that the first hostilities with the American Indians

arose.

THE FIRST ACT OF REVENGE.

It was not long before an opportunity occurred for the Indians to begin taking their revenge. One of the prominent members of the company that sent the expedition to kidnap the Indians on the main land was a certain personage named Lucas Vasquez d'Ayllon, who, when he heard the report brought back by the expedition, conceived the idea of taking possession of the country and making himself a sort of kingdom there. So he went to Spain and applied at court for a commission which should give him authority to do this, from the king and queen.

After several years of maneuvering and solicitation he at length obtained his commission, and returned to St. Domingo. There he fitted out an expedition, consisting of three vessels, and taking with him a proper supply of men and of military stores, he set sail. As soon as he reached the coast he entered St. Helena Sound, near where the town of Beaufort is now situated.* Here one of his vessels unfortunately went ashore and was

* See map at the commencement of the Eighth Chapter.

lost. With the other two he went a little further and landed. The Indians, who seem now to have thought that their turn was come to practice treachery, pretended to be very friendly. They engaged in traffic with the strangers at once, without manifesting any suspicion or fear, and in the end invited them to go a little way into the interior of the country to see their town. So completely was d'Ayllon deceived by their artifices that he allowed two hundred of his men to accept this invitation.

The Indians conducted the two hundred to the town, and there feasted and entertained them for two or three days. At first the men were somewhat wary and kept upon their guard, but in the course of the three days they gradually dismissed their apprehensions, and began at last to feel quite at home. On the night of the third day the Indians came upon them suddenly, under a preconcerted arrangement, and massacred them all as they lay asleep.

The Indians then immediately set off for the encampment of the expedition on the shore, where d'Ayllon himself and the rest of his company remained. They crept along in silence and secrecy through the woods, and at length, after pausing a moment on the outskirts of the encampment, to

make ready for a simultaneous assault, they suddenly burst upon the astonished Spaniards in their sleep, with terrific screams and yells, and with showers of darts and arrows. The Spaniards fled to their boats. The Indians pressed after them, beating them down by the way with tomahawks and war-clubs. Vast numbers were killed. The rest succeeded in getting off to their ships, and making their escape from the country. And this was the end of d'Ayllon's plan of making himself a kingdom on those southern shores.

NARVAEZ.

The next adventurer who undertook to make an incursion into the Florida country was a certain personage named Pamphilio de Narvaez. He had been engaged with the celebrated Hernando Cortez in various adventures further south, in Mexico, and had quarreled with him and been beaten by him in the contention, and he then went home to carry his complaints and accusations against his rival to the court of Spain. He did not obtain much satisfaction in respect to his alleged grievances, but at length, after seven years of intriguing, maneuvering and delay, he received from the king the appointment of viceroy or governor of Florida-that is to say, he was invested with authority to go and

conquer the country, establish over it the dominion of the king of Spain, and then exercise the dominion in the king's name.

He set off from Spain in the summer of 1527, thirty-five years after the first discovery of America by Columbus, and about ten or twelve years after the defeat of d'Ayllon, referred to under the preceding head. His expedition consisted of several ships, which contained about six hundred men, a considerable number of horses, and all necessary equipments and stores.

Narvaez was quite unfortunate in his voyage across the Atlantic, and also in approaching the shores of Cuba, where he stopped to refit before proceeding to his destination, having encountered a succession of terrible storms on the way, which, through the hardships which they entailed upon the crews, and the wrecking of one or two of his vessels which they caused, lost him a large number of his men. He finally sailed, however, for Cuba with those that remained, and at length, in April, 1528, nine months or more after leaving Spain, he found himself approaching the shores of Florida with about four hundred men and forty or fifty horses, at his disposal. Of course, there were several Spanish cavaliers and gentlemen in the company, who filled various subordinate offices

under Narvaez' command. Among these was one named Alva de Vaca-the secretary and paymaster of the expedition-who will be referred to particularly in the sequel.

THE LANDING.

Narvaez approached the shore on the western coast of Florida, near Tampa Bay. From the

decks of the vessels, as soon as they came in view of the land, the natives could be seen assembled in