleet of pirogues, which Rene was piloting
on a hunting foray. Seeing that all the Indians were sleeping, Chactas
went on talking to his adopted son.

"How little, even now, we know of each other, Rene. You never told me
what it was that made you leave France in 1725, and come to Louisiana,
and ask to be admitted to our tribe. I have never told you why I have
not married and got children to succeed me, and help me in my old age to
govern my people.

"It is now seventy-three years since my mother brought me into the world
on the banks of the Mississippi. In 1652 there were a few Spaniards
settled in the bay of Pensacola, but no white man was then seen in
Louisiana. I was scarcely seventeen years old when I fought with my
father, the famous warrior Outalissi, against the Creeks of Florida. We
were then allied with the Spaniards, but, in spite of the help they gave
us, we were defeated. My father was killed, and I was grievously
wounded. Oh, why did I then not descend into the land of the dead? Happy
indeed should I have been had I thus escaped from the fate which was
waiting for me on earth!

"But one of our allies, an old Castilian, named Lopez, moved by my youth
and simplicity, rescued me in the battle and led me to the town of St.
Augustin, which his countrymen had recently built. My benefactor took me
to his home, and he and his sister adopted me as their son, and tried to
teach me their knowledge and religion. But after passing thirteen months
at St. Augustin I was seized with a disgust for town life. The city
seemed to me a prison, and I longed to get back to the wild life of my
fathers. At last I resolved to return to my tribe, and one morning I
came to Lopez, clad in the dress of the Natchez, with bow and arrows in
one hand, and a tomahawk in the other.

"'Oh, my father,' I said to him, my face streaming with tears, 'I shall
die if I stay in this city. I am an Indian, and I must live like an
Indian.'

"Lopez tried to detain me by pointing out the peril I was running. But I
already knew that in order to join the Natchez I should have to pass
through the country of the Creeks, and might fall into the hands of our
old enemies; and this did not deter me. At last, Lopez, seeing how
resolute I was, said, 'Go, my boy, and God be with you! Were I only
younger, I, too, would return with you to the wilderness, where th