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Show 102 THE LtLY .AND TilE TOTEM, But for this there bad been no lack of the necessary inducements. In their second \'Oyagc to King Ouadc, seeking "mil and beans/' they had learned some of the secrets of the country which made their eyes brig!Jtcn. They had disco\'crcd that there was gold in tl1c land, and that the gold of the land was good. This prince lmd freely gh·cn them of his treasure. He had bestowed on them pearls of the native waters, stones of finest cbrystal, and certain specimens of silver ore, which ho described, in reply to their eager inquiries, 3.8 having been gathered at tlu~ foot of certain high mountains, the bowels of which contained it in greatest quantity. These were tho mountaius of Apalachin, and the truth of Oua.dc's rc,·clations have been confirmed by subsequent discovery. The intelligence had gre.:1tly gladdened the hearts of our Frcnc!Jmen, and nothing but the feebleness of tilC~ garrison prevented Albert from prosecuting a search which promised so largely to gratify the lusts of avarice. llis subsequent errors and fate put an end to the desire among his followers. They longed for nothing now so much as home. They had been temporarily • abandoned by the Indians whose granaries they had emptied, and who had been compelled to wander off to remote forests in search of their own supplies. The gloom of the Frenchmen naturally increased in the absence of their allies, who had furnished them equally with food and recreation. Their provisions again began to fail them. Their resources in corn and peas were quite exhausted; and no more could be procured from the red-men, who had preserved a supply barely sufficient for the planting of their little fields. In this condition of want, with this feeling of destitution :md abandonment,it was resolved among the Huguenots, to depart the colooy. With a fond hope once more of rccovcriog the shores of that country, still most beloved, which had so 103 unkindly cast tl1em forth, they began to build themselves a vessel sufficiently hrge to bear their little compnny. "And though there 1vere no men among them," snys the chronielo, "that had any skill, notwithstanding, necessitye, which is the nu1.istresse of all sc iences, taught them the way to build it." But how were they to provide the sails, the tackle and tho cordage? " I fa1•ing no n1eanes to recover these things they were in worse case than at the first, and almost ready to fall into despayre." They were succored, when most desponding, by tho help of Providence. " That good God, which never forsaketh the afflicted, did favor them in their necessitie." The Indians, who had been for some time absent, seeking, by the chase, in distant forests, tO Supply themsch•es with prOI'iSiODS in place of those which they had yielded to the white men, now began to reappear ; and, in tho midst of their perplexities, they were visited by tho CaeiqneR1 Andusta and Maceou, with more than two hundred of their followers. Theile, our :Frenchmen went forth to meet, with great slww of sati;;faction ; and had they been sufficiently re-assured by t!JC return of their red friends-had they not been too much the \'ictims of ttostalgia, or homesickness, tho cloud miglit ha,·e passed from their fortunes, and the little colony might have been re-established under favoring auspices. Due their only thought 1vas of their nati\·e land. Thoy declared their wishes to the Indian chieftains, and, showing in what need of cordage they stood, they 1vcre told thnt this would be provided in the space of a. few days. The Caciques kept their word, and, in little time, brought an abundance of cordage. But other things were wanted, and " our men sought all meanes to recover rosen in the woodes, wherein tl10y cut the pine trees round about, out of which they drew suffici\lnt reasonable quantitie to bray the |
