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Show .2SO 'filE !.ILY AND TIIE TOTEM • profitless; particularly when the old king, with some solemnity, placing his hand upon the wrist of the French captain, said to him- " Brother, doubt me not--doubt not my pooplc. If they au~ wcr thee not to tl1y expectations a.<1 well as mine, bring me back to tl1y people, and let them do with me even as they please?" Again was tho Paracoussi brought into the presence of his subj ects. They assembled to meet him on the banks of a little river, which emptied into the main stream, and to which Laudonnicrc had penetrated in hi.:! vessels. They appeared with considerable supplies of bread, fish and beans, which they shared among the Frenchmen. They put on tho appearance of great good feeling and friendship, and entered iuto the negotiations for the release of their king, with equal frankness and cagcrncs.~. But in all this they exhibited only the consummate hypocrisy of their racll ;-t~. l1ypocrisy not to be wondered at or complained of, as it is the ouly natural defence which a barbarous people can ever possibly oppose to the superior power of civilization. Their effort W<1S simply still so to beguile the Frenchmen, as to ensnare their lcadcr,-gct /Jim within their power, and then compel an excb:mgc with l1is people of chief for chief. For this purpose they prolonged tho negotiations. Small supplies of food, enough to pro· Yoke expectation, without satisfying: demand, were brought daily to their visitors. But, in tltc meantime, their warriors began to II.Ccumulate along the shores, covered in tho neighboring thick::~ts, or crouching in patient watch along tho reedy tracts that fringed the river. The vigilant eye of Alphonse D'Erlach soon detected the ambush; and at length, finding Lnudonnicrc preparing to leave them, still keeping their king a. captive, the savages CAPTIVITY OF 'TilE CRE.AT P.ARACO USS I. 281 resumed tl10ir negotiations with more acti\•ity, and withdrew their archers from the neighborhood. Jt nmst not be supposed that their love for their monnr<'h was small, because thq showed themselves so slow in bringing the humO!c r;1.nsom of corn and beans, which the French demanded. To them, tl1at ransom was by no means insignificant. 1t swept their granaries. Jt took tho food from their children. It dt·ovo them into the woods in winter without supplies, leaving them to the rigors of the season, tho uncertainties of the chase, and with uo other dependence than the common mast of the forest. Jt deprived them of the very seed from which future harvests \'fere to be gathered. The drain for the supply of the hungry mouths at La Caroline, seemed to them perpetual, and Laudonniere aimed now not only to meet the wants of the present, but to store ships and fort against futuro nccessitie~:~. It was of the last importance to the people of Olata Utina, that they should recover their king without subjecting their people to the horrors of such a famine a~ was prey ing upon the vitals of the Frenchmen. They ovcr·rcaehod Laudonuierc at last. They persuaded him that the presence of the king, among his people, was necessary to compel each man to bring in his subsidy ;-that they must seo him, in his former abodes, freed entirely from bonds, before they would recognize Lis authority ;-that they feared, when they should have brought their grain, that the .French wou!J still retain their captive ;-and, in short, insii:ited so much upon tho fre edom of Utina, as tho sine qutl JW1l1 that the doubts of Laudonniere \Vere overcome. It was agreed that two chiefs should become ho.;;tages for Olata Utin:l1 nnJ, in guaranty of tho ful6lmcnt of his pledges. We arc not told of tho exact amount of ransom required for |