CHAPTER I_The Flamingo Feather

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: Arrival of Admiral Ribault's Fleet]

THE FLAMINGO FEATHER

KIRK MUNROE

Author of "SNOWSHOES AND SLEDGES," "THE PAINTED DESERT," "WAKULLA," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

THE FLAMINGO FEATHER

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

L-Y

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. RÉNÉ DE VEAUX

II. A WONDERFUL DELIVERANCE

III. CHITTA'S REVENGE

IV. HAS-SE IS HELD PRISONER

V. THE ESCAPE OF HAS-SE AND RÉNÉ

VI. THE JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF FOOD

VII. CHITTA BECOMES A SEMINOLE

VIII. ON THE TRAIL

IX. A TRAP AVOIDED AND FRIENDS DISCOVERED

X. MUTINY AT FORT CAROLINE

XI. RÉNÉ'S RETURN

XII. ABANDONING THE FORT

XIII. ARRIVAL OF JEAN RIBAULT

XIV. A NIGHT OF TERROR

XV. RÉNÉ IN THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES

XVI. HAS-SE RECEIVES THE TOKEN

XVII. DEATH OF HAS-SE (THE SUNBEAM)

XVIII. THE FRENCH HAVE COME AGAIN

XIX. THE OLD WORLD ONCE MORE

ILLUSTRATIONS

ARRIVAL OF ADMIRAL RIBAULT'S FLEET . . . Frontispiece

RÉNÉ SLIPPED QUICKLY THROUGH THE GATE

"FAREWELL, TA-LAH-LO-KO!"

THE DEATH OF HAS-SE

The Flamingo Feather

CHAPTER I

RÉNÉ DE VEAUX

On a dreary winter's day, early in the year 1564, young Réné de Veaux,

who had just passed his sixteenth birthday, left the dear old chateau

where he had spent his happy and careless boyhood, and started for Paris.

Less than a month before both his noble father and his gentle mother had

been taken from him by a terrible fever that had swept over the country,

and Réné their only child, was left without a relative in the world

except his uncle the Chevalier Réné de Laudonniere, after whom he was

named. In those days of tedious travel it seemed a weary time to the

lonely lad before the messenger who had gone to Paris with a letter

telling his uncle of his sad position could return. When at length he

came again, bringing a kind message that bade him come immediately to

Paris and be a son to his equally lonely uncle, Réné lost no time in

obeying.

He travelled like a young prince, riding a spirited steed, and followed

by a party of servants, mounted and armed to protect him against robbers

and other perils of the way. Behind him rode old François, who had been

his father's valet and was now his sole friend and protector. The big

tears rolled down the boy's cheeks as he turned for a last look at his

home; but as it was shut from view by the trees of the park surrounding

it, he brushed them away resolutely, and turning to his companion, said,

"Thou hast seen the last of my tears, François, and with them goes my

boyhood; for hereafter I am to be a man, and men know not how to weep."

"Well spoken, my young master," replied the old servant, greatly pleased

at the brave words of the lad. "Thou art already a man in feeling, and

thine Uncle Laudonniere will presently make thee one in fact, if the

tales that come to us of his valorous deeds be true, and there is naught

to disprove them."

"Tell me of him, François; for though he is my only uncle, I have but

little knowledge of him or his deeds. Of what nature are they?"

"Well, then, he is a mighty navigator, and 'tis but little more than a

year since he returned from the New World, whither he sailed in company

with his Excellency Admiral Jean Ribault. He brings strange tales of

those wonderful lands beyond the sea, and rumor has it that he is shortly

to set forth again for them with a noble company, who will establish

there a sanctuary for our blessed Protestant faith."

The boy's interest was thoroughly aroused by this, and he plied the old

servant with questions concerning his uncle and the New World. François

answered these to the best of his ability, and even drew largely upon his

imagination to aid his glowing descriptions of those distant lands of

which the men of that day held such vague knowledge.

With such talk they beguiled much of the tedious journey, that occupied a

week ere it was ended and they entered Paris. Here they were finally set

down before a modest dwelling near the King's palace, in which

Laudonniere was lodged.

