University of Virginia Library

2. II.
THE COLONY UNDER ALBERT.

The Colonists, thus abandoned by their countrymen, proceeded
to make themselves secure in their forest habitations. Day and
night did they address themselves to the completion of their fortress.
They have seen none of the natives in the immediate
neighborhood of the spot in which they had pitched their tents;
but, aware of the wandering habits of the red-men, they might
naturally look for them at any moment. Their toils, quickened
by their caution, enabled them to make rapid progress. While
they labored, they felt nothing of their loneliness. The employments
which accompanied their situation, and flowed from its necessities,
might be said to exercise their fancies, and to subdue
the tendency to melancholy which might naturally grow out of
their isolation. Besides, the very novelty of the circumstances
in which they found themselves had its attractions, particularly
to a people so lively as the French. Our Huguenots, at the outset,
were very sensible to the picturesque beauties of their
forest habitation. For a season, bird, and beast, and tree, and
flower, presented themselves to their delighted eyes, in guises of
constantly-varying attraction. The solitude, itself, possessed its
charm, most fascinating of all,—until it became monotonous—

to those who had been little favored of fortune in the crowded
world of civilization; and, with the feeling of a first freshness in
their hearts, and, while in the performance of duties which were
equally necessary to their safety, and new to their experience, the
whole prospect before them was beheld through that rose-colored
atmosphere which the fancy so readily flings before the mind,
beguiling the soberer thought into forgetfulness. During this
period they toiled successfully upon their fortifications. They
raised the parapet, they mounted the cannon for defence; built
rude dwellings within the walls, and in their boundless contiguity
of shade, with the feeling that they were in some sort “monarchs
of all they beheld;” they felt neither loneliness nor fear.

Their homes built, their fortifications complete, they proceeded,
in small detachments to explore the neighboring streams and
woods. They had, so far, finished all their tasks without meeting
with the natives. They did not shrink from this meeting. They
now desired it from motives of policy. They had no reason to
believe, from the specimens of the red-men whom they had already
encountered, that they should have any difficulty in soothing any
of the tribes; and they were justified in supposing that the impression
already made upon those whom they met, would operate
favorably upon their future intercourse. Boldly, then, our
Frenchmen darted into the adjacent forests, gathering their game
and provisions in the same grounds with the proprietors. But
the latter were never to be seen. They were shy of the strangers,
or they had not yet discovered their settlement. One day, however,
a fortunate chance enabled a party of the Huguenots to discover,
and to circumvent an Indian hunter, upon whom they came
suddenly in the forests. At first the poor fellow was exceedingly
dismayed at the encounter; but, subduing his fears, he submitted

with a good grace to the wishes of his captors, and was conducted
to the fortress. Here he was treated with consideration, and
made happy by several trifles which were given him. His confidence
was finally won, and his mouth was opened. He became
communicative, and described his people and their territories.
He avowed himself the subject of a great monarch, whom he
called Audusta,[1] —a name, in which, under the corruptions of a
French pronunciation, we recognize the well-known modern name
of Edisto. He described the boundaries of empire belonging to
this forest chieftain; and gave a general and not incorrect idea of
the whole surrounding country.

Captain Albert was exceedingly delighted with his acquisition.
It was important that he should open an intercourse with the natives,
to whose maize-fields and supplies of venison his necessities
required he should look. He treated the hunter with liberality
and courtesy, dismissing him at night-fall with many presents, of
a kind most grateful to the savage taste. These hospitalities and
gifts, it was not doubted, would pave the way for an intercourse
equally profitable and pleasant to both the parties. Suffering a
few days to elapse after the departure of the hunter, Albert prepared
to follow his directions, and explore the settlements of King
Audusta. He did so, and was received with great kindness by
the stately savage. The Indian hunter had made a favorable report
of the Frenchmen, and Audusta adopted them as his friends
and allies. He promised them provisions and assistance, and the

friendship of four other chiefs or princes, his tributaries, whose
names are given as Mayou, Hoya, Touppa, and Stalamè.[2] These
were all, in turn,—except the last,—visited by Albert, who found
a frank and generous welcome wherever he came. He consumed
several days in these visits; and the intercourse, in a little while,
between the French and red-men, grew so great, “that, in a manner,
all things were soon common between them.” Returning to
Audusta, Albert prepared to visit Stalamè, whose country lay
north of Fort Charles some fifteen leagues. This would make
his abode somewhere on the Edisto, near Givham's, perhaps; or,
inclining still north, to the head of Ashley River. Sailing up the
river, (the Edisto probably,) they encountered a great current,
which they followed, to reach the abode of Stalamè. He, too, received
the strangers with hospitality and friendship. The intercourse
thus established between the party soon assumed the most
endearing aspect. The Indian kings took counsel of Albert in all
matters of importance. The Frenchmen were called to the conference
in the round-house of the tribe, quite as frequently as their
own recognized counsellors. In other words, the leaders of the
Huguenots were adopted into the tribe, that being the usual mode
of indicating trust and confidence. Albert was present at all the
assemblages of state in the realm of Audusta; at all ceremonials,
whether of business or pleasure; at his great hunts; and at the
singular feasts of his religion. One of these feasts, that of Toya,[3]
which succeeded the visit of Albert to the territories of Audusta
and the four tributary kings, will call for an elaborate description
hereafter, when we narrate the legend of Guernache, upon whose
fate that of the colony seems to have depended.

