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Show 14 THE LILY AND TilE TOTEM. season. Ilis desires were soon gratified. He c:tst anchor at the mouth of a mighty ri\·cr, to wl1ich, "bccnusc of the fairncssc and largcncssc thcrcoff," he gave the name of Port Royale, tho name w!JiciJ it still bears. The depth of this ri\·cr is such, tlw.t, according to Laudonnicrc, "when tho sea bcginncth to flowc, tho greatest shippcs of France, yen, the argosies of V cnice, may cnt.cr there." Ribault, at the head of his soldiers, was the first to land. Grateful, indeed, to the eye and fancy of our Frenchmen, was the scene around them. They had already passed through a fairy-like region, of islet upon islet, reposing upon the dccp,crowncd witl1 brrccn forests, and arrest ing, as it were, the wild aS€aults of ocean upon the shores of which they appeared to keep watch and guard. And, passing between these islets and the main, over stillest waters, with a luxmiant shrubbery on either hand, and vines and flowers of starred luxm·inncc trailing about them to the very lips of this occ:m, they had arrived at an imperial growth of forest. 'l'he mighty sl1afts that rose around them, hc:lvy with giant liwbs, and massed in their lux.urkmt wealth of leaves, particularly impressed the minds of our voyagers--" mightye high oakes and infinite store of cedars," and pines fitted for the masts of " such great arnmirals " as had nc•cr yet floated in the Europonn scns. Their senses ,verc assailed with fresh and novel delights at every footstep. The superb magnolia, with ita great and sno\v-white chalices ; the flowering dogwood with its myriad blossomn, tllick and richly gleaming as tlJC starry host of heaven; the wandflring jflssa.millfl, whose yellow trophies, mingling with grey mosses of the oak, stooped to the upward struggling billows of the deep, giYing out odor at every rise and fall of the ambitious wavclet,-these, by their unwonted treasures of scent and beauty, compelled tho silent but ATTRACTIONS OF THE REGION . 15 profound admiration of the strangers. "Exceeding pleasant" did the "vory fragrant odour " make the place; while other novelties interposed to complete the fascinations of a spot, the peculiarities of which were equally fresh and delightful. Their farther acquaintance with the country only served to increase its attractions. As they wandered through tho woods, they "saw nothing but turkey cocks flying in the forests, partridges, gray and red, little different from ours, but chielly in bigncssc ;"-"we lJCard also within the woods the voices of stagges, of bcarcs, of hyenas, of leopards, and divers other sorts of beasts unknown to us. Doing delighted with this place, we set ourselves to fishing witl1 nets, and caught such a number of fish that it was wonderful." The S.'l.me region is still renowned for ita fish and game, for the monskrs as well as the muilitudcs of the deep, and for the deer of its spacious swamps and forests, which still exercise tho skill and enterprise of the angler and the hunter. This is the peculiar region also, of the "Devil fish," the" Vampire of the Ocean," described by naturalists M of the genus Jl.ay, species Dio-don, a leviathan of the deep, whose monstrous nnt<:nnroare thrown about the skiff of tl10 fisherman with an embrace as perilous as that wanton sweep of his mighty extremities with which tho whale flings abroad the crowding boats of his hardy captors. Sea and land, in this lovely neighborhood, still gleam freshly and wondrously upon the eye of the visitor as in t11o days of our IJuguenot advcntmcrs; and still do its forests, in spite of the cordon wl1ich civilization and society have everywhere drawn around tl1cm, harbor colonies of the bear which occasionally croas tho p:tth of the sportsman, and add to his various trophies of tho chase. |
