II.
THE COLONY UNDER ALBERT.
The Colonists, thus abandoned by their countrymen, proceeded to makethemselves secure in their forest habitations. Day and night did theyaddress themselves to the completion of their fortress. They have seennone of the natives in the immediate neighborhood of the spot in whichthey had pitched their tents; but, aware of the wandering habits of thered-men, they might naturally look for them at any moment. Their toils,quickened by their caution, enabled them to make rapid progress. Whilethey labored, they felt nothing of their loneliness. The employmentswhich accompanied their situation, and flowed from its necessities,might be said to exercise their fancies, and to subdue the tendency tomelancholy which might naturally grow out of their isolation. Besides,the very novelty of the circumstances in which they found themselves hadits attractions, particularly to a people so lively as the French. OurHuguenots, at the outset, were very sensible to the picturesque beautiesof their forest habitation. For a season, bird, and beast, and tree,and flower, presented themselves to their delighted eyes, in guises ofconstantly varying attraction. The solitude, itself, possessed itscharm, most fascinating of all,--until it became monotonous--tothose who had been little favored of fortune in the crowded world ofcivilization; and, with the feeling of a first freshness in theirhearts, and, while in the performance of duties which were equallynecessary to their safety, and new to their experience, the wholeprospect before them was beheld through that rose-colored atmospherewhich the fancy so readily flings before the mind, beguiling the sobererthought into forgetfulness. During this period they toiled successfullyupon their fortifications. They raised the parapet, they mounted thecannon for defence; built rude dwellings within the walls, and in theirboundless contiguity of shade, with the feeling that they were in somesort "monarchs of all they beheld;" they felt neither loneliness norfear.
Their homes built, their fortifications complete, they proceeded, insmall detachments to explore the neighboring streams and woods. Theyhad, so far, finished all their tasks without meeting with the natives.They did not shrink from this meeting. They now desired it from motivesof policy. They had no reason to believe, from the specimens of thered-men whom they had already encountered, that they should have anydifficulty in soothing any of the tribes; and they were justified insupposing that the impression already made upon those whom they met,would operate favorably upon their future intercourse. Boldly, then, ourFrenchmen darted into the adjacent forests, gathering their game andprovisions in the same grounds with the proprietors. But the latter werenever to be seen. They were shy of the strangers, or they had not yetdiscovered their settlement. One day, however, a fortunate chanceenabled a party of the Huguenots to discover, and to circumvent anIndian hunter, upon whom they came suddenly in the forests. At first thepoor fellow was exceedingly dismayed at the encounter; but, subduing hisfears, he submitted with a good grace to the wishes of his captors, andwas conducted to the fortress. Here he was treated with consideration,and made happy by several trifles which were given him. His confidencewas finally won, and his mouth was opened. He became communicative,and described his people and their territories. He avowed himself thesubject of a great monarch, whom he called Audusta,[7]--a name, inwhich, under the corruptions of a French pronunciation, we recognize thewell-known modern name of Edisto. He described the boundaries of empirebelonging to this forest chieftain; and gave a general and not incorrectidea of the whole surrounding country.
[7] The name in Charlevoix is written A_n_dusta, but this is most probably an error of the press. Laudonniere in Hackluyt uniformly uses the orthography which we adopt, and which furnishes a coincidence so really striking in the preservation of a name so nearly the same in sound, to this very day, in the same region.
Captain Albert was exceedingly delighted with his acquisition. It wasimportant that he should open an intercourse with the natives, to whosemaize-fields and supplies of venison his necessities required he shouldlook. He treated the hunter with liberality and courtesy, dismissing himat night-fall with many presents, of a kind most grateful to the savagetaste. These hospitalities and gifts, it was not doubted, would pavethe way for an intercourse equally profitable and pleasant to both theparties. Suffering a few days to elapse after the departure of thehunter, Albert prepared to follow his directions, and explore thesettlements of King Audusta. He did so, and was received with greatkindness by the stately savage. The Indian hunter had made a favorablereport of the Frenchmen, and Audusta adopted them as his friends andallies. He promised them provisions and assistance, and the friendshipof four other chiefs or princes, his tributaries, whose names are givenas Mayou, Hoya, Touppa, and Stalame.[8] These were all, in turn,--exceptthe last,--visited by Albert, who found a frank and generous welcomewherever he came. He consumed several days in these visits; and theintercourse, in a little while, between the French and red-men, grew sogreat, "that, in a manner, all things were soon common between them."Returning to Audusta, Albert prepared to visit Stalame, whose countrylay north of Fort Charles some fifteen leagues. This would make hisabode somewhere on the Edisto, near Givham's, perhaps; or, incliningstill north, to the head of Ashley River. Sailing up the river, (theEdisto probably,) they encountered a great current, which they followed,to reach the abode of Stalame. He, too, received the strangers withhospitality and friendship. The intercourse thus established betweenthe party soon assumed the most endearing aspect. The Indian kings tookcounsel of Albert in all matters of importance. The Frenchmen werecalled to the conference in the round-house of the tribe, quite asfrequently as their own recognized counsellors. In other words, theleaders of the Huguenots were adopted into the tribe, that being theusual mode of indicating trust and confidence. Albert was present at allthe assemblages of state in the realm of Audusta; at all ceremonials,whether of business or pleasure; at his great hunts; and at the singularfeasts of his religion. One of these feasts, that of TOYA,[9] whichsucceeded the visit of Albert to the territories of Audusta and the fourtributary kings, will call for an elaborate description hereafter, whenwe narrate the legend of Guernache, upon whose fate that of the colonyseems to have depended.
