of the woods, the
shores resounded with the roaring of these colossal lizards; all night
the forest rang with the whooping of the owls; and in the morning the
sultry mists that wrapped the river were vocal, far and near, with the
clamor of wild turkeys.

Among such scenes, for twenty leagues, the adventurous sail moved on.
Far to the right, beyond the silent waste of pines, lay the realm of
the mighty Potanou. The Thimagoa towns were still above them on the
river, when they saw three canoes of this people at no great distance in
front. Forthwith the two Indians in the boat were fevered with
excitement. With glittering eyes they snatched pike and sword, and
prepared for fight; but the sage Ottigny, bearing slowly down on the
strangers, gave them time to run their craft ashore and escape to the
woods. Then, landing, he approached the canoes, placed in them a few
trinkets, and withdrew to a distance. The fugitives took heart, and,
step by step, returned. An amicable intercourse was opened, with
assurances of friendship on the part of the French, a procedure viewed
by Satouriona's Indians with unspeakable disgust and ire.

The ice thus broken, Ottigny returned to Fort Caroline; and a fortnight
later, an officer named Vasseur sailed up the river to pursue the
adventure: for the French, thinking that the nation of the Thimagoa lay
betwixt them and the gold-mines, would by no means quarrel with them,
and Laudonniere repented him already of his rash pledge to Satouriona.

As Vasseur moved on, two Indians hailed him from the shore, inviting him
to their dwellings. He accepted their guidance, and presently saw before
him the cornfields and palisades of an Indian town. Led through the
wondering crowd to the lodge of the chief, Mollua, Vasseur and his
followers were seated in the place of honor and plentifully regaled with
fish and bread. The repast over, Mollua began his discourse. He told
them that he was one of the forty vassal chiefs of the great Outina,
lord of all the Thimagoa, whose warriors wore armor of gold and silver
plate. He told them, too, of Potanou, his enemy, a mighty and redoubted
prince; and of the two kings of the distant Appalachian Mountains, rich
beyond utterance in gems and gold. While thus, with earnest pantomime
and broken words, the chief discoursed with his guests, Vasseur, intent
and eager, strove to follow his meaning; and no sooner did he hear of
these Appalachian treasures than he promised to join