. To this end the lieutenant, Ottigny, went up the river in a
sail-boat. With him were a few soldiers and two Indians, the latter
going forth, says Laudonniere, as if bound to a wedding, keen for a
fight with the hated Thimagoa, and exulting in the havoc to be wrought
among them by the magic weapons of their white allies. They were doomed
to grievous disappointment.

The Sieur d'Ottigny spread his sail, and calmly glided up the dark
waters of the St. John's. A scene fraught with strange interest to the
naturalist and the lover of Nature. Here, two centuries later, the
Bartrams, father and son, guided their skiff and kindled their nightly
bivouac-fire; and here, too, roamed Audubon, with his sketch-book and
his gun. Each alike has left the record of his wanderings, fresh as the
woods and waters that inspired it. Slight, then, was the change since
Ottigny, first of white men, steered his bark along the still breast of
the virgin river. Before him, like a lake, the redundant waters spread
far and wide; and along the low shores, or jutting points, or the
waveless margin of deep and sheltered coves, towered wild, majestic
forms of vegetable beauty. Here rose the magnolia, high above
surrounding woods; but the gorgeous bloom had fallen, that a few weeks
earlier studded the verdant dome with silver. From the edge of the
bordering swamp the cypress reared its vast buttressed column and leafy
canopy. From the rugged arms of oak and pine streamed the gray drapery
of the long Spanish moss, swayed mournfully in the faintest breeze. Here
were the tropical plumage of the palm, the dark green masses of the
live-oak, the glistening verdure of wild orange-groves; and from out the
shadowy thickets hung the wreaths of the jessamine and the scarlet
trumpets of the bignonia.

Nor less did the fruitful river teem with varied forms of animal life.
From the caverns of leafy shade came the gleam and flicker of
many-colored plumage. The cormorant, the pelican, the heron, floated on
the water, or stalked along its pebbly brink. Among the sedges, the
alligator, foul from his native mud, outstretched his hideous length,
or, sluggish and sullen, drifted past the boat, his grim head level with
the surface, and each scale, each folding of his horny hide, distinctly
visible, as, with the slow movement of distended paws, he balanced
himself in the water. When, at sunset, they drew up their boat on the
strand, and built their camp-fire under the arches