The greatest vigilance was
now exercised, and every effort made to discover the nature of this
party. For some time no further trace of them was found; but among the
vast salt-marshes of the coast these efforts were crowned with success.
Here two warriors who had been sent to the main-land to examine the
vicinity of a fine spring of fresh water returned, and reported that
they had found a recently abandoned camp. From unmistakable signs they
knew that it had been occupied by a war-party of those Indian outlaws
whom they called Seminoles.
This gave Rene great uneasiness, for he feared that since they had
received Chitta into their ranks, he had told them of the distress of
the garrison of Fort Caroline, and induced them to attempt an attack
upon it.
Even as Rene had supposed, and only a day before he and the Alachuas
reached that point, Chitta, together with the gigantic Cat-sha, and the
band of outlaws whom they had joined in the great swamp, had passed
that way. Their object was to surround Fort Caroline, and harass its
weakened garrison by cutting off any stragglers who might venture
beyond its walls, until they should have so reduced the number of its
defenders that it would fall an easy prey into their hands.
Upon arriving in the vicinity of the fort, the Seminoles found there a
strong war-party of angry savages from the South, who were also
watching for an opportunity to make a successful attack upon it, and
thus obtain satisfaction for the destruction of one of their villages
by the white gold-hunters.
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