Upon meeting his nephew, the chevalier embraced him warmly, and then

holding him forth at arm's-length to gain a better view of him,

exclaimed, "In good sooth, Réné, thou'rt a likely lad; and if thy heart

be as true and bold as thy face promises, we'll soon make a man of thee

such as even thy noble father would approve."

That evening uncle and nephew talked long and earnestly together

concerning the latter's future; and ere they slept it was fully decided

that, in spite of his youth, he should make one of the expedition that,

even as François had reported, Laudonniere was fitting out for the New

World.

The next three months were occupied in busy preparation for the long

voyage, not unmixed with vexatious delays and grievous disappointments,

in all of which young Réné de Veaux bore manfully his share. He became

each day more useful to his uncle, who intrusted him with many important

commissions, and who, stern old soldier as he was, learned in this time

to love the boy as though he had been his own son.

At length all was in readiness. The stores and munitions of war had been

placed on board the three ships that formed the little fleet, the last

colonist had embarked, and Laudonniere had taken leave of his King and

Admiral Jean Ribault, who was to follow him in a few months with a still

larger company. On a bright May morning uncle and nephew reached the

little seaport town before which lay their ships, and hastened to embark

and take advantage of the favorable wind that promised them a fair start

on their long and perilous voyage.

As Laudonniere stepped on board his flagship his broad pennant was flung

to the breeze from the mainmast-head, the _fleur-de-lis_ of France

floated proudly from the mizzen, and amid the booming of cannon and the

loud acclamations of the throngs assembled on the quay to bid them

Godspeed, the ships moved slowly down the harbor towards the broad ocean

and the New World that lay beyond.

For many weeks they sailed ever westward, seeing no ship save their own,

and becoming every day more weary of the vast, endless expanse of sea and

sky. It is no wonder, then, that when on the morning of the 22d of June

the welcome cry of "Land, ho!" rang through the flag-ship every soul on

board rushed on deck with joyous exclamations to catch once more a

glimpse of the blessed land. The cry that had brought them such pleasure

had come from the mast-head, and it was some time before those on deck

could detect the dim blue cloud, low-lying in the west, that was said to

be land. Even then one man, who was known as Simon the Armorer, was

heard to mutter that it might be land and then again it might not; for

his part, he believed the whole world had been drowned in a flood, as in

the days of Noah, and that the only land they should ever see would be at

the bottom of the ocean.

As the day wore on, and before a light breeze the ships were wafted

towards the blue cloud, it was proved beyond a doubt to be land, for some

palm-trees and tall pines became distinguishable, and above all other

sounds came, faint but distinct, the heavy, regular boom of surf.

By noon the ships had approached as near to the coast as was deemed

prudent, and for the first time since leaving France their anchors were

dropped and their sails were furled.

They had come to anchor off the mouth of an inlet, before which extended

a bar upon which the great seas were breaking and roaring so frightfully

that no passage for the ships among them seemed to offer itself.

Laudonniere thought he recognized the inlet as one leading into a broad

river, on the opposite side of which was located an Indian village called

Seloy. This place he had visited two years before in company with

Admiral Ribault, and he determined to reassure himself as to the

locality; therefore, bidding Réné accompany him, he entered a small boat,

and ordering another, full of soldiers, to follow them, he gave the word

to pull straight for the breakers.

Just as Réné thought the boat was to be swallowed by the raging seas, his

uncle guided her, with great skill, into a narrow passage that opened in

their very midst. After a few minutes of suspense, during which Réné

dared hardly to breathe, they shot into smooth waters, rounded a point of

land, and saw before them the village of which they were in search. On

the beach in front of it a crowd of savage figures, nearly naked, were

dancing wildly, and brandishing bows and spears.

Meanwhile, the village that the boats were now approaching had been

thrown into a state of the greatest excitement by the appearance of the

ships, which had been discovered while yet so distant that their sails

resembled the wings of the white sea-gull. Upon the first alarm all the

warriors had been collected on the beach, and the women had left their

work in the fields of maize and hurried with the children to the security

of the forest depths. When, however, the fleet came to anchor and the

Indians could distinguish the meaning of their banners, their alarm was

changed to joy; for they had learned to love the French--who, upon their

previous visit, had treated them with kindness--as much as they hated the

cruel Spaniards, whose ships had also visited that coast. Then the women

and children were recalled from the forest, the warriors washed the

war-paint from their faces, and preparations for feasting were begun.

