s in the colony, and most useful to the
French, was destroyed."

Du Pratz was a resident of New Orleans at the time, and got his
information from the parties directly concerned. He tells us that among
the women slaves "was the female Sun called the Strong Arm, who then
told me all she had done in order to save the French." It appears that
all she had done was not enough to save herself.

_THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE._

On a fine day in the pleasant month of August of the year 1714 a large
party of horsemen rode along Duke of Gloucester Street, in the city of
Williamsburg, Virginia, while the men, women, and children of the place
flocked to the doors of the houses cheering and waving their
handkerchiefs as the gallant cavaliers passed by. They were gayly
dressed, in the showy costumes worn by the gentlemen of that time, and
at their head was a handsome and vigorous man, with the erect bearing
and manly attitude of one who had served in the wars. They were all
mounted on spirited horses and carried their guns on their saddles,
prepared to hunt or perhaps to defend themselves if attacked. Behind
them followed a string of mules, carrying the packs of the horsemen and
in charge of mounted servants.

Thus equipped, the showy cavalcade passed through the main streets of
the small town, which had succeeded Jamestown as the Virginian capital,
and rode away over the westward-leading road. On they went, mile after
mile, others joining them, as they passed onward, the party steadily
increasing in numbers until it reached a place called Germanna, on the
Rapid Ann--now the Rapidan--River, on the edge of the Spotsylvania
Wilderness.

No doubt you will wish to know who these men were and what was the
object of their journey. It was a romantic one, as you will learn,--a
journey of adventure into the unknown wilderness. At that time Virginia
had been settled more than a hundred years, yet its people knew very
little about it beyond the seaboard plain. West of this rose the Blue
Ridge Mountains, behind which lay a great mysterious land, almost as
unknown as the mountains of the moon. There were people as late as that
who thought that the Mississippi River rose in these mountains.

The Virginians had given this land of mystery a name. They called it
Orange County. There were rumors that it was filled with great forests
and lofty mountains, that it held fertile valleys watered by beautiful
rivers, that it was a realm