THE FLOKDDA POCAHONTAS. 153 



was at once seized ; and being recognized as one of Nar- 

 vaez's band, was condemned to death. His frightened 

 comrades having lost their guide, made haste to weigh 

 anchor, and sailed away to Cuba, glad to escape from 

 the terrors of that Stygian shore. 



" Ortez was a true Spaniard. His haughty mien, dark 

 hair and eye, his active strength and bronzed face, all 

 spoke the soldier of fortune, and impressed the feebler 

 natives with a respect in spite of their hatred. His dress, 

 in the fashion of the day, of embroidered velvet and lace, 

 gave him the appearance, to their eyes, of a chief of rank, 

 and they rejoiced that they could punish their Spanish 

 foes by the sacrifice of one of their great men, and led 

 him, bound, to the village of the Appalachean Cacique. 

 This town was situated, as near as the old histories of 

 those days can inform us, on one of the many islands 

 that crowd the mouth of the Appalachicola river. It is 

 the more difficult to designate the spot, because, from 

 the currents of the river, new islands are formed and the 

 old ones are buried in the lapse of time, and the whole 

 character of the timber has been changed. Where now 

 groves of stunted pine surmount the sandy ridges, and 

 the swamp poplar and the rank titi cover the piles of 

 drift-wood that lodge on the upper end of the islands, 

 there formerly stood the life-oak, the gum, the maple, 

 and the pawpaw, while the deer grass beneath was pur- 

 ple with its fragile flowers, and the blossoms of the run- 

 ning gourds that the natives loved to cultivate. 



" Ortez was rowed in a canoe among many an island 

 7* 