As the small boats approached, the men ran down to the beach to meet

them, dancing and waving their weapons in their joy, and when they

recognized Laudonniere standing in the stern of the leading boat, they

raised a great cry of welcome that caused the forest to ring with its

echoes. As the pious leader of the expedition stepped on shore, he took

Réné by the hand, and both kneeling on the sands, gave thanks to Him who

guided them thus far in safety in their perilous wanderings. Though the

simple-minded Indians could not understand what Laudonniere said or was

doing, they were so anxious to show their respect and love for him that

all knelt when he did and maintained a deep silence while he prayed.

When Laudonniere arose to his feet the Indians crowded about him with

shouts and gestures of welcome; but they readily made way for him when,

still holding Réné's hand, he began to walk towards the lodge of their

chief. He was as anxious as his followers to welcome the white men, but

his dignity had not permitted him to rush with them down to the beach.

As they walked, Réné stared in astonishment at the waving palms with

richly plumaged birds flitting among their leaves, the palmetto-thatched

huts of the Indians, the shining and inflated fish-bladders that the men

wore suspended from their ears, the moss-woven kirtles of the women, and

above all, at the mighty antlered stag that, stuffed and mounted on a

tall pole, with head proudly turned towards the rising sun, rose from the

middle of the village.

He in turn was an object of astonishment and curious interest to the

natives; for, although they had become familiar with the appearance of

bearded white men, they had never before seen a white boy, Réné being the

first to set foot in this land. The Indians had thought that all white

men were born with beards, and that their closely cropped hair never grew

any longer; so that this smooth-faced boy, whose golden hair hung in

ringlets over his shoulders, was a much greater curiosity to them than

they were to him. The old chief took an immediate fancy to him, and as

he had given to Laudonniere the Indian name of Ta-lah (a palm) upon the

occasion of his previous visit to Seloy, he now called Réné Ta-lah-lo-ko

(the palmetto, or little palm), a name ever afterwards used by all the

Indians in their intercourse with him.

The chief entreated Laudonniere to tarry many days in Seloy; but the

latter answered that the orders of his own great chief were for him to

proceed without delay to the river known as the River of May, and there

erect a fort and found his colony. So, after an exchange of presents,

they parted, and taking to their boats, the white men regained their

ship. As they left, Réné gave many a backward glance at the pleasant

little village of Seloy, and would have loved to linger there among its

simple and kindly people.

As they crossed the bar, in going again to the ships, their boats were

surrounded by a number of what they called dolphins, but what are today

called porpoises, sporting in the great billows; and on their account

Laudonniere named the river they had just left the River of Dolphins.

Spreading their white wings, the ships sailed northward forty miles

during the night, and daylight found them standing off and on at the

mouth of the great River of May. By the aid of a chart, made by Admiral

Ribault two years before, they crossed its dangerous bar, and sailed up

its broad channel.

Short as was the time since they had been discovered off Seloy, swift

runners had already conveyed the great tidings of their coming to Micco,

the chief of this part of the country, and he and his people were thus

prepared to greet them upon their arrival. When Réné and his uncle,

followed by a company from the ships, landed, they were received with

shouts and extravagant gestures of joy by the friendly Indians, and

conducted by them to the top of a hill upon which Admiral Ribault had set

a pillar of stone engraved with the French coat of arms. They found it

twined with wreaths of flowers, and surrounded by baskets of maize,

quivers of arrows, and many other things that the kindly Indians took

this means of offering to their white friends.

Not far from this point Laudonniere selected the site of his fort, and

work upon it was immediately begun. He named it Fort Caroline, in honor

of King Charles IX of France, and about it he hoped to see in time a

flourishing colony of French Huguenots.

After all the stores and munitions had been landed from the ships, they

sailed for France, leaving the little company of white men the only ones

of their race in all that vast unknown wilderness. As Laudonniere

remained in command of Fort Caroline, Réné de Veaux of course remained

with him, and thus became the hero of the surprising adventures that will

be related in the chapters that follow.