columns of some vast
sepulchre. Above, the impervious canopy of leaves; beneath, a black and
root-encumbered slough. Perpetual moisture trickles down the clammy
bark, while trunk and limb, distorted with strange shapes of vegetable
disease, wear in the gloom a semblance grotesque and startling. Lifeless
forms lean propped in wild disorder against the living, and from every
rugged stem and lank limb outstretched hangs the dark drapery of the
Spanish moss. The swamp is veiled in mourning. No breath, no voice. A
deathly stillness, till the plunge of the alligator, lashing the waters
of the black lagoon, resounds with hollow echo through the tomb-like
solitude.

Next, the broad sunlight and the wide savanna. Wading breast-deep in
grass, they view the wavy sea of verdure, with headland and cape and
far-reaching promontory, with distant coasts, hazy and dim, havens and
shadowed coves, islands of the magnolia and the palm, high, impending
shores of the mulberry and the elm, the ash, hickory, and maple. Here
the rich _gordonia_, never out of bloom, sends down its thirsty roots to
drink at the stealing brook. Here the _halesia_ hangs out its silvery
bells, the purple clusters of the _wistaria_ droop from the supporting
bough, and the coral blossoms of the _erythryna_ glow in the shade
beneath. From tufted masses of sword-like leaves shoot up the tall
spires of the _yucca_, heavy with pendent flowers, of pallid hue, like
the moon, and from the grass gleams the blue eye of the starry _ixia_.

Through forest, swamp, savanna, the valiant Frenchmen held their way. At
first, Outina's Indians kept always in advance; but when they reached
the hostile district, the modest warriors fell to the rear, resigning
the post of honor to their French allies.

An open country; a rude cultivation; the tall palisades of an Indian
town. Their approach was seen, and the warriors of Potanou, nowise
daunted, came swarming forth to meet them. But the sight of the bearded
strangers, the flash and report of the fire-arms, the fall of their
foremost chief, shot through the brain with the bullet of Arlac, filled
them with consternation, and they fled headlong within their defences.
The men of Thimagoa ran screeching in pursuit. Pell-mell, all entered
the town together. Slaughter; pillage; flame. The work was done, and the
band returned triumphant.

CHAPTER II.

In the little world of Fort Caroline, a miniature France, cliques and
parties, conspi