Commending his vigilance, Cat-sha, who was in the habit of personally assuring himself of the safety of the prisoners several times during each night, passed on.  Then E-chee, after stooping to whisper to Rene to be of good cheer, also moved away.

Before noon of the following day the canoes were run ashore, and Rene was allowed to rise and step from the one in the bottom of which he had travelled.  As he did so, he at once knew the place as the head of the little lagoon, where he had been left to nurse his snake-bite, while Has-se explored the trail that led away into the swamp.  It was with a swelling heart that the lad contrasted his present position with the one he had occupied at that time, and it was with difficulty that he forced back the hot tears that his thoughts caused to stand ready to flow.

The brave lad did not permit these signs of weakness to be seen, and he received some comfort by catching a kindly look from E-chee, and exchanging sympathetic glances with his fellow-prisoners, with whom, however, he was not allowed to speak.  They were of the new arrivals, and on account of illness had been left in the fort when the fighting men marched away to join Admiral Ribault.

As soon as the canoes had been drawn from the water and carefully concealed, the Seminoles and their captives turned into the gloom of the shadowy cypresses, and made their way in single file along the narrow trail that led away from the lagoon.  It was often covered with water, and a misstep on either side of its entire length would have plunged the unfortunate who should make it into a bottomless morass.  From it, without assistance, he would never be able to extricate himself, but would only sink deeper and deeper, until he had disappeared forever.  It happened that one of the French prisoners did step from the trail on this occasion.  The brutal savages watched with pleasure his frantic struggles to regain a footing, but without offering to aid him.  He had very nearly drowned in the horrible mixture of black water and blacker mud before they hauled him out.  He was in a pitiable plight, but they only greeted him with blows and jeers at his appearance, and forced him to resume the march, without allowing him to remove from his clothing any of the filth that clung to it.

Rene was able to distinguish the point at which the trail they were following branched off from that formerly taken by Has-se.  He hoped that E-chee would also note it, but had no chance of assuring himself that the young Indian had done so.

It was nearly nightfall before they reached the Seminole village that marked their journey’s end.  Here they were received by its inhabitants with the wildest demonstrations of savage joy.  Rene was an especial object of interest, for, as the “young white chief,” his name was already well known to them, and his capture was regarded as the most noteworthy one ever made by the band.