upon
their enemy. Another volley from the boats, and then the Mexican and his
companions sprang like tigers upon the terrified pirates. The struggle
was short. Unable to resist the furious attack upon their front and
rear, the pirates threw away their weapons, and flung themselves
headlong into the river to escape the tomahawks of their raging foes.

Lafitte was the only one who stood firm, and seemed determined to sell
his life dearly. His back against the bank, his sabre in his right hand,
a pistol in his left, he parried a blow dealt him by an Oconee, who
fell, the next instant, with his head nearly severed from his shoulders.
A bullet finished another of his assailants, and he was raising his
sabre for the second time, when a lasso was flung over his head, and he
fell helpless to the ground. The long and terrible yell that now rang
along the shore, and was re-echoed from the adjacent forest, proclaimed
the complete and bloody triumph of the Red men.

The bullet that grazed the arm of El Sol pierced the heart of Canondah,
and the day subsequent to the sanguinary conflict above described,
witnesses her interment, and that of the Indians who fell in the fight.
At the funeral a difference of opinion arises between the Oconees and
Comanches. The number of slain pirates is insufficient to furnish a
scalp to be buried with each of the dead Indians, and, to supply the
deficiency, the Oconees are anxious to immolate Lafitte and twelve of
his companions who have fallen alive into their hands. To this El Sol
and his warriors, free from many of the barbarous prejudices of their
new brethren, object. Two of the pirates are sacrificed to an outbreak
of Indian fury, but the others are saved by El Sol, and it then becomes
a question how they are to be disposed of. It is proposed to deliver
them over to the Americans, that they may deal with them according to
their laws; but Tokeah, with a refinement of hatred towards the white
men, devises an amendment upon this plan. Sooner or later, he says, they
will come to the tree upon which they are to hang. Meanwhile let them go
at large, and cause the blood of the palefaces to flow, as that of the
Oconees has done.

This singular proposition at first startles the vindictive and
bloodthirsty Oconees, but when they fully understand it, they receive it
with a burst of applause. Lafitte and his companions are unbound, and
allowed to depart.

The funeral over, the Indians set out for the h