96 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



western shore of the peninsula, near where the Mecaco Eiver 

 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 country of birds 

 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 Castile. 

 There came, also, priests to cure the souls of the benighted — 

 hooded priests, whose convent stood high on the hills of Sierra 

 de Diego, and boys to swing the incense at the altars ; and hounds 

 in couples nosing the scented air with their tawny muzzles. All 

 the paraphernalia of war, and the emblems of religion, or wild 

 sports, swept by Gaspiralla Island, and with the sound of the 

 trumpet and the horn landed on the main land. 



"But a short history remains to be told. Treachery to the 

 natives aroused revenge. The arrow soughed on every wind, 

 hostile bands disputed every stream. One battle followed another. 

 The troops were divided in different bodies, under different leaders, 

 and fought their way northward, until all but fifteen of that 

 hopeful army found a grave, either on the field of battle or the 

 quicksand swamps. Fifteen, under the command of De Vacca, 

 coasted the Gulf, and gained a shelter in the Mexican colonies. 

 But one man, a common soldier named Ortez, escaped the others' 

 doom. Being left ^wounded on a battle-field, he watched his 

 opportunity, and, as night covered the shattered dead and trodden 

 field, he crept down to the water's edge, guided by the splash of 

 the sea. Here, finding a canoe of the natives, he hastily gathered 

 some fruit to support him on his voyage, and setting a sail, was 

 soon beyond pursuit. He coasted down the shore, only landing 

 at night to gather the turtles' and birds' eggs that were abundant 

 on all the islands, until he reached Cuba, and saw once more the 

 towers of a Spanish town. 



