with which
all of them were provided. They were attired in hunting-shirts, open in
front, and showing the naked breast down to the wampum girdle, to which
a second garment, reaching to the knee, was attached. Instead of the
shaved head and scalping-tuft adopted by many Indian tribes, they wore
the whole of their hair. They appeared to have taken their places
according to their rank, the inner half-circle being composed of the
older warriors, whilst the young men formed a second and third line. In
the centre of the curve sat an old warrior, on whom the eyes of the
assembly were respectfully fixed, and whose remarkable exterior,
combined with the deference shown him, bespoke the chief of the tribe.
It would be difficult to imagine a more singular, and at the same time
interesting-looking person, than this old man, whose body seemed to
consist of nothing but skin and bone. All the coarse and fleshy portions
of his frame were dried up, and only veins and sinews remained. His open
hunting-shirt disclosed a breast far broader than that of any one of his
companions, resembling a board that had been chopped and hacked, so
covered was it with the scars of many wounds. The chief characteristic
of his countenance was a gloomy stoical gravity, mingled with a resigned
expression, telling a tale of many a fearful struggle, and of grievous
mental suffering. The fall of his tribe, and seven years' exile, had
brought about this change in the Miko of the Oconees.

This old man is Tokeah, who, driven by the Americans from his hunting
grounds, has taken refuge, with the remnant of his tribe, upon Mexican
territory. Canondah is his daughter, and the young man whom she rescued
from the jaws of the alligator is an English midshipman belonging to a
frigate employed in sounding the entrances of the Mississippi,
preparatory to the expedition against New Orleans. Whilst away from his
ship on a turtling party, he and two of his comrades have been captured
by Lafitte, the famous French pirate, whose chief haunt was on the
island of Barataria, in the Gulf of Mexico, whence, from amidst shoals
and swamps impenetrable to those unacquainted with their intricacies, he
issued forth to commit depredations on the high seas, and especially in
the Mexican Gulf. During an inland excursion, about two years previously
to the date of this tale, Lafitte discovered the Indian village on the
Natchez, and was at first about to attack and plunder it; but the
determin