Makers and Romance of Alabama HistoryRiley, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)
History
Makers and Romance of Alabama History
Riley, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)
Alabama -- Biography; Alabama -- History
The two bands of Indians and of Spaniards were brought front to front,
each silently scanning the other curiously, each magnificent in its own
way. Each was equally a revelation to the other--the plumed and half-naked
savages, with faces hideous with divers paints, bearing bows, arrows and
wooden clubs, and the steel-clad warriors of ancient Spain with metal
armor, and mounted on animals never before seen by the Indians. Through
Jean Ortiz, an interpreter, the ceremony was conducted. Speeches were
exchanged, after which DeSoto was escorted with much pomp to the quarters
prepared for his entertainment.
Haunted by a dark suspicion, DeSoto kept the chief near him and retained
him as a sort of hostage near his quarters. While the Indian is
revengeful, he is kind even unto death, when a friend. The chief had
exhausted his ingenuity in providing entertainment for his distinguished
guest, and that guest now requited that kindness by placing the chief
under arrest. The man of the woods showed deeply and keenly the
humiliation felt, but the supercilious Spaniard cared not for that. The
untutored warriors were enraged by the untimely treatment of their chief
and gathered in knots and groups about the settlement with a low hum of
murmur. Their savage blood waxed hot, and they began to foment mischief.
DeSoto cared nothing for savage amenity and hospitality, and was concerned
alone for his own safety. Gratitude is not an element in the Spanish
character, and DeSoto had not crossed the seas to indulge in diplomatic
palaver, but had come in search of the yellow gold.
Stung by revenge, the Indian warriors by thousands slid away to the woods
by different ways, to plan for the extinction of the invading host, the
intruder, the ingrate. Apprised of their movement, DeSoto summoned his
forces and sent them in pursuit, and scattered the warriors before they
could assemble, and by concerted action attack him. A large number of them
were made prisoners, both of men and women, whom DeSoto handcuffed, put
iron collars about their necks and loaded them with chains. All this was
done openly in their own capital city. Around his headquarters sat in
groups the meek-eyed prisoners, while near the house provided for the
entertainment of the Spaniard sat their revered chief, himself a prisoner.
The chief, the wiser of the two, pleaded that, whatever was meted out to
him, his people be not thus so cruelly served. In response DeSoto
sufficiently relented to release some of the prisoners, while he retained
others, and when at last he took his leave he forced them to become
burden-bearers of his camp equipage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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