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Show 436 THE LILY AND TilE TOTEM. river Caraba, or Snlinacani, named by Ribault the Somme, which WI\!! at length reached, but not without great difficulty, the streams being overfto\ved by frequent and severe r9.ins, ~nd the marshy and lo\v tracts o.ll under water. Food was want~ng also to our Frenchmen, tho bark appointed to follow them wtth provisions, under Monsieur Bourdclois not having arrived. They were now but two leagues distant from th~ two .amall~r forts which the Spaniards had established and fortified, tn addttion to that of La Caroline, on the banks of tho May, or, as they had newly christened it, the San Mathea. While bewildered with doubts as to the manMr of reaching these forts-the waters everywhere between being swollen almost beyond tb~ poMibi,lity of p3..'!Silgc-thc red·men were consulted, and the ch1ef, Heheopile, was chosen to guide our Frenchmen by a more easy and less obvious route. Making a eir<mit through the woods, the whole party at length reached a point where they could behold one of the forts; but a deep creek lay between, the water of which rose above their waists. Gourgues, however, now that his objeot W8.8 in sight, was not to b::~ discouragod by inferior obstacles; and, giving instructions to his people to fasten their powder ~asks ~ their morions and to carry their swords tmd their calivers m thelr bands above their heads, be effected the passage at a. point which enabled them to cover thcm!!clves from sight of the Spani~rds by a thick tract of forest which lay between the fort and the r1vcr. It was sore fording for our Frenchmen ; for the bed of the creek was paved with great oysters, the shells of which inflicted sha.r.p wounds upon their legs and feet; and many of them lost therr shoes in the passage. As soon as they had crossed, they prepared themselves for the 3.!sault. Up to this moment, so well had the red·mon guarded all the passages, and so rapid had boon DOMINIQUE DE GOURGUES. 437 their march, with that of Gourgucs and his party, that the Spaniards had no notion that there were any Frenchmen in the country. Still, they were on the alert; and so active did they show themselves, in and about the fort, that our chevalier feared that his approach had been discovered. But no time was to be lost. Giving twenty a.rqucbusicrs to his Lieutenant Ca.scnove, and half that number of mariners, armed with pots and balls of wild fire, designed tQ burn the gate of the fort, he took a like force under his own command, with the view to making simultaneous !l.8Silu.lts in opposite quartera. Tho two parties were scarcely in motion, before Gourgues found the chief Holata Cara at his side, followed by a small party of the red-men ; the rest had been carefully concealed in the woods, in order to pursue the combat after their primitive fashion. Holata Cara was armed only with a long spear, which ho bore with «reat dexklrity, and a macana which now hung by his aide, a flattened club, the two edges of which were fitted with tho teeth of the shark, or with great flints, ground down to the sharpness of a knife. This was his substitute for a sword, and was a weapon capable of inflicting the most Wrrible wounds. Tho spear which he carried was headed alAo with a massive dart of flint, curiously and finely set in tho wood, and exhibiting a rare instance of Indian ingenuity, in its oxccllcncc as a weapon of offence, and its rare and elaborate ornament. Gourgues examined it with much interest. Tho instrument was antiquo. It might have been in use an hundred years or more. The heavy but clastic wood, almost blackened by ago and oil, was polished like a mirror by repeated friction. The grasp was carved with curious ability 1 and exhibiWd the wings of birds with eyes wrought among the feathers, in the sockets of which great pearls were set, the carving of the |