The intercourse of our Huguenots with Audusta was of vital
importance to the former. In the form of gifts, he yielded them
a regular tribute of maize and beans, (corn and peas, in modern
parlance,) and was easily persuaded to do so by the simple trifles,
of little value, which the colonists proffered in return. It is not
difficult to win the affections of an inferior people, where the superior
is indulgent. Kindness will disarm the hostility of the
savage, and justice will finally subdue the jealousy of conscious ignorance.
Sympathy in sports and amusements, above all things,
will do much towards bringing together tribes who differ in their
laws and language, and will make them forgetful of all their differences.
The French have been usually much more successful
than any other people in overcoming the prejudices of the red-men
of America. The moral of their nation is much more flexible than
that of the Englishman and Spaniard;—the former of whom has
always subdued, and the latter usually debased or destroyed, the
races with which they came in conflict.

The policy of Albert did not vary from that which usually distinguished
his countrymen in like situations. The French Protestant
was, by no means, of the faith and temper of the English
Puritan. In simplifying his religion, he did not clothe his exterior
in gloom; he did not deny that there should be sunshine and

blossoms in the land. Our colonists at Fort Charles did not perplex
the Indians with doctrinal questions. It is greatly to be
feared, indeed, that religion did not, in any way, disturb them in
their solitudes. At all events, it was not of such a freezing temper
as to deny them the indulgence of an intercourse with the
natives, which, for a season, was very agreeable and very inspiriting
to both the parties.

But smiles and sunshine cannot last forever. The granaries
of the Indians began to fail under their own profligacy and the
demands of the Frenchmen. The resources of the former, never
abundant, were soon exhausted in providing for the additional
hungry mouths which had come among them. Shrinking from
labor, they addressed as little of it as they well could, to the cultivation
of their petty maize fields. They planted them, as we do
now, a couple of grains of corn to each hill, at intervals of three
or four square feet, and as the corn grew to a sufficient height,
peas were distributed among the roots, to twine about the stalks
when the vines could no longer impair its growth. They cropped
the same land twice in each summer. The supplies, thus procured,
would have been totally inadequate to their wants, but for the
abundant game, the masts of the forest, and such harsh but
wholesome roots as they could pulverize and convert into breadstuffs.
Their store was thus limited always, and adapted to their
own wants simply. Any additional demand, however small, produced
a scarcity in their granaries. The improvidence of Audusta,
or his liberality, prevented him from considering this danger,
until it began to be felt. He had supplied the Frenchmen
until his stock was exhausted; no more being left in his possession
than would suffice to sow his fields.

“For this reason,”—such was the language of the savage monarch—“we

must retire to the forests, and live upon its mast and
roots, until harvest time. We are sorry that we can supply you
no longer; you must now seek the granaries of our neighbors.
There is a king called Couexis, a prince of great might and renown
in this country, whose province lies toward the south. His
lands are very fertile. His stores are ample at all seasons. He
alone can furnish you with food for a long time. Before you approach
the territories of Couexis, there is his brother, king Ouade,
who is scarcely less wealthy. He is a generous chief, who will be
very joyful if he may but once behold you. Seek out these, and
your wants shall be supplied.”

The advice was taken. The Frenchmen had no alternative.
They addressed themselves first to Ouade. His territories lay
along the river Belle, some twenty-five leagues south of Port
Royal. He received them with the greatest favor and filled their
pinnace with maize and beans. He welcomed them to his abode
with equal state and hospitality. His house is described as being
hung with a tapestry richly wrought of feathers. The couch
upon which he slept, was dressed with “white coverlettes, embroidered
with devises of very wittie and fine workmanship, and
fringed round about with a fringe dyed in the colour of scarlet.”
His gifts to our Frenchmen were not limited to the commodities
they craved. He gave them six coverlets, and tapestry such as
decorated his couch and dwelling; specimens of a domestic
manufacture which declare for tastes and a degree of art which
seems, in some degree, to prove their intimacy with the more
polished and powerful nations of the south. In regard to food
hereafter, king Ouade promised that his new acquaintance should
never want.

Thus was the first intercourse maintained by our Huguenots

with their savage neighbors. It was during this intimacy, and
while all things seemed to promise fair in regard to the colony,
that the tragical events took place which furnish the materials for
the legend which follows, the narrative of which requires that we
should mingle events together, those which occurred in the periods
already noted, and those which belong to our future chapters.
Let it suffice, here, that, with his pinnace stored with
abundance, the mil (meal), corn and peas, of Ouade, Albert returned
in safety to Fort Charles.