had little notion of keeping faith with mere
savages. Outina promised Vasseur, Laudonniere's lieutenant, that if he
would join him against Potanou, the chief of a third tribe, each of his
vassals would reward the French with a heap of gold and silver two feet
high. So, at least, Vasseur professed to understand him.

The upshot of the matter was that Satouriona was incensed against the
French for breaking faith with him. And to make the situation worse,
when he went, unaided, and attacked his enemies and brought back
prisoners, the French {81} commander, to curry favor with Outina,
compelled Satouriona to give up some of his captives and sent them home
to their chief.

All this was laying up trouble for the future. Not a sod had the
Frenchmen turned in the way of tilling the soil. The river flowing at
their feet teemed with fish. The woods about them were alive with game.
But they could neither fish nor hunt. Starving in a land of plenty, ere
long they would be dependent for food on these people who had met them so
kindly, and whom they had deliberately cheated and outraged.

Next we find Vasseur sailing up the river and sending some of his men
with Outina to attack Potanou, whose village lay off to the northwest.
Several days the war-party marched through a pine-barren region. When it
reached its destination the Frenchmen saw, instead of a splendid city of
the "kings of the Appalachian mountains," rich in gold, just such an
Indian town, surrounded by rough fields of corn and pumpkins, as the
misguided Spaniards under Soto had often come upon. The poor barbarians
defended their homes bravely. But the Frenchmen's guns routed them.
Sack and slaughter followed, with the burning of the town. Then the
victors {82} marched away, with such glory as they had got, but of course
without a grain of gold.

At Fort Caroline a spirit of sullenness was growing. Disappointment had
followed all their reckless, wicked attempts to get treasure. The
Indians of the neighborhood, grown unfriendly, had ceased to bring in
food for barter. The garrison was put on half-rations. Men who had come
to Florida expecting to find themselves in a land of plenty and to reap a
golden harvest, would scarcely content themselves with the monotonous
routine of life in a little fort by a hot river, with nothing to do and
almost nothing to eat. It was easy to throw all the blame on Laudonniere.

[Illustration: Fort Caroline]

"Why does he