“All of us who have been at Fort Caroline know of the love which the great Paracousi bore for Jean Ribault. Dariol, the trumpeter, who was with the first expedition, has lived among them longer than I; and he has boasted that he will go among them without fear.”
“It is in my mind to sail directly to the country of this chief; his boast may not prove an idle one,” replied De Gourgues. And then to the guard, “Pass the word below to Dariol the trumpeter. We shall see.”
Presently the man came from the fore-castle and stood before us.
“You have no fear of the Indians of Florida, Dariol?” asked De Gourgues.
“None more than I have of M. Killigrew or M. de Brésac, my Captain,” replied the man with a smile.
“You have lived among them longer than M. de Brésac?”
“They were friendly to M. de Laudonnière?”
“Until the madness for gold, when his soldiers broke faith with them.”
“And Monsieur Ribault?” asked de Gourgues.
“Satouriona thought the Admiral a great chief, M. le Chevalier. They swore an eternal friendship.”
“M. de Brésac says you speak their language, Dariol.”
“You know their customs. How think you they will look upon our landing?”
“Monsieur,” replied the trumpeter firmly, “I believe with M. de Brésac that if they think us Spaniards they will dispute our landing. If we prove ourselves Frenchmen and friends, they will receive us with gladness.”
“It is my belief that they hold the Spaniards in great enmity. For no arrogance will be borne by Satouriona. He is a great King, with great pride of spirit, and numbers his people by many thousands.”
“But the Spanish have friends among the Indians? M. de Brésac has said so.”
“Yes, my Captain. But they are the false-hearted, dirt-eaters of Outina. Against these, Satouriona wages a war more fierce even than against the Spanish.”
De Gourgues stroked his mustache, saying,
“When we reach the coast, I will call for you, Dariol. For the present, that is all.”
“Par la mort, his words ring true as steel,” muttered De Gourgues. “If these Caribs are valiant, as he says, we will sweep this scum of pestilence from off the western land.”
The next day at noon we sighted the coast of the Terra Florida, and at the thought of all Diane had suffered there my heart welled full of emotion. Now as we came nearer and nearer our mission’s ending, the cloud fell down upon my spirit again, and the same struggle between hope and fear--of pain which is the price of joy--tossed me to and fro--held and freed me, like the embrace of some temptation. The sun was yet above the foreyard when we came in sight of the River of May, but De Gourgues, wishing to reconnoiter, stood on until sunset, when we were within less than three leagues from the coast. Suddenly we saw several puffs of smoke spurt from the beach as the Spaniards, suspecting no enemy, fired their cannon in salute. Not until then did we know of the new defenses which the enemy were putting upon the shore at either side of the river’s mouth. Our three vessels, to better keep up the guise of friendship, boomed forth a salute in reply, after which we put out to sea again and soon lost the shore line in the rapidly falling dusk.
