THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS. 147 



"Pamphilo deNarvaez was no mere adventurer. To 

 family honors and name he added the higher title of a 

 fame won on the battle-field, and wealth and love added 

 their charms to bind him to ease. But he also had heard 

 of that fabled spring, and from the esplanade of his 

 priQcely home in Cuba had seen the evening sky reful- 

 gent with what was said to be the reflection of the gold 

 of the Floridas; and so, when the wind came fresh from 

 the eastward, the morning-star saw his black-eyed lady 

 watching from her balcony the lessening galleys that 

 were bearing away her chief and four hundred men. 



" After seven days of favoring winds, ^N'arvaez landed 

 on the western shore of the peninsula, near where the 

 ^ Mecaco River empties into Charlotte Bay, and forthwith 

 the bands of armed men, with their standards and their 

 horses, landed on the beach, and took possession of the 

 land in the name of Spain. A curious spectacle did the 

 adventurers present. There were the chiefs, with their 

 haughty mien, and Moorish war-horses, the soldier with 

 his pike and lance — the blue-steel cuirass, the chain shirt, 

 and Toledo blade — all contrasted with that tropical coun- 

 try of bii'ds and flowers, and the gentle mien of the 

 Indians that welcomed them. Around their leader were 

 gathered chiefs of noble name : Cobecca de Vacca, the 

 treasurer ; Quesada, from his stately house in Cordova ; 

 and La Manca, the most gallant gentleman of Navarre. 

 There came, also, priests to cure the souls of the be- 

 nighted — hooded priests, whose convent stood high on 

 the hills of Sierra de Diego, and little boys to swing the 