[8] A remark of Charlevoix, which accords with the experience of all early travellers and explorers among the American Indians, is worthy to be kept in remembrance, as enabling us to account for that frequent contradiction which occurs in the naming of places and persons among the savages. He records distinctly that each canton or province of Florida bore, among the red-men, the name of the ruling chief. Now, as a matter of course where the tribes are nomadic, the names of places continually underwent change, according to that of the tribe by which the spot was temporarily occupied.
[9] According to Charlevoix, Toya was the name of the Floridian god, and not that of the ceremonies simply. "Elle se celebroit en l'honneur d'une Divinite nommee _Toya_."
The intercourse of our Huguenots with Audusta was of vital importance tothe former. In the form of gifts, he yielded them a regular tribute ofmaize and beans, (corn and peas, in modern parlance,) and was easilypersuaded to do so by the simple trifles, of little value, which thecolonists proffered in return. It is not difficult to win the affectionsof an inferior people, where the superior is indulgent. Kindness willdisarm the hostility of the savage, and justice will finally subdue thejealousy of conscious ignorance. Sympathy in sports and amusements,above all things, will do much towards bringing together tribes whodiffer in their laws and language, and will make them forgetful of alltheir differences. The French have been usually much more successfulthan any other people in overcoming the prejudices of the red-men ofAmerica. The moral of their nation is much more flexible than that ofthe Englishman and Spaniard;--the former of whom has always subdued, andthe latter usually debased or destroyed, the races with which they camein conflict.
The policy of Albert did not vary from that which usually distinguishedhis countrymen in like situations. The French Protestant was, by nomeans, of the faith and temper of the English Puritan. In simp
lifyinghis religion, he did not clothe his exterior in gloom; he did not denythat there should be sunshine and blossoms in the land. Our colonists atFort Charles did not perplex the Indians with doctrinal questions. It isgreatly to be feared, indeed, that religion did not, in any way, disturbthem in their solitudes. At all events, it was not of such a freezingtemper as to deny them the indulgence of an intercourse with thenatives, which, for a season, was very agreeable and very inspiritingto both the parties.
But smiles and sunshine cannot last forever. The granaries of theIndians began to fail under their own profligacy and the demands ofthe Frenchmen. The resources of the former, never abundant, were soonexhausted in providing for the additional hungry mouths which had comeamong them. Shrinking from labor, they addressed as little of it as theywell could, to the cultivation of their petty maize fields. Theyplanted them, as we do now, a couple of grains of corn to each hill,at intervals of three or four square feet, and as the corn grew to asufficient height, peas were distributed among the roots, to twineabout the stalks when the vines could no longer impair its growth. Theycropped the same land twice in each summer. The supplies, thus procured,would have been totally inadequate to their wants, but for the abundantgame, the masts of the forest, and such harsh but wholesome roots asthey could pulverize and convert into breadstuffs. Their store was thuslimited always, and adapted to their own wants simply. Any additionaldemand, however small, produced a scarcity in their granaries. Theimprovidence of Audusta, or his liberality, prevented him fromconsidering this danger, until it began to be felt. He had suppliedthe Frenchmen until his stock was exhausted; no more being left in hispossession than would suffice to sow his fields.
"For this reason,"--such was the language of the savage monarch--"wemust retire to the forests, and live upon its mast and roots, untilharvest time. We are sorry that we can supply you no longer; you mustnow seek the granaries of our neighbors. There is a king called COUEXIS,a prince of great might and renown in this country, whose province liestoward the south. His lands are very fertile. His stores are ample atall seasons. He alone can furnish you with food for a long time. Beforeyou approach the territories of Couexis, there is his brother, kingOuade, who is scarcely less wealthy. He is a generous chief, who willbe very joyful if he may but once behold you. Seek out these, and yourwants shall be supplied."
The advice was taken. The Frenchmen had no alternative. They addressedthemselves first to Ouade. His territories lay along the river Belle,some twenty-five leagues south of Port Royal. He received them withthe greatest favor and filled their pinnace with maize and beans. Hewelcomed them to his abode with equal state and hospitality. His houseis described as being hung with a tapestry richly wrought of feathers.The couch upon which he slept, was dressed with "white coverlettes,embroidered with devises of very wittie and fine workmanship, andfringed round about with a fringe dyed in the colour of scarlet." Hisgifts to our Frenchmen were not limited to the commodities they craved.He gave them six coverlets, and tapestry such as decorated his couch anddwelling; specimens of a domestic manufacture which declare for tastesand a degree of art which seems, in some degree, to prove their intimacywith the more polished and powerful nations of the south. In regard tofood hereafter, king Ouade promised that his new acquaintance shouldnever want.
Thus was the first intercourse maintained by our Huguenots with theirsavage neighbors. It was during this intimacy, and while all thingsseemed to promise fair in regard to the colony, that the tragical eventstook place which furnish the materials for the legend which follows, thenarrative of which requires that we should mingle events together, thosewhich occurred in the periods already noted, and those which belong toour future chapters. Let it suffice, here, that, with his pinnace storedwith abundance, the mil (meal), corn and peas, of Ouade, Albert returnedin safety to Fort Charles.
The Lily and the Totem; or, The Huguenots in Florida Page 4
