f took an immediate fancy to him, and as
he had given to Laudonniere the Indian name of Ta-lah (a palm) upon the
occasion of his previous visit to Seloy, he now called Rene Ta-lah-lo-ko
(the palmetto, or little palm), a name ever afterwards used by all the
Indians in their intercourse with him.

The chief entreated Laudonniere to tarry many days in Seloy; but the
latter answered that the orders of his own great chief were for him to
proceed without delay to the river known as the River of May, and there
erect a fort and found his colony. So, after an exchange of presents,
they parted, and taking to their boats, the white men regained their
ship. As they left, Rene gave many a backward glance at the pleasant
little village of Seloy, and would have loved to linger there among its
simple and kindly people.

As they crossed the bar, in going again to the ships, their boats were
surrounded by a number of what they called dolphins, but what are today
called porpoises, sporting in the great billows; and on their account
Laudonniere named the river they had just left the River of Dolphins.

Spreading their white wings, the ships sailed northward forty miles
during the night, and daylight found them standing off and on at the
mouth of the great River of May. By the aid of a chart, made by Admiral
Ribault two years before, they crossed its dangerous bar, and sailed up
its broad channel.

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 Rene 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 la