THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS. 99 



" The lady's eye was on the adventurer, and noted his look. 



" ' Do this for me. I will send you with a pinnace, I will name 

 you a lieutenant before you go, and when you return, I will pay 

 you here in this chamber two hundred ounces of gold. Stay here 

 now as you are, and you remain the bankrupt soldier, pointed out 

 as the man who left Narvaez in Florida.' 



" Steadily Ortez weighed in his mind his chances of life, and 

 the golden sum that was as sure to him on the promise of that 

 woman as though belted at his waist. His eye looked at the soft 

 light that came in at the window, and the spattering fountain in 

 the court below, vacantly, while one could count a score ; and 

 then, turning to the widow, he said — 



"  I will go,' adding, with Spanish grace, ' and may our Lady 

 Mother keep you well till my return.' 



" In a few days the adventurer was again in the Mexican 

 Gulf, steering for the battle-fields where he had left his 

 chief. He sailed among islands covered with mangroves, and 

 pillared on coral, touching at every prominent point, and thread- 

 ing the broad lagoons where the sea-ferns spread their palms to 

 the light of the upper air. When opportunities offered, he landed 

 on the shore, and tried, by presents and gentle words, to gain from 

 the natives the information he desired, but they remembered 

 the fierce forays of Velasquez and Narvaez, and only treated 

 to betray. He was induced one day by the Apalaches to visit 

 the shore, and was at once seized; and being recognised as 

 one of Narvaez'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 Apalachean Cacique. This 



