nt runners to summon all Indians
within call; while Gourgues, for safety, brought his vessels within the
mouth of the river.

Morning came, and the woods were thronged with congregated warriors.
Gourgues and his soldiers landed with martial pomp. In token of mutual
confidence, the French laid aside their arquebuses, the Indians their
bows and arrows. Satouriona came to meet the strangers, and seated their
commander at his side, on a wooden stool, draped and cushioned with the
gray Spanish moss. Two old Indians cleared the spot of brambles, weeds,
and grass; and, their task finished, the tribesmen took their places in
a ring, row within row, standing, sitting, and crouching on the ground,
a dusky concourse, plumed in festal array, waiting with grave visages
and eyes intent. Gourgues was about to speak, when the chief, who, says
the narrator, had not learned French manners, rose and anticipated him.
He broke into a vehement harangue; and the cruelty of the Spaniards was
the burden of his words.

Since the French fort was taken, he said, the Indians had not had one
happy day. The Spaniards drove them from their cabins, stole their corn,
ravished their wives and daughters, and killed their children; and all
this they had endured because they loved the French. There was a French
boy who had escaped from the massacre at the fort. They had found him in
the woods, and though the Spaniards, who wished to kill him, demanded
that they should give him up, they had kept him for his friends.

"Look!" pursued the chief, "here he is!"--and he brought forward a youth
of sixteen, named Pierre Debre, who became at once of the greatest
service to the French, his knowledge of the Indian language making him
an excellent interpreter.

Delighted as he was at this outburst against the Spaniards, Gourgues by
no means saw fit to display the full extent of his satisfaction. He
thanked the Indians for their good-will, exhorted them to continue in
it, and pronounced an ill-merited eulogy on the greatness and goodness
of his King. As for the Spaniards, he said, their day of reckoning was
at hand; and if the Indians had been abused for their love of the
French, the French would be their avengers. Here Satouriona forgot his
dignity, and leaped up for joy.

"What!" he cried, "will you fight the Spaniards?"

"I came here," replied Gourgues, "only to reconnoitre the country and
make friends with you, then to go back and bring more soldiers; but when