of half-famished men to seize the rice, Indian corn, and other food,
wherever such food could be found.

The natives had sufficient intelligence to perceive that the colonists
were fast wasting away. The Indians were gentle and amiable in
character, and naturally timid; with no taste for the ferocities
of war. But emboldened by the miseries of the colonies, and beginning
to despise their weakness, they fell upon the foraging parties with
great courage and drove them back ignominiously to the coast.
The arrival of the ships to which we have referred with provisions
and reinforcements, alone saved the colony from utter extinction.

Don Pedro, after having been in the colony five years, returned to
Spain to obtain new acquisitions of strength in men and means for the
prosecution of ever-enlarging plans of wealth and ambition. North and
south of the narrow peninsula were the two majestic continents of
North and South America. They both invited incursions, where nations
could be overthrown, empires established, fame won, and where
mountains of gold might yet be found.

It seems that De Soto had made the castle of Don Pedro, near Badajoz,
his home during the absence of the governor. There all his wants had
been provided for through the charitable munificence of his patron. He
probably had spent his term time at the university. He was now
nineteen years of age, and seemed to have attained the full maturity
of his physical system, and had developed into a remarkably elegant
young man.

The family of Don Pedro had apparently remained at the castle. His
second daughter, Isabella, was a very beautiful girl in her sixteenth
year. She had already been presented at the resplendent court of
Spain, where she had attracted great admiration. Rich, beautiful and
of illustrious birth, many noblemen had sought her hand, and among the
rest, one of the princes of the blood royal. But Isabella and De
Soto, much thrown together in the paternal castle, had very naturally
fallen in love with each other.

The haughty governor was one day exceedingly astounded and enraged,
that De Soto had the audacity to solicit the hand of his daughter in
marriage. In the most contemptuous and resentful manner, he repelled
the proposition as an insult. De Soto was keenly wounded. He was
himself a man of noble birth. He had no superior among all the young
noblemen around him, in any chivalric accomplishment. The only thing
wanting was money. Don Pedro loved