When the vessel was finished, Lolonois took one-half of his company, or about one hundred men, in this vessel and a ship which remained to him, and sailed for the mouth of St. John’s River. The other half were left behind. As nothing was said about the other smaller vessels of the fleet, it is probable that they all had been lost in the various casualties of their voyage, or had escaped with Vauclin. It was known that the Indians on the river had very large boats, formed by hollowing out the trunk of a gigantic tree. These boats, ingeniously made, and the result of almost incredible labor, would accommodate forty or fifty warriors. It was Lolonois’s intention to rob the Indians of some of their boats, send them back to the island for the pirates who were left behind, and then, with his whole party, to ascend the river in an invincible fleet. Lolonois set sail, and in a short time reached the mouth of the St. John’s River. But the Indians, who had fled from the island, had spread the news, all along the coast, of the arrival of the terrible pirates. Spaniards and Indians were thus influenced to combine to meet them wherever they might land. Their progress in building their vessel had been carefully watched by spies, who effectually concealed themselves from sight. As Lolonois and his party entered the river they expected to take the inhabitants by surprise, and had not the slightest idea of being surprised themselves. But their vessel had been watched as it approached. There was a pleasant sheltered cove surrounded by the luxuriant and magnificent growth of the tropics. It could not be doubted that this spot would be selected for their landing-place. Nature had decked it with the charms of Eden. Here a well-armed band of Spaniards and Indians posted themselves in ambuscade. Palm-trees and cocoanut-trees rose gracefully around them. Golden oranges and lemons hung profusely from orchards which God had planted and cultivated. Birds of every variety of brilliant plumage flitted from bough to bough. All the sights and sounds of nature seemed to say that God had made this for a happy world; that his children might live here in fraternal love, surrounded by abundance. The pirates cast anchor in the lovely cove, where the glittering sand could be seen fathoms deep, beneath the water of crystal clearness. They had several small boats. All were impatient to reach the land. Scarcely had their boats touched the beach, and the men were clustered together in landing, when the Eden-like scene of peace and loveliness, was changed into an earth-like scene of noise and tumult and smoke and groans and blood.