36 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



of a good thing." They could not invite their unwelcome 

 elephants to leave by force of arms, so they got rid of them 

 by a strategem worthy of the most august court in Europe. 



One morning an ambassador from the most powerful 

 King of Coosa arrived to interview the great white war- 

 rior. He was most gorgeously arrayed in paint and feath- 

 ers, and accompanied by a large number of attendants. 

 His errand was to convey a most pressing invitation from 

 the King of Coosa (Alabama) to visit him forthwith, 

 bringing all his troops with him. 



Nothing loth, the valiant De Luna set forth for Coosa, 

 guided by the ambassador, and after several days of hard 

 traveling he awoke one morning to find the ambassador 

 and his suite vanished, and himself — sold, a fact he speedily 

 realized. 



He, however, pushed on toward Coosa ; as well there as 

 any where. Hardships pursued the adventurers; they 

 grew ill-tempered and quarreled and mutinied ; they suf- 

 fered from hunger, lived upon roots, berries, and acorns ; 

 and at last, with a few followers only left of all the brave 

 fifteen hundred, Tristan De Luna made his way back to 

 Santa Marie or Pensacola, and there found ships awaiting 

 him, with orders to return to Mexico forthwith. 



And so ended the fourth Spanish attempt to wrest golden 

 conquest from Florida. 



There was, in very truth, a golden conquest to be made 

 in that beautiful country, but it was not to be won by 

 force or the sword ; rather by peace and the plow. 



Possibly, after this, the Spaniards might have let Florida 

 alone as an unlucky country, but there is a good deal of 

 the dog-in-the-manger disposition in human nature. 



The French Huguenots, under the direction of the 

 famous Admiral Coligni, conceived the project of a settle- 

 ment in the New World, and, after several unsuccessful 



