serve as slaves during their stay in that quarter. These proud chiefs and warriors were thus compelled to act as cooks and scullions, and to perform every sort of low and menial drudgery. It is no wonder that this degrading slavery excited their resentment and indignation. Soto, it is said, intended to liberate them at his departure, but, as he did not make this known, the Indians considered themselves doomed to perpetual bondage. Vitachuco felt the insult most keenly, and the fierce thirst for revenge, which had been lulled in the breast of this proud savage, was awakened anew in all its force. Again he bent his thoughts upon schemes for the destruction of his tyrannical enemies.

Soto had taken away the arms of the Indians, yet it was impossible to deprive them of the liberty of going at large. In their attendance upon the Spaniards in their quarters, the Indians had them at any time within their reach. Vitachuco concerted a scheme for attacking the Spaniards within doors, by which he hoped to extirpate them at a single blow. It was arranged that each Indian should, at a given signal, fall upon his own master and put him to death. The plot was kept secret till the day appointed. At dinner time, on the seventh day after the battle, Soto and Vitachuco sat together at table, accompanied by the chief officers of the army. Just as the repast was ended, Vitachuco sprang up from his seat, flourishing and whirling his arms, cracking his joints in an extraordinary manner, and uttering a yell, which, we are assured, might have been heard the greater part of a mile. He then fell upon Soto with

his clenched fist. The blow was so powerful, that the Spaniard was prostrated upon the ground, senseless, in an instant, with his face covered with blood, and his teeth knocked down his throat. Vitachuco then threw himself upon his prostrate foe, and a most extraordinary battle ensued.

All the Indians, at the first signal, started up and seized such weapons as came to hand-sticks, chairs, dishes, jugs, spits, fire-brands, pots of soup and hot water and hurled them in a shower upon the Spaniards. Several were killed on the spot; others were scalded, burnt, and desperately wounded. Scarcely a man escaped unhurt. They rallied, however, and took to their arms. The Indians, after the surprise of the first rush was over, were unable to follow up the attack with equal spirit and success. The Spaniards stood on their defence with great courage, and soon forced their assailants to give ground; but many of them felt great embarrassment in this ignoble conflict, thinking it beneath their dignity to kill their own slaves. All they would condescend to do, was to drag them into the great square, and cause them to be despatched by the arrows of the auxiliary Indians that accompanied the army; but many of the prisoners shook themselves free on the way, throwing down and trampling upon their masters. In the end, they nearly all perished. Such was the calamitous end of nine hundred brave and resolute Floridians, after an unexampled resistance against fire, water and the edge of the sword. Vitachuco, at the commencement of the battle, was assailed by the Spanish officers, who, when they saw their general attacked,

drew their swords and rushed upon the cacique. He instantly fell dead, pierced with twelve wounds.

Vitachuco was one of the most formidable enemies that the invaders of Florida encountered in the course of their expedition. Had his prudence been equal to his courage, the Spaniards might have found in him an antagonist sufficiently powerful to arrest their progress, and spare them the long train of sufferings which closed their disastrous enterprise.

POCAHONTAS.

THIS celebrated princess, so intimately connected with some of the most interesting events in the early history of Virginia, was born about the year 1594. Her father, Powhatan, was called Emperor of Virginia, being the most powerful and famous of all the Indian chiefs in that quarter. His dominions extended from James' river, called originally Powhatan river, north to the Patuxent, and also comprised a portion of the territory on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. Captain John Smith, whose adventures have already been made familiar to the reader, paid a visit to Powhatan in 1607, while on an exploring expedition up James' river, in company with Captain Newport and a small party of men. The English were at peace with the savages, and were received by them in a friendly manner. The residence of Powhatan was then at a small town on the bank of the river, in front of three islets, just below the spot where Richmond now stands. The Virginian emperor was then about sixty years of age, gray-headed, and of a lofty demeanor. He was dressed in racoon skins, and bore a crown of feathers. At the entertainment given to Smith's party, some of the Indians expressed their apprehensions of the English, and counselled hostilities against them; but they were silenced by Powhatan. "The strangers," said he, "want but a little ground, which we can easily spare. Why should we