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University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875[X]
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1Author:  Simms William Gilmore 1806-1870Add
 Title:  The damsel of Darien  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: With the first beams of the morning sun, the Indian warriors of Zemaco, a wild and motly armament, prepared to descend from the mountains into the plain, or rather valley, in which lay the Spanish settlement of Darien. More than five thousand men, detachments from a hundred tribes, which acknowledged the sovereignty of Zemaco, were assembled under the lead of this vindictive chief. They gathered at his summons from the province of Zobayda, where the golden temple of their worship stood, and which they esteemed to be the visible dwelling of their God; Abibeyba, Zenu, and many other provinces, the several cassiques of which, though not present with the quotas which they provided, were yet required by Zemaco to hold themselves in readiness to defend their territories from the incursions of the Spaniards. The hills that rose on three sides of the Spanish settlement were darkened with savage warriors. Exulting in the certainty of victory, they brandished their macanas of palm wood, and shot their arrows upward in defiance, while they sounded their war conchs for the general gathering. Never, in his whole career of sway and conquest, had the proud mountain chief at one time, assembled so vast a host. Their numbers, their known valour, the great strength of their bodies, and the admirable skill with which they swung aloft the club or sent the arrow to its mark, filled his bosom with a vain confidence in his own superiority, which the better taught Caonabo earnestly endeavoured to qualify and caution. But his counsels fell upon unwilling ears, and it was soon apparent to the latter that the prudence which he commended had the effect of diminishing his own courage in the estimation of his hearers. Once assured of this, the mortified Caonabo sank back to his little command, patiently resolved to await events, and remove any doubts on this head, of the Cassique of Darien, by the actual proofs of his prowess, which he was determined to display upon the field.